Carol's random babble

I haven't blogged in over a month ... sounds like a confession, doesn't it? I wanted to, but don't always get time when I want to say something. Kent hogs the computer when he's home, so if I want to blog, I have to do it when he's at work or late at night. Good things have happened: Cayla turned 8 and got baptized Saturday. Bad things have happened: Kent ran the cell phone bill up - $345 and a check Mom wrote me for a loan bounced so that I have to pay the $20 overcharge fee plus $5 per day and I don't know how many days her bank is charging for. It looks like my check tomorrow will go for bills and bank charges, and forget about Christmas presents for the girls. I was going to spend $50 on each girl for Christmas... they will have to wait until Kent gets paid next week. That's another issue. Besides the whole - he doesn't like my input on his money thing - his company started mailing the paychecks instead of overnighting them to the job site. So,...

I haven't blogged in over a month... but since Zonkboard went to pay only, I had to remove it from my blog. I will have to go go through all my old blog entries from before Blogger, when I did it all in html, and take them out. Lots more work...

Well, I've had a busy week. The contractor finally came to start working on the kitchen floor on Friday. Saturday, Amanda got baptized. The whole dining area and kitchen had the floor off. Picture me trying to bake cookies, taking the kids to the laundromat to wash towels, getting the kids ready to go to church, and writing my talk. I actually wrote it at the laundromat, intending to type it up when we got back, but I didn't have time. In addition, I've been having muscle spasms in my back since Wednesday. For the contractor to work, I had to remove dishes from the kitchen cabinet and a bunch of stuff that's on shelves in the dining area. I had to move things from the dining room to the living room. I have stuff in the kids' room, living room, and our bedroom. I'm so tired. I'll blog more later.

I have the night off from work so I can go to a once a month church meeting for women (Enrichment Night). My niece Jessica (17) babysits in the nursery, so I have to pick her up. I drove into town, picked up my mom and then went to my sister's to get Jessica. My other niece, Suzanna (15) was home and not doing anything, so I asked her if she'd like to come along. She said sure. We went out to the car. It wouldn't start. I tried again. It wouldn't start. I waited awhile. It wouldn't start. I walked to a drive-up convenience store a block away and asked to use their phone (my sister is currently without phone service and DH insists on having the cell phone when he's home so he can make long-distance phone calls). The guy was willing to let me call after all the customers were through, but that place is moderately constant (one car pulls up before the front one leaves or shortly after). I went back and tried the car. It wouldn't start. I walked a long blo...

Wow. I haven't blogged in a month. I kept meaning to, but I've also been thinking of going back to my old system. Sometimes Blogger wasn't updating reliably, and I've been wanting to change the template but I'm not sure how to do it. Kent is being crabby again. He gets nicer as it approaches my payday, in the belief that I won't give him cigarette money if he's being an ass. He may be right. As soon as he get his money, he's free to bitch again and he takes full advantage of it. The girls are back in school. YAY!!! I took a 3-hour nap this morning and it wasn't enough sleep. I'd like to take classes at Iowa Central again, but money is an issue. I might try to take one class online if I have enough money after paying bills next week. We'll see. I'd like to take a history class. I have a skimming of history - sort of an overview, but no real in-depth knowledge. I've got to look into that blog template thing. I'd like to mak...

I had some "oh no" moments and some "ah" moments today. The "oh no" was when I found out that Judith Duffy, a kindergarden teacher in Fort Dodge, died. My mom is a Foster Grandparent and she worked in Mrs. Duffy's class for, I think, five years. When I found out, I had to call Mom and tell her, so she wouldn't read it in the paper tomorrow without warning. The "ah" moment was on the way home from work at 1 a.m. I can drive two ways home - on Highway 169, which is four lanes most of the way, then D-33, a county road, or I could go on county road P-59 and then a road that goes twisty through woods (Riverside Trail or something like that). Anyway, I keep a sharp eye out for deer, and as I was going through the woods, I saw a small animal. Thinking it was a cat, I slowed down and then stopped. It was a raccoon, which was joined by another.. They had to be juvenile, because they were only about the size of a cat. I have seen (as road kill) ...

Ah, I haven't been blogging lately, but I've been spending a lot of time on the Woman's Day forums. Just look for posts by CaySedai. I've also been wasting a lot of time at Neopets . I have started following advice from FlyLady , though. I'm working on my Control Journal, and we've done a couple of Crisis Cleaning times, although the girls aren't too enthusiastic. The place is fairly messy, but better than before. The problem is that there's problems with the floor in the kitchen/dining room area. The floor is getting soft in the kitchen. The kitchen is a walk-through. Part of the dining room floor is buckling, but it's still hard. Kent made a misstep and put his foot through the linoleum in the kitchen. The landlord has seen this and sent a plumber to fix the line behind the washing machine, where he thought a leak was causing the problem. Now he's planning to bring his insurance guy to look at it. Two problems: the plumber came last ...