Pond digging

We are also busy with having our pond re-dug out and reshaped. we ran into some big problems with the pond last summer and its finally getting fixed. When we bought this house 3 years ago we were told this 1 acre pond was really deep. It was going into winter when we bought the house so we never got to check it out. The first summer we discovered, while it is an acre big, it was very shallow! You couldn't swim in it and because it was so shallow it had no air or water circulation and it basically was a giant swamp hole and with the heat of the summer, it turned into a stagnant water hole. SO last summer we hired someone to dig it out and make it deeper. We knew that there was risks with this as when you are digging into standing water you have no idea what is underneath there. There is always the odds we could have run into a rock bed or the clay bed would not have been deep enough and we would have dug into sand. Which if that happens the pond would have completely drained out thru the sand then we would have had to dig all of the sand out and put in a new clay bottom. Well that didn't happen but whoever originally dug this pond put It over the top of what used to be farm ground. Tiled farm ground. when they started digging the pond deeper last fall, they hit several tiles that no one knew where there. This in turned caused the whole pond to drain in a mater of days. This also uncovered a fence that the people who had put the pond in had left. So the fence was smack dab in the middle of the pond too and that had to be removed as well. So winter struck and we had a mess out there. My daughter said it looke dlike armageddon out in the front yard. So we have had a very ugly yard to look at all winter. We couldnt dig anymore because the ground was frozen and the snow was deep and had filled in the hole. So we waited till spring. And we have had such a cold wet spring that they couldnt get back into the pond until just 2 weeks ago because the equipment kept getting stuck in the muck. Now we are finally only 2 days away from being done. They have made the pond bigger and alot deeper and they have smoothed out the edges of the pond and slopped it nicely into our yard. Its not done yet but soon we will be able to plant grass around the whole pond again and then wait for the rains to fill it up again.

Graduation and College

I am also busy getting ready for my youngest daughter to graduate from high school in about 5 weeks. So I am busy planning the guest list and working on invitations and the menu for the party. We just never seem to have a free minute around here. Oh well.

Unfortunatley my oldest daughter as of now probably wont be home for a visit in June as I had originally hoped. I am very sad that this is not working out, as I really miss her. I hope my other 2 daughters dont end up so far away and stay in touch more often. I think they will , my college freshman calls me several times a week and texts me also and my youngest one and I talk all the time so I cant imagine that will change. Its so hard when your kids move away and start lives of their own and you dont see them or hear from them very often. Its really hard. She will alwys be my little girl no matter how old she gets and I will alwys miss her and love her.

My youngest daughter was accepted at 6 colleges but has picked the one. AND luckily for us it will be the same college our middle daughter is it. This will make life so much easier for the 2 girls, they really get along well and will be able to spend time with each other while they are at school. It will also make it easier onus with taking kids back and forth from school. They will start at the same time, and have the same breaks etc. We are very proud of both of them and they will both do great at college.

Our middle daughter will be finishing up her freshman year of college this week. We will be bringing her home on Thursday. SO our home will be a little more full for the next 3 1/2 months before the girls all leave for college. Next Fall will be a big change for our household as this will be the first time in really long time that we haven't had kids still living at home. Big adjustments are coming. At least they will still be coming home for breaks for awhile longer and will be at home for the summers, so I have a few more years before they will be completely gone. SO the transition period begins.

Gardening

The early garden is in and starting to come up. I have radishes, lettuce and onions poking their heads up. Still waiting on the carrots, peas and beets to come up yet. I also planted some rhubarb and asparagus this year, so that we could get a patch started. the rest of the garden will have to wait until the ground and the air temp gets warmer.

My three seasons room is full of flats of vegetable seedlings just waiting for it to warm up so that they can go into the ground.

The pumpkin patch will be in a separate garden from the main vegetable garden. We just got the space for it cleared out last week.

So we are making progress in the garden front. Onto other things!

Court day!

Today was another trip into the courthouse for a hearing dealing with the continual issue of an ex who is way , way behind in child support and medical bills for the kids. I am usually in court 3 times a year minimum with these issues. I know that sounds extreme but I really don't ask for this, he is so far behind that the judge and the child support office, order us into court on a regular basis to try to get him paying. Oh I cant wait till the child support years are over with! At this point he only will owe for 3 more years of support, at that time the kids will all be to old to qualify for support anymore but he is so far behind that we are guessing that he will have to pay me a weekly amount for an additional 3-4 years past that to get everything he owes caught up. Its just that after 3 more years he will not be accruing any additional past due amounts, so we may actually start to make some progress on this at hat time.

UPdates!

I havent been on my blog in forever!!!! I have been way too busy and life here at the farm will get even more busy as spring gets further along and summer arrives. I spent so much time creating this blog and getting it up and running over the winter and i was really happy with he way it was going and I was just starting to get a decent following when life became very busy with a whole host of things. We are still working at clearing off items on our overly full plate. we have made big progress in some areas and are close to removing them from the plate all together but other items will drag on into the summer , unfortunately. So between these items and the gardens and kids, farmers markets, I will be hard pressed to get on this blog but a few times a month, so I guess I will just to try to get on her as often as I can and then rebuild this winter.

Weight loss goals....

I'm not one to usually talk about my weight loss, but I hit a big goal this week! I have finally lost 15 pounds! This took 14 months, and let me tell you it has been very frustrating. 14 months is a really long time to take off what I put on in 4 months! I know that the slower you lose it, the more apt you are to keep it off, but still its frustrating. I am finally back to the weight I was 18 mos ago. I probably would have hit this goal sooner but Thanksgiving thru New years set me back and I had to re-lose some weight I had all ready lost! I also don't consider myself to be on a diet, they just dont work for me. Sure I would lose a bunch of weight quickly, on some wacky diet, but then as soon as I would go off of it, the weight would all come back. So instead what works for me is that I have to follow a constant plan, of making good decisions every day. It has to be a way of life for me. I also do not deny myself anything, if I want a piece of cake I will eat a small piece. That satisfies the craving and I am good to go. I just eat sweets in small moderation. I also weigh myself daily to track weight loss, but also to keep an eye on any weight gain, so that I can more easily take off a couple of pounds that may have crept back on. Unfortunately when I put this weight on in 4 mos., it was when we were going thru the stress of trying to start a new business and the start of a business partnership going severely bad, so without realizing it, I ate more and was eating more bad things. When I had realized that I had put 15 pounds on, I was very upset with myself. None of my clothes fit and I refused to buy larger clothes! 18 months ago I was at a point where I needed to lose just 5 pounds and I am happy to say that is were I am at again today. I want to lose 5 more pounds. I think that will put me back into all of my old clothes comfortably and I will be happy. After the 5 lbs more I believe if anything all I will need to do is tone up. I know with the summer soon approaching that I will be getting plenty of exercise working the gardens. So I believe the toning up part and the next 5 pounds will come off fairly easy, as soon as it gets warm and we can be outside every day!!

No matter how slow your weight loss seems to be going, keep at it, you will be happier and healthier in the end!! There was many times over the last 14 months I just wanted to give up because the progress was so darn slow, but now that Im at my first goal, I realize it was worth the wait and Im re-energized to work on the next 5 lbs!

What did you want to be when you grew up???

My youngest daughter like alot of college seniors is trying to figure out what her career will be for the future. I don't know its so important to have a permanent answer right now, but at least a general goal or interest to work towards, that has lots of options. So many college students change their major anyway, as they learn and mature and start growing up and experiencing a different world outside of high school. But all of this got me to thinking , how many of us really end up doing, what we said we wanted to do when we were in elementary school and then as middle and high schoolers. Most of us went thru numerous career options before we even made it to our senior year of high school. I wanted to be a ballerina when I was really little, then that changed to a gymnast, and in high school I wanted to be a math teacher, to name a few. Instead I ended up in the banking world and worked my way up thru the ranks and took every class they offered to pay for and even became licensed in the finance world. Had I not been layed off I would probably have stayed in that world. It was the only career path , in my adult life that I have ever followed and all I ever knew. So I think we tend to stay in what is familiar and known, even if its wrong for us. I cant say I was happy there, or even satisfied with my career. I became easily bored and quickly outgrew each new job position I was promoted into. I was always looking for something more challenging, more fulfilling, that job that made you want to get up and go to work. Instead my career was more of a chore, an unpleasant chore, even though I was very good at all my job positions that I had in the financial world over the last 13 years. I hated going to sleep at night, knowing I would have to go to work when I woke up in the morning. All Thru the day I counted down the hours until it was time to go, the days never moved fast enough and that's just no way to live life.
So that's why I'm struggling now to figure out who I am now and what I want to be when I grew up.... Seems like it doesn't matter where we are at in life we are always learning and remaking ourselves. I would really like to find that something this time that makes me happy.

So how many of you actually ended up in the career path you originally chose??

Looking for the positives from the recession

Ok those of you that read my blog are probably beginning to think that bad luck just follows us around. We have had more than our fair share of problems lately. But I know there are alot of people out there who are struggling as much as we are and that there are also alot who are worse off than we are. So I decided to find a few positives out of all the changes that this recession has brought to our lives personally and financially.

The grocery bill has went down... that's a big yahoo! This isn't because we had to cut back on the amount of food we bought, but because now that I am at home, I have the time, to look thru all, of the ads and find the best deals and I am using coupons again. I know it wasn't an excuse before but when times were better financially and our lives were so hectic, I didn't have time to look at coupons or even the weekly grocery ad. when I had a few free minutes I would make a mad dash to the store and just buy what we needed. I didn't have time to go to 2-3 different stores getting the best bargain. I think we all in good times tend to take things a little too much for granted and it was all about speed and convenience before. Also since I'm at home I can actually cook a real meal every day and that saves us alot of money. The quick convenience meals at the store cost so much more than making it yourself. When I used to get home at 6:30/6:45pm at night , it was all about throwing something quick on the table.

Family time.... My youngest daughter will be graduating from High school this year, so its been very nice to be at home with her to spend more time with her before she goes off to college next year, too. Also she plays tennis and i will actually get to go to her home matches this year and actually watch her play!!! With getting home so late from work I always missed, all of my girls tennis matches. My oldest played soccer and her games were more in the evening, so I caught more of her games, but the younger 2 play tennis and their matches start almost immediately, after school and I couldnt ever get there in time. I have alwys felt bad about this, as I know I was missing out on so much and the girls have grown up so fast.

New hairstyle..... Yeah I know thats an off one to think about, but the recession and job loss made all of us cut back, on going, to get our hair done, as often as we used to. I used to go and get a haircut and color every 2 months, now I have had to space it out every 4 months. 4 months is a bit long and by the time I get there it is in desperate need of help. Luckily I wear my hair long so it tends to grow out more gracefully between cuts compared to someone who has a short do, that needs constant shaping, to stay looking good. I also am not afraid to trim my own hair, so that helps alot. I also started using a root touch up product, to stretch out the times between full color jobs. I had been wanting to grow my bangs out for a long time but you know how that goes, they would start to grow out just to that annoying stage and when I was going in to get my hair done, every 8 weeks i would just be frustrated enough with it, that I would just have my bangs trimmed short again. So waiting every 4 months has gained me bangs, that are now down past the end of my nose. Almost to the chin length that I went them to be. So I gained a new hairstyle and saved money as well.

Stay at home mom .... One surprise that came about and I know my better half is still reluctant to admit to it, because its hard for him to visualize that a one household income can run almost as well as a household with 2 incomes. Common sense would say 2 incomes have to be better, but now that I lost my job we are living off of one income and its surprising how much my income really isn't missed. By the time they took all of the taxes out of my check and the health insurance costs, and I paid for the parking garage and all of the extra gas, I was really bringing home next to nothing. Then since I have been off other things have been noticed like the grocery bill going down. I don't have to buy prepackaged convenience foods to take to work anymore or bottled water or juice to take to work. I don't have to invest in the business world attire, shoes , panty hose, etc that was required for work. My car is taking less oil changes since its not driving over a 100 miles a day. Which in turn saves on the wear and tear of the car and the tire replacement. Im not saying some extra income wouldn't hurt, and as you know I'm trying to work towards that goal, but if you really take a hard look at things it can be very surprising how little the second earner is really adding to the bottom line.

Cleaner and more organized home .... My house is always clean but as you know I now have more time to do more in depth cleaning and I have had time to get some much needed items done that I didn't have time for before, Like painting, and cleaning the carpets more often.The flower beds and gardens this summer will also benefit from more TLC this year.

I'm sure I could come up with more things to be positive about that this recession/downturn in our lives has caused but I think thats enough for now.

Changes....

So we have still been wading thru the mess of disentangling ourselves from our business partner and the business, that will take a while yet to finish resolving. In the meantime we have had to get on with life and pick up and start all over. I'm still trying to figure out my career moves but I would really like to get this Farmers market, produce, floral, crafts, and holiday Bazaar business up and running to the point where it can at least pay a chunk of the household bills and I can just stay home and work this business. I still believe the concept of the nursery we started can still work. So we are coming up with a new name and starting over. We wont have a greenhouse to work out of this year but plan on having one next year. So we start out slow this year and rebuild. We will only move as fast as customer demand will allow us to and as far as financial means will allow us. I plan on doing this all without any debt this time. We still are getting such positive feed back from customers and interest in buying products from us, that I really believe had this darn recession not hurt us so badly the last year and a half and the partnership either hadn't went bad or had never existed in the first place, that this 3rd year would have been a big turning point to the positive for the business. So I am reluctant to give up the idea yet. I just have to scale it way, way back and start over. So I have a few business name options floating around in my head and soon will have to decide for sure. I plan on working the farmers market 2 times a week from June 1 thru Oct 31 and then the holiday Bazaars start in October and run thru December so I believe I can get a very good running start on this new venture, by the end of the year. So the first business activity we have coming up is for Mothers day. So The last week of April I will be very busy getting my plants all prettied up to sell at one of our farmers market locations. So hopefully things will start to turn the corner for us.
We have decided tp put in 2 gardens this year back by the house. Last year it was behind the greenhouses, but we cant do that this year. One garden will be for Pumpkins, gourds, and long term viney growing items. The 2nd garden will be for tomatoes, beans, radishes, lettice, onions broccoli and cauliflower, beets, etc, etc. Now we just have to get the ground worked up and tilled. That will be the next project. I can work the garden once its prepared but until then I am kind of stuck until my better half finds some free time form his job to get the ground worked up.

Are you starting your garden yet or are you in the planning stages yet, like us??

The snow is going......

So the weather has been freaky to say the least, we had over an inch of rain on Sunday then 4 1/2 inches of snow fell Sunday night! Schools were delayed on Monday. Now just 2 days later and the temps are back in the 50's and the snow has melted off except for a few patches here and there. Please, please let it get warm and stay warm soon!

Still dealing with a sick family

Sorry I am still fighting my infection, (it is finally getting better though) and my youngest daughter called from school today and asked me to come and get her, because she wasn't feeling well. I'm afraid that she might be coming down with a sinus infection now. Its a good thing they only have half a day of school tomorrow and are off on Friday. She can get some extra rest and hopefully kick this thing before its gets any worse. And if she doesn't feel good tomorrow she would only miss a couple of hours, of school, since they get out before lunch. I love summer and really hate winter but the transition from Spring to summer here is hard on everyone. Alot of people end up sick this time of year.

Can I just please have a break????

I guess my plate was starting to get a little too organized and and on the way to being emptier of some of our problems that we have been battling. The plate has been overwhelming full for awhile now and it figures as soon as, we start to see an easing of problems and see that things are starting to move into a different direction, life decided I needed something else to worry about. I have battled with a blocked tear duct for a year and a half now, in my left eye, that likes to get infected off and on. But I had went 7 months with no problems, other than that eye waters a little more than normal. Then I get a sinus infection this week and the sinus infection drains down into this tear duct and infects it. Massive problem! I ended up with another very aggressive bacterial infection, in my sinus cavities, and tear ducts. So I'm not feeling so hot, very tired and run down. The eye is not a place you want an infection. I look like I was a boxer that lost his most recent bout. Ha Ha! So I will be hiding out at the house, as well until all of this swelling goes down! So the posts will be slim again for a bit while I try to get over this.They have me on high doses of antibiotics for at least the next 2-3 weeks and the Drs are talking surgery again, to go in and rebuild the tear duct, to give me better drainage, so that things don't get blocked and infected all the time. But I just cant do that right now since I have no Insurance! Hopefully we can get this infection cleared up and I can go another 7 mos without problems and maybe things will financially be better by then or we will have insurance. I just keep hoping it will just go away and not come back!!!!

Ahhhh how pretty! The first flowers of the season. We don't have any daffodils or crocuses or tulips blooming yet, bu they are breaking thru the ground, so it wont be long. These beauties I picked at my daughters college, 2 weeks ago. She goes to school 3 hours south of us and 3 hours south is all it takes to make a huge difference in the weather. It is several degrees warmer there all the time and they have alot less snow. The winters are alot milder! So they get to see springs beauty before we do. I picked a few of these daffodils to bring home to enjoy. They lasted almost 5 days.

April is financial aid package month

So here we go!! My youngest daughter has been accepted now by 6 colleges and the final choice will be hugely influenced by which school offers her the best financial aid pkg. April 1 is typically the start date of when most colleges start mailing out their offers. So in the next couple of weeks are mail box will start being flooded by mail from all of these schools and we should soon have a better picture of where she will end up going to school. I know she is excited and also worried, as shes pretty sure her first and maybe even her second picks aren't going to offer the best deal, they are private colleges and they typically just don't offer as much aid. But we sill soon know. are you waiting for financial aid packages in your homes as well??

Cobra update

Awhile back I wrote a post about Cobra coverage and I was excited that the administration had passed as part of the stimulus pkg, a deal where the govt would fund 65% of cobra payments for a 9 mos period. The hopes was to allow more unemployed families, the chance to afford the Cobra coverage and give families health insurance while they were looking for a new job and new health insurance coverage. I was really excited about it, as it sounded like it was going to be a big help to us. With us paying 35% of the cost our health insurance, this was going to be alot cheaper than what I was paying as an employee. I unfortunately worked for a company where the costs had been steadily rising for years and the company had been passing the extra costs off to the employees and the employer was paying for less and less, of the health care costs for us. I was paying almost $800.00 a month for medical, dental and vision care for the family. With the cobra plan and the 35% option for 9 months I am looking at $470.00. So sounded like something we couldn't pass up on. When I first talked to my previous employer, the plan had just passed into law and they didn't have all of the details yet. They now have more details and while this may still be a good deal for us, it will mean a huge outlay of money to get it started and I wonder if the govt thought of that when they put this into place. Most unemployed families are not going to have the money to get this plan rolling.





The plan started March 1, so I would get 9 mos of coverage at 35% thru the end of November. I was laid off in January and lost my health insurance coverage on 1-31-09. I had to till 4-1-09 to mail in my initial application requesting that I wanted to continue with the cobra coverage. I have till 5-13-09 to get the first payment premium paid. The first payment premium though covers all of the in between months. So I owe for Feb, March, April and May when the first payment goes in. I know Cobra is continuation of coverage but since we had only one small medical bill in February, at this time it seems crazy to go back and pay for months of coverage that have all ready passed and we have used nothing, but that's not the way cobra works.





So February would be calculated at the full premium price, march, April and May at the 35% cost. And so forth. Ok this is a better health insurance deal for us, but that's still a heck of alot of money to outlay at one time, when you are unemployed. Oh but wait, when I called in to ask a few final questions when I was mailing in my initial application to continue with Cobra, I was told some more happy news. I should have known there would be another speed bump to get over. Turns out since this is such a huge undertaking to get this plan implemented by Cobra, that the govt gave them several months to get the plan working. Which means they say they needed time to get their selves up and running with the new program. Hmmmm.... So what that means to me and everyone else, is this. If you are trying to get yourself onto this plan now, you are going to have to jump thru a few more hoops financially to get onto this plan, than say someone who gets laid off later, in this year. So Cobra tells me it will be June by the time they have a new system up and running and are able to bill people at the correct 35% rate. SO they are allowed to, by law, collect the normal full premium payments until that time. So I actually owe the full Cobra premium for the months of Feb, March, April, and May, when the first payment goes in. Then in June the system will be able to go back and calculate all of the money I have paid in and give me a 65% credit for the months of March, April and May, because I overpaid, which they will apply towards future monthly premiums or give you a refund if you decide to drop the coverage. So 4 mos at full cost is going to be over 5K!! to get started. While I realize that with all I will be overpaying upfront, that I will have enough in credit to pay for all of my insurance thru November, and I wont owe anything else until December, its the principal of the thing. Yes, in the end I will get the insurance for 9 mos at the 35% cost BUT at a large upfront cost. What unemployed family can afford 5k upfront? $470.00 a month is still alot when money is tight, but its sure a heck of alot more budgetable on a monthly basis.



Is this really what the govt was thinking when they started this plan??? Families that experieince lay offs after June and decide to get onto cobra will not have to go thru this mess, they will just auto start paying at the 35% rate, so thank goodness for that, but those of us now trying to get onto this and take advantage of this program are not being helped out financially at all!



I have no options, I either make the payment in May or I give up the Cobra option. So more thinking to be done. The application was sent in to at least keep the option open for us, so now I have until Mid May to decide, what to do.

Great deal!!!

I usually don't talk about my money saving ventures when I go grocery shopping, As I feel like an amateur compared to alot of you great deal finders and couponers! You guys are awesome and I have learned alot from you!! Anyway this deal I just had to mention though. My better half is a caffeine free Pepsi drinker. That is the only kind of pop he really drinks. In a pinch he will drink a sprite or a rootbeer but those are very few and far behind. Meijers had Pepsi product cubes ( 24pk) on sale for 2/10.00 this week plus I had 5-$1.00 off coupons ( I used 4). The deal only allowed 2 cubers per each purchase, so I had to use the self checkout lanes and ran 2 separate orders so that I could get 4 cubes of Pepsi. So after my coupons, my total was $8.00 for 2. That's like buying one getting one free at the normal price. You very rarely see pepsi on sale that cheap! I was very happy!

Sadness....

April usually brings to us a flurry of last minute craziness, non stop working around the clock and excitement, while we entered the last 2 weeks before the greenhouses would normally open for the season. But not this year.....

Unfortunately due to an insurmountable mountain of problems the greenhouses will not be opening this year. I have mentioned in several of my posts, that we have been struggling thru alot of problems and have had to make some very hard decisions that we haven't wanted to make. Alot of the decisions we had no say in and were forced to follow because of this darn partnership. If we had, had a crystal ball 2 years ago and had known that the business was being started right at the time, the recession was just getting ready to start, we never would have started it and had we also been able to look into that same crystal ball and seen into the future, to see all the problems that the greenhouses partner was going to bring to the table, we definitely never would have brought him into the equation. The business could have started without this partner, he wasn't needed financially and he was brought in for reasons that really seem dumb now, but that's that 20/20 hindsight thing and there is nothing we can do to change, what has all ready happened. Even if the partner had never existed would the business be opening today, I don't know, I have a feeling the economy , the recession, the credit crunch etc., probably still would have been too much, of a strain, on a brand new business. But we could have closed up shop and waited for the storm to pass and tried to restart after the recession was over. But with a partner involved, and when a partnership goes horribly wrong, just as in a marriage that fails and goes into divorce, there are no winners. Things get split up, dissolved, assets are lost, etc etc. To completely dissolve this partnership and all ties to each other, the business had to cease to exist. So we can no longer use the same business name and everything that was the business will no longer be there. Its been a very hard time for my better half and I, lot of heartache and pain. We had put so much of ourselves into that business, personally, emotionally and financially and its all gone. We cant help but feel we have wasted 2 years of our lives with this venture.

But I also strongly believe everything happens for a reason and even though I cant see any good reasons for what we have had to struggle thru, I know that there is a reason. Somehow this will make us stronger and better and we will find a better path us and our nursery/greenhouse business.

I had mentioned in one other post and will mention it again, if you go into business with anyone, think long and hard about it, make sure you know that partner inside and out. I don't care if they are your best friend, a family member, or just a business acquaintance. You don't want surprises after you have entered into the partnership and its too late to get out. Make sure that all partners have the same work ethics, and goals for the business. That both partners are committed 100%. Make sure you have an iron clad contract between the partners, detailing exactly what is expected from each side of the partnership,including work hours, and financial cash flow into the business by each partner, so that when one partner doesn't uphold their end of the bargain you have some type of legal recourse. It makes for a very bitter situation when one side of the equation is doing 95% of the work and has put all of the cash flow into the business and the other side is making excuses for why they arent following thru on what they promised to bring to the table. It wasn't supposed to be that way. We take all blame for bringing the partner into this mess and we have to deal with the consequences of that and the losses we have incurred because of a very, very bad business decision. But to be fair the business probably still would have suffered because it was too new,when the recession struck. So now we are left with cleaning up the mess.

Ok enough wallowing in the mud, we know what went wrong and now we have to fix it, and like all divorces extricating yourself from a partnership is a long and painful process. So it will be a while yet before we can officially say its over.

New game plan. Stay tuned. I will outline more over the next few days.

April at last!!!

We made it!! Another winter has come and gone. We are pretty much seeing temps in the 50's now, but mother nature still likes to remind us its not quite time yet for really warm weather. We are seeing alot of up and down temps and alots of windy and rainy days as well. But we all know it wont last too much longer and it wont be long now before we can put those winter coats way back in the back depths of our closets and forget all about them and move onto our spring jackets. Ahhhh flip flops and shorts cant be too far away now!!!!

Spring breaks are over

The last 2 weeks have been full of kids. The college freshman was home for 10 days and then as soon as she went back to college, the youngest daughter, in high school, was on spring break. So this has been the first week that things have started to settle back into a normal pattern, as normal as can be possible, for us at the time. It was very nice to spend time with the girls and try to forget about the trying times we have been going thru. The girls have all grown up so fast and its hard to believe that 2 of them will be in college next year! My oldest daughter gave us a surprise this week as well! She and her husband are coming home for a visit this summer! By the time she gets here it will have been 111 months since I last saw here. So we are all very excited about this!!!

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.

Dreams....

What do you think dreams are? Can your dreams be pictures into the future or the stuff Disney songs are made of? You know... A dream is a wish your heart makes when your fast asleep.... I know for sure bad dreams or scary ones, are not a wish that my heart makes and usually they are triggered by some type, of disturbing movie I have recently watched or even grisly news that I have seen on TV or read about. I can almost always find something in my bad dreams that I can link to something I have recently seen, so I can easily figure them out and put them into perspective. But my good dreams I'm not sure about, I'm not sure if they are just hopeful wishing on my part or if they are really trying to tell me something. Usually I don't dream very often but lately I have been, and I think that like alot of people I am looking for any reason to be hopeful, for the future and that my dreams just may be wishes I am hoping for, but it sure would be nice, to believe that these dreams are a hint, of better times coming. We all need to believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope is something we all need to hang onto.

Weather Ride

So on Sunday we woke up to a surprise snowstorm and had up to 8 inches dumped on us. Tuesday and Wednesday we had temps in the upper 40's to even the lower 50's and the snow has been melting like crazy. Today we woke up to a very heavy blanket of fog and and a 3 hour school delay. This afternoon the rain is supposed to start ( up to 1 inch is expected) and maybe even some thunderstorms tonight! Then right behind that its supposed to turn very cold immediately and we may even see some snow flakes again this weekend. Spring is definitely coming, as we are starting into our roller coaster ride of transitional weather, with extremes from one end of the spectrum to the other. Indiana has long been known for very unpredictable weather, we get hard, long,cold and snowy winters and alot of the time winter doesn't want to let its grip go on us until well into Spring, we often have ups and down clear till May, then as the past years have shown, we go from being very cool to being exceedingly HOT! We seem to skip over spring alot and the same is true with fall, we don't always get to enjoy a nice warm colorful fall, we often go straight from summer to cold. The weather is never boring here that's for sure! But it sure makes it hard to try to know when its truly safe to put plants outside.

WHAT's going on????

The weather forecasters have been way off the last 2 days and definitely not in our favor. At midnight on Friday when we turned the TV off, we were still under a winter storm warning with 5-8 inches of snow to be on the ground Saturday. The snow was to start by 4 am they said and was to be at its heaviest by 7:30 am, so after hearing this, I cancelled the 1 hour trip south, we had planned Saturday morning, for a meeting about a scholarship program, my daughter is involved with. Instead we get up Saturday and by 7:30 am the first flakes were just starting and the snow warning had went away and thru out the course of the day we only got a couple of inches. Mind you we were not complaining about it as we were very happy that it looked like we had missed the brunt of this storm.

Then Saturday night again, we listened to the news and weather and at 11:30 pm ,the weather person said we were only to get a dusting more of snow overnight, due to lake effect snow wrap around, but nothing to be worried about. Instead we wake up to several inches of new snow! So my better half is out plowing now. He says we have at least 7- 8 inches out there all ready and we are still getting bursts of snow falling off and on. We read one report this morning that said we will end up with a total of 9 inches today.

Come on Spring.... March is only 6 days away.

Cobra Coverage-- Changes coming, We maybe able to afford it????

Being recently layed off I got my packet of info about 2 weeks ago, informing me that I could continue my same group medical, dental and vision coverage for the family, on for an additional 18 months. Sounds great but I now have to pay the full premium of these policies. $1350.00 a month. Who on earth could afford that??? I knew that our premiums were going up starting January 1 and that our employer was going to make us pay more out of pocket before I was even let go and my significant other and I had decided we just couldn't afford the coverage even when I was still an employee. The cost as an employee was going to be almost $800.00 a month, that was a huge chunk out of my paychecks every month, so we had started looking for outside coverage before I even knew I was going to be layed off. I am Life and Health insurance licensed but I have not actively sold insurance for almost 5 years now so I know there have been alot of changes but I know enough about the industry to know that $ 800 was too much and we could do better elsewhere. The problem is that my employer only offered 3 plans and you had no options to pick and choose from certain benefits from within the 3 options so you were forced to to pay for benefits that you may not want or need but since it was group coverage everybody got the same thing. also the insurance premium for the employee themselves is pretty good but when you try to add 2 children and a spouse onto the policy the premiums just go thru the roof! We definitely were paying more out of pocket for insurance than we ever were using in benefits. We could have easily self insured ourselves for less but then you run the risk of a major injury or illness and then you could be in trouble from huge medical bills. Its always better to be safe than sorry and just have insurance. BUT always shop around and make sure you are getting the best coverage for the best price.

So now that I am not working we were put in a new delima of what do we do now. Until unemployment kicks in we cant afford to go buy coverage anywhere and the $1350.00 a month was not an option.... Until the Economic recovery bill was signed into law this week. Please note I am not an expert on this and there are more pages and items included in this plan than most of us will ever see or understand, so I can only tell you about what I have been told on this subject concerning myself only. So I can not guarantee the following info is correct for everyone or anyone other than myself. But I called my former employer yesterday and was told that yes part of the bill President Obama signed this week will in most cases allow the government to subsidize 65% of the cobra premium for up to a 9 month period. The package is still too new and my employer said that they do not have all of the details yet but they will be mailing info, to all former employees that will qualify for this new lower premium when they get all of the rules and regulations sent to them by the government. This is the info tht they had at this time, subject to change as they got more details. Apparently if I had all ready signed up for Cobra( which I hadnt yet, thank goodness) and had been paying the higher premiums all ready, they will not go back and refund anything for prior months, it is only for payments starting in March or April and going forward for 9 months. Also if you have been recently layed off( guidelines of that time frame were not known by my employer)and chose not to accept the cobra coverage at that time, you may be given a window of opportunity to sign up for Cobra coverage. Again this is only info I got from my previous employer concerning my specific case so please contact your former employers if you think you may qualify for this or if you have additional questions. Its definitely worth looking into. As we can probably afford Cobra coverage at this lower cost, for 9 months and that may give us enough time to find coverage elsewhere or give us time for one of us to get a job that has good coverage.

4 weeks to Spring!

Oh please hurry up spring, 4 weeks can seem to be a very short time frame or it may end up feeling like it is dragging on forever. Especially since another winter storm is taking aim at us tonight and tomorrow. I have heard varying reports, depending on exactly how the storm tracks, of 5-7 inches of snow. BOOOOO! We just had gotten to the point were we could see the grass again. Sigh........ Why couldn't we get a little help from Mother nature and she let us have a mild end to this winter and an early warm spring? I could really use the break in the heating bills.

Blog Love Award!!!!

Christy from At the Creek, just gave me this award. I am very ecstatic as this is my first award!!! Yahoo! That was so nice of Christy and I am pleased to accept it and pass it on to some of my blogging friends.

Here are the rules attached to this particular award:

* When you receive the Blog Love award, you should place the logo on your blog proudly!

* Link to the blogger that awarded you the love.

* Nominate your friends and bloggers you read regularly, as many as you like.

* Finally, let them know you’ve nominated them to receive the award.

I am still fairly new to the blogging world and there are so many great blogs out there that I like to visit, so I had a hard time deciding who to give this terrific award to, there are so many wonderful blogs all deserving of this award.

Drum roll please...I am passing this award on to the below blogs, that I follow frequently and love:

If you love "The Bachelor" show then you have to check out this blog! Stacey B is the best!

Hair 4 my Princess If you have girls in your life and they love to have their hair done, then this blog is for you!!! Some of the most original and cute hair designs are shown here, with step by step instructions!!

All Things Ribbon Another must site to visit if you have girls. Some of the most beautiful hair bows and dresses are featured here. Check it out, you wont be sorry!

Thrifty Creativity One of my favorite blogs to visit and one of my top droppers! Thank you!! I always find a useful tip to use here!

Half Price/Full Pantry A blog not to be missed! Love this blog. A topper dropper of mine and always has a positive comment for me!!

Cell phone nightmare!!!

More Thorns, More thorns, OUCH!! I just looked at our cell phone bill that came in the mail today and My better half just about had to give me CPR and pick me up off of the floor! I have heard about parents getting scary cell phone bills but it had never happened to me until today. If you remember I just had called my cell provider and had our plan reviewed and made changes and saved almost 65.00 a month, well that savings is gone...... Our bill was 3.5 times the normal this month!! No flowers here for sure!!!! For the last 8 months we hadn't even been using 25% of the minutes on the plan we had, so our account rep, during the account review, suggested we drop to a smaller plan and save ourselves some money, sounded good at the time but now its not looking so good. Even if we had been in the original plan we still would have been over in minutes but not by as much, but the bill still would have been alot higher either way. We have free nights and weekends and free long distance and free mobile to mobile with our carrier and free unlimited texting so how on earth could the bill be over??? A teenager who got overly chatty last month, thats how. And all of her calls were before 9pm , when the free nights kick in and alot of her friends are not with our carrier so the free mobile to mobile was useless. So we were charged for every minute over our plan minutes at .40 cents a minute! So after a very long talk with her and and a call to the cell phone company we are at least sitting up and breathing more easily. They are going to put us on a payment plan and break all of the extra charges up over a 2-3 billing period time frame. Needless to say my daughters cell phone usage will be heavily monitored for awhile and she is going to help pay for the extra charges.