10-1-12

7:10am

 

 

Oh yeah the morning is off to a good start.

Got the kids taken to the bus stop.

Didn't have to pick up the one kid because

he has a dentist appointment this morning.

Anyways got home to see Tony off to work...

his car won't start.  So I gave him the keys

to my truck to take to work today.

I'll just have to walk to and from the bus

stop this afternoon.

 

 

Well here goes with paying the bills for the month.

I shaved half off my electric bill and

won't be sending the gas bill since it's only $27.

If God can get me through another 4-6 weeks

til bonus time I might be able to hang in there

til tax time.  I still have to worry about

paying for any prescription meds and I have 

two vehicle tags to renew by my birthday next month

which is $109.74. 

 

 

8:10am

 

 

Got the bills done and sitting in the mailbox

for Mr. Mailman.  

I feel bad for having to short my electric

bill and not pay my gas bill because I haven't

had to do this in such a long time.

Ok, once in awhile I would forget to pay a bill

that completely slipped my mind,

but that's not the same thing and I double paid it

the next month in full. 

 

I ALWAYS pay these bills in full each month

because there would be no way to short

them without penalties, late fees or immediate shut offs:

-Mortgage

-Car Insurance

-Wow (cable, internet & phone)

Time to address the problem of money

and try to fix it for the future.

Just like last year, we struggled so much

at Christmas time with little or no money

and I addressed that problem this year by opening up

a savings account in January and started putting back $25 out

of every paycheck into it to have money

for each Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

The bank puts the $25 in the savings for me

from each paycheck that is put in electronically. 

It's a traditional saving's account, not one

specifically for a Christmas account that I think

you can open up at your bank.

Now I need to work on building that saving's account

up a little more for times like these

when we are running on empty and I have

to short my bills.  My plan of action for

next year will be to take $1,000 from our

tax refund and immediately deposit

into our saving's account.  Our rules will

be that it cannot be touched for wants and

must be used for only needed items

if money should run short again.

Needs include any bills, doctor's visits, medicines,

clothes & shoes, car & home repairs, food, vehicle gas.

If it's something we can live or do without

then it's considered a want item.

 

 

Another thing I do in case of emergencies

is to pay all my bills by check through the mail.

Every once in awhile I may pay bills by electronic billing or over the phone with a debit card but it's where I choose

to do so, when I want, and not something taken

out of my checking automatically every month.

I do not have any electronic billing where

it is set up to have your bills paid automatically

each month through your checking account.

I do this because, once in several blue moons,

I may need to short a bill and need

a little extra money in our pocket.

 

I was paying extra money on our mortgage each month.

Haven't been able to do that much this year though.

The bank saw that I was paying an extra principal

and wanted me to sign up for a different

program with my extra payments 

by breaking it up into two payments

every two weeks.  While it sounded wonderful

and it was a way to shave off so much more

interest off the house payment over time

I just couldn't commit myself to doing it.  

Making my extra principal

payments I knew wouldn't be an all the time

thing.  I do it when I can and with however

much I can afford.  If I can't afford the extra

payments then I just don't make them

and it won't hurt me in the end. 

 

I know I am very worried about getting through

these hard times at the moment.  I am not perfect

and we all have flaws and there are things that cannot be avoided

like car repairs and doctor bills.

I am trying to

show you what I do to get through it

whether it's good or bad, this is how

I am surviving and trying to make it

the best I know how.  Everyone has their

own solutions.  I don't recommend shorting

your bills because it will eventually catch up

with you but in hard times you do what you

have to do.

My electric bill all of a sudden seems super high.

It jumped up about $20 more than last month and

I don't know why.  I don't recall having the 

air conditioner on in the last month because it's been cool, heck

I haven't even turned the heat on for the first time

during this cooler weather roughing those couple of 

39 degree nights

with an extra blanket and clothes.  Our heat is gas but

does require some electric to run the blower

for that heat to come out the registers.

My gas bills are still low like I mentioned earlier

at around $27 a month only going up $1.00 since last month.

The only gas I am using at the moment is for the

water heater. 

Anyways I went around our home today to see if I could

find anything that would cause this extra jump

in our electric bill.  I could not.  Everything

is the same as it has been for a long time.

I did unplug a few things that weren't even on

but were plugged in like a DVD player in our

bedroom, the microwave, a clock radio in the kitchen

and an extension cord running to Christopher's train

set in the basement.  I did this because I thought

maybe some things were using phantom power.

Things that have clocks or remotes use this power

even though they are turned off, they are still

drawing some power not even being used.

I wouldn't think those couple of items would cause the

electric bill to be so high though. 

I use florecent bulbs all throughout the house

to cut down on electric. My outside lights

are motion detected so aren't on all the time

and those have florescent bulbs and I have solar path lights, a solar shed light and a solar security light which uses no electric.

 My major appliances include the stove, fridge,

washer, dryer and freezer and those need

plugged in all the time.

The rest is lights, fans, tvs, dvr, security dvr and monitor,

laptops and cable modem and wireless modem.

The kids have been in school the past month

so I would have thought the electric usage would have

gone down since it's only me here during the day.

No extra tvs, lights, laptops or games on.

When the kids played their video games, which

wasn't a whole lot, I would get after them to

not only turn them off but to unplug them

when they were done. The computers automatically

goes into energy saving mode when not in use.

So what the heck gives as I do not know

and are ready to pull my hair out trying

to find out why my electric bill is so freaking high.

 It's so high you would have thought I have

been running the air conditioner for the last month straight.

I compared my bill to last years bill at the 

same time and it's showing I used 

477 KWH more this year.  Where, is what I would like to know

as things are still the same around here as last! 

 

I'm in a rambling mode today because my stress

levels are up.  Gotta chill out somehow because

stress can cause the Crohn's to flare up

and I'm feeling my body throb just a little.

I have only 4-5 more doses of my prescription

medicine left from the sample my digestive doctor gave me. 

My mind is running in 10 different directions

wondering what to do about things. 

 

 

3:50pm

 

 

My nerves are on edge as you can imagine

with the stress and my body that is starting to throb. 

Jonathan got home and got his drift trike out

and was out riding it in the street and church.

Truck driver neighbor's kid kept bothering

my son to ride it (about 4-5 years old

and is waaay too small to even reach the pedals!).

I'm sure you seen him try to get on it yesterday

in one of the videos I posted. 

And when Jonathan tells him no this little

kid kept ramming his toy bike or whatever it is

into the back of Jonathan's trike to the point

of putting a hole in the seat and bending

the front forks somehow.  Now let me tell ya

this has not been an easy project to put this

trike together.  Even Tony had made the comment

it would have been much easier to work

on one of our vehicles.

So when Jonathan got upset at this kid

and yelled at him to stop, well the dad

yelled back at Jonathan and told him to go home.

Ok, for starters you can tell my kid to go home if

he's playing at your house or in your yard.

You can't tell him to go home when he's

playing in a city street or a church parking lot.

I don't know what wild hair has crawled up my neighbor's

ass today but he's pissing me off and I'm trying

to stay inside and not say anything to him

at the moment biting my tongue. Jonathan tried to tell the neighbor

what his son was doing and that he broke his

trike but all neighbor dude did was still

yell at my son when it was his son's fault.

 

 

4:10pm 

 

 

I see on the security camera that one of Jonathan's friends was

coming over and was walking up to the door underneath

the carport.  Well following behind him was 

the little boy, truck driver's son wanting to play in

our yard.  I say to him, "can I help you?!"

"You got my son yelled at for something YOU did and your

dad told him to go home 

and now are wanting to come over here and play?!"

My body is throbbing and the pain is starting to kick

in so that means my tolerance level with people

is ZERO at the moment, especially ones that

are pissing me off.  

Needless to say he took off running after I spoke to him.

Probably running to tell on me.  I don't give a crap.

I'm so tired of all the freaking drama around here

with people starting crap.

Oh now Jonathan says truck driver neighbor's kid

is mad at me and threw the book bags that I gave

him into our yard.    

Whoopty Freakin Do!

You promise you'll stay mad at me and don't

want to come near me, LMAO.

Good then I won't have to tolerate your crap anymore.

 

I'm on a roll today so anyone else want to bring it

go ahead, only kidding, LOL! 

This is what pain does to you. 

You would think it's that time of the month for me

when it is not.  The neighbor knows I have Crohns

and knows I've been in the hospital and how

it makes me feel when I get a flare up.

 

 

4:30pm

 

 

So now I'm outside trying to mend the situation

with the little boy who is throwing his book bag I gave him

on my front step and stomping on it and kicking it.  

(someone put me outta my misery because I feel 

like God it testing me today for some reason)

I told his little sister, ok she's about 8 maybe,

that I'm going through my Crohn's flare up

and I don't mean to sound mean.

She says, I know that you have this sickness.

I said you go back over to your house and give

your little brother a hug for me and tell him

not to be mad at me.  When I'm in a lot of pain

I probably say and do things I shouldn't.

While actually I'm trying to keep the peace with neighbors that

I have to live with for a really long time

I still know it was wrong of the neighbor to

yell at my son like he did and I won't argue

or confront anyone over a stupid situation to begin with.

I just want kids to stay away from other kids

while fighting until they can figure out how

to get along with one another. 

I don't understand kids now a days.

My son can get off the bus with another neighborhood friend,

be the best of buds playing and the next moment

they are in a tiff about something,

won't talk to one another for a day then

next thing I see is them outside playing like nothing

even happened.  This is a daily thing and it's

getting on my last nerve!!   

 

 

8:25pm

 

 

 Earlier I was sitting in my chair in the dining room

on the computer.  I heard a couple bang noises outside

which caught my attention for a moment

then went back to doing my thing.

You hear so many sirens being in between two stations

and helicopters are a daily occurance flying overhead.

Heck the one day when I was at mom's waiting on the boys

to get off the bus a couple years ago and saw a helicopter

flying over the neighborhood I thought nothing about

it til I returned home and found it it was my house

they were flying over!!  The neighbor called police

about people stealing things from our back yard. 

 

The noise I hear had to of been gun shots.

Even the kids said they remembered hearing them. 

It all makes sense now after checking Facebook

and seeing this story on channel 10.

Belcher Rd. is NOT a good street

especially at Cleveland Ave and Belcher

near the apartments and the carry out!! 

One Critical After Shooting At Northeast Side Apartment Complex

 

 

My throbbing body is starting to feel better.

I took a couple tylenol and a hot shower.

This is why I don't want to do Humira shots

at the moment for Crohn's.  I'm still learning how

to deal with it.  I'm learning how to make some of my flare ups

go away on their own by watching the foods I eat

and trying to keep my stress level at a minimum.

Ok, still working on the stress level part, lol.

But once I get calmed down and more relaxed

the throbbing seems to lesson.  I don't want to have

doctors pumping me full of drugs until I learn

how to deal with my sickness first on my own.

So far I am only on one medication that seems

to be keeping my diarrhea under control.

I know that sounds gross to discuss but I was going

4-6 months with nothing but constant diarrhea all the time

several times a day causing dehydration. 

So I need to tell doc that I am doing a trial and error

to see if I can detect what may be causing the 

flare ups in my body before trying to cover them

up with a bunch of pills or shots.

 

Well it's been a long day and I'm gonna head to

bed soon to watch some Little House

and Dr. Quinn.