Day 209 and Printer is on the fritz

Ugh! Our printer is on the fritz and I don't know what's wrong with it. I thought that the color cartridge must be low on blue so I had Tom pick up a new one. Well, it still isn't working right. I've done all the maintenance and trouble-shooting things that I can think of, including cleaning the contacts with q-tips and alcohol. We've had it for several years, more than 5, I'd say so I guess maybe it's time? The main problem seems to be with color printing though, the black seems to work fine. Hopefully it will hang in there until we can get another one.

Well, as I mentioned, we're going to see Serenity today to take her the rest of her stuff, and Tom's going to help her with a bookshelf and her computer. Tasha's off driving for driver's ed today. Boohoohooo!!!!! Tom's taken her driving several times and said she does quite well. Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Day 208 and getting through those meltdown moments

Do you ever have those "meltdown moments"? Where you just feel like everything is going wrong and you just want to cry? I've been having a lot of those this week. Plus I've been doing a lot of worrying about stuff. This morning, I was trying to get through one of those moments and got to thinking about some of those moments from the past and how often whatever I was stressing out about turned out to work out fine in the long run. There are just so many things more important than some of the things that I stress out about. Of course, usually, I logically know that when I'm going through that moment but still getting through the moments to coherent thoughts, well, that isn't always easy. I pray, I take deep breaths, and I try to talk myself through them.

Tom & I went into Enid tonight and did the grocery and Wal-mart shopping together. We talked about how we need to get "gazelle intense" again (People who've been through Financial Peace University will know what I mean). I'm going to start listening to my Dave Ramsey CD's again and try to get motivated again. It's so easy to lose that motivation, especially when things haven't been going all that well. But that's when we need to keep it the most.

Have a good weekend. We're going to see Serenity tomorrow and take her the rest of her stuff. I'll try to write before we leave. Otherwise, I'll "see" you on Sunday!

Day 207 and feeling like we're back to square one

Well, the big praise of the day is that Tom's car is back! Phew! I paid the mechanic which brought our baby EF to under $300 and we still owe the auto parts store almost $300 and that's not counting whatever we'll owe on Josh's car before it's all said and done (although he will have to pay at least some, if not most of it). So the baby EF is going to be back to scratch. Tom & I are going to have to brainstorm some ways to get it filled back up again. Oh, and I did think of another blessing on Tom's car breaking down when it did, and on Josh's car not being done yet. Last week, I was annoyed that Josh's car wasn't done because I wanted to take Tom's car to Tahlequah. The car does a bit better on gas and it's a lot cleaner than the van. But since Josh's car wasn't done, I vacuumed out the van and took it. Well, if I"d taken Tom's car, there's a good chance that the breakdown could have happened while we were over there. I'd much rather break down here than 200 or so miles away. Anyway, sometimes things work out for the best, you just don't see it at the time. Besides, now the van is almost presentably clean on the inside. LOL.

I've got two parent/Tracy conferences and an interview scheduled for tonight. This has been a busy week! Then tomorrow night, I'd like to get my grocery & Wal-mart shopping done because on Saturday evening, we're taking Serenity the rest of her stuff (what wouldn't fit in her car when she came home last weekend) in Norman. Then we'll bring back the empty suitcases and bags so she won't have to store them.

Day 206 it's sad when the 90's feels good!

It's so sad when temperatures in the 90's feels good, don't you think? LOL. Geesh! I think we're supposed to be even a bit cooler tomorrow, like upper 80's, last I heard.

Tom's car needs a fuel pump, should hopefully be back up and running tomorrow. Still waiting on Josh's car. Josh got a friend to take him to work today and I'm going to pick him up tonight. He's off tomorrow and hopefully we'll be back in business by Friday.

Well, I've got to get Josh soon and I don't have much to say tonight. So good night, sleep tight!

Day 205 and my head is pounding

Josh was coming back from Enid this afternoon and (he thought) ran out of gas down at the corner by the school auditorium about a block from our house. I took my two little boys down there and buckled them in and steered so Josh could push the car home. When Tom got home, Josh went and got gas to put in it but it still wouldn't start. The fuel pump is out on it and we still don't have Josh's car back so we're down to just the van. I've been on the verge of tears every time I've thought about it. I had a club meeting tonight so managed to be distracted for a while, but now it's foremost in my mind again. But to try and look at things positively. At least Josh was almost home when it happened, not in Enid or out on the highway (especially in this heat). That is a huge blessing. I"m sure there's more, but that's all I've got for now.

I got my first spam comment today on yesterday's post. If that starts happening frequently, I'll have to go to moderator approval on the comments. People who do that crap need to get a life.

Day 204 and to quote my friend...

To quote my friend: "If today had been a fish, I'd have thrown it back". LOL!

Serenity was home this weekend and was headed back to Norman today to move into her new apartment. She got up and around early and was headed to Enid to meet a friend before she headed out. She just got a few miles and had a blow-out! I went upstairs and woke Josh up to go help her change the tire. In the meantime, two very nice men stopped and helped her get it changed so Josh didn't end up going. All the time of course, I'm praying that they are really nice men and not creeps. Thankfully, they were truly nice. Then Tasha has a sore throat and I have someone who can come stay with the kids so I can take her to the Dr. Only problem is, I still don't have a vehicle that I can use to take her to the Dr. Then naptime was a disaster. One child never went to sleep, and another got woke up by the other child at 1:40. Oh, and I put spaghetti sauce and hb meat in the crockpot for supper and turned it on. However, I neglected to make sure the crockpot was plugged in and by the time I discovered it, it had been in there too long and I didn't think it would be safe to eat. By this point, I was pretty much done for the day. LOL. I got Tom to bring home Arby's for supper, I had two of my parent/Tracy conferences and I'm about ready to go to bed. LOL!

Now, to reframe this and try to look at it in a positive way. Serenity was close to home where we could help if needed, two very nice men stopped and helped her, and her other 3 tires were fine so only the one had to be replaced. The two little boys will probably go to sleep for their parents pretty easy tonight. Well, unless they're too tired. Tasha is not running a fever. Arby's was yummy, and my parent conferences went great.

Day 203 and Weekend's Already Over

Wow, weekends go fast enough as it is, but when I'm gone for part of it, they seem to zip by even faster.

I had a good time at the conference and learned a lot. Our keynote speaker was awesome, I'll be sharing some of what I learned from her throughout the week. I also went to a couple of her breakout sessions, one of which was on stress. Don't know why I felt the urge to go to that one. LOL!

We had a problem when we first got to the motel, and I was very mad and frustrated about it. I managed to stay pretty calm and not get mean with the lady or anything. But when we got there at 5:00, the lady at the desk told us that our room was not available because Dr. Patel had checked out that morning, went to work at the hospital, and left all of her stuff there. They couldn't let us have the room until she got off work and got her stuff out of there. We had just driven 3 1/2 hours, we were tired, and wanted to unload our stuff, and rest for a while before we met our friends for supper. She couldn't move us to another room because THAT room had been reserved with my credit card. So I left my cell phone number and we went to Dollar Tree. A little after 6:00, she calls my cell and says that Dr. Patel is getting her stuff out, but they still have to clean it up after that. We were meeting our friends at 6:30 so we went ahead to meet them and finally got to check into our room after 8:00. When I paid for the room, I asked her if she was going to adjust our rate for our trouble and she informed me we already had the lowest discount rate and she would not be adjusting it. I asked when the manager was in and she said she was the manager. So I paid and we went to our room, and neither of our keys worked! I walked back to the desk, got our keys fixed and we finally got into our room. Later, I went down to the pop machine and it was out of Diet Pepsi (the only diet drink in it) and water. We went to the 2nd floor pop machine and it was also out! The next morning, I asked the guy who was working what the manager's name was and he said that their manager was out having knee surgery and they didn't think she was coming back. I told him that the lady on duty the night before had told me that she was the manager and he replied "She says she's the manager, she thinks she's the manager, but she's not the manager". LOL! Anyway, I left my phone number with him to have the owners call me. I don't know if they will or not.