Archive for the ‘Want to know what I think?’ Category
Voted & a very sad thing
November 7, 2006I voted. I ended up waiting over an hour, which makes me very glad that I didn’t have Widget with me. I did not vote for the rich white guy 
And I heard the saddest thing today at my Bible study about a 6 year old boy who was feeling lethargic and not great but he wasn’t running a fever last week. His mom sent him to school as usual, but by this weekend he got sicker, so they took him in and it turned out he had advanced leukemia and he died on Monday! 
One of the women in my group is a nurse at the children’s hospital and she made the connection between this and a little boy in the pediatric ICU she had heard about while working but she didn’t know he had died. I can’t imagine how I would feel upon finding out my child had advanced leukemia and I never knew. I have to admit now that I feel slightly less like a “bad mom” because I had Widget’s blood drawn a couple weeks ago.
September 15, 2006
I figured since it has been a couple of days I ought to write something, except I’ve written a couple of different posts and then deleted them as I don’t know what to write.
I’m ok, I guess. My mood hasn’t improved really since I was released along with some pretty steady anxiety, and I’m having trouble falling asleep, so I suspect either the psychiatrist or PH will up my zoloft dose (I see both of them on Monday). Hmm, I guess I’m going to have to decide who is going to be “in charge” of my prescriptions.
M and my MIL told me I “sounded better” today but that just means my “I’m fine” surface is back. M also told me about an article she ran across after I went into the hospital, so I looked it up. I’d like to get my hands on the actual source article but I don’t know that I will be able to track down access to it for free (I can order it for $19 but um, I don’t have any money since I’m not working at the moment and I’m waiting for the hospital bill to show up).
In news not related to me, the husband of a friend of M’s was killed in Iraq a couple days ago. He was also a friend of my BIL and in his unit. He was 23 and left behind his 21 year old wife and 18 month old son. I HATE this war and I HATE this administration for putting us there. Afghanistan I can understand since it had links to al qaeda and bin laden but us invading Iraq? What a bunch of BS.
BIL update
August 29, 2006I talked to M today. She said the place he is traveling to is a town that has not ever had an American presence in it. They have no idea if the people there will be receptive to their arrival or if their arrival will be like setting off a powder keg.
Pray. That’s all any of us can do.
Dreams
August 28, 2006Last night my brother-in-law (the one in Iraq) appeared in my dream. I don’t even really remember what the dream itself was about, other than it wasn’t a very happy dream and I want to say something happened to him in the dream. Today, I stopped at my parents for lunch to check in and see how their trip was. I asked how M was. Mom said that M was really worried because the first guy from her husband’s actual unit was killed last week and his unit leaves tomorrow to travel north of Baghdad, so she won’t hear from him for another two weeks. Plus M said he has been having a lot of anxiety/panic nightmares himself.
I don’t think he has ever appeared in one of my dreams before, so it seemed kind of weird to me that he was there. But I don’t like the whole feeling about this and I HATE that this stupid war is still going on and it is NOT getting any more stable there.
Bushisms
August 15, 2006On my Google homepage I have a content section called the Chimp-O-Matic which provides me with a lovely new quote from our president every time I hit the page. I had to copy and post one that appeared today because he said it right here where I live 
“The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself.”
Grand Rapids, MI, January 29, 2003
His speech writers must cringe when he opens his mouth and these Bushisms come out.
Not so sure about this…
June 17, 2006I learned today that some friends of my younger sister, MK are planning to adopt from Guatemala. I sort of know them in that the husband was MK’s husband’s best man.
Anyway, the point of this post is one of the ways they are going about trying to get money together to pay for it. These friends have a karoke business on the side. MK got an invitation for the two of them to attend a karoke party being thrown by the couple. They are charging a cover charge and the money goes towards their adoption fund.
Here’s what I don’t like about it: it seems a bit selfish to throw your own party and ask people for money towards YOUR adoption expenses.
I don’t have a problem if you ask for money towards an adoption fund in lieu of gifts for birthdays, holidays. We did that. Heck, I’m all for it if someone offers to throw you a party, dinner, fundraiser, whatever or if you have a garage sale or sell other things you make, etc. and mention you are adopting and that the money you make will go towards it. Donations from others, applying for grants and loans, or even if you have a job where you get tips, making the point of saying the tips are going towards your adoption fund all seem fine to me.
I know adoption is expensive and based on MK’s comments, I think they, like us, don’t have a lot of disposable income to save. We ended up charging Widget’s final fees on our credit cards- not the best plan and not something we will do next time.
But charging a cover for your own party. Not so cool.
Memorial Day
May 29, 2006
This is a picture of my brother-in-law Staff Sargeant Kevin (with our local House Representative Pete Hoekstra) from his first tour with US Army in Iraq in 2003. He is currently serving his second tour and has been since November. He will hopefully be home sometime before Christmas. We just visited my sister and her kids in Tennessee (He’s stationed at Fort Campbell).
Just thinking about him and his fellow troops today along with all the families that have lost someone during this war.
We miss you a lot and pray for your safety.
You rock! 
Certain Credit Card Companies SUCK
April 17, 2006Never open your credit card bills just before bed. Now I cannot sleep as I feel absolutely sick over bill I just opened from our Chase account. Now let me first say I am well aware I am miring away in my sh*t that I have created. Originally this card was owned by Bank One and when we used it to finance our daughter’s adoption, it had an 8.9% interest rate. As of today’s statement, it is now at 29.99% and we have $9500 on it, with no way to pay it off. Our minimum payment has now gone up an additional $75 and is MORE than we pay on our car. The interest rate has more than tripled since August when Chase officially took over handling our account.
Yes, we had have two late payments but not within six months and one was because I screwed up and was $4 short in my monthly payment, which I discovered and paid online at their site the day after it was due. The majority of the payment was early but nope, apparently, we now have to pay 30% interest.
Let me also say that we have only been 30 days late once on a bill in the entire time we have been paying bills- it was not to Chase but to a different company and that was because we never got a statement.
Our other credit card companies have NOT treated our account this way, even though we are overextended and I have been a day or two late on payments recently due to how we get paid.
I have thought about full-time work but now that I know how much daycare in my area costs for full-time (most of them require at least 3 days and at the rate you pay for less than full-time, you might as well use full-time), plus the rising cost of gas, lunches, clothing, etc, I would have to make greater than $28,000 gross to come out ahead of what I make working two days a week and not paying child care. My current pay rate does not get me that much if I worked full-time and there isn’t full-time work in my job, so I would have to find one that is willing to pay me more than I have made per hour on avg. for the last 3 years. I had just barely hit that mark when I left working full-time in 2003, so I doubt I could land a job that paid what I need very easily. And no, I don’t have child care for even one more day a week as I cannot rely on my mother (particularly since she is having a lot of back pain that is not improving even with the physical therapy and muscle relaxants she has been on).
How on earth do they expect us to try and pay this off?? Oh wait, they don’t want us to so we can pay scads and scads of interest….
