When it rains it floods!

On some levels we are doing just fine, on other levels I think I could cry enough to cause a flood.

I don't even know what to say. My head is overwhelmed with stuff. What is so sad is none of is serious, well it is serious but not crisis level.

Does that even make sense?

Unemployed, what happens now?

Chad was laid off last Friday. That is a scary sentence, unemployed in the worst economy of our lives. The company he worked for has not been doing well, and had laid off a lot of people. His position was fairly secure because other than the owner he was the only one who could do what he did. So, in our minds, since the owner was never there, we felt semi-secure.

About two weeks ago the owner started coming in everyday. Going to the same meetings as Chad. We knew that was not a good sign. Sure enough, we were right. He had been there for the last 5 years, had a company truck, a company cell phone...not anymore.

Somehow, that was the most shocking initially, it seemed to be so brutal being stripped of his truck and phone, things that you can't easily replace, especially with no job.

Telling the kids was really hard. They are old enough to have seen the news and have these images of people becoming homeless in their minds. They took it pretty well. We told them that hopefully they won't even notice any drastic difference in our lives. (That might have been a stretch, time will tell.)

My first instinct was to see what blogs I could find of other people who are in this situation, mostly I can find guys who have some very funny takes on the situation. No real families that I could find though. I guess I was looking for a checklist of what to do. Maybe some examples of people who are making it just fine. Well if you can't find it anywhere maybe that means you need to do it.

So, here is a list of what we have done so far:

1. Filed the unemployment paperwork. Chad did this, and I have to say I took a small amount of joy in the fact it took forever and they treated him like he was a non-person. Now, just a little background of why I took some mean joy on this, when the girls were little, I went to the health center for shots more times than I can count, and had the same experience. He use to tell me to just be patient and I was imaging that they act so distant.

2. Look over your budget and come up with a 90 day plan on what money you know you will have coming in. I'm still working so we have that and he will be able to draw $350. Make sure you have a sense of humor with you, because if you don't laugh, you'll be crying!

3. See if you qualify for any other help. We didn't, they do count unemployement as income (that was a shock to us) and with my salary that put us over the limits.

4. Figure out everything you might be able to lower what you pay monthly. Such as cell phones, do you have more minutes then you normally use? Cable/Internet can you cut it back? Health Insurance, can you raise your deductible (only if you are healthy and would be able to pay it.), find a cheaper plan? Car insurance would be the same too.

Well, that's about all the advice I have at this point. How about you guys anybody have any suggestions??

Oh Katie Bell, You Have Made Me Smile Today!

So it looks like Katie is at the age where taking pictures of herself is her main activity. Meghan did this same thing and it drove me crazy. Now that she has reached the old age of 16, she doesn't do it anymore...so when I found this on Katie's camera, it was so precious. Now, I know how short the time will be when this is fun. By the time Lauren does it, I will possible cry over it!

I don't understand why they both like to take pictures in the bathroom. Personally, I have never been in the bathroom and had a camera handy??

She looks so studious here, truthfully she was more than likely thinking of a way to get out of cleaning her room. Her strategy to not clean takes more time and effort than if she just cleaned it!

Next, will come the pictures with weird make-up...