Oh, The Drama!

So hubby headed to TX, went through all the processing* and worked his first full day yesterday. During the day, he got a call on an application he'd put in for a job a couple hours from where we're at now.

It's a pay cut, but it looks like a good company to work for. Plus, two hours away means he can be home every weekend. On one hand, we won't be paying off our cars. On the other hand, we'll be a lot closer and neither of us particularly want to move back to West Texas.

Looks like MM will end up working just enough to pay for his trip to TX, and then coming back here.

I have to say, BW and I are pretty thrilled. :)

******

*And found out about the lovely cut in wages his old company had instituted. Which nobody mentioned until AFTER he was processed and on the rig for the first day. Nice.

The Latest

So. Lots of new stuff going on here at the Casa de Heck!

We'd made our reservations to go to San Diego for July 4th - so wouldn't you know it? Thursday morning at 7:00 a.m., MM's old driller called and asked him to come back to work.

In Texas.

The next day.

Since there wasn't anything else on the horizon, MM decided to head back out. It looks like he'll be working twelve on and four off again, so he'll at least be able to come back home every six weeks or so. We figure he can do that, and BW and I can come out there a few times, schedules permitting.

That leaves me here, trying to decided what the heck is going to happen with me and BW. A little hard to home school when your hubby is out of state and you work full-time.

So....I'm thinking about changing to part-time, which I may be able to do sometime in September. We'll still have insurance through my work, I shouldn't have to juggle BW around too awfully much, and since I'm going to school still part-time online, I think this is the way to go. I may have to break down and put BW back in school, as much as I hate to go that route. I guess I'll just have to see how things play out.

We're back in limbo. Yay!!!*

***

As for San Diego, BW and I still went. We took my mom, and we all really had a good time. Other than the fact that, for some reason, I could not follow driving directions to save my life.** I swear, the GPS would tell me to turn left and I'd instantly turn right. I have no idea what my problem was.

We spent Saturday at Legoland, starting out our day at the Sea Life Aquarium. We stayed for fireworks, and BW got to ride just about everything he wanted to.

I only had to listen to a few phone calls from friends and family bitching about how MM shouldn't have gone back to work out of state. Apparently, a lot of people are really offended by it. I realize it's not ideal, but we're committed to making it work for now. In this economy, I'm just glad he's working. And I have a plan. Which shouldn't surprise anyone - I always have a plan. They don't often work out the way I intend them to, but there you have it.

My plan is a pretty good one, though. It will have us debt free by the beginning of February. We've got two cars we're paying on, and between our savings and our new extra income, we can get them totally paid off. Once we get down to a life where all we have to pay is living expenses, we'll have to decide what we want to do with ourselves once again. And that, my fine webby friends, is something I'm very much looking forward to.

****

*Sarcasm doesn't translate well online, does it?

**Nobody tells me what to do!!!!

Date Night

BW is spending the night at his grandma's - my mom's - so MM and I decided to take in a movie. I keep hearing Hangover is good, so I asked MM if he'd like to grab some dinner and catch a movie after dropping BW off.

We decided* to have Chinese at a place the theater, but by the time we'd dropped off BW and ate, we'd missed our movie. Which was fine - we live really close to the theater, and the next movie started only an hour and ten minutes later.

On our way to the car, I pointed out the place I had wanted to try out for a pedicure. MM asked if I got a massage with the pedicure. Can you see where this is going?

We missed our movie, but MM had his first Mani-Pedi. MM picked out my color, and then we held hands while getting our feet massaged. MM had his manicure while I got my toenails painted. They couldn't talk him into a clear coat, but his hands and feet look lovely - smooth, lotioned, and dead-skin free. And he even said he'd go back and do it again.

Now if getting a pedicure with your hubby isn't romantic, I'm not sure what is.

****

*OK, I decided. Nobody ever wants to have Chinese with me, except M2. Sometime I guilt MM into it, but not nearly often enough.

Books For People Who Hate Their Children

This gave me a great laugh this morning. Sent to me courtesy of my hilarious cousin, S.

It's filled with wonderful gems like,

“Great, I’m surrounded by cripples. And you can get high by huffing paint? Who knew? Me, now. Awesome.”

and

“That crack dealer lives in a GIANT MANSION! Screw fireman; I want to be a dealer when I grow up!”

Mixing It Up

This* and this just piss me off. I have a tendency to be that person that gets all anxious and worked up about things I hear in the news. I try very hard to balance it all out. I don't want to stick my head in the sand, but I don't want to watch the news and see nothing but things like this either.

That being said, I've been mumbling "THIS is why we home school!" under my breath a lot lately.

***

My MIL has finally come clean about how she REALLY feels about us homeschooling. Needless to say, it's not supportive. Which is fine - it's a different decision, I don't expect everyone to think it's the right one. But the fact that she yells it at MM, and drops random comments to BW? Now that ticks me off.

My response is to just ignore the whole thing. I was mad, but now I'm over it. No big deal, she's entitled to her opinion. However, coupled with the fact that BW's birthday was June 6th and she still hasn't called, sent a card, an e-mail, something, well...that has me a little angry.

Actually beyond angry. I'm done. She has either forgotten entirely or has been reminded by someone else for the last four years. I get a feeling the only reason she remembered the first four was because I always called and invited her to his birthday parties. Who the hell forgets her grandchild's birthday? Oh yeah, the one who forgot her own son's when he was a kid....

So, I'm done. I was always the one who kept in touch, who made sure BW got to see them. MM didn't ever really make an effort one way or the other. So I quit, I give up.** From here on out, this can be MM's job. And since he rarely does anything to keep in touch, I guess that's that. I kind of feel bad about it, but I'm tired. I feel like if her own son doesn't think it's a priority, then why should I?

I guess I should explain that I'm a little touchy about this. Several years ago, I was accused of "keeping them away from their grandson" which was totally baseless. It irritates me that I was accused of this by the people who never make any effort on their end. Am I wrong? Anyone want to weigh in?

****

My friend C and I do this thing. I like to call it Celebrity Death/Natural Disaster Notification.*** Whoever hears first that something horrible happened quickly updates the other. As you can imagine, today was a busy day.

Farrah, Michael, and Ed, all gone. In what, 24 hours? Farrah and Ed we could all see coming. Michael was a bit of a surprise, though.

***

Work? Umm. It's work. I'm looking forward to finishing the training part up, which should be soon. Another day, and then next week we finally get to start doing what we were all hired for.

I did find out that I'll get 10 college credits for the training, so that was a nice little surprise. Not that it seems to count towards my major, but it's still nice. I'll be back in school in a few months, and I still haven't made a decision about what I'll do. I told MM my goal is to work as little as possible for as much money as possible, so I can be at home with BW more. I'm trying to plan out how exactly that'll work. At least I feel like it's a goal!

*****

*Ibuprofen. Strip searched over ibuprofen. Sure, that's a totally logical response. I would totally trust the school system that makes those sorts of calls. Wouldn't you?

**Nothing's good enough for anybody else, it seems.... Name that tune?

***I think it started with Princess Di. And I have no idea why it's continued, but we've notified each other of things like 9/11, the 2004 tsunami, and countless celebrity deaths. We didn't notify each other of Anna Nicole's passing, but later discussed the parameters of our system in response to her death, and what to do in future situations. And we're really not the celeb gossip type. I find the whole thing odd, but it is what it is.

Hi Bossy Readers!

Hello visitors, new and old!

First, let me apologize for being spotty with the posts lately - as you can read, life has been a changin' for us here at What The Heck. I'm working on it, and you should be seeing more of me soon.

Second, welcome! I hope you all enjoy my blog. Take a minute, read a bit, and come back and visit often. Leave a comment, if you please. Let me know where you blog at, if you do!

Thanks for coming to visit, everyone!

Settled In

We're officially in our own place. I haven't cooked any meals yet,* and we're revisiting our youth by sleeping on mattresses on the floor, but I can take a shower and get ready for work with ease. To me, if you can prepare for a day out without too much hassle, you're settled. My bar is pretty low, as you can see.

I've bought my first plants. Spearmint and rosemary, to be specific. I found some cute, reasonably priced terracotta pots at Target, and got them potted and set up on our patio wall. I even made some iced tea with sprigs of mint in it.

I'm happy to get going with some container plants - I have a list of them I want to get started on. It's fun to watch the local garden shows and see what I can do. My grandfather was a horticulturist and it makes me sad that he died before I really cared much about gardening. Now that I could really use his advice, it's too late. At least I know he'd be thrilled if he were still around!

As for work, it seems to be going well. It still makes me twitch when I think about all my student loans, and not finishing school, and what am I going to do about that, and on and on and on. But the job itself, it's good. I think I'll be good at it, when I finally make it through training.**

Have I mentioned that my last job in this same industry made me want to stab myself in the eye? So far I've had no urges in that direction. Maybe I never will. It's possible, right? Different company, different atmosphere, more internally driven direction on my end. Either way, I'm sure that one of two things will happen - I'll love the job, decide to change my major, and life will be good. Or, I'll not love the job, I'll quit and finish nursing school, and life will be good. I'm leaving myself open to both options, and I'll accept*** which ever one seems to work for us.

******

*Unless microwaving a bowl of soup counts??

**SIXTEEN weeks of training. Eight weeks of classroom training, and eight weeks of OJT. Crikey, it's a lot of training. But it's kind of nice - makes me all warm and fuzzy inside that it's so extensive. Says a lot about their priorities, I think.

***Gratefully. Very, very gratefully. That I'll have a choice, that I have options, that I won't feel trapped in a job I don't like, should that come to pass. That I have the option of school and a different career. I'm done with working because it's the only option - we spend too much time at work to not like what we're doing. If I'm going to work, I'm going to like it, dammit. And I will NOT let it interfere with how we raise BW.