Saturday, January 29, 2011

Two Weeks

It's interesting... It's only been two weeks since our computer was last working (or has it been 3 weeks??) & I feel like I'm going a little crazy not being able to blog. I guess I could have/should have been blogging on my iPod but I feel like it's such a pain typing on here. I also haven't spent any time writing in my journals.

Anyway, here I am. I'm not lost or missing so I hope none of you have worried too much. :)

Mike & I are getting ready to go out to have dinner with some old friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Shocking, right? Yeah. We know. We never go out & do anything with anybody. It's like we're afraid to or something. I can't explain it.

I'm actually kind of nervous. Isn't that silly??

I guess I'm not just nervous about tonight. I'm also worried about the changes that are happening with us.

I think that I shared this year's beginning with you all. We lost our car due to an accident with some Polish guy who forgot the "Rules of the Road" & went out to get a new one. Our first payment is coming up soon (in just over a week) & we're pretty strapped on cash.

Mike was told at the beginning of the year that his department was going through more cuts. He went from 40 to 20 hours a week in a matter of minutes. Ugh! They said it was only temporary - to last for a minmum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 6 weeks. Well, it's been 4 weeks & there's no light at the end of the tunnel yet. Thus began the job search. Within an hour of submitting his resume to Canon, a position that he applied for last year & never heard back about, they called, gave salary info & scheduled an interview. He went to the interview on Wednesday & they told him that they had a few more candidates to interview & that they would contact him by the 4th of February. Well yesterday afternoon they called him & extended an offer. :) We're excited & nervous - both of us. He's going to accept the position & will start on February 14th.

I put in for a major promotion at work. I had my 2nd interview on Tuesday & did not get it (I wasn't expecting to) & they told me that they've got plans for me. They were extremely impressed with my interview & would like to give me the experience that I need and lots of opportunities to learn & grow. I'm extatic!!

So it looks like this year is just full of new opportunities & will have a lot going on. Hopefully, we'll both be able to learn & grow & build our careers so that we can have a happy & healthy future together.

I hope that you all are doing well & that God is working in your lives as He seems to be working in ours.

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I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A Beautiful You

So every Sunday, Dan over at http://www.danoah.com/ posts photos of his fans submitted to him on Facebook.  I enjoy looking through them to see the smiles & bright faces of families.  Some make me a little sad, some make me proud and all of them make me smile.  This week, my favorites are the third one down from the top & one of a soldier with what appears to be his daughter.  The soldier photo makes me feel proud of our service men & women.  We need to recognize and appreciate them every day.  It's hard work and it's very difficult for them to be away from their families.

So go ahead, check out http://www.danoah.com/ and enjoy your smiles today.

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I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Finally!

Sorry it's been so long...  I've been really busy & completly stressed...  I don't know how we're going to make it work but we have to so I guess it will just happen.

I'm currently working on my volunteer shift until 7am since our Dublin office is closed...  I'm a little tired but excited to be working about 10 hours of overtime this weekend.

For those of you who don't know, on December 27th, my husband was hit by a stupid driver.  The driver hit my 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier on the passenger side rear wheelbase.  He hit my husband so hard that the bumper cover thing (the piece of plastic over the actual bumper material) flew off the rear of the car, attached by only a small piece of plastic on the driver's side of the car.  While putting the Cavalier up on the tow, the bumper cover came off completly. 

At the tow yard:  This is a photo of where the driver hit my car...
Thankfully, even though the car fishtailed pretty wildly in the morning rush hour traffic, my husband was able to control the vehicle & bring it to a stop before colliding with oncoming traffic and nobody was injured.  It was also really nice that we weren't at fault and the gentleman had valid insurance so we would be covered.

Unfortunately, this meant a couple of things...

1)  We now needed a rental car

Ugly Chevrolet HHR

2)  The Cavalier was probably going to be totalled so that means a new car or an old car with double gas & more maintenance.

So we waited 24 hours before calling his insurance company to obtain the adjuster information & find out where we go from here.  When I called on Tuesday, the guy who was at fault hadn't filed a claim with the insurance company yet!  I panicked for a moment until the lady told me that I could file it for him.  So I did.  After a week or so, we were able to received more information and found out that the Cavalier was declared a total loss.  We found out the settlement amount and began our search for a new car.

Oh, yeah..  On Monday, January 3rd, Mike was told that they were cutting down his hours to part time.  Yeah.

So we were able to find a car, stop paying the rental (which will be reimbursed, thank God) & have finally received the paperwork for the total loss and settlement. 

Our New Car!  A 2010 Chrysler Sebring
I have said goodbye to my Cavalier and actually found myself tearing up a little.  Mike didn't make fun of me though!  It's been my car since I was 19 years old.  My first major purchase.  My mother helped me with it on numerous occasions and it's been a "family friend" for all those years!
I would post a final photo of the Cavalier but this program isn't giving it the proper tribute...  I guess I will try again later.

I hope you're all doing well this new year.  I will write again soon!
 

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Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy New Year/I Need Help Being Cheap - I Mean Frugal!!

Happy New Year!  My first post of 2011 and already, something interesting to write!

So New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful (which was both good & bad) and New Year's Day was spent hanging out with someone I haven't seen in a while - about 2-3 years.  It was really great.  I don't really remember why we stopped talking although it probably had a lot to do with the fact that she was friends with my ex & I didn't really want to be around him and the fact that I'm terrible at keeping in touch.

Anyone else have that problem?

So onto me needing to be cheap!

Last Monday, my husband was in an accident.  It wasn't his fault (thank God) & he wasn't injured (thank God even more for that!).  Unfortunately, the way the guy hit us, the car is falling apart and will probably be totalled (the responsible party is dragging his feet and we don't have any information as to whether or not they'll fix it or total it) which is good & bad.  It's good because we wanted to get a new car anyway.  What's bad is the fact that we are unable to get financing and can't really afford a new car - payments and all - anyway.

Of course, this means that we have to rent a car & although we'll be reimbursed, it's still $500 so far.  Thank God we've been a bit frugal lately and had the money aside for an anniversary weekend that I was planning.  Of course, rent is now going to be late and we have some upcoming bills to pay since that's what happens every month.

Now for needing to be really cheap....  My husband was just notified today that the company is "temporarily" putting most employees on part-time employment.  Starting tomorrow, my husband will work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Yup.  That's right.  The promotion that he just got less than a month ago...  He'll keep doing the same thing (which is good since he enjoys it) but now he'll be part-time.  He was offered an opportunity to go back to telemarketing but that's a lower guaranteed hourly wage & it would be part-time anyway.

So yeah..  It looks like Ramen, rice and beans for us!  It's going to be a looooooong year.

I do find myself trying to be optimistic...  Here are my thoughts:
  • You should always celebrate new opportunities
  • At least with his new schedule (which he got to pick) I won't have to sit at work for hours before my shift begins
  • He'll be able to spend more time with our dogs
Yeah.  *sigh*

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I Just Want to Be Ok by Sarah A. Manning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.