Picked up a huge box of hand me downs from a high school friend for Massey. It was like shopping at Old Navy and American Eagle for free and Massey was thrilled! I even got a few things too. (Thanks Vicki)
I am worried about the heat outside. I usually have my cousin's hubby come by and shoot up my A/C unit with freon once a year but when he called to offer I was tapped out and hated to bounce a check to a relative. Unless it's my Siblings.. then THEY are only to blame, for forgetting who their sister is and taking my check :)
The A/C has been working fine thus far, but as a avid Weather Channel freak I know the temp is sky rocketing at the end of this week. My only week spot is my kitchen and not totally my fault. The idiots that built our house put ONE a/c vent in a kitchen that faces east and has full sunlight until at least four in the afternoon. My kitchen has two windows and a glass back door. I have blinds on one window and used to have a curtain over the back glass door until one of the dogs ate it. I bought a set for the back door and a set for the window over the sink yesterday, each costing less than four dollars and brought them home.
It took me almost two hours to hang two sets of blinds. The back door wasn't so difficult after I used a nail and hammer to punch through the metal door to make starter holes for the screws. Let me back up.
First I had to go over to my next door husband's garage and borrow a Phillips head screwdriver. My tools seem to walk off mysteriously...that happens when you have teens who have friends who fix THEIR cars in YOUR driveway and garage. At least they get them fixed and moved. I've had some sit here for a week. If it only costs me a screwdriver or wrench..."Take it!"
Moved on to the next blind, above my kitchen sink. People who install mini blinds above kitchen sinks for a living must be millionaires. I sweated, I cursed. I tried a step stool and finally just stood with one foot in each sink trying to get the blind brackets screwed in with my (next door husband's) manual screwdriver. Once again starting with nail hole starter guide and after several attempts, got the blind up. It wasn't perfect but it was close enough. My window faces directly east and once the sun comes up the kitchen stays hot all day. When I turn the oven on it becomes a sauna...thanks to the geniuses who built my house and decided a kitchen facing east only needed one A/C vent. Guess they thought I wouldn't cook much during the summer months.
The next morning the kitchen was so much cooler it wasn't even funny. Why I didn't do this years ago remains a mystery, just like the missing pliers screwdrivers and wrenches but at least it is done now.
I only worked a day shift on Thursday and came home. I did some weed eating and went to the Grocery de Amigos aka "Food Depot." Thanks to one of my blog readers I have discovered a terrific grocery store that makes Kroger seem like the Nordstrom of food. Great prices, no frills but clean and fully stocked.
I sat out back for over a hour reading before cooking. I simply read and watched the dogs get to know each other out in the shadows finally casting some cool on the back yard lawn.
People think I'm crazy to have three dogs. I have always been crazy. I had three dogs before my precious Rosie died. Now I'm just back up to par.
He poops or pees in the house, gets his nose rubbed in it before we clean it up and is shoved out the back door for a time out. I've been down this road before with pups and know the drill. It's not like we live in the Ritz anyway...it's more like we live in the "Rizzle Fo Shizzle." This could be loosely translated as "Our house, but at least it's a real place to live and love."
I have downgraded my work load. For over two years I have worked eleven, twelve sometimes thirteen shifts a week. Yes it helped and I am grateful I had the opportunity to do it, but I was wearing myself down and felt like I was losing what little sanity I had left. I worked seven shifts this week, more than most people I work with do but it felt like a paid vacation. So I am a bit behind on a couple of bills. I'll make it up next week. At least we are to the point where I can do that.
It hasn't been JUST me. It's been my husband helping out with laundry, my kids finally learning how to unload a dishwasher when it's full and reloading it. It's been the kids telling me they love me more often. It's been having more time for myself. I plucked my eye brows yesterday and can't even remember the last time I had time to do that. (Let's don't even mention shaving legs... Massey says I am just gross in that department)
It's been taking a step back. Do I kill myself to make ends meet or simply do what I can to stay healthy enough to keep on keeping on?
I am in a good place. We aren't back to normal (if I ever was) but are to the point I can feel justified working a bit less and feeling better, mentally physically and emotionally.
A guy I went to high school with, who I haven't seen in over three decades saw a post on FB I made about not having health insurance and wrote this back to me about our three year journey back from the edge.
"As far as loosing jobs goes, just downsize and start from there. Maybe some of the people complaining SHOULD have lost that "roof over their head" and moved somewhere that would allow them to not only afford mortgage but also AFFORD health insurance. If you are having financial problems then you are living OUTSIDE of you means.'
In the words of my almost seventeen year old daughter..."WTH?"
Social media is great...it can also be abused. I never rant about my faith...I talk about it to God. I never rant about politics, I use my rant in the polling booth on election day...where it TRULY counts.
I have said it before...if every single person voted instead of just bitching , the country would be in better shape. Voices would not only be heard but make the difference.
People who haven't seen or experienced what my family has been through certainly don't have the right to judge me.
It was the click of a mouse...I usually don't de friend people, but he de friend ed me first by judging without knowing the facts.
As a fifty year old woman with three kids... who has worked since she was fourteen...I had to walk into the unemployment office and file for unemployment Insurance. I had to put my younger two kids on Medicaid. I had to go to the DHR in our county and file for food stamps. I cried like a baby at each office and the humiliation was totally overwhelming but I did it.
We are by NO stretch of the imagination "Living beyond our means" but graciously surviving with the help of many and the Big Guy upstairs. We are making strides and thanks to the system I have paid into since 1974 we have almost made it.
It will take at least five years to get back to where we were, but at least we are here. At least my kids are healthy and my poor husband hasn't choked me in my sleep. (yet)
People who are haters get on my nerves.
I never voted for Bush. (Did vote for Huckaby) But if a country votes and a leader is elected...it is sad to see people not support THEIR president. When Bush was in office I wasn't a fan but he was MY president, and I not only supported him but prayed for and respected him as our leader.
I don't agree with all the politics, rebpub and demo. I think the country is more in a state of moral, racial, and a heartless financial dilemma that cares more about lining their pockets than they do about the people who have earned their due and deserve more.
Who can take the country back ?
Your vote can.
Til next time...hate me or love me...COTTON
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