When Things Get Tough The Tough Get Going!

Hope everyone is enjoying the last week of July... August is only a few days away.
Things have been topsy turvy here but aren't they always : )
Sometimes I think I am at my best when I feel the ship sinking.
My husband's boss told him on the 20th that there just isn't any more work and he doesn't see anything coming up any time in the near future either.
Sooooo here we sit with no income and running out of money quick, I signed up for food stamps again and cash assistance.
For the cash my husband & I need to do 25hrs each of community service every week. The problem we are facing is before your claim can be opened/approved you need to start your community service which of course means we need gas to get to the community service areas and when you are on your last $40.00 it tough to use it up on gas without knowing if we will be approved or not for the cash.... but I did find a no kill animal shelter down town that I am looking into to do our service at (I want to make sure my husband & I can both do our hours at the same time otherwise we will be using way to much gas).
Which brings me to the problem of Kelly home alone for at least 5 hours every day! That just does not sit well with me at all. She is 16 and is capable of being alone but as you know our area is not the best and things are ALWAYS happening around here. I keep telling myself this is only going to be for a short while until God willing some work comes thru for my husband. We take a few classes next week, We have to put together a resume - I told the lady the last time I worked outside the home was 25 years ago! She just looked at me like what planet have I been living on.... I just have to bite the bullet and get thru all this!!

Life Never Ceases To Amaze Me!

Life never ceases to amaze me!
I received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago for a lawyers office, I was like what now???? It turned out I am listed as a co-executor on a will. The lawyer said he has been looking for me for over a year.... it turns out that the two ladies who were our living angels up in PA. put me in their will. These two ladies were the closest you can come to down right living saints on this earth as you will ever find!!! I could write an entire blog about just them but they were a life line to us in so many ways. They always had a kind word for me every day which is such a boost to a persons esteem. I loved those ladies like they were my own family. They rented out our second floor in the big old 1880's house we had and then they decided they wanted to move to an assisted living home. It was very hard leaving them when we moved to Florida but at the time we "thought" we were doing the right thing for our family by moving. I wrote a few notes and called but as time passed just like all the rest of my family up there we didn't hear from them much.
Anyway, They both passed away one was over 100 years old, the other was in her late 90's, they went a few months apart as one never did anything without the other. I had gone to cell phones so not sure if anyone from the assisted living tried to call me but they never sent back the notes & Christmas cards I sent letting know.
I find it odd that it took the lawyer this long to find me.... I hate that I am not able to go up to PA. and look the ladies assets over as I guess they wanted me to do since they made me a co-executor (the other co-executor is the lawyer who contacted me). He said that he will look into me being able to sign the papers down here and just send them up. I contacted him yesterday since it has been almost 2 weeks since I heard from him but there was only the answering machine not sure if he is on vacation or what but it just seems really strange to me.... The one lady worked for ATT down in NYC for many years and he said she had stock, some liquid assests and some other things we need to take care of which he did not mention. I would think being a co-executor I should be told/shown all that needs to be taken care of even if I am far away. I just hope I don't let the ladies down and that the people they have listed in their will get what's coming to them....

Mid Week Up-Date

We are having another scorcher of a day here in my part of Florida! We have been getting rain most days which is a good thing but still sooooo HOT! It feels alot hotter this year then even last year and I thought last year was horrible. I can't wait till fall or winter.... Is that me saying she wants cooler weather (Yes, it is!).

Since my mini vacation we have not been doing any schooling alot of issues going on as well so we just cooled it for awhile, Well wouldn't you know my darling daughter said "When are we getting back to school work"? Heck ya! It just goes to show you even the most reluctant learners like to have something to keep their minds on other then the computer : ) So I really am hoping to start back up on Monday. I say hope because in this house you just don't know from one day to the next what is going to go on which isn't always a good thing.

My husband's boss found some work for him all the way in DeLand which is pretty far away from us, with our jeep hitting over 250,000 miles on her I hate to have him go that far with her every day but you just have to hope and pray that she keep running for us. To be honest he will be using alot of gas also so he won't be making much money but at least it get's him out of the house..

I have really been trying to keep the house in order (as much order as someone who has as many dogs as we do can). Wouldn't you know today my mop broke : ( I need my mop, I do the floors almost every other day and now no mop. It' funny how you don't miss something until you don't have it. I guess I could find some old clothes and use them to wipe the floor with since I don't know when I will get another mop (hey, back in the old days they didn't have all these new gadgets to work with).

I am hoping to get over into the old school area and clean that out. As I have mentioned after reading Bea's advice over in No Wast Home how stuff just adds stress I really am trying to lighten our load of things... Of course she doesn't home school but I am sure I have a ton of stuff that are just laying over there not being used that I could either toss out, sell, or donate to the Salvation Army.

Hope everyone is staying cool!! Have a Great Day : )

P. S. - I wanted to mention Target has the 70 page notebooks for .20 cents this week - Can't beat that price : )

Yikes!

Gosh, I have been having those kinda days where you just shake your head!
First, like I mentioned we got home from the 4th of July fireworks and nighbors had called the cops, then my nighbor's in forecloser home burnt to the ground. Then the new stuff that has been happening, my goats got loose (which in the past has gotten us a visit from the animal control officer), then I find a guy laying on the ground next to the stop sign! I was afraid to go up to him wasn't sure if he was drunk, drugged out or sick. Around my area you just never know what is going on so I called the police. Some guy in a golf cart pulled up and took the guy away. The cop showed up and I told him and he drove around and found the fellow, it seems he has a medical condition and shouldn't be out walking around. Well wouldn't you know it about a half hour later there is the guy again walking down the street stubbling and falling, luckly the cop hadn't left the area and I think he took the guy home again. THEN the biggie for me is that my husband hasn't worked at all last week, and they never called him for this week either! We were thrown for a loop since he has been working not full time every week but enough to get us by and now this. It seems like all of a sudden people are starting to feel the effects of the economy again especially in our area there just are no jobs... It's hard to explain how good things were going and now it is like we got slammed against the wall. My husband shuts down instead of calling the boss and pesting him till he finds something for him or calls some other guys to see what jobs they might have he just goes into zombie mode. I'm like there is no time for zombie mode... we have $167.00, no food stamps (we stopped them when he started working), and all the other bills needing to be paid especially the $150.00 electric bill (pretty much all other bills I'm just going to have to put aside). I also have the horses, goats & tons of dogs that I need to take care of too. He hasn't worked long enough to collect unemployment so that is out, we really seem to be back in a pickle again! If you could send your prayers our way I would appreciate them - Thanks for listening : )

Great Homeschooling Website

You all may have seen this site already, but I am finding alot of goodies there so I wanted to share it with you:
"Cheap Homeschooling"
You can look for info. by grade or just by topic, Lots of great sites listed with tons of free (I LOVE free) activites, worksheets, crafts ect....
Take a peek you might find something you can use in your "Back to School" planning.

I am also looking for vol. 1 of "Mystery of History" for real cheap, If you happen to see one please let me know - Thanks!

I gotta go get Kelly up, I don't want her to miss the last launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis! Weather is kinda a iffy here but they are still saying it is a go...

Have a Great Day!!!!

Another Fire....

This morning at 2:45am one of my dogs started barking so I got up to quiet him since the police showed up July 4th night about us causing a disturbance I didn't want any more visits from the cops. Benny stopped and then started again so I kinda thought something must be going on. My husband said the house is shaking and went outside to see if maybe the horses where using the side of the house as a scratching post again. As soon as he opened the door he yelled major fire... I ran to get Kelly up and then grabbed the cell phone and ran outside. My next door neighbors mobile home was totally ingulfed in fire! The wonderful neighbors who came to help us with our horses & dogs in the Dec. fire that came so close to taking our house were already there. They had heard the explosion of the propane tanks and shot over. While we were standing the gas kept coming out of the tank and the fire would roar up so high and be so loud it was scarry. Thank God we had had some rain because otherwize this fire would have raced right over towards our house (they have pine trees with lots of pine needles laying around). No one has lived in the house for awhile now and someone said that it is in forclosure. Not sure what caused the fire, the police at the scene didn't ask any questions so not sure if it was set or maybe an animal ate the wires. I just hope that someone isn't torching these empty houses because we have a number of them in our area (things have still not picked up in our part of Florida). My husband has been without work for the past week sure hope they find work for him next week.
Fire is just so scary! It moves so fast and it can take everything from you in minutes.... there is nothing left to my nighbors home only the metal under the home that has the wheels on it, everthing else is gone : (

A Four Day Vacation!!!

I was away at my son's house for four wonderful exciting days!! This is the first time in many years I got away from my house for some fun... We went to the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach for the Nationwide & Cup Nascar races. It rained on thurs. which ruined our plans to go over to the FanZone area and meet alot of the drivers but we really needed the rain here so it was hard to complain about it. It was just me & my son, My husband had worked with a guy who was able to get a free tickets to both races (we could never have gone without those : ) It was really HOT but heck I over looked that I was having fun. My son was a bit of a party pooper he doesn't really like crowds and he really can't stand when people get drunk and start acting up, tried to tell him to relax and just roll with it. All & all had a fantastic time, meet a few of the drivers, Brad Keselowski (my new fav.), Trevor Bayne (What a cutie!) and a number of others and saw some great racing who could ask for more!
We also went down to the ocean to swim and watched the fireworks on July 4th., the water was warm so I got in but lots of jellyfish. The fireworks were fantastic but the traffic getting out of there was horrible! We were in grid lock not moving at all. Kelly & I didn't get home till 11:30pm and wouldn't you belive it our nighbors called the police on us saying we were yelling... I was floored to have two officers knock on my door at 11:45pm! They were very nice and all but I was steaming here it is July 4th people were still shooting off fireworks around our area and they call on us. Some people are just so nasty in their hearts : (
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer days!!