it has been quite a week and a half, and i hardly know where to start. i mean, really, a lot has been, and is, going on. most of it good (for once), but not all.
on the 29th, we spent the whole afternoon at carmax. and then some. we got there about 1:30 or 2 pm and didn't leave until about 10:30. it took everything we had--adding both myself and saxy to the loan, putting in every ounce of income including child support and ssi--to get a loan approved that we can reasonably afford. but the carmax people were great and refused to give up...thus being there all freaking afternoon and evening. we are now paying for a beautiful pontiac grand am se 4 door sedan in white. the picture below is not our car, but similar to.
payment is an affordable $220. insurance will be about $150 a month, but we made sure to get coverage to pay off the loan if the car gets totaled. i am not going to keep making payments on a car i don't have. unfortunately, since we can't risk losing the car for any reason, we'll be using the child support to pay for the car: car payment on the 10th and insurance on the 25th. fortunately, we'll still have some money left over for food and whatnot, just not much else. :P
had to be done, right?
i do have to say that it is nice to have a reliable car, and not just for saxy to get to/find work. it's been very freeing for me to be able to go to the store or the pharmacy and pick up things we need when he doesn't feel like going and not have to worry about the car either breaking down or being impounded. and the gas mileage on it has been wonderful! so we're pretty pleased with it. we won't be able to fit everyone in it once phoenix and baby cat get here, but it's otherwise a great car. don't think i've ever owned such a nice car, actually.
problem is, now that saxy has a car, j.e. has no work for him. that housing slow down is finally hitting the small time carpenters who work not only on new homes, but also on homes being remodeled. saxy is looking for other work--he's applied to several places online including the school district. hopefully things will work out and soon because we also don't see how we're going to be able to pay his $850 workman's comp insurance in october. once that's gone, he can't work construction anyway. so, yea, we're still looking at having a very hard time financially unless something comes through quickly. the other problem is that he currently earns $16/hour and the only thing close is the school district, and that could take ages to go through.
at any rate, we'll be muddling through like we always do. right?
on sunday the 3rd, taz turned 16! it's hard to believe, really. he's getting tall and staying lanky, and the teenager attitude is kicking in. it's kind of scary, actually. we didn't do much, seeing as we really couldn't afford anything, but he did get a cake and we picked up stargate continuum for him. he was happy enough. but still...16! he starts high school on monday and is looking forward to that. he's advanced wonderfully out here in georgia, though we still have some at home issues to deal with, like chores. pretty typical there. ;)
and he's not the only one heading into high school! froggy passed her summer school classes AND her crct retake, thank god. so tomorrow we register both of them for their high schools (the local school that froggy is going to doesn't have the appropriate level of autism class, so he gets to go to another school). in the morning we get to do froggy's registration and hope we can change her out of chorus--we can't afford fees and costumes and have no idea if she'll have a ride home for anything after school, so it wasn't the best pick for her. i'm hoping i can get her switched to art, which is something else she enjoys doing. who knows, we may have a graphic artist hiding in there! ;)
and froggy has been warned not to goof off in high school. unfortunately, they charge around $300/class for summer class make ups at that level, which is way out of our ability to pay. she messes around now, she's not graduating. here's hoping she takes that very seriously, especially after almost not getting into high school.
then saturday afternoon we take saxy to the airport. he's off to cali for a few days to spend with his family--his mother already has all these plans for them. his dad paid for the ticket and the rental car, so here's hoping it doesn't get canceled or delayed from weather. his mom would be mightily upset over that. anyway, he'll be back tuesday night. school starts monday, so i'll actually get 2 days of peace and quiet which will make up for probably getting nothing done over the weekend.
there's also some work shite going on, but i really don't want to get into that. the good news there is that our first releases come out next week. we're all very excited about that. the job itself is keeping me quite busy. between slush, the reading pile, and the books i edit, i'm almost always backed up with something. we've hired on 2 more editors to try to keep ahead of the growth curve. there is going to be a bit of fallow time, i think, but soon enough everyone will be as busy as i am. i've just got to get the one snag taken care of and quickly.
like i said, it's been busy! the car and a kid turning 16 would seem like more than enough, but all that other stuff just seems to have taken life into overdrive of late. it should quiet down some once the kids are back in school, though i think the job will end up getting busier once out books are out.
speaking of the job, better get back to it! got a lot to do, interruptions have been happening every 5 minutes, tomorrow is booked, and i'm sure more will be coming in any second.
~*~
word of the moment: effervescent
giving off bubbles; used of wines and waters; charged naturally or artificially with carbon dioxide; marked by high spirits or excitement
