Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Vocational Rehabilitation

I went for the Voc Rehab orientation this morning. It was basically a PowerPoint presentation and then setting up an appointment to see a counselor. I'll go back to see the counselor on November 26th. I have a packet that I need to fill out. I've already done some of it, but I'll have to get back to it. This afternoon I went and picked up my Skills Certificate at the PPWFC. I have a Silver Certificate (there are Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates). All of this, the disability stuff and only getting a siver cert has me wondering if I really am capable of going back to work. I'm going to give it my best shot. But even David said that I won't continue working if it's too hard for me. I'll give it my best though. We really need the money. Looks like we'll have the BEF in place by the end of January and start on the DS in February (paying off the $700 family loan). We will never borrow any money for anything ever again. Period.

I'm going to go clothes shopping Saturday afternoon. In the morning I have to go pick up the AFM box. Then I have someone coming over to buy some christmas stuff I posted on craigslist. It's just $10, but every dollar helps.

I have to upgrade my MS Money. The trial period is over. I'm checking one out on eBay. It's about $20 online (the MS site). The $20 one is an essentials version. The one on eBay (which is at $1 plus $4 s/h) is a deluxe version. I'm also watching a DR Financial Peace University DVD set on eBay. It's at $75 right now. Theres about 3 days to go on both items. I could definitely work both into the budget.

Tomorrow I'm going to go over to the Open PC lab at PPWFC. I'll be working on a Computer Skills Assessment (Word, Excel, 10 key, etc.). I don't know how long it will take so I'm going to get there at 9am when it opens and try to complete if by noon the latest when the lab closes.

I'm disappointed that I only earned a Silver Certificate on the Reading, Math and Location Skills Assessment. I really feel like I could have done better. But that was when things were different, before the accident. I really had a much harder time with the test than I thought I would. So I'm not sure how I'll do on the Computer Skills Assessment. I'll just do my best. I'll bring that stuff to the Voc Rehab appointment. I know that doing as well as I do doesn't look like I have problems, but I know it's different now. Even filling out the application for the appointment on the 26th was making me anxious. I felt like I couldn't figure out how to fill out the application at some points. It's frustrating. And I'm having a heck of a time with my right thumb (the one that was dislocated and surgically repaired).

I will start work in 5 days. Yikes! I'm going to feel like an idiot if I can't do the job because I talked myself up so much. It has been 7 years since I worked though, so I anticipate an adjustment period, mentally and physically. The first day I have to go to HR for orientation at 8:15am. Not sure what the rest of the week will look like. I have Thanksgiving off, paid. That's cool. But I have to work on Friday and David is off. He has hockey that night though. We'll have the afternoon together. Maybe we can do something special.

I haven't been feeling good for days now. My allergies are really bothering me. My nose is runny and I've been coughing. I use cough drops when the cough gets bad. I feel dehydrated. I need to drink more water. I weighed myself this mornin and I'm under 250. Woohoo! I think working will help with losing weight too. I'll be more active and focused on other things.

Enough for now.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Clothes shopping

I have dinner going. The potatoes are boiling and the chicken is baking. I really felt like having a nice meal tonight. I still have to do an inventory of all the food I have so I can plan out some meals. I forget that I have stuff so it's a good idea to list everything out. I'll take care of that after dinner.

I'll have to do some clothes and shoes shopping this weekend. Thankfully the dress code is business casual so I don't have dress to the hilt. I'll start at Goodwill and see if I can find anything there. I may have to get shoes at one of the cheaper shoe stores if I can't find any at Goodwill.

It's going to be weird to go back to work after being off more than 7 years. I'm sure it will take some time to adjust to being somewhere for 4 hours straight. I'm sure I can do it though. I want Paul & Caryn to know they made the right choice offering me the job. I don't know how much training I will need. Hopefully I'll pick it all up quickly. I'm really excited that I'm getting so much per hour ($11.52). It should be interesting to start up a new job.

Guess what?

I got the job!!

The HR person called me this morning and offered me the job at $11.52/hour. I'll start on 11/19, the week of Thanksgiving. And boy will I have something to be thankful for. On Monday, the 19th, I have to go downtown to HR for orientation. I don't know how long orientation lasts. I'll get Thanksgiving Day off paid. Woohoo! I had to go this morning for my drug screen. It took me two hours and three large cups of water to get it done. They'll have results in 48-72 hours. It'll probably be quicker than that but I'm sure they say it will take that much time to cover themselves. When I go to HR on Monday I get to park in the Parking Garage for free because I'm an employee. Yep, that's me, an employee. I am very excited and nervous all at the same time. I do have to work the Friday after Thanksgiving but David is off for the day. I'll only work a half a day. My normal hours will be 7:30 - 11:30 am, Monday through Friday. I'm still going to go to Voc Rehab on Wednesday. I want to see if they can do anything for me even though I've already accepted a job. Then in the afternoon I have to pick up my skills certificate at the PPWFC.

I called David first to let him know that I got the job. Then I emailed Lisa and then called Lynn. Everyone is happy for me. Lisa called me after I talked to Lynn. I also emailed Kitty to let her know. So this is my last week as a homemaker.

It's already 3:30pm and David is home. I'm going to make chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. I probably wont get that going until about 5pm or so.

Okay, I'm going to go check out the TMMO forum. I'm just so excited!

2008 Budget

I made David's lunch. We're saving a lot of money by me making his lunches each day. All he spends on is breakfast and chew. That's about $20/week. That's his blow money. My $20 usually goes to get groceries. I need to fix that. I should be able to blow my blow money on whatever I want. I need to adjust the grocery budget if it's not working and I have to use my blow money. At the end of this month I'll figure out just how much I spent and then make an adjustment.

I'm craving orange juice this morning. A nice, cold glass of orange juice just sounds really good. I do have a few dollars. I could get some orange juice if I wanted to get some. There's some change in the change jar I could use.

I added 2008 to the budget. I just copied previous months and pasted them into the budget workbook. I feel good getting that done. Of course, I'll have to make changes along the way to account for my new, job income but that will be a pleasure to do. And I'll have to tweak things as we go along too. It takes a few months to get a working budget that's fairly accurate. And of course, we have the holidays coming up and I'm sure that will have a slight impact on the budget. I don't really know how much to plan for for the holidays. Thanksgiving will be okay since we'll be going over to Lisa's. Just bring something to share instead of cooking a whole meal. And I'm sure we can do Christmas inexpensively too. We'll get our AFM food just before Christmas. That will be a big help. And I already have a turkey for Christmas if I need one. That would be my $5 turkey. I saved over $7 on that deal. I saved 41% total on the whole bill that day because I only bought sale items. I'm trying to be a good steward with our money.

Guess I should start cleaning up around here. David should be leaving soon so I'll start right after he leaves. More later.

The time has almost come...

It's a bit after 4am. Blitz woke me up to go out. I let her and Huxley out for a few minutes. It's really cold and windy out. They're back in bed. I'm up because I'm nervous about hearing from CSHP. I should know within hours whether I got the job or not. It was weird not seeing it on their website or in the newspaper. I've really been focused on getting this job. I don't want to work too far from home with winter coming up. I also don't mind working part-time for now and then maybe FT later. I figured it out last night that I'll be starting off making about $5 less per hour than I did at my last job. Hopefully I can move up that way as I go along. I know I'm not going to get a job for $17/hour but a girl can dream.

I'm going to jump in the shower later so I can be ready in case they need me to come down to the HR office today to do pre-employment screening or a drug test. I need to check my list of meds and see if it is up to date. I can also check with Wal-mart today on those $4 prescriptions. I want to save money wherever I can. Plus it would be easier to get prescriptions when I need them instead of having to wait for them to come in the mail. Too bad I can't get all of them at Wal-mart. I may check their prices just to see what the difference in cost would be. It's nice having a 3 month supply but it would be nicer to save some money and have quicker access to the prescriptions.

I also need to make a call to the Healthcare company so we can have someone come and pick up the oxygen machine. We're paying for it but David's not using it. And it's pretty expensive. The Healthcare company was part of our financial planning. I need to take care of that too.

I'm going to get the house straightened up today: laundry, dishes, vaccuum, paperwork and cleaning. I really need to catch up. I'll feel better if I'm caught up on stuff. The house is kind of a mess right now. No problem though, I'll just jump in where I am.

My allergies are really bothering me. I have post nasal drip, a cough and my tongue is sore. My eyes are watering too. I don't want to take allergy medicine because it will make me sleepy. I need to be awake to get the house cleaned and chores done. I think I'll also take an inventory of what food is on hand and plan out meals. I have quite a bit of meat in the freezer so I'll be able to make quite a few meals. There's quite a bit in the cupboards too. And Saturday I pick up the AFM food. All that shoud last for quite some time. The only things I'll need are perishibles: milk, bread, produce. Oh and I'll need to get cereal. Although I probably should stop eating so much cereal and eat smoothies again for breakfast. I've gained back a few pounds because I've stopped walking because of th weather. I could wait until later in the day to go walking when it's warmer and less windy out. I need to get back to walking. Either that or use the treadmill over at the clubhouse. That might be too boring for me though. But I've got to exercise somehow. I don't want to gain back all the weight I lost. I should start out today and just get out there and walk this morning. I have a hoodie I can wear to keep me warm. And I have gloves and a hat to keep me warm too.

David's radio alarm is going off. He hasn't got up yet. Wait, I think I just heard him getting up. Yep, that was him. His alarm is off now. The dogs should be in bed sleeping. That's where I should be too but I'm too amped to sleep. I'll probably go back to bed in a little bit though. I really need my sleep. I haven't sleep through the night for so long now. Either the dogs are waking me up or I'm getting up to go to the bathroom. It stinks. I won't be able to work if I feel like this all the time. I've got to stay in bed until at least 5:30am. I want to be at work by 7:20am because people start getting to the lab at 7:30am. I don't want to keep people waiting. (She says, knowing that the job may not be hers.)

It would be so nice to make more money. We could get the BEF done, pay the family loan, get a month ahead on bills and then pay off the jeep. After that we'd start on the retirement again and whatever is left over would go towards paying off the house. It'll definitely take years to do, but it's better than taking 30 years (the length of our mortgage). It will be so nice to not be in debt. It will be awesome to pay for things with cash and have the money to do things with. We are living like no one else so that later we can live like no one else. I don't know that we'll ever be millionaires, but it would be fun to work towards it. But even if we don't end up as millionaires, at least we'll be able to enjoy our lives guilt free and debt free.

I'm a bit nervous about whether I will be able to actually keep a job. I know it's just nerves making me worry about that but I am worried. All I can do is what I can do. I'll work if I can. I need to make some sacrifices too to get us out of debt. David can't be the only one who works all the time. Even if I can just work part-time, I'll be adding in more money, making a bigger 'shovel' to pay off the debt with. I always doubt my abilities before I attempt to take on something new. Guess that's just human nature. I'm confident in my abillities but I'm also worried that I don't have the skills to do the job. It's hard going back to work after not working for 7 years. I'm hoping Voc Rehab can help me and I'm hoping I can get this job. Having Voc Rehab help would make it a bit easier because I wouldn't have to worry about SS doing a medical review. I worry about that because I haven't been able to afford to go to the doctors (mental health or physical). I could try to get back after I'm comfortable in my job. It's not that I don't need to be seen, it's just that I can't afford the copays. We'll have the HSA for next year and that will help us with meeting our deductible. We've gone to the basic PPO for this coming year. I hope that is the right thing to do. If not we won't be able to change it unti 2009.

I should get up and start doing some stuff around here. I don't know that I'll go back to bed. I'm too nervous. I could use that nervous energy to clean up around here. I've had a basket of laundry in the living room for days now. And the counter is full of dishes again. I need to get back to my FlyLady routines. I've completely gotten out of my routines. And the house shows it. But I know that working 15 minutes at a time, I can get a lot done around here. I just need to pace myself. It will feel good to get things 'under control' again. Routines are the way to achieve that.

It's almost 5am now. I can't believe I'm up but then again what else would I be doing with all of this nervous energy I have.

I need to remember to call the Healthcare company and Vonage today. I want to see if they have done anything on getting my money back to me. That $80 would help out a lot. I'm afraid of them trying to rip me off though. I can't believe I had to pay $39.99 to get my service transferred back to Qwest. They told me it wasn't a disconnect fee. The person I talked to at Vonage repeated that over and over again. The person said that it was just a temporary fee and I would get it all back because I was within the trial period when we cancelled. I'm sure they will give me the run-around though. They always seem to.

I think I'll probably jump in the shower after David leaves. I don't want to be showering later when the call from HR could come in. If I don't hear anything by 10am, then I'll call her back.

It feels so cold in here because we have the heat turned down to the low 60's and it's cold and windy out. I don't want to feel like I'm freezing all winter long.

I only have a few dollars left for this week. I think I have most everything that I need. Just remembered, I need to make David's lunch. BRB.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Still waiting...

The ad for the job at CSHP has been taken off of the CSHP website. They must have chosen someone for the job. I have to hope it will be me. If it's not, it's because God doesn't want me to walk into something that will be a negative experience for me. I've prayed that I would get the job if it's the right thing, but if it's not, that the door would be shut completely on it. I'll wait for a call in the morning. If I don't hear anything by 10am then I'll call the HR person back. I did leave a message for her on Friday and asked her to call me back. I would assume that she would call me right away so I can get the pre-employment screening stuff done.

I checked online for help with food and clothes just in case we would need that. There are services out there if we need them. I think we'll be okay though. I'm planning on getting the BEF funded in November and December. Then we'll work at paying off debt. That will start in December. We'll start on the FFEF in April '08. Of course that's all tentative. Who knows what Murphy will bring. That's the goal though. Then after the FFEF is funded, we'll start working on paying off the house. We could be completely out of debt in 5 years if we stay gazelle intense. We have to. What else can we do. Stay in debt? I don't think so. It's going to take a lot of sacrifice but it will be worth it.

I've been tired all day. Haven't done anything around the house. I really need to get caught up before I have to start working. I'll have to get into a routine for sure if I get a job. I don't want to come home to a house that's a mess and laundry and dishes every day after working for hours. I'll probably get a lot done tomorrow because I'll have so much nervous energy even after I get the call. Whether I get the job or not, I'll be nervous. I really don't want to have to do anymore job interviews. I'd like this to be it. Gosh, it's so hard to wait. I'm not very patient.

David and the girls are still napping. I should go in and join them. I have to figure out what to do for dinner tonight. I haven't taken anything out of the freezer. I'm just so unmotivated today. Not much going on in the TMMO forum so that's not keeping me busy. That's why I've been blogging so much today. It's keeping me busy and helping me to get out the nervous energy.

I got a letter from Brad the other day. He sounds like he is doing okay. I sure hope they keep him in jail for a while this time so he can get his GED and learn a trade. Hopefully he'll do well with the structure and then have a better chance of doing well when he gets out. Grace said that he seemed happy and okay on the day she visited him (his 20th birthday). I'm glad that he has food, shelter a place to shower and structure in his life. He gets sentenced on December 20th. If they let him out he'll be out on the streets in the winter time. I don't want that for him. I need to work on another letter for him. I'll do that in a little bit.

Back to dinner. I really want chicken and mashed potatoes but I'm too lazy to make them. Maybe I'll get some energy here soon.

Just remembered: I didn't take my medicine this morning. I better go do that.

No jobs in this weekend's paper

We went and picked up the Sunday paper. I've already looked through the jobs section. Nothing of much interest today. CSHP isn't advertising for the East branch receptionist position. They must have made a decision. I should know within 24 hours if they are open on Veterans Day. If I started on 11/19 I'd work for three days and then have a day off. Not sure about the Friday after Thanksgiving. I think that's a work day for CSHP. Then I'd have the weekend off before starting my first full week. I'm kind of nervous about training. I hope that I can pick things up quickly. I'll need to be very focused on what I'm doing. I'll have to take a lot of notes. I don't want to rely on my memory. I don't want to forget things. I'm sure I would do okay. Well, it feels like it's time for a nap.

Waiting...

If I can just get through today the waiting should be over. I just want to know if I got that job or not. Of course, that makes me nervous because what if I get the job? Yikes! I'd be a worker again. But I'll do whatever I need to do to help pay off our debt. We have that family loan, David's jeep and the house. Then we will be debt free. I'm curious how our taxes will turn out for this year. We haven't borrowed any 401(k) money for the first time in a long time. If we get a refund I'll have David change his deductions so we get it back during the year instead of lending it to the IRS. I just hope we don't end up owing anything for this year. We'll have deductions for the mortgage interest and for charitable donations. Not sure what else we can itemize. I'm thinking of going with a DR ELP CPA to do our taxes this year. It may cost a few dollars more then the local guy, but I'm not sure if he's a CPA or not. Just checked. He is a CPA. He's done our taxes for years, so maybe I'll stick with him. He always seems to do a good job. And I believe he would cost less too. Hopefully we'll get everything we need to do taxes by mid-February. I'd like to get them done as soon as possible.

I need to work on the allocated spending plan (budget) and make worksheets for 2008. I want to be able to plug in my new SS amount and my part-time job. It will help to see how fast we can move along with our plan.

craigslist is awesome!

I put the Left Behind series and all the board games on craigslist. They would make good Christmas presents so now may be a good time to list them. I'm asking $15 for all the books and $75 for all the games. Hopefully I'll get some action on them.

Finances

I researched the Wal-mart $4 prescriptions program. Looks like we have a couple of meds on that they cover but some of them aren't cost effective to buy at Wal-mart. My prozac would be cost effective to buy at Wal-mart though. I'm paying $200 every 3 months for that prescription through mail order. If I paid $4 per month I'd only be paying $12 for that same three month period. That's a huge savings. I'll take my list of prescriptions to Wal-mart and see what they cover and how much they would cost (there's a note on the Wal-mart Pharmacy page that prescription costs may be higher in Colorado). I'm looking to save money anywhere that I can. Most of what we spend seems fixed, but I'm realizing that not everything is as it appears with the finances. There is a lot more wiggle room than I imagined there would be.

I haven't heard anything from Vonage yet about my refund. I'm going to call them tomorrow and check on it. I know they received the equipment because I paid for delivery confirmation. I'd like to get my $80 as soon as possible. I had to pay them immediately but they seem to drag their feet on refunding me my money. It's already been six days since they received the package and I haven't heard anything. That is frustrating. And I won't see why deposit refunded from Qwest until December of '08. I should however see my $300 credit on the next bill. That will help out a lot. All the phone stuff is so expensive through Qwest but because I want DSL I have to go with Qwest. And now we're locked into contracts on the wireless phones and DirecTV. I hate contracts like that. It's expensive to get out of them too. Oh well, it's the price we pay for wanting technology.

I've been up since 6:30am. It's almos 8am now. David is still in bed. He said last night that he probably wouldn't go into work today. I'm sure he's tired of working every day. We really could use the OT $ though. Of course, I can't really talk because I'm not even sure I'll be able to hold down a job, even part-time. I really don't mind if he doesn't work today. He deserves a day off.

My easel didn't sell again on eBay so I'm going to give it to Lisa. Either she'll use it or she'll let them use it at the boy's school. At least it will get used and not just sit around gathering dust.

I want to get a month ahead on bills after we fund the BEF. I won't feel comfortable trying to pay off debt if I'm worried about paying bills. DR says to be current with all bills and for me current means being a month ahead. It'll take a few months to get there but it will be worth the sacrifice. I'll still pay the family loan off first though. I don't want that hanging over our heads any longer than it has to. It would be nice to be able to pay off the bills in Jan with November's income but we're not there yet. Right now we're still living paycheck to paycheck. But at least we have a working budget and everything is accounted for. We're just going to have to stick to the budget as much as possible. Spending $30 a month on the AFM program will really help out with the grocery budget. I hope it works out to do it.

I should look at selling the games we never use (except the NHL Monopoly). I could pick up an extra few bucks there. And this might be a great time to sell them since we're coming up on Christmas. Think I'll research prices and see how much I could sell them for.