Dear Tennessee,

This is a little embarrassing. You see, today my children were out of school due to the inclement weather. Our friends up north? They’re laughing. At us. And yes, I can hear them, because they’re loud.

Seriously? A SNOW DAY? Cluster Flake 2010 resulted in a dusting of snow. That is what our friends up north would call great winter weather.

But we made the best of it.

We sat around in our jammies, watching television and eating late meals. The littlest asked to go outside and play, so we all suited up and braved the freezing temperatures, the coldest we’ve had in 14 years (are those chuckles, Canada?), to play with all of the 39 flurries that fell in our yard.

My in-laws gifted our family with a sled for Christmas and because we so rarely get snow, I couldn’t tell the children no when they wanted to sit inside and fly down our hill.

See? They had so much fun. Even though, you know, it was mostly grass and leaves. (Enough outta you, Minnesota!) Surprisingly, it worked pretty well and kept them occupied for awhile.

They went down the hill together, then individually.

They also made snow angels and a mini snowman before going back to sledding. You can see more photos here.

I think the low tonight will be a single digit or pretty darn close to it. That, my friends, is cold.

Tomorrow I suppose schools will be closed again. Snow or no snow, Southerners can’t function when the mercury dips that low.

It’s a good thing we have Al Gore on our side. Perhaps we can go over to his house, it must be awfully warm there.

Love, me

I’ve been slacking around here just a little bit, but we’ve just been busy. Darin was out of town and I’ve apparently been having a myriad of issues related to my allergies and infections and rupturing cysts and whatnot. Seriously, it’s been way too much fun.

We had a pretty good Easter. The kids began their Spring Break Friday morning and it will last through this week. Unfortunately I can’t take the week off to spend with them because I’m taking two weeks off when we get married. They’re going to school with Jenna this week. They had Easter egg hunts at each of their schools and at church, so we opted out of coloring hard boiled eggs at home this year. We went to Mom and Dad’s house after church for Easter dinner with my brother and his family.

This weekend Darin also decided to begin construction on a tree house for the kids. He’s building it about 8-9 feet off of the ground and actually fell out of the tree at one point (but he’s fine!). Sunday he insisted on working on it in the rain. He’s silly.

I took Jaylen and Jenna to the doctor Friday afternoon; Jaylen for his ringworm issue and Jenna for a well child checkup. All three kids were prescribed oral medication for the ringworm and Jenna’s well child checkup was pretty much just checking her vitals (and still cost me $60!). Jenna is 38 inches and 27 pounds; Jaylen is 45 inches and 40 pounds. We went to pick the medicine up and I just about died – it was going to cost $500 to have all three filled. Seriously. We ended up going elsewhere and filling only part of the prescription, because they didn’t have all it in stock, and it was still $125. Wowza. We were also instructed to wash the rashes with a Clorox/water mix (one cap of bleach to one quart water). It is finally clearing up. Jaylen has made the most difference so far, you can barely see any rashes (but he still has his bald spot); Jaiden and Jenna’s are also going away. Emma actually has it too and hers was on the mend before the other three. Hopefully this works and will be the end, finally, of the freakin’ ringworm. This week marks FOUR MONTHS since this stupid fungal infection invited itself into our lives.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve also been having issues. I had another cyst work its way up to rupturing a couple of weeks ago. That sucked big time. Allergies are an on-going issue with me in the Spring and each year they get consistently worse. I think I’ve had a sinus infection for two weeks now, jumpstarted by a walk the kids and I took through our trails on April 1. Then last week Easter lillies in Wal-Mart caused me more grief and I began feeling HORRIBLE.

Friday things really became painful as my ears became congested and eventually painful; I think I had a double ear infection. I couldn’t hear nearly as well as I usually do and in the middle of the night Saturday I woke up feeling like I was giving birth through one of my ears (so help me God, that HURT!). My last ear infection was in ’02 when Jaiden was a newborn, but I still remember the pain and having to go to the ER at Langley at 1 a.m. lol. This is really not an option right now because ER co-pays are no longer free (I so miss TriCare!), but $125. Granted this is better than the $745 bill Darin got after his trip to the ER in December, but still. Our ER is not worth spending $125, even if you had the money.

I had some antibiotics leftover from the sinus infection I had in the fall, so I began taking those in addition to Extra Strength Tylenol and my daily Claritin D and Mucinex. I also had Murine drops, which I guess helped a little. Supposedly you can make all natural ear drops from a clove of garlic and olive oil, but I’ve never had success with this method; Murine and Similason worked better.

Fast-forward to today, I went to the doctor. Let me just say I hate being weighed these days (I’m about 20 pounds overweight – yuck). My blood pressure was high for me at 112/74. This is not high for normal people, but that is higher than my blood pressure has ever been (it was always 95-105/55-60 when I was pregnant, all three times). I have swollen lymph nodes, swollen tonsils, fluid in my ears, severe congestion causing me all kinds of pain, something is retracted in my left ear and … I think that’s it? I got a sinus cocktail – a shot in my hip! – before I left plus I was prescribed the same antibiotics I already had at home and prescription strength Nasonex.

I have come to several conclusions about the state of our healthcare in the past few days.

First, health insurance in not only a joke, but a rip-off and completely ridiculous. A family plan through United Healthcare costs upwards of $700 per MONTH, meaning $4800+ per YEAR. That is what would come out of my paycheck if I had that plan. This does not include the $25 co-pays for regular office visits, the $125 ER visits, the so-called $10 prescription co-pays and whatever insurance does not cover. I cannot see any doctor I’d like. I cannot receive the brand of medication that will work best for me.

And the generics are ridiculously overpriced too – I paid $70 for TWO today because our insurance doesn’t like to cover them. My older brother works in pharmaceutical sales and one day I need to call and ask him what they are slipping into drugs these days. I think it’s platinum. This is the only way I can wrap my head around the prices of these drugs for every day ailments. Granted my kids are not on insurance (there are reasons – was denied one type of coverage and the others won’t cover us because I don’t have bills in my name yet), but I am and I am still paying a ridiculous amount for my medications.

I have used my health insurance once this year. Comparing prices, we’re better off with self-pay, but people tend to think I’m a neglectful parent for chancing major illnesses and such without insurance. It sucks to have to pay those bills, yes, but I would rather pay $1500 a year than $4800. We do have Aflac for various things, plus dental and vision, though.

I have also come to the conclusion I would be a failure as a drug addict. I hate pills almost more than I hate child molesters, inhaling things sucks, needles freak me out, smoke bothers my allergies and I don’t drink much because it just makes me sleepy.

I’m feeling a little better tonight and I can almost hear normally again. I really hate having allergies, not because they’re such a pain in the neck, but because even on the most gorgeous days if I go outside (or even if I don’t!) I run the risk of yet another sinus infection. It’s so frustrating. I bought a Neti Pot a couple of weeks ago and Darin and I have been using that to irrigate our sinuses, but that alone won’t stop allergies. There has to be some kind of vaccine for this. If we can put a black man in the White House, surely we can cure seasonal allergies, right?

While I’m complaining about spending a fortune on health care, I got my tax refund over the weekend and can finish up part of my wedding to-do list (which is also why I went to the doctor today – refund came after other issues). Bought Darin’s ring and am paying our photographer this week.

Our church is throwing us an engagement party on Saturday night. I’m excited! I can’t wait for it. People keep asking where we’re registered, so I created a registry on Wal-Mart as well as Kaboodle.com. We really DON’T need ANYTHING. The gift of your presence is gift enough for us. But no, people want to bring gifts, so we listed some items we’ve had our eye on (and even some we do need, just haven’t bought, like a new hand mixer).

I addressed wedding invitations this weekend while laid up on the couch. We’re nearly done with that, just have a few that don’t have addresses. Everything needs both a postage stamp and a dahlia stamp for decoration. Soon those will be mailed.

Made other decisions too – changed the sash on my dress from white and lavender to plum, called the caterer so he could work on the menu, we’re working on picking out wedding songs and I think we’ve decided to just iPod the entire wedding rather than have to scramble to find a keyboard and amp for Justin (I think the plan is now, unless we can find a keyboard and amp, that Justin will record the songs beforehand and we’ll load them into the iPod). Katie mentioned having her friend’s brother sing, which I hadn’t even thought about, but we’ll see.

Looked at baby pictures of my kids this morning. Oh how I miss those sweet, cuddly little babies who couldn’t yet move nor talk back!

I seriously need a vacation. Less than two months until we get one – that’s another thing Darin’s done, booked our honeymoon in the Outer Banks. Awesome.

Over the weekend Jenna started reciting a new poem she learned at school. You HAVE to watch it! It’s super cute!

She’s saying, “Two little eyes to look to God, two little ears to hear His word, two little lips to sing His praise, two little feet to walk His way, two little hands to do His will, one little heart to love Him still.”

I understand, after talking to her teacher, that she doesn’t quite have it right, but it’s cute nonetheless. This is my child who just turned three six weeks ago! She knows all kinds of things – her entire alphabet, can count to 50, knows about 20 Bible verses, opposites (she calls them ‘ossopits’ lol), rhyming words, etc. She is coloring in the lines, knows her letters by sight, knows her numbers by sight. I have a bunch of smart little people in this house!

Anyway, I am off to bed! I told Darin I was wrapping things up and would be done “in a few” about 32 minutes ago. He decided not to wait for me and is laying here, CPAP on his face, sleeping. lol. Guess that means I’m taking too long (I’m sitting up in bed with the light on, he usually will not go to sleep if any light in the entire house is on or if there is any noise anywhere)!

By the way, Darin joined Twitter today. He is complaining because I’m already badgering him to update more. lol. Twitter is really not his sort of deal, but he loved it once he found out he could get instant updates from a bunch of baseball dudes, Pardon the Interruption, CoCo Crisp, Alyssa Milano (lol), Jimmy Traina, the RED SOX, etc. He started because this weekend his dad (who his sister said is 76, not 74 lol) joined and asked Darin how to update. Darin had NO CLUE. lol. Anyway, if you decide to follow him, be prepared for a lot of cynicism. lol. He’s an introverted realist, so we’ll see how this goes.

Alright, going to bed now! Bring on The Wednesday.

I wasn’t planning on trudging back out into the snowy wilderness, but someone had to take the pictures, right? As I was getting my clothes on, I heard Emma outside screaming like she was being tortured. And she was. The snow was so high neither she nor Jenna could walk in it and they were stranded near the garage – poor little things! They were eager to join Darin and the older kids in the back of the property. I had Darin’s big boots back on, so I dragged my feet and made them a little path to follow. lol. And they still fell.

After a few minutes, we met up with Jaiden, then Darin and Jaylen who had wandered off into the frozen tundra (or so it seems). I’ve seen pictures of him camping in the snow in Tahoe and they don’t look much different! Then our next door neighbor showed up and offered rides on his 4-wheeler. The kids – minus Emma – and Darin were thrilled! I was happy to just sit back and watch, though.

This is Emma throwing snow in the air while the neighbor hooked up the tow straps and he and Darin figured out which would be the best sled: a sheet of beadboard or a trashcan lid? The beadboard lost, I’m sorry to say.

Then my lovely Mister decided he’d like to try snowboarding behind the 4-wheeler, only it didn’t work. Apparently beadboard is only good for looking pretty on walls. Who’d have guessed?

Our neighbor’s wife came over – this was actually the first time I’d met either one of them – and while he was talking with her, he let Darin drive the 4-wheeler around.

While the older two rode a bit longer, Emma ate snow. And it got all over her face, which was terribly cute!

Emma was terribly afraid of the 4-wheeler and grew panicked when they came within a 20-yard radius, thinking she was going to be run over, but her dad insisted she take a ride to see that she should not be afraid. It didn’t work. lol.

After this, we trekked back up the hill to the house and had lunch. As I was chatting with Gwen (my co-worker) on Facebook, her husband rings the doorbell. He was here to plow the driveway. Awesome, awesome, awesome! Had it not been for TJ and his brother-in-law, we would have been stuck here with minimal hot chocolate, no Diet Coke (for Darin) and also no Oriental ramen. Oh, and we would be stuck. We don’t own a shovel, apparently, and a rake doesn’t work too well against snow. There was no getting up the driveway (and there is a ditch on the other side of the road, which you really don’t want to fall into, trust me).

My parents, who traveled to Missouri for a few days, could have used TJ’s plow. They drove 600 miles and got stuck a mile from home. lol. The ground effects package on the Magnum does not, in fact, move the snow out of the way. My brother came up from Memphis to help them out (he was coming up anyway, I think). The funniest things happen to them sometimes. (Wish I had a picture to post of that, but alas, I do not.)

When we bought this house, I could have cared less about the trail in the back, but on these snow days I am so glad it’s there. When we were house-hunting, we found several different homes we were okay with, a lot we hated, but I’m glad we found one we love. And I’m especially glad the one we loved ended up being in our price range and having such a huge yard – and wonderful neighbors.

Unlike others, we did not make a snowman. Darin said it wasn’t working out because the snow was so thick. Maybe they’ll have the chance tomorrow – school’s already been canceled on Monday and Darin has so graciously volunteered to watch them (tomorrow is production day and I can’t miss work).

I’ve uploaded all of the photos from the day. To see them, visit the set on Flickr.

Happy Merry Christmas. I mean, March 1st. It began snowing yesterday afternoon and by bedtime, it was already about 8 inches deep. This morning we woke up to about a foot of snow.

Oh how I absolutely hate the snow. But I bundled up first thing to get out and take some pictures (of course!). Our house is situated on a hill and walking down, the snow was about mid-calf (I’m 5’5″). I walked out to the edge of our property line, through the woods (where the above photos was taken) then back up the hill … whew. WHAT a work-out. lol. I was out of breath by the time I got back up here. But it is absolutely beautiful out in the woods!

Most, if not all, area churches began canceling services last night. We are literally snowed in. Again, our house is at the bottom of the hill and we cannot get up the driveway, especially not in my car. Darin’s truck is covered in snow and icicles.

He and the kids are putting on layers and finding mittens to head out and enjoy the snow, which will come higher than the little girls’ knees. lol. This should be fun.

Incidentally, I wrote my column this week on being ready for spring:

Ready to trade winter for spring
There’s something so beautiful about winter.

For me, it’s the anticipation of Christmas. The sparkling, the twinkling, the glow of holiday lights strung from eaves and hanging gently in the boughs of a sappy pine tree. The beauty comes not in the chilly temperatures, but in the love the season brings as it arrives; the family gatherings, the delicate ornaments, the food and fellowship of Christmas.

When it begins, winter is magical. The first snow is a novelty. Children donning brightly-colored, warm woolen mittens and knit hats toss snowballs at friends and lay in the cold white mush, a smile plastered to their ruddy faces, to make snow angels.

Hot chocolate makes a comeback, becoming a favorite treat after a day of playing in the winter wonderland.

But for me, once Christmas has passed, winter can go back into hibernation. While beautiful at times, it’s my least favorite season.

Once the pretty packages have been opened, the tree taken down, decor placed back in its place until next November, I am over winter.

I find it depressing to look out the window at bare trees or routinely reaching for my coat before I leave the house. I grow tired of the breathtaking cold temperatures, the sniffling and sneezing and having to stock up on cold medicine.

Yes, winter, I am tired of you. And not only that, I have spring fever like you would not believe.

About this time each year, I yearn for spring. I begin counting the days until March 20 (21 more!), longing for warmer temperatures and colorful blossoms.

I love to see the earth becoming green again, waking up from a long winter and sprouting beautiful flowers which serve as Mother Nature’s confetti, decorating the earth and sharing in the excitement that spring is near.

I find joy in March’s first blooms – the bright yellow daffodils, the sweet pink cherry blossoms.

For me, spring is time for renewal and rebirth. It is no coincidence the leaves and the blooms disappear for a time, only to come back anew.

Spring inspires people to start again, to clean out and declutter homes, to decorate with pastel colors and hunt down Easter eggs.

It is a time when we celebrate Lent, the 40 days of prayer and fasting leading up to Easter. And a time when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the arrival of the Easter bunny.

Best of all, the weather will be warmer, ball season will begin again and students will graduate soon after.

“Spring is when life’s alive in everything.” – Christina Rossetti

Of course, spring in West Tennessee brings allergies of the worst kind and I will soon gladly trade the spring for summer.

I have a ‘what would you do?’ kind of question: would you have your child tested for allergies against your doctor’s advice?

And here’s the situation.

During the school year every year, Jaiden stays sick. I don’t mean the normal ‘sick’, I mean bronchial issues. The cough that sounds like a barking seal, from August to June. The first year it was bronchiolitis (rhinitis is what is in her chart, says the NP we saw last). Last year she was in the hospital with pneumonia. This year, same deal. The barking seal cough. All kinds of mucus in the lungs. She’s coughed so much she has thrown up three different night this week (not just a little mucus vomit, either; she threw up everything in her stomach).

When she was sick a month ago with something else, the ridiculous seal cough was just making an appearance, so I thought I’d be proactive and talk to the nurse practitioner about it. She told me it could be allergies and when I tried to discuss allergy testing, she gave me the answer I hate getting (my mom says it all the time): “Well my kids lived with allergies and all that mucus. And besides, do you know how many needles are involved with that?”

Um, I think so? My son had allergen testing done when he was 15 months old.

The NP gave me a bag full of medicine that she gave her kids when they were little and sent me on my way, pretty adamant that she didn’t recommend doing allergy testing for what she suspects is allergies. She just wants me to bring her home, pump her full of meds when she’s mucus-y and stay this way?

This, honestly, goes against my preferences. I’m not a person who regularly medicates herself, much less her children. If they need Tylenol or Motrin or Benadryl or Dimetapp, let’s do it, but they have not been diagnosed with medical conditions which require daily medication. If you’re going to send me home with a bag of pill bottles, give me a diagnosis. Find the problem, don’t just treat the symptoms.

My doctor’s office and I are not necessarily compatible. When Jenna was jaundiced as a newborn, they advised me to discontinue breast-feeding and put her on the bottle, stating it would help (no, and that advice is not very supportive of breast-feeding mothers). A year ago when Jaiden had pneumonia, the NPs we saw advised me to rush her to the children’s hospital in Memphis, scaring the hell out of me; the doctor who owns the clinic told my brother later (he is involved with my brother’s mother-in-law) that the trip to LeBonheur was unnecessary, that he could have treated her here. And yesterday, when I called and asked for advice because I suspected that Jenna ate a bunch of chewable children’s aspirin, they told me to rush her to the ER, but poison control said it wasn’t a lethal dose when I called them.

Simply put, I think for myself. I know that there are other ways to do things – more natural ways, for instance. Just like a smart consumer, I research diagnoses and treatment. And I know that I don’t have to go along with what they say just because they have a diploma on their wall. I’m really questioning this advice I was given, and now I’m asking you, oh Internets, what you would do? Listen to your child cough every school year until she graduates (three down, 12 to go!) or try to find out why she’s coughing?

So let me know what you’d do.

That aside, yes, you did read that Jenna ate Tylenol yesterday. Poison control told me she’d be fine. But she stayed with me at work because her teacher wanted to play it safe. I work next door to the hospital (literally; so close their employees smoke on our property) and if something happened, we’re right there. She was acting fine all day. No issues. Well, issues because she’s two and does not sit still longer than five seconds, but no problems as a result of the Tylenol. She went to lunch with Gwen, Emily and I and had fun. After lunch, we stopped by the new house to show it off to Emily. When we got back to the office, I set up the Pack N Play I’d neglected to take out of my car (see, came in handy!) and she eventually went to sleep (this child doesn’t watch TV or movies, unless it’s Calliou, so it’s difficult to get her to sit still). She slept until about half an hour before it was time to leave.

I send my kids to school during the day for a reason: so I can actually work. I did get a few things done, but not as much as I wanted. lol. Oh well, it was Friday.

Last night we had dinner with Darin’s parents. It was their anniversary – next year is #20! And next Oct. 3, we’ll all be down in Texas for his sister’s wedding. I can’t wait. She bought her dress when she was here during Hurricane Ike. It’s beautiful.

Afterward, we went to Wal-Mart to buy Jaylen some pants (it’s 47°F here right now) and ended up getting things for the new house. Well, things for the bathrooms. Shower curtain rods, one of those things to put over the toilet to hold towels and whatnot and toilet paper holders that match the existing fixtures (all are the brushed bronze). We got a white shower curtain for the kids’ bathroom (walls are tan, trim is white) and then sky blue, apple green, buttery yellow and white towels. I also bought white 5×7 frames and a pack of [Martha Stewart] scrapbooking papers in the same colors, then framed them last night. They look so cute! (Hoping they don’t curl because of the humidity.) There are some whimsical little rainforest animal things like toothbrush and soap holders at Wal-Mart that I think we’ll get because they also go in the room. I’m really excited about it! I also had a shower curtain that I’ve always liked and wanted to use and planned to use in our bathroom, but I changed my mind. Hoping Target has something with more robin’s egg blue than just teal and yellow and brown and white stripes.

Today we have a soccer game and then working in the house all day. We plan to close in two weeks! I’m so excited!

I feel like Meredith Grey because I talk about this so often. All you Cristinas out there can tell me to shut up, you’re tired of hearing it, but I just need to get it off my chest. (Be my person, all of you. lol.)

I don’t like being an only parent.

Single parents everywhere know what I mean. The fighting. The rebellion. The dirty diapers and clothes. The responsibility of three is overwhelming. The bills (today I’m paying for school pictures, a fund-raiser and snack for 39 children because both older kids have snack today). It would be nice to have a ‘daddy’ weekend once in awhile, for instance …

But more than all of that, I don’t like being the only one of their parents who is actually involved with them. Our relationship is over, but I still wish I could call their father and say, “Hey, you’ll never guess what Jenna said today!” or “Jaylen made THE CUTEST little person today!” or “Jaiden’s teacher says she’s super sweet and very smart!” and have that met with more than just an “Oh, okay …”

Sometimes when I look at them, I remember how they were as babies. And I think about just how much I miss certain things. Then I get angry because he is choosing to miss all of this. How can someone do that? I know firsthand that children are difficult, but to elect to miss years of your child’s life is just beyond me.

A few weeks ago, his sister asked how anyone could possibly be happy to be divorced, and among my long list of reasons, I noted that he didn’t even fight for visitation with the kids. He has been awarded none. And I think that’s sad.

Honestly, it really hurts my feelings. I don’t talk about this with the kids because I don’t want to upset them (and it’s just not a good thing to do, in my opinion), but I know they hurt too. I just wish that I could fill in that void (or that Darin can), but I’m pretty sure having your father blatantly ignore your existence, except for every once in awhile when he calls or sends money, is a scar that is not easily healed.

Remember the title of the last entry about the house? Yeah, not so much.

We had the appraiser come out on Monday and the home inspector on Wednesday. The home inspector so graciously gifted us with a list of defective items – like the downstairs AC unit and the doors that are not hung properly (seriously) and drywall repairs and whatever a GFCI is for the whirlpool tub. The next day, the mortgage company sent us the appraisal and will require us to make repairs to the house before it can close. And it’s a totally different list!

Um, yes. Freaking out. Because apparently they expect us to fix rotted wood siding and a column in the front of the house, plus other things, before we own the damn thing. Are they serious? Darin got into it with our contact at the company, asking her just that. And yes, apparently they are serious. He relayed some message to me about escrow and paying the money to the lawyer and whatever, but all that is just over my head. Also, we’ll be doing what we can ourselves (or, should I say that my dad, Darin and my brother are doing what they can themselves) and so there was also something about having to pay the lawyer for our own services or something? I don’t know.

Thankfully, the repairs don’t seem to be as bad and as costly as we’d originally thought. Yesterday Darin went and got measurements for doors that are missing and wrote up a list of what needs to be replaced and repaired and where. Not a terribly huge list, I’m told. I just wasn’t expecting to see all I did on the list (and I’ve been told that some things really aren’t that big of a deal). And hopefully the AC just needs to be charged after sitting for so long (almost 180 days). Let’s just hope. (Although we did find that the digital thermostat’s batteries were dead, so I’m hoping that THAT is the reason the inspector couldn’t get it to turn on.)

Thursday was not one of my better days, so when I looked at the list, I wanted to just bawl. I saw dollar signs. Big ones. We don’t want to go bankrupt any time soon, so we are not going to charge a lot of things. And whatever we spent on fixing the house – these things we didn’t plan on, like the AC – will come from our wedding budget. We were already working off of a skeletal budget and thus, my friends, if you will be at my wedding, don’t come expecting a meal. lol. Don’t come expecting the now popular “out of town guest bags”, which I would love to do (you can get a free copy of our annual publication, Discover Tipton County 2009 instead). I’ll work with what I’ve got, just don’t come expecting a whole lot. I will budge where I can if I need to, except on my photog. Food be damned, I will have Emily taking our pictures. lol.

It’s also really, really hard to save money when you have to cover for your ex because he is not living up to his obligations, or his company is not living up to their obligations for wage garnishments or his state is not sending you the money it should. Or whatever is going on. Yeah, I’m lucky to get anything, but I don’t know what is more frustrating, getting nothing or getting a check that is a quarter of what you should be getting. I’m supposed to get $422 every two weeks, but the amount I’ve received in the last month and a half is less than that. Frustrating? YES. So I called South Carolina and I called Tennessee, and no one has returned my calls. I also have to go back to court to straighten out the paperwork my f-ing lawyer screwed up, which will likely cost me MORE money. Hear that? Those sobs? Yes, that’s me.

Truth be told (yet again), I am SUPER excited about the house. It is appraised at $14K over our selling price, which Darin says is good. I was expecting – and hoping – for more than that, but apparently the state of the economy has something to say about it. The list price on the house was $6K more than it appraised for, so I’m glad we got the price we did. We would have been happy paying the list price for that house, honestly. lol. It’s big enough for our little family of six and sits on nearly an acre and a half – it’s a great price. Our paperwork told us that in May 2007, the house sold for $169,500 and this past February [I'm assuming the bank bought it] for about $144K. So hopefully the market rebounds in the near future, making our appraised value go up as well.

See, in a few years, construction on our segment of I-69 is supposed to begin. TDOT officials have not yet released their timeline of when they will begin to acquire the right of ways (meaning, buying up folks’ homes and properties). But we will live in between two interchanges (and a third will be just minutes away). Like RIGHT in between two interchanges. I don’t know if they intend to purchase this property or not, but if they do we would like to see an appraisal above what we currently have. WAY above. And if they don’t buy the property .. eh, whatever, I guess. At least Darin will be very close to the interstate, which will be great news for his commute.

Anyway. Tired of hearing about the house?

We have another busy weekend. As always. I feel like a broken record when I say that, because we are rarely not busy. This morning we have a soccer game and today is the Heritage Festival in Covington. Which I am expected to work. Except that Darin was going to watch the kids and he is sick. And I’m getting whatever he has, of course, and passed out at about 8:30 p.m. last night. Tomorrow we’re supposed to be having dinner with Darin’s best friend and visiting Khloe, but that depends on who’s sick and who’s not. Next weekend is BBQ fest. We have soccer games up until Nov. 1. And work? Ha. We’re going to be busier than ever, which really pisses me off, honestly. A special section or something EVERY SINGLE WEEK until the end of the year. PLUS our Discover book, which is HUGE. I ALREADY do not have time enough with my family AND we don’t get paid OT, which we work every single week as it is. So Sherri and I are not exactly thrilled about all of this. I know this time of year is always busy, but when you more than double our workload, it sucks. Sherri has three boys, Gwen has two kids (and one is a brand new baby) and I have my three plus we’re moving and planning a wedding … I just don’t see how this will all work out smoothly. Quite frankly, I’m unhappy. Very much so.

Yesterday I surprised the kids and had lunch with them at school. I miss doing things like that. In the afternoon, I had a story to cover at their school, so I got to see them a lot during the day. It was great. But here in the next couple of months, I’ll get to see them less and less, which I absolutely hate. Is it worth it? Yeah, I don’t know. Especially when I’m volunteering my time. I understand that our interim publishers are trying hard to turn things around at the paper money-wise, but the editorial staff does not benefit from that. With added special sections, sales reps make more money off of the ads and the paper makes more money from those ads, but us? Yeah, we’re salaried. Which can be good, but when it comes to the point where you’re getting paid for 40 hours and you regularly work 60, it’s not all that great. I really do love my job, I’m just disgruntled today and already very stressed out before I even heard about all of this extra stuff at work. (DEEP BREATH.)

While I was at the kids’ school yesterday, I talked with Jaiden’s teacher and she was telling me that Jaiden was so sweet and so smart and everyone loved her. It’s always nice to hear things like that – and I have heard that three years in a row now from her teachers. lol. Everyone DOES love Jaiden.

Jaylen has been misbehaving in school lately and it’s frustrating me. He knows how to behave, and I wish he would tell me his issue.

Alrighty, gotta get the babies breakfast before we head out to soccer. Next season we’ll live about three minutes from the fields, I can’t wait!