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.

The Race Is ON!

Yesterday, our landlord stopped by... they haven't done a "walk thru" for over a year. Although that wasn't the purpose of her visit, it was to tell us that the people who own our property are doing an appraisal of all of their properties. So that means a walk thru in and around. (Picture of Jaden & Julia (sporting Sierra SJ's sunglasses)at home. Notice Jaden's missing tooth on the bottom - his first lost tooth!)

Which means, of course, that i'm going to be a cleaning the next couple of days. The appraiser is coming on Monday. I'm sure all will go well.. issue being my laundry room is heaped with clothes, the kids' bedrooms are in serious need of a scrubdown and I need to shampoo the living room carpet. Well, at least we have a carpet cleaner. Mom came over and is helping in the efforts. She'll be back tomorrow as well. I forget how good she is at cleaning! She's like superwoman!

The bathroom and the kid's rooms are basically done. I guess tomorrow I will do my bedroom, finish up the laundry and do the kitchen. Rod has his own list. A definite honey-do list, which is more like a must-do list. Move some stuff to the attic, take a couch to the dump, a loveseat to goodwill, fix a knob on a kitchen drawer and look at hinges... that sort of thing. Tonight, he got out the air compressor/nail gun combo he got for Christmas - and well, let's just say, it's been fun to see him enjoy his tools!

I'm not looking forward to all of the work, but I really do love the clean house results. And I can say that I feel quite blessed that they gave us a few days notice vs. 24 hours that they have in the past!

Rod didn't help much today in the efforts, because he had previous plans with old family friends to cut/chop wood. The snow plan in December used up all of our existing wood, so we needed more. Since there are many dead trees on friends' properties, it looks like we may not have to pay for wood. One more of God's amazing blessings in our life over that last few months.

On a college note... I was really hoping that during this year that Rod would be able to take a website building class. Almost anyone can build a website, I was hoping he could get the credentials from taking a class. I looked over his plans for this year, hoping to see if he could fit the class in. Since he's going to have to finish his ATA on our buck (last 2 quarters) his required to take classes will switch around, so next quarter he should be able to take it! Yay!

He will end up with a Certificate in Adobe and a Certificate in Graphic Design. And to get the Cert. in Graphic Design he'll have to take a digital photography class. So- good news- when we get our tax return, looks like we are going to *have* (grin) purchase a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera, so that he can take the class. An upgrade. Ahhh that just sounds nice!

On a personal note- Yesterday, Rod found out that Jay T. had a USB keyboard. Rod told Jay that we'd love to have it (I've been wanting one for ages). I also have a large separate monitor (to work on things like the newsletter), I can close up my laptop, move it OFF my desk WHICH gives me MORE room! Something that I have needed on my desk for quite some time! Woohoo! Now I just need the cord-guy to come and visit my desk! I think my cords look somewhat like spider webs - which fit in quite nicely with all the rest!

Freezing to Flooding

This weather is just nuts. Just over a week ago, we couldn't get out of our houses because of the snow. Now many are stuck because flooding is causing them to be landlocked. It would be funny if it could be. This is a picture taken from edgewater park. Look at the raindrops! It looks like snow!! Not that you can really see the water with the flash highlighting the foreground - I was too comfortable in my warm car to get out in it and take a real picture of the river.

We got out of the house tonight - went to McDonalds and let the kids play in the playland. Rod played DS. I proofed an article for Heidi SJ. Just a day in the life. It was nice to get out of the house though.
Afterwards, we drove down to edgewater park to check out the water level on the dike by the reventment. It's just so cool to see when it gets that high. I literally can't think too much about all of the flooding because it tends to upset me so.

Instead of blogging I probably really should be getting things done. I really don't think that the snow was good for me last month. I didn't get the newsletter done on time, I'm behind on my reviews and i've got a "todo" list that's a mile long! Calgon take me away! Oh, that's what Rod and I did last weekend - we got away. I guess I can't hope for that to happen again too soon :)

The January newsletter I finished today. Once Polli proofs it, I'll go over to EBC to print it. Maybe I'll have Rod & Josiah go. The last month or two Rod's gone over and done it for me. It seems to take some of the work out of doing the newsletter. Polli had asked me in the beginning if I wanted someone else to copy it... but to hand it off monthly for 35 copies, just seems like it could be more work than it's worth. Most of the newsletters go out by pdf via email/link to email on the website. That saves our co-op lots of postage every year.

I just really felt in a funk when doing it this month. Couldn't get in the mood. Last month I wrote a cover article for this month, which I think I accidently deleted. So I had remembered that I had written some stuff out a month or so ago in a notebook - so I type that out. It's an article on homeschooling on a shoestring.
Things people can do to enrich their homeschooling without spending much money. It stems from our lifestyle right now.

With that being done, tomorrow i'll get back to work on the reviews!