Carol's random babble

Yesterday had its ups and downs. I got paid, but not as much as I expected. Money was taken out due to a wage attachment by the Iowa Department of Revenue for back taxes. The thing is, we don't owe what they say they owe. We're going to get a chance to get our proof, though, and they graciously allowed me to get back the money that was taken out of my check. I had to get a money order for $39 to send to the IRS requesting our tax return information from 1996 and sent that off. I had an unhappy day, though. I had to pay $253 for car repairs, and when we got home after picking up my check, we found out that the water had been turned off. I couldn't pay the bill by Feb. 23 because I didn't get my check until Feb. 24, so I got to pay an extra $20 on top of the $62 that was due. On the subject of car repairs, I'm driving on bald tires, and the passenger side rear brakes are grinding ... so I can expect to repair that next. I just hope it can wait until my next check ... ...

Okay, I stopped at the mechanic's at the way to work. He thinks that my car needs a new computer, which will be around $150. That I can deal with, but it wouldn't be delivered until Friday. That's a problem. I'm driving Kent's car, which has a clutch on the way out. If the clutch burns out, the car won't go. We live outside town, about 6 miles from Fort Dodge, which is not, in my opinion, a walking distance to work. So, I'm going to check to see if this model car has been part of a recall for any reason - if so, maybe I can get help paying for the repairs. Of course, I need to find this out before he actually does the work, as they probably will only pay for it if the work is done at a dealership. Need to check into that.

started out okay. Well, sort of. Amanda isn't well, so I kept her home from school for the second day this week. Our phone was disconnected yesterday (but we still have Internet access), so I couldn't call the school. I emailed the principal. This afternoon, I was going into town to check our mail, pick up the title for the car my sister is giving me, pick up Cayla at her art class, drop her off at Mom's and meet Jim Reed at the YMCA. After that I was going to pick up Cayla, take her home, take a shower and come back into town to pick up Mom and go to Relief Society. The car has been stalling and is hard to get started again. Today, it didn't start, and the battery was failing. So, I had it towed. I called my niece Suzanna and she took me to the post office, the mechanic's and dropped me off at the Blanden. The photographer from The Messenger picked us up and dropped Cayla off at Mom's, then took me to the YMCA. I was supposed to meet Jim Reed at 5 p.m. so he co...

because I'll forget everything when I try to catch up. I'm participating in a weight-loss challenge at the Fort Dodge YMCA. I'm blogging about it. I've lost about 11 pounds so far. I'm also writing about it for The Messenger . That is scary, but I've gotten positive comments so far. I'm still teaching the Gospel Doctrine class in my ward, which is also scary. I need to study more. I tried downloading the scriptures on MP3 to burn to CD and then copy to cassette, but Kent's stereo isn't reading the CD, so I can't record. There is a brother in my class who is mostly deaf - he can hear a little. I wanted to make the cassettes so I could listen in the car, and so he could listen at home.