A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

Well, that’s not completely accurate. Our heat pump is not fixed though. We can run it as long as Hubby or I is here and awake to listen for it and make sure the fan doesn’t quit. But we can’t run it at night, because when it runs a long time is when it messes up. And if the fan were to quit with the coils on, it could cause a fire.

So we’re still doing the electric heaters in the bedrooms at night thing. I don’t like it but if that’s what we’ve gotta do, that’s what we’ve gotta do. The guy who works on the heat pump isn’t having any luck finding the right motor for it. I’ve been looking too, but I’m not finding anything either. So I’m going to try to find some way to get a whole new inside unit. I don’t know how, but maybe something will come together.

I sent a wish in to the Robinhood Fund about the heat and my daughter’s medical bills. Voting on it starts tomorrow, so if any of you would like to help I’ll put up the link to vote for it when it becomes available. It doesn’t cost a dime to vote, and you can vote for other worthy causes as well. Or if you’re in a boat similar to mine, you can make your own wish.

Did I just quote a Monkees’ song? Oh well, I was the world’s biggest Monkees fan when I was younger. I still listen to them every now and then. Anyhoo…

My brother-in-law’s funeral was today. Everyone took it reasonably well. I’m just glad all the funeral stuff is over with. It’s so depressing to me.

We’ve gotta get a new fan motor for our heat pump. It has been making loud, strange noises off and on for a while now, and this morning it quit altogether. We got the guy who put our outdoor unit in to come look at it, and it’s working now but he said we couldn’t leave it on overnight. He’s going to replace it tomorrow and let us pay him next weekend.

I start my new job tomorrow. In a way I’m dreading it, and in a way I look forward to it. I don’t think it will be too bad, but I’m still going to be trying to get enough money coming in from home to be able to stay here eventually.

I hope this new beginning will usher in more good things. Everything has been so hectic and unpredictable lately, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

My brother-in-law passed away yesterday. We knew it would happen soon, but were hoping it wouldn’t be on Thanksgiving. I guess we should be thankful that he’s not suffering anymore.

Pumpkin is pretty sick, still has bronchitis. So Hubby stayed home with her while I worked Wednesday and Thursday, and I’ve been home with her most of the rest of the time. That means that I haven’t gotten to see the family at all. I hate not to be there for them, but I’ve gotta get my baby girl better. It seems like she has been sick for months. Actually she has been sick most of the time for about two months.

So it has been a rough holiday. I hope Christmas isn’t this awful.

This week promises to be stressful. Hubby’s birthday is this week, as well as Thanksgiving. And with Thanksgiving comes one early release day and two days off of school for Pumpkin. My last day at my current job will be Thanksgiving day, and I’ll start my new one next Monday.

Brother-in-Law still isn’t doing well at all. They don’t think he’s going to make it much longer. Mother-in-Law called and said that they almost lost him twice yesterday. Hubby is trying to carry on but it’s hard for him. And I can’t imagine what Brother-in-Law’s wife and daughter must be going through. His daughter is only a few months older than Pumpkin, so she’s old enough to know what’s going on but not quite old enough to understand why.

So from the looks of things I probably won’t get much done this week. That’s yet another reason I want to work from home only- because when life happens you can tend to it and not have to worry about being at work at a certain time on a certain day. But that’s a whole other blog entry.

I decided to take the plunge with my Blogger blog and switch it to Blogger Beta. I had heard that it was more stable and people were having fewer problems with it, so I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Well, it didn’t hurt, but it didn’t help either. I’m still getting a lot of static from it when trying to post. It’s just different error messages from the ones I was getting with the old version. So if different error messages are considered an improvement, then it’s better. Otherwise, it’s not.

The weather has been absolutely insane this weekend. Yesterday was gorgeous, with lots of sunshine and temps in the mid 70s. Around dark last night, thunderstorms started moving in and stuck around for a couple of hours.

When I headed out for work this morning, it was chilly and sprinkling rain. Then by 8:30 this morning, it was snowing!!! Not enough to accumulate mind you, but tiny little snowflakes were just peppering down.

Ahh, November in the mountains.

The good news is that I got a new job. It’s at a restaurant. The pay starts out the same as what I’m making at my current job, but from what I’ve heard they’re good about giving raises. I’ll be getting more hours than I am at my current job, and I think I will like it better. I start in two weeks.

Now for the bad news. My Brother-in-Law is in the hospital, and they’re only giving him a few days to a couple of weeks to live. He got injured about three years ago and has been in a coma every since. Now he has pneumonia, and his body is just shutting down piece by piece.

Hubby called me at work today with the bad news and I had to leave early, because Pumpkin was staying with his mom and dad due to school being out today. So I had to go tend to her and comfort him.

It’s too long of a story to go into here, but my in-laws have had an unreal amount of bad luck in the past few years. This past weekend was only a very small sample of all that has happened to their family. And now there’s this. I just hope that it is the end of all the bad things. Hubby is all to pieces over it, and he and his family don’t deserve so much sadness.

Hubby and I went vehicle hunting today, and I ended up with a truck. It looks nice, runs good, and hopefully will be dependable. We test drove two others and liked them as well, but the one we ended up getting was cheaper. And I’m happy with it.

I was going to test-drive a nice little Audi, but the payments would have been a little bit higher than we wanted them. It was a great deal, and if I had more cash to spare I would have thought about it.

At any rate, now we have four vehicles, at least until I can sell my old ones. They’re both still sitting at my workplace. I may have the GasHog sold as-is to be fixed up. And hopefully Hubby and our neighbor will be able to put an alternator belt on my car tomorrow so we can bring it home. I hate to get rid of it because it belonged to my dad, who passed away two years ago. But I’m going to try to sell it and pay the proceeds on the truck, because we can’t afford to keep up all of these vehicles with another monthly payment. Besides, we barely have room to park two vehicles, much less four.

It’s funny how kids can make you smile when everything is going wrong. I picked up Pumpkin from school today, and explained that we would have to pick Daddy up from work so we could go try to get my car home. She said, “But you can’t get your GasHog home. It won’t start, you can’t push it home, and it’s too heavy to carry.”

I laughed so much I nearly cried. I’m still smiling just thinking about it. Sometimes I think she is the only thing in the world that is keeping me sane.

It has been a hellacious few days. Where do I start? I would say at the beginning, but it’s hard to say just when the beginning was. So I’ll just put it all together the best I can and hope it makes some resemblence of sense.

On Sunday, my father-in-law fell and dislocated his shoulder, my newborn nephew was sent to a university hospital for reasons of which I’m still not certain about, and an ambulance had to be called for my brother-in-law. Father-in-Law’s shoulder is back in place but he’s in pain. I haven’t heard any more about Nephew. And Brother-in-Law is in the hospital with pneumonia.

Monday I went to work and noticed my GasHog wasn’t running very well. Actually I noticed it a couple of weeks ago, and was planning on taking my car to work but the battery was dead in it. Anyway, after I got off of work I got in the GasHog and tried to start it, but when I would let off of the ignition it would die. Luckily one of my coworkers gave me a ride to Hubby’s work so I could pick up his truck and go get Pumpkin from school. So last night we jump-started my car and let the battery charge so I could take it to work this morning.

I got in the car this morning and headed off to work. I even almost made it there. But, just my luck, it died at a busy intersection and would not start back. At least it was early in the morning, so there wasn’t too much traffic. A lady and her son stopped and jumped me off- thankfully I had enough foresight to have jumper cables in the car. I went on in to work.

When it was almost time to get off work, I went out and tried to start my car, but the battery was dead yet again! I tried to find a ride to Hubby’s work, but no one could take me in time to get the truck and pick up Pumpkin. I called Hubby, and he was too busy to pick me up. I was freaking out over that, then everyone at work was running up to me to tell me something that needed to be done by me right away. I told them I didn’t have time and the bosses would just have to get over it. When it comes down to my daughter versus anyone else, as far as I’m concerned there’s no contest.

Hubby finally got his boss to come get me and take me to get his truck. While I was waiting I did the task that could only be done by me (yes, you do detect a hint of sarcasm). I picked up Pumpkin right at the deadline. I guess all of that adds up to as happy an ending as I could have hoped for to that part of the saga.

I’m off work tomorrow, as is Hubby. We are most definitely going vehicle hunting.