Is it a sex blog? A mommy blog? A bitch & moan blog? Um, . . . yeah. This is my place to be totally honest. In my real life, I feel like I'm always lying to somebody about something. Here, I am totally honest. Brutally so. However, no matter what bad things I say about my kids, I adore them and would never ever really, say, sell them on Ebay. The husband, often referred to as Spousehole, is another story. Oh yeah - if you are under 18 (or if you are my husband), please leave now.

Friday, November 13, 2009

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

13 comments:

sandy shoes said...

So glad to know you're alive, if not entirely "and well." Keep posting. You were missed.

Deech said...

Glad to see you post...you have been missed....You know me but you don't know me. Check your email on Facebook...

TUG said...

Lots of ups and downs in there. ugh!

I had to friend my mom as well. Luckily, I think she forgot about it. Though my MIL is on there. Luckily, my real life and my blogger life are completely apart.

Alfro said...

Glad to see you around again.
you've been missed.

Sorry to hear of the job situation. It sucks having to move. My oldest has Downs, so I know how disruptive moving is. But fortunatly kids are fairly resiliant, and will bounce back after the transition.

you should have a facebook account like mine. I've only got 1 friend (a blogger that I follow). Mom (and wife) don't know anything about facebook, so that makes life simpler.

Best wishes.... and good luck.

Sailor said...

A lot going on, wow. Sorry to hear about layoffs, and school moves, that sux big time.

So glad your boy wasn't part of what made it news though, thank God for that!

Hope it works out somehow, to stay local & specialized, you don't need that kind of excess stress; hugs coming your way, lots of 'em.

Desmond Jones said...

Hey, good to see you out-and-about in blog-space again! I was beginning to wonder if we'd ever see you again. . .

Oooff! A pox on companies who will induce people to jack their lives around for the company, but give no loyalty in return. Grinding my teeth on your behalf. . . May the fleas of a thousand camels infest their underwear. . .

FTN said...

Sounds like a pretty awful few months. Sorry to hear that.

Even without insurance, doctor visits for that kind of thing aren't always that bad. Most visits end up being around ~$100 or so, more for tests. You can get an independent high-deductible HSA insurance plan for a decent price.

aphron said...

It's a wonder your blood sugar is controlled. Stress can do some weird things to it. Hang in there with all of that stuff.

Trueself said...

Can't begin to tell you how happy I am to see you posting again! I've been worried about you.

I would ask to be a friend on Facebook, but I just this weekend decided that Facebook just isn't for me. I hate too much of it. I'll just have to hold out hope that you get back to semi-regular posting around here I guess.

Val said...

Good to see a post, even if the news is mostly BAD! Hang in there...

SheenV said...

Good hearing from you. Hope things get better!

The Creeper said...

Girl, I so feel your pain. My exes (both ex-husband and ex-boyfriend who I wasted 9 more years of my life on) are on Facebook. The Old Man's ex is on Facebook. Our kids are friends of the ex-spouses. And I just found out that the hubby of a friend of mine is now a friend of the ex-boyfriend. (WTF? Ex-bf never fostered friendships before, why start now? Whatever.)

Ugh.

As you can imagine, I have changed my privacy settings so that only my friends can see my stuff, rather than friends of friends.

Even still, I know the kids are showing stuff to the ex-spouses, so I still censor myself.

kanishk said...

So glad to know you're alive, if not entirely "and well." Keep posting. You were missed.

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