I'm baaaaaack!

It has been six months since the last time I wrote on here. Is that insane or what?!!! I seriously don't know how people keep up with these things. So I will try to update a little on here.

Tyler turned 15 in April. Erica was selected as one of three students from Arizona to go to Nationals for FBLA in June. That was quite an honor.

Recently three of us had birthdays. Erica turned 17 on 9/28. I turned 39 (yikes!) on 10/11 and Alex turned twelve yesterday (10/14).

We started a new school year in August. The kids are in the following grades: Erica (12), Tyler (10), Alex (6), Jared (4), Nathan (2), and Zachary (1). I started out teaching kindergarten this year, but recently moved to the third grade. We had very large class sizes for third grade and very small ones for kindergarten. Since I had experience teaching third grade (for one year about twelve years ago), I said I would be willing to switch grades if they needed me to. They needed me to. I had to switch rooms as well. I really miss my little kindergartners, but I love my third graders. They are great kids.

I've had a few interesting challenges lately. One is the impending foreclosure of my house. I was originally scheduled for July and then was postponed to August, September, and finally to October 16th. It is not being postponed again to the best of my knowledge. So that is tomorrow. I'm not sure when I have to be out, but I guess they will let me know at some point; probably sooner than later. How did I even get in this situation? Well, be careful about companies who are supposed to help with loan modifications. They just pocketed my money for months and didn't help at all. Moral of the story: Checking with the Better Business Bureau doesn't always guarantee that a company is what it claims to be. So #1 challenge....no home.

#2 challenge....My minivan "threw a rod". I'm not sure what all this entails, but I do know that it means I need a new engine at the cost of $3000. Yeah, I don't make that much in a month. So our car for the moment is my daughter's little car that seats a maximum of five, but not very comfortably. The problem with that would be that there are seven of us. I just don't think that it is a good thing that the little boys are always wanting me to let them ride in the trunk. So #2 challenge...no car large enough for the family to ride in.

#3 challenge....my deep freezer went out. It was full of meat. I say was because the way we discovered it stopped working was from the smell. Imagine several cubic feet packed full of rotting meat. Yuck! That was a gross (plus an expensive loss). Alex was my hero and emptied the meat out. Tyler helped some too. It was not a pretty job. We wheeled the freezer outside first, but you could smell the horrific odor emanating from it from a distance of about 15 feet away with the wind blowing away from you.

Those are some not cool things right now. Then there were a few annoying things such as some little turkey deciding it would be fun to break one of the large side windows on the already broken down van. There was also the whole issue of me having a broken window in my bedroom that I can't afford to replace. The plastic I taped over it doesn't help much as far as insulation is concerned which I am noticing more now that it is getting colder at night. Then on Monday, my doorknob to the house quit working and we were literally trapped inside for a while until I could get it off. The knob came of pretty easily, but the middle part was really stuck. I did buy a new doorknob, but it needs to be returned since the screws it came with won't loosen. We now are just using the deadbolt and have an interesting hole in the front door where the doorknob used to be. On the bright side, I always wanted to install a peep hole. Well, now I have one. I can even use both eyes at the same time if I want to. Pretty fancy-schmancy. Plus, the boys have invented a new game of, "see what you can throw through the hole in the door".

Oh yeah, and everyone has been sicker than a dog over the last several weeks with a real nasty flu. (You know the one...it's been on the news a lot lately). My turn began last week and I am now mostly better. I am still pretty tired and I haven't quite figured out why I am so dizzy, but I am definitely doing much better. The kids have all pretty well recovered with the exception of Jared, but that is because he was the last kid in the family to get it...so he is still in the recovering stages as well.

Now, everything is not all doom and gloom. There are several positive things to consider as well. For one, I probably don't need to worry about replacing my bedroom window since I won't be living here anyway. Heck, I could probably even just leave the custom peephole for the bank as well. I'm sure they would be impressed. Not many people have a peephole like mine. I am also eating less fast food (can you say Little Caesar's $5 pizzas?). When you can't take your family very far, you tend to just make do with what you have and make less trips out and about. Also, I don't have to worry about my car breaking down in the middle of nowhere now since it already did that and is now resting in peace in front of my house. Another thing we don't have to worry about is getting the swine flu. Woo-hoo! One less thing to worry about. So all-in all, I guess things aren't that bad.

I do need to try to find a place to rent. There are many empty houses, but not as many rentals. It is challenging to find a place to rent that is large enough for the five boys, my daughter, and myself that I can afford on my salary. I don't think the two bedroom apartments for $700 a month are going to cut it. There is also the whole issue of security deposits and first and last month's rent. Also, I really need to get a different minivan; preferably a working one so I can haul the afore-mentioned children around.

Well, I guess I should go to bed sometime soon since it is now almost 1:30 a.m. I hope that I am able to write again on here before another six months go by. It will be interesting to see the changes that occur between now and then. Goodnight for now. :)