so, we're not quite out of the woods yet, but almost. i just got another notice last night - right after paying the water bill and thinking i finally had the utilities all handled. but it's ok. i'll call and ask them to push the date into december if at all possible, and it'll all work out. the end of the month is looking good in terms of income, so we're well on our way to getting ourselves stable. once that's achieved, we can work on getting out of the hole. i actually have 2 short months for my first paychecks - i started late this month, and i'll be on vacation with the kids for the holidays. but it'll all still work out.

on a side note, i've apparently stumbled on a way to get rid of bill collectors. just be cranky as hell when they wake you up at 8 in the morning. seriously. one called, asked for me, and i asked who it was, he gave his name and asked for me again, and i said, "what do you want?" this was the second call of the morning, so i wasn't in a pleasant mood. his response to my bitchy sounding voice, "okay, good-bye." lol! go, me! to the one who called previously, they asked if they could talk to me and i said, "not right now!" and hung up. course, that one actually woke me up, so i was one unhappy camper.

and it wasn't just being woken up on saturday morning that cranked me out. i've been getting up early most this week, and busy all week, so i really was looking forward to just sleeping and relaxing today. i had honestly planned to write earlier than this, but i was up too early and home too tired. waaaaaaay too tired. i've been a hermit for too long.

wednesday i was home with my son because he had a doctor's appointment that day. it looks like our records still haven't been released or still haven't arrived or something because they started a new chart for him. apparently the kaiser out here has autistics and adhd patients see doctors in behavioral medicine rather than neurology, which is where taz's primary care came from in cali (although he did have a team of doctors including a pediatrician, neurologist, occupational therapist (well, for awhile, anyway), and a geneticist). at this point, the plan is to not have him stay with kaiser for too long since he should be assigned to a doctor through social security (he actually had a doctor, but i called that office and found out the doctor had just closed his office permanently). the whole medical insurance thing is turning into something of a mess, but we won't go there right now.

anyway, after that, the plan was (became?) for us to go to mcat's and mjay's and for mjay to take my girls shopping for winter coats, shoes, and a few other things, then to dinner. it was originally supposed to be just froggy and me with stuff for her, but jewel had a couple of needs as well, including a coat. it was fun and very tiring all in one. both girls needed the coats since they didn't even really have anything good for fall out here, much less anything good for winter. so they both got nice coats, although i've asked linnorm to get them snow worthy winter coats like the ones used up in the ski resorts in cali for them for christmas. (it should be noted that the girls seriously have NO clue what a cold winter REALLY is. they don't think they'll ever need the warmer coats, so aren't they in for a surprise!) they also both got new tennies, froggy because her sneakers didn't fit any more and jewel because hers were falling apart. and they both also got bras - froggy is actually ready for training bras and jewel just needed bras in general. beyond that, we picked up jeans and sweaters for froggy, and mjay snuck in this wonderfully soft sweater for me, and i picked up some new slippers (finally! my old ones had fallen apart months ago!) and a necklace/earring set for each of the girls. we all had a very good time, even if i was having minor palpitations at the prices - especially for the coats. i've just been too used to going to as cheap as you can without going to second hand stores. being in a department type store had me in a constant state of sticker shock, especially for the coats. even on sale, jewel's coat was $60! i've only spent that much (or more) on coat for me once ever in my life.

anyway, after that we went to a mexican place for dinner where i got another shock. shrimp cocktail as . . . a soup kind of thing. i'm used to cold shrimp on a bed of ice with the sauce in a bowl in the middle all served in a goblet. pure shrimp heaven. this shrimp cocktail was more like a soup . . . with tomatoes, cilantro, avocado. no ice. i actually ate a bit of it with very little problem - it was tangy-spicey and not overly hot-spicey. i'll be eating what's left for lunch today i think. ;)

we all got home late and pretty much crashed as quickly as we could.

thursday i had the pleasure of subbing in a high school a.p. class. most the kids were good and it wasn't nearly as exhausting as the middle schoolers on monday. unfortunately, i was stupid and didn't even think about it being half day for the little ones. saxy had to rush out to get them first then try to come and get me, getting lost in the process. he was over an hour late picking me up as a result and we were all tired and cranky. we ate out, came home, and - you guessed it - crashed as quickly as possible again. still, i wasn't nearly as tired as i was on monday or wednesday, and managed to get a crit done to boot (although that still needs to be typed and posted).

yesterday was middle school title 1 math. title 1 is in between regular school and special ed - the kids need a little more help with the subject (or school in general), but don't need the services of special ed kids. most of them aren't disabled, but do have other issues that affect their learning and ability to learn in the classroom setting. i actually only had 3 classes the whole day, each with less than 10 kids. they were all generally quiet, well behaved, and the few who needed redirection didn't give me any grief over it - they just did it. i did have 3 in the second class that i finally separated since they seemed to have problems sitting together. ;)

the last group was almost all boys and totally floored me. i really was expecting a tougher time of it with them since they were 6th grade. but these kids came in, sat down, and started working without prompting. they were extraordinarily polite - calling me ma'am, saying please and thank you, barely raising their voices above a whisper, and not chit chatting too much while working. not only was it an incredibly pleasant way to end the work week, but i also wrote a little over 1500 words on the outline for book 3. they even helped clean up the room before leaving without arguing about it. i told the stellar sub there she could call me back for that class any time. ;)

after that we went to the bank, came home, i paid the water company, we realized we're still in trouble with a few things (that, like i said, we will sort out by the end of the month), and then we got dinner and ate. again, we called it an early night, at least for the kids. saxy and i watched our shows, he crashed, i worked on my outline a little more, and then i crashed.

any time on the computer the last few days has been minimal at best. i haven't done a whole heck of a lot of writing that wasn't done by hand while in a classroom. so all i've done, pretty much, is check email and a board or two, and maybe chat with a person or two for about 5 minutes before i was off again to either run out the door or crash.

i haven't been called for anything yet next week, but my only real concern is monday. i already have 2 schools saying they'll be calling me back, and one of the high schools tried to get me this last week but caught me on booked days. i called back and left them a message that i was as of yet not scheduled for anything next week. i haven't even called all my schools yet (primarily not all the middle schools yet), and i'm already getting at least 2 calls a day, sometimes 3. so i'm pretty certain that everything after mondays is going to be filled pretty quickly, it's just they don't call on friday to have someone come in on monday, so mondays are my big question marks at the moment. more than likely though, i'll be getting early morning calls for mondays, so i'll be quite the busy girl from now on.

and maybe me saying i'm going to be quite busy is an understatement.