Christmas Assistance

Do you need help with making a nice Christmas for your kids this year? Or would you like to help those in need? Stop by Project Elf Help KC, post on the boards for giving or receiving (or both!). If you are asking for help, please be specific...list your kids' age(s), gender(s), clothing sizes and what sort of hobbies/activities they enjoy. Cash assistance of any kind is not allowed, so no gift cards. But we are happy to help with items of any sort!

Long Time No See!

I've neglected you. I know. I'm so very sorry. Please don't stay mad at me. I promise to pay more attention to you from here on out. Hug?

It's so tough sharing a computer with someone else...a someone else that loves to spend time on his computer. Luckily for me, he's working again...nights, so he sleeps most of the day. That means more time for me on the computer! YAY! I was getting bored with my mobile phone games.

Things haven't changed much since I last posted 2 months ago. Well other than the birth of our little girl, Jeryn Rose. She's now 6 weeks old and starting to smile. I love it!

Money is still virtually non-existent, but we've managed to keep everything at least paid on, except the cell phones. We use Skype when we need to make calls, so we're not missing out.

I did mention Hubby is working again. He just started this week at UPS, it's only part time, but it is income. And in a year, we"ll have full medical for the whole family, paid for by the company.

I am currently looking for work. I have plenty of experience to do retail, restaurant or clerical work, but nobody is seeing that. Perhaps my resume needs some tweaking? Yep, I'm pretty sure it does...the good one is on my broken computer :(

We had a house call from a social worker a couple weeks ago in regards to us not having the gas for the furnace (and it turning cold finally). She came out, we had only the one space heater going, and she was warm. The kids were warm. We had plenty of beds and clothes and food. All was well. Thank goodness.

So there you have it. I'll post some more tomorrow, along with some pictures of the family from Halloween. So glad you are still here to share our journey!

Update on Current Situation

So a couple weeks ago, I posted that Hubby had lost his job. I'm sure you're wondering how we're coping with that. It's been rough these two weeks. Really rough.

Hubby went through about a week of severe depression following the news. Of course, anyone in their right mind would feel the same under the circumstances. However, he's moved on and handling things a lot better now.

First thing that happened, Hubby went back to his new doctor. Doc increased his insulin and Cymbalta dosages to help with the mood swings and neuropathy pain. He's not been complaining much about the pain in his legs (of course he's not standing for 12 hours a day either), so I'm hoping that the changes helped. We'll find out soon enough. The doc and Hubby also discussed the suicidal thoughts (I told you...SEVERE depression), and doc took him to another room away from me, and had a heart-to-heart. Doc gave us the phone number to his nurse hotline and told us to call if Hubby has anymore thoughts of hurting himself. Hubby left the office feeling a million times better, just from the thoughtfulness and caring of the doctor...which he has never experienced. We are so thankful for this new doctor.

Secondly, Hubby and I decided that he would not go back to work until after the baby is born, and I've had some time to recover from surgery. While we are waiting for that, he is studying for his GED. YES! I couldn't be more proud of this man. Plan is, study now, and when he's passed the practice tests, gone back to work and we have the money, he'll take the actual test. When he has that GED in hand, we are going to throw a party baby!

Thirdly, we had a run in with one of his former sales managers that had gotten fired just the week prior to Hubby. We had gone to the store to get some "government cheese" (WIC...but Hubby likes calling it government cheese), Hubby needed to step outside and spit (he's been chewing, bleh) and there they met up. It was an amazing coincidence. The SM (sales manager) told Hubby that he'd gone back to work for the Cadillac dealership that he had been at for 8 years prior, they were splitting up the work force between new car salesmen and used. The SM's bosses asked him if he had any 4 star salesmen that he wanted on the team...he said not currently working for them, but he knew a guy...and proceeded to tell the bosses about Hubby. Seriously. The SM got the approval to bring Hubby on board, and Hubby explained that he needed time for us to have the baby and get me well before he could return to work, which the SM had already expected, and thus, Hubby has a job as soon as he's ready. This SM and Hubby worked very well with each other, when they worked deals together at the previous place, they made money...that's where Hubby made his highest grossing deals. Plus, being at a Cadillac dealership, you know there's no way he can't make some money. In addition, the SM wants Hubby to be his protege, which means a fast track to sales management, and that is exactly what Hubby wants to do and has been trying to do for many years. And finally, they will be carpooling to work since the dealership is a bit further than what they were driving before, which is great on many levels. We cannot wait!

As far as everything else goes. *sigh* It's been rough. Electricity and water were almost shut off on us. We are behind on rent for this month. We've had to scrounge for food, though the food pantries have helped tremendously with that. The teenagers have been royal pains, attitude galore, especially from the 14 yr old. However, we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. As long as we can make it through the next few weeks, everything will be a-ok. <3