This week has been very busy. I realized that I haven't had a moment to write a personal post in awhile, so I figured now is just as good of a time as any.
A couple of weeks ago, my minivan was repossessed. With the decrease in the building industry, my "new construction, residential journeyman electrician" husband's hours decreased dramatically. O
ne week he worked 18 hours, the next 28, another 32. This fluctuated for months, until the only two major bills we had, (our house and the van), fell behind. The snowball continued to roll, and things got ugly.
We called a couple of advertised companies that promised financial help for homeowners in need, and after they figured out that we had only $2k in credit card debt, they basically laughed at us. At first, it was a huge blow to the both of us. But we took the reigns, and decided to be proactive, and productive.
We called both companies and tried to work with them. Thankfully, our mortgage holder was able to work with us, but the people who financed our minivan were not as flexible. We made a decision as a team, as a family, that we were going to have to let it go.
Yesterday, my girlfriend took us down (almost 2.5 hours!) to pick up our bag of "stuff" that was in our minivan. The only things of value- excluding my carseats-were the GPS, the portable DVD player, and my camera.. the only reason that stuff was in it is because the week it was repoed, I was helping my mom move, and needed things to keep the kids occupied, took pics of her new place, and well, the GPS is there for obvious reasons.
Well, I get the bag of miscellaneous stuff, and open it in the back of my friends van, and notice my GPS and my DVD player are GONE. The case and charger for the Tom Tom was there, but not the unit itself. The cords we used to rig the DVD player onto the seats were there- but not the acutal player. After another 20 minutes arguing with the guy, trying to convince him my stuff was in there, I called Alex over and asked him to tell me what we did the day before the van "disappeared". (God, I love the fact my son has an awesome memory!)
Me: "Do you remember what happened after we went to Perkins with Grandma the day before the van disappeared?"
Alex: "We got in the car and I was trying to turn on the Tom Tom. You got upset with me because I wasn't listening to you and getting in my seat. I put the Tom Tom back when you were buckling up Abbigaile, because I couldn't get it unplugged before you were done, and I didn't want you to yell...
Then... on our way back from Grandma's new house- not her old house where her and Grandpa used to live- we watched Madagascar 2, Return to Africa," oh-so-matter-of-factly.
I thanked my son, and sent him on his way, and looked at the man like, "SEE??!!"
The guy assured me that he would "look into it" and if it should magically show up, (my words, not his), they'll UPS it to me. I asked him if they had insurance if they couldn't find it. He asked for 48 hours, and we'd deal with that if we got to that point. I told him I'd call first thing Tuesday morning.
After our eventful morning, we stopped at Cracker Barrel with our friends, and met up with my cousin, Keith. Keith recently became a NYC Police Officer. It's hard for me to look at him and realize the boy that used to get into so much mischeif is now someone of authority. In one aspect, it's completely awesome, but in the other, it's horrifically scary! It was great seeing my cousin, and by the time we got home it was about 4:30pm.
I was shot. Emotionally, mentally, physically exhausted. I ended up going through all of the stuff again more thoroughly, and in the midst of the pile of CDs that were in the bag guess what I found?? Madagascar 2. Feh.
I called the guy again, left a message for him, and figured on Tuesday I'll figure out how to proceed. I'm hoping that they magically turn up in a UPS box on Monday or Tuesday morning, although I don't have high hopes.
We were fortunate enough to be able to buy a cheap, used, older Jeep, so my goal for today is to switch the license plates over from the van to the Jeep. I don't care that it's older, it fits my family, it runs, I am not above it. I do hope that we can get it unstuck from defrost, because me without air conditioning is just.. not good.
The fact that we don't have another super high payment we are obligated to pay, plus the insurance went down about $40/month, has definitely made the whole situation better.
Things are starting to turn around.. I can feel it.
On a really positive note, Brian's job is picking up. He came home from work the other day and asked if we had plans for Saturday. Although it's my mom's birthday, we have no plans.. He informed me that there was a note above the time clock that said all crews were required to work on this Saturday- MANDATORY.
I'm excited about a full day of overtime, but nervous that his job will decrease hours the rest of the week, or give them a sporadic day in the middle of the week that they'll be off, just because. As sad as it sounds, they've done stuff like that before, so I will rejoice completely on Thursday of next week, when Bri comes home with the full week in hours!
So that's what's been going on in my little corner of the world. I'm trying to re-coop from the storms a the beginning of the month, and catch up on all the reviews and giveaways that should have been posted. More will be posted come Sunday evening/Monday morning. I hope you are all enjoying your summer with the kiddos!
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