Where did that week go???

Once again I find myself getting onto my blog and realizing another week has flown by and no posting or card dropping has been done. Thank you to everyone who has continued to drop in on me and to all of the new droppers a big thank you as well. I feel really bad that I have let this slide. Between having sick family members last week and having my fiance's grand kids several days this week and a whole slew of life's problems, I just have not had time to get on here. My plate has been way too full lately and I unfortunately have had to let a few things slide for a bit. I will really be glad when life maybe at least comes to some sort of an even keel again. With the economy the way that it is I don't expect life too be easy any time soon, but a little breathing room would really be nice.
The job market is horrible in our area and especially in my former career path, there is just nothing out there, And I cant afford to drive 1-2 hours to get to a larger city where there may be work in my field of expertise,and we definitely cant afford to move. Ive done the commuter thing for the last 4 and half years and by the time you pay for all of the extra expenses relating to travel and the extra wear and tear on your vehicle(miles, gas, oil, tires, higher insurance) and the parking garage fees etc etc, (none of which my salary made up for) and they took out taxes and the high costs of health insurance and you account for the 10-12 hours, I was losing every week in travel time( unpaid) and you quickly realized that you weren't really bringing home any money to help the monthly budget out with. So I'm left with trying to figure out what to do. I don't believe my field is a lucrative field at the moment or any time in the near future. I have had numerous people tell me its a blessing to get myself out of this field and start over in something more secure. I have had several ideas thrown at me, but I just don't know yet. If I have to start over then I want to be able to do something I really like and want to do for the next 25 years plus and I want it to be flexible as well. So I am looking into a few ideas and even thinking about going back to school.

Add on top of that all of the college financial aid paperwork we are dealing with for the youngest daughter and the middle daughter is in the process of making sure her financial aid and scholarships are set in place for next year and working on her schedule for next year and its time to redo her housing contract.

Add on top of that my unemployment hasn't kicked in yet and alot of that is pretty much now due to the fact there is a dispute with my former employer over 6 weeks of unpaid but earned vacation time that they haven't given me yet and the unemployment office is holding off my payments until that is resolved. Soooo more stress and an added financial burden. Looks like I am going to have to get an attorney involved( which I cant afford) against the former employer, to get this process moving.

Add on top of that the stress of figuring out what to do with a brand new business my better half just started 2 years ago. The economy has hurt us alot, it was the wrong time to start a business and alot of major problems with a partner that originally started in the business, with him and we are having to make some painful and huge decisions for the business. So we have been tied up in making plans for the business so that it can go on in a new form this year. Long story needless to say. Just like in a marriage you had better know who your partner is, so that little surprises after the fact don't come out and bite you in the rear and its too late. We got bitten. We take blame for bringing this person into the business so we have to deal with that mess and get ourselves out of it but then add in a bad economy and a new business is not a good place to be.

So as you can see we have too much on our plate right now and we are trying to work thru it bit by bit and start cleaning off this garbage and get a better life moving for us. We just seem to be getting hit form all sides with bad news, the economy is affecting every portion of our lives and forcing us to completely review and start over.

So please forgive me if I don't get on here as often as I should. Ive got alot of issues to deal with right now and they are taking all of my attention. Also as the weather keeps improving I will also get tied up in the farmers market, the vegetable and flower gardens, and crafting. So Spring and summer will also slow me down from getting on the computer as much as well. But please hang in there with me and I will Post as often as I can.

Its a good thing I am an organized person and I can multi task like crazy and I thrive at having multiple things thrown at me at once, but even this has gotten to be a bit much. I dont care who you are we all of us reach that point where we just feel like we cant handle one more thing. Its as if our whole life is being remodeled right now. We are tearing down and rebuilding from the ground up.

Now I have to head out for an approx 6 1/2 hour round road trip to go and get my middle daughter form college. Its spring break for her! So she will be home for the next 10 days. Yeah!!! Something good to look forward to this week. We really need it.

Thanks for checking in with me and I know that there are alot of us out there struggling thru life right now. Keep the faith, call me crazy but I believe it will work out in the end, no matter how bad things seems now. I really hope that 2-3 years from now we can all look back and say ahhhhhh thats why that had to happen and I really am in a better place now. Hang onto your hopes and dreams!

Road trip awaits!!! Bye!

Sorry!!!

I have to apologize for being so far behind, I haven't posted in a week and I haven't dropped any cards. I honestly haven't had much time to even get on the computer this last week. As you read my other posts, that I did today, you will see I have been dealing with a sick family and college /scolarship paperwork and a host of other items that seem to have cropped up, that I only have been able to take care of, since everyone else has been down sick.
Yahoo, I won another award! Christy from Chrysler Creek has bestowed a wonderful award on me. When I get a few more things caught up today I will get the award posted on my blog. Thank you Christy!!!! and I'm sorry I have been behind on getting this posted!!!

scholarships / college financial aid

So on top of taking care of sick people my youngest daughter had a pile of scholarship applications that were due by this Friday and the 5 colleges that she has been accepted at, have been after us, to get the rest of our financial info, to them so that they can review the info and get a finance package ready. In our defense neither myself nor my daughter have been procrastinating on either of these projects.She has been filling out as many scholarships apps as possible and whenever the application process opens up for a new one that shes interested in she has been getting on top of it right away. So she got sick right when a pile of 15 of them were due soon, So when she finally started feeling better we tackled the pile. While she gets to do most of the work -- all of her personal info, why she thinks she deserves the scholarship and alot of them require an essay of some sort, there is always a page or 2 of info that they want from the parent.

Then since my taxes are finally done I had to fill out more financial aid paperwork for each of the 5 colleges and make copies of all of my tax returns and w-2s and whatever else they wanted. So 5 huge packets were prepared and sent out. Now we sit and wait for them to get a financial aid packet ready. Some of the schools don't send anything out until the first week of April, so we may have a while to wait. Even though my daughter has these 5 colleges ranked in her mind as to where she would prefer to go, it will honestly (and hopefully not unfortunately for her) come down to which of these 5 colleges will offer her the best deal. While a college education is very important. I also don't want o put her or myself way into debt. And all 5 of the colleges will get her to where she needs to go and what she wants to do. I imagine there will be alot of parents and students that will have to heavily look at the price tag of college when they make their decision this year and there will probably be alot of kids who don't end up going to their first or second choice just because the cost is so out of proportion to what the family can afford. Its amazing the difference in costs between these 5 schools. Like I said all 5 offer the major she wants to pursue and will get her, to her ultimate career goal, but the price tag ranges from 20,000 a year to 45,000 a year between all of the schools. Unbelievable. So until we have all 5 offers on the table in front of us and we can do some serious looking at what its really going to cost, we wont be making any decisions just yet.

A week has went by????

I just noticed that it has been a week since my last post. I have been dealing with a house full of sick people and time just seems to have slipped past me. My youngest daughter got it first. For her it was really just a very bad cold but then when my better half started coming down with it last Sunday it really knocked him off his feet. Which is normal for him, being a heavy smoker for decades and decades whenever he gets sick with anything, it always goes straight to his chest. There is no such thing as a simple cold for him, it always turns into a sinus infection and an upper respiratory infection. Pneumonia is always a fear with him. So from Sunday at lunch time thru Wednesday he has been in bed sick. He also takes longer than most to recover as well. So even though he is up and moving around today and he looks better,he still doesn't sound great. Knock on wood though as it looks like he will be able to kick this one on as his own and wont need to go the doctor, which is where he usually ends up.
Now I can only hope I don't get this bug.