Back home and back to the same-old, same-old

The long Thanksgiving weekend was relatively uneventful, having been spent mostly in the Mommyvan driving to and from Michigan. 32 hours in the car over 4 days, plus potty and food breaks, is a little too much togetherness. Spousehole and I were each on the verge of homocide by Sunday night. Kids, each other - we were willing to take out anyone necessary to obtain the peace we sought.

If I never set foot in another McDonald's, I will be a happy, happy woman. I know the kids love it, but I'm willing to sacrifice their happiness.

We're back to 'kids go to school, I hang out at the library, Spousehole talks to potential employers on the phone.' New week, same old thing.

To blog is a self-invasion of privacy

Easing back in . . .

I get to go home for Thanksgiving! I'm very excited. We didn't make it home for Turkey Day last year and didn't expect to this year, but now we're going! Spousehole has an interview in an adjoining Midwestern state the day before Thanksgiving, so the whole family is going along and heading to Grandma's for turkey, stuffing, etc. My mom is actually not so thrilled. She was thinking she wouldn't cook and she and my dad would just take my nephew and my sister (if she doesn't have to work) out to eat. But with all of us coming, it makes more sense to stay home. I have offered to cook, just using her food, kitchen, etc. but I don't know if she can handle that. If she watches me cook, she'll just feel I'm doing it all "wrong" and try to take over.

I haven't sprung on them that coming home for Thanksgiving means we may not make it for Christmas ($ and all), but I don't really want to think about that either. I've NEVER spent Christmas anywhere but with my family. I realize I'm 42 years old and should really be ready to make some new traditions with my own kids, but wah!, I don't wanna!

In other news, I can't believe I forgot to mention the "procedure" I had done back in September. I had NovaSure done. It's a type of endometrial ablation. It's supposed to reduce heavy periods and between period bleeding. My periods were so heavy that I became anemic and experienced "flooding" sometimes. I also had bleeding every time I had sex. But since the procedure (outpatient surgery) I haven't had any bleeding; none whatsoever. No periods, no nothing. Of course, I haven't had sex to try that out yet*, but I have high hopes. They say that my periods may come back eventually, but will be MUCH, MUCH lighter than ever before. Keep your fingers crossed!!

*Any volunteers to help with that? For purely scientific purposes, of course :-)

To blog is a self-invasion of privacy

Not Dead Yet

Though there are days . . .

I'll try to sum up the last 6 months or so.

Marriage back to sucking. Not in a good way. And getting worse because -

18 months after moving down here for this job, that they recruited him for (he didn't go looking), they laid him off in October. Budget cuts were ordered, big ones, and his position and many others were eliminated. So he is home all. the. damn. time and we are driving each other crazy. Way too many opportunities to pick stupid fights and get on each other's nerves. This was made worse when -

we all had the H1N1 virus in October. Not pretty and we still haven't shaken the coughs. Spousehole's is the worst and he probably should see a doctor, but -

we have no health insurance. We can't afford COBRA, since after having paid for two houses for almost a year we had very little savings. Some good news (there's not much of it, so pay attention) is -

the house is finally rented out!!! The rent payments just cover our mortgage, taxes, and insurance, but at least that much is covered. What wasn't covered, however, was the problem that led our tenants to call us on Spousehole's last day of work: the furnace died. So on his first day of unemployment, we had to put a new furnace in! (We got two opinions on whether replacement was necessary or if repair was possible. My dad got us the absolute best price from "his guy." Thank God. The other places wanted to charge WAY, WAY more for the same stupid furnace and installation.)

No good segue here. Sorry.

Boy is finally settled in school and is rocking the second grade. He made honor roll for the first quarter. It's like night and day. So he's good with school and school is good with him, but otherwise things aren't so wonderful at the school because -

4 educators were arrested recently regarding allegations of abuse of autistic students at Boy's school. Boy was not one of them, though he was close to the teacher and aide who are accused. It's a mess. But I won't get into that mess. In other school news -

Girl is rocking 4-yr-old preschool. She got into a great school and got a fabulous teacher. All is good there. Well, except that we weren't going to be able to afford it after Spousehole's layoff and were preparing to apply for a scholarship to try to keep her there, but the in-laws' came to the rescue and are paying her tuition. They're not always my favorite people, but they'll do almost anything for our kids. So, in this one instance, they rock too.

The big school fear for us is that it is looking like we will be moving again, so the kids will have to transition to new schools. Girl will be okay, probably, but Boy doesn't transition well. Last year was pretty much a lost year for him as he transitioned to his new school. He's doing so well, we are very distressed about possibly having to move him. Spousehole is interviewing some locally, but the jobs in his particular specialty aren't local. If he takes a local job, he would have to leave his area of specialization. His specialty is in demand, just not here. He would prefer to stay in his specialty and that would be the better move career-wise, but it means moving and that sucks. What also sucks is -

My Mom is on Facebook! Seriously, this is not good. I had to "friend" her, but now I feel like I have to censor what I say. Oh, and my mother-in-law is also on Facebook and I had to "Friend" her too. I really need to figure out the privacy settings on there that allow you to group people and then have only certain groups see certain postings. Ah well. BTW, if you want to be my Facebook friend, shoot me an email (I'm actually checking it again!). If I feel comfortable enough with you (generally if we have had some sort of email correspondence or something), I'll send you my info or you can send me yours. But since my family is on there now, I'm really apprehensive that this blog not be connected to my Facebook (ie, REAL) identity. 'k?

Kids and I spent most of July back home. It was really freaking cold. Not just compared to the South, but compared to normal summers there. I had to go to garage sales and buy the kids coats to wear. It never occurred to me that we would need more than long pants and long-sleeved shirts in JULY. My bad.

My health is better, except for the damn H1N1 after-effects. Blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol all WAY down. I got 90 day refills on insulin and meds before the insurance ended, so I'm good for awhile. Hopefully until Spousehole finds a new position. :-)

That pretty much sums it up.

To blog is a self-invasion of privacy