An answer to prayer

Photo: Sweet Julia, Nov. 2007 at the Lights of Christmas.

I slept in today. I haven't been sleeping well at night - or it just seems like it's taking me forever to fall asleep when I get in bed. It's been like this for a week anyway (not falling asleep). I know it mostly has to do with finances and that we have things that need to be paid and we don't know if or when the checks are coming.

Rod talked to the unemployment guy last Friday, and that made me feel a ton better. He said that since he's done Rod's paperwork for changing over to the MIT (Adobe/Graphic Arts) program that it will release his checks. But I just didn't know if that meant that they would be showing up any time soon. We are talking about the government, and any sort of change takes weeks not days.

I remember when Jaden was born. Sept of 2002. When we went to file our tax return (with TurboTax) we found out that there was a problem with Jaden's social security number, so they couldn't process our return. I don't remember all of the details, I'll have to ask Rod (he remembers everything!) but, as best I can remember, we didn't file for Jaden's social security number right after he was born. That was supposed to be done at the hospital and it wasn't.

So when we realized after the first of 2003, that he needed one so we could claim him... we went and applied for one. It arrived in the mail. Ahhh, we thought. We can finally file our taxes (we were needing the tax return)! Shortly thereafter, we found out that the social security admin had not yet given Jaden's social to the IRS. So therefore, the IRS still couldn't process our return - we were claiming a child that wasn't on their books. It took us weeeeekkkks to get that straightened out.

Last night, a friend from Friday School, Erika, had her baby, Tyler. Rod and I had a long talk this afternoon about babies, and whether or not we are done having them. Factors like our age, spacing of our kids, the fact that we have all the kids potty trained, etc. Most would say that four is enough. But what does God want for our family?

Tonight, we all went up to the hospital to visit. Tyler's adorable, of course. Newborns are magical. Julia wants Mommy to have a baby (every day she lets me know. Yesterday she drew a picture!) - so Tyler was pretty exciting for her. Jedediah requested to hold him as well. The kids love babies.

After visiting the hospital, we ate dinner and then friends came over. They need to get their tax return in promptly. We got on TurboTax and helped them file their taxes. They got back $1700 more than anticipated. I don't know how many people I have told, that using TurboTax helps you get your money back quickly (about 10 days electronically) and that every year we've gotten more than anticipated.. because the software program puts two and two together, where we may not. We made believers out of this family tonight!

I need to start getting our own tax stuff together. It's going to be a bit more complicated than normal, because there's a W2, a 1099, an unemployment form and misc. income because of unemployment insurance. We'd like to file as soon as all of the forms arrive - I guess I should get on it. Those forms should come within a week or so!

While our friends were here, Faith stopped by to give Rod the keys to the Kelley place. (It was great to see her!) He needs to go up and winterize it. He'll probably go tomorrow. I'm not exactly sure how he ended up being the "go to" guy on this one... but we love the family and feel honored that they would trust him with something that they needed taken care of. Afterall, isn't that what friends and family are supposed to be here for?

Well, Rod and I stayed up after everyone left, after the kid's bedtime and watched the latest 24 episode online. (I hate waiting week to week for episodes. I prefer to watch them after the season is all out, so that I can watch them in a shorter period of time!) Afterwards, Rod headed to bed.

When I realized that it had passed midnight, I logged on to the bank to see if Rod's checks had come (normally they come on Tues night at 12 am - which I guess is really Wed. morning). I logged on, I was so filled with trepidation! I have not allowed myself to even think about what the next three weeks would be like if they did not show up!

Logged on and there it was: TWO checks had been deposited (one for last week that he wasn't paid and one for this week, a normal check). I ran to the bedroom to see if Rod had fallen asleep (he was reading), I would have woke him up I was so excited... so that's one mystery in our life that is solved. Now I feel like I can relax a little - the bills will get paid again this month! The Lord has made sure things are paid... week after week, month after month.

Sunday, Sunday

Today wasn't too exciting. Although, it's nice to have days of rest. Today I think was one of those days. Bummer though, I didn't take one picture of us doing nothing. I often take pictures when we are out and about, when the boys are playing sports, etc. But I don't seem to take many pictures of us just being home together. That's something that I'm going to try to make a difference at this year.

This photo, taken 12/2/08 was before it snowed at all. This is how many birds we would have at our bird feeders out our living room window. Rod & Josiah got a book from the library and I believe we identified it as the Black Headed Junko. Apparently, we been turned into birdwatchers (How did THAT happen?). When it first snowed, they still came by all of the time. Then it stayed cold, and they didn't really come back. We only have a few that visit. Rod's going to go redo their food (again) and see if that will help. Skiddish but tons of fun to watch. I miss them.

A couple of nights ago we went to Best Buy to buy ink for my color printer. I have more pictures that I want to scan in, but not enough ink to do it. (I got a black & white only laser printer for Christmas. Yes, I really wanted a dorky printer for Christmas!) My color printer won't even scan unless the cartridges have enough ink in them to print. Ingenious on the manufacturers/sales side of things, lousy on the owners side. So, now it's plenty full and I'll barely use it. UPside, the ink will last forever, unless I decide to print a large picture (I have a 4x6 separate photo printer that i use for small photos).

Tonight I scanned in Rod's Jr Prom picture from when he was going to school at South Brunswick High School, in Monmouth Junction, Princeton, New Jersey. What a mouth full. He had no idea the amount of verbage that I would have to learn because he is 1. Norwegian 2. from Minnesota 3. from New Jersey. I guess he had to learn how to pronounce all of the Native American/Indian spelled names that there are in our county. Not that that makes me feel much better :)

When I was working at the bookstore at Skagit, I had made a call to a salesman about something bookstore related and he said "Are you at Skaggit Valley College?" All the time when talking to people from back east (and most of our book sellers for college books were back east) I had to correct their pronunciation inevitiblity. "Well yes, but it's pronounced Skajit Valley College." Thinking back, I should have just left it alone, it's not like they'll ever remember, anyway!!

This afternoon we took the kids swimming at the Y. Rod went to take Garrett's phone over to Verizon Wireless, so that they could make sure everything that is supposed to be off was off. It was supposed to be "quick". We were there from 2:30 or so to 4:30 and Rod was only there for 1/2 hour. You should have seen Josiah's mope-y face over the fact that his dad wasn't there to roughhouse with! Geesh!

Last night Rod made another attempt to fix the dryer. We realized last weekend while doing quite a bit of laundry, that the dryer wasn't drying very quickly. He looks into it and the blower needs replacing. Ok. Another $40 out the window. Get that replaced & it's still not really working well. We talked about what it all could be for quite some time.. Realizing that if the dryer isn't getting hot enough to dry the lint, but just throw it around, that there might be lint down the tube etc. that was wet, creating a blockage. Sure enough, after midnight that's where Rod was, cleaning out dryer tubes with his shopvac. What would we do without one? Those things work for just about everything.

Christmas Eve, late after making pies and finishing wrapping gifts, the sink got plugged up. (I have a hunch that after peeling apples for pies, that I didn't properly put the peelings down the garbage disposal, and that's what plugged it up...) The sink got backed up and there we were throwing things out from under the sink as fast as we could - with shopvac in hand to soak up the water. That things a gem! We had the whole thing contained and the kitchen floor dry in less than 20 minutes!

We ended the night with our nighttime reading tradition. Every night we sit down before bedtime and read a chapter out of this huge book that contains the entire story of the Chronicles of Narnia (all 7 books). It will take us forever to read through them, but what I really like about it is that it is creating a fantastic tradition and great memories. I don't particularly like to read aloud, but Rods great at it. He's got a good reading - listening to voice. Note to self - Goal for tomorrow: Take picture of family on couch listening to Rod read Chronicles of Narnia.

My Own Advice Taken

Have you ever given advice to a friend, well intentioned, well meaning that actually had merit? Have you ever later had to come back and had take your own advice?

Somehow it just seems more real when you have to take the advice for your own personal situation rather than someone else's.

Picture: Garrett & his new cell phone.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend was going through some stuff with her teen daughter. I had told her, it's a good thing for her to go through this while she is still under your roof, so that you can help her to grow and mature. Hopefully because of this, she will learn and not do it when she is out on her own.

Well, recently my Mom got my nephew Garrett a cell phone for his birthday. Rod (who used to sell cell phones) was there to buy and set up the phone. He told the salesman that everything, everything but phone use and camera use is to be blocked. Unusable. Can't text, can't send picture messages, can't download, can't use the internet, all that jazz.

Today, we opened the cell bill. I won't disclose the amount of usages that were non-phone charges on his phone, but it was more than one or two text messages. I wasn't mad (more like sick). I knew I should have checked online to see if the account had really been taken care of. I've been so busy I hadn't. Rod said the lady took care of it. He's a salesman, he knows what she can and can't do.

I promptly called Rod and told him. He was over faxing some paperwork from Workforce to Unemployment. Patrick, the unemployment guy called today to tell Rod that his switch in training had not yet been approved. And that he has to turn in some paperwork for it to get approved. So- Rod was off putting out one fire, while I was starting another. (He got his paperwork sent off :))

Rod then went over to Verizon Wireless to talk to the salesman. They said that everything should have been blocked, it was requested. There's no reason Garrett should have been able to do any of it. Yes, they will take off the extensive charges. Phew!

Now, off to deal with the teenager about the consequences of his actions. I'm going to need to talk to Mom about all of this, but he needs to know that what he did was wrong. We wanted him to have a cell, for a reason. But he needs to earn the right to use it! So I guess we'll come up with some sort of plan to give him some consequences.

He was supposed to take it down with him to his dad's today. He was bummed he didn't get to take it. Rod is supposed to take it back into the wireless store so that the lady can check something out on the phone. So Garrett had to leave it here. I think that it would have gotten taken away from him this weekend, regardless of the salesman's request or not!

I guess what I'm frustrated about really, is that we had told Garrett, that he may not do anything with his phone except make calls and take pictures. We had told him pic/text messages and downloads were not allowed. I guess though, I'm glad that Garrett made this mistake, while he is still at home. Where he can learn from his mistakes, better he learn now then after he turns 18! Time to take my own advice.

When Rod got home, he had a message from Patrick. The paperwork had been received, his application approved! Glad that's done! And, to our surprise, he said the emergency unemployment checks will now be released! Uh, didn't even know that was waiting on approval... (Rod had sent in a change of request for training WEEKS ago, and so we assumed that had been taken care of. Well, I guess it is now!)

Finances, Friends and Friday School

This is a picture that I really like of my Mom & Julia. I took it a couple of days ago at moms. It makes me smile! My parents are so good to my kids!!!

Today was a pretty good day overall. Woke up not feeling all that great because I'm struggling with some money issues. This is something that has been going on for over two weeks and we still haven't figured it out. I just hope it does get figured out soon. Rod's been getting paid from the money that he's put in to unemployment while he was working at Verizon. Or so that's how it was basically explained to me.

Well we knew that that money would run out sometime in December. It actually didn't run out until January. During December Rod called and called trying to get ahold of someone at unemployment to ask how the transition from unemployment income to workforce income happens.

Over two weeks, he couldn't get ahold of anyone. Offices were closed b'c of weather etc. He finally got ahold of someone the first week of January, who told him that before he's eligible for the workforce money (which he's been told has been approved) he has to apply for the emergency unemployment money. Somehow that wasn't ever explained to us. So he mailed that form in - and has emailed someone who verified that, yes, he form has been recieved.

He's supposed to continue filing for unemployment, until this emergency benefit kicks in. I guess everyone that has been on unemployment since they put a law through last summer, is eligible to apply for these extra weeks of unemployment benefits. We just had no clue. So - we are waiting to see if he's been accepted for this particular set of benefits. After those run out, he goes on to workforce benefits until school is finished.

I guess we should have known that it couldn't have been so easy as to get it set up once. Turns out we will end up doing this three times (first, unemployment; second, emergency unemployment; third, workforce) I seriously hope I can just hold out until things kick in again. We have bills to pay and at the beginning of the month, we have rent to pay. It takes a couple of his checks to pay for rent, so we need at least two to come through before the 5th. Anyway, all of this is on my mind and I just didn't sleep well!

On a lighter note, the kids had friends night at Avon tonight. We took the kids over to Janet's this afternoon (Julia has been begging to see Elaina) so that they could go to friends night while we go to our Friday School Board meeting tonight.

After we dropped them off, Rod took me over to Jessie's so that we could catch up. It's been since before it snowed that I've seen her. We chatted on the phone and then I asked if I could come spend some time with her while Rod studied. I thought that since the kids were at Janet's it might be nice for him to have some quiet time at home to do some homework. We had a great time chatting, of course. Jessie is such a good friend.

I feel like I've been cooped up in my house so much lately that I haven't seen any my friends. It was good for me to see a couple of the girls today. I'm hoping that I can make a real effort to do more of that - because all of us need it!

Josiah had been at mom and dad's cutting wood this afternoon. Mom took Josiah over to Janet's so that he could go to friends night too. That was really nice of her!

Rod picked me up from Jessies and we went to our meeting, which went smoothly. We talked about things like Friday School Registration and dates for the coming term. My head is in such a fog! I am SO not ready to deal with all of the details of Friday school, yet I have to anyway! That was quite a shift in thought tonight... trying to get myself on track. Looks like we have things set up to run pretty smoothly for this coming term, which is good!

Down Time.

Well we got the house cleaned up nicely. The landlord and the assessor showed up yesterday a little late. I thought the landlord would do a walk thru, they are supposed to do one once a year. It's been over a year. Anyway, the assessor came in and took a few pictures.

He said that the owners (a bunch of local doctors) need to have all of their properties assessed for a loan. I guess their loaner wants pictures of the insides of all of their properties. They have three houses and a playhouse that I am aware of. I think their offices as well.

Our landlord, Susan, came in and hung out in the living room. When the assessor was done they left. Maybe 15 minutes. Glad it's done though. I should be irritated that we did so much work when she didn't even walk through, but I'm really really glad it's done. It just feels good. I guess I pre spring cleaned. They both commented that we have a "great" piano. Thanks Cheryl!!!! We love it too!

Rod had been putting off doing a bunch of little things.. and he got my entire list of honey-do's done. I really like the painting of Friday Harbor that Rod put up above the piano. It just fits well. It's the one that Genny gave me for my birthday during my highschool years. It's such a nice print, I've kept it all of these years.

Since all is spiffy, the kids and Rod got out the Sizzix race car set they got last year for Christmas while I made dinner. A good hour plus of good clean fun. Well mostly. There's always got to be someone stirring the pot, even when fun abounds. We had chicken, biscuits and my dad's style fried potatoes (well almost, mine had onions, green onions and chiles in it). Rod pulled out the frozen apple cider we made this last fall with a bunch of our friday school friends/families. (I think we should have frozen more, it turned out yummy!)

Rod is finishing up his first InDesign assignment. I really need to learn InDesign too, because Heidi SJ and I will be working on a project. When you have something professionally printed, I guess that Adobe InDesign is one of the file types that printers will print. He's thinking that for his "big" project, he may create the base of the project that Heidi and I want to use. Kill to birds with one stone.

Sounds good to me. I do most of my publishing using a Page Plus by Serif program, that First Class Skagit County owns. It's a good little productive publisher. (I don't like Microsoft publisher). Anyway, I'm hoping that what Rod learns that we will be able to use in FCHM materials. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Well, I'm off to sit in front of the fireplace and stitch while the kids watch a movie. We had a big scufuffel over picking it, because the boys wanted to watch Prince Caspian and Julia did NOT. Our darling three year old said that "it has monsters in it and it is a blood movie." Apparently, she thinks it's scary, so we will be watching the movie Monsters instead!

Last night, Rod and I had a lazy evening. It was really nice after working hard the last couple of days. We snuggled on the couch and watched the two hour premiere of 24. I believe I've been turned - I think I like watching the guy movies/tv shows, like 24 or Sarah Connor Chronicles, MORE than the girl type movies. I have to been in a particular mood for mush.