Stay-cation!

The pool is in! After spending all that money last year on landscaping the back yard (to help sell the house) we decided to stay. With the downswing in the market and nobody enjoying a whole lot of job security, we decided to stay where we are comfortable. So...we decided to put in a pool! This will pay for itself in 2 years, as we can vacation at home.It took one nice day for the great company we hired to put it in. Now its just a matter of getting the chemicals right. Of course, as it has rained 20 out of the last 24 days, our yard was more of a swamp than a backyard, and boy did the installation leave a mess! There's tons of top soil, not to mention the sod mixed in, left in a huge pile. And we still need to finish backfilling. Had a landscaper come today to tell us exactly what we can do with it all. He'll give me a price in 3 - 4 days, I'm sure it'll be a doozy! So, if anyone wants lots of clay filled, rooty, soddy topsoil, come have at it! and if you want to put in a little manual labor on the back fill, we'll put up some beer and a barbeque and a dip in the pool after!

I'm high? and I can't sleep!

I have recently quit smoking. This is day 3. My head spins and I am dizzy, and a little silly. My friends tell me I am high on Oxygen. Hmmm. Why? Doesn't everyone breath oxygen? Apparently all the weird things in cigarettes block some of the oxygen receptors in our brains. Suddenly, I'm getting oxygen like I haven't in more years than I can count right now. Everyone is being uber supportive, and I'm really not suffering nearly as much as I thought I would. I'm cold turkey. Yes I'm cold alot. Plus, I can't stay asleep at night. It seems like I am waking up every hour. I don't know why, but I feel very awake. Then I just go back to sleep. I took the day off, and got some extra sleep this morning. I'm starting to be afraid to drive, I become so sleepy out of no-where. But thats it. A craving will come, for less than a minute. I wiggle my fingers and take a deep breath and it goes away. I'm good. I don't want to spend the money anymore, I don't want to die of Lung Cancer, I want to see my grand children someday (not soon, mind you, it can wait, lol), but yeah. So I am a non-smoker, big deal.

Did I Do That?

No, I am not actually a self-centered person, but with everything that is going on lately, I sometimes have this idea that it is all my fault. You see, around August of last year, we decided we were going to sell our house and move to our daughter's school district. Just to make everything easier on everyone concerned. So, in preparation, we paid off all our credit cards. No more interest payments, no more revolving debt, just to make sure we could qualify for the size of house we needed. We started buying what we needed with cash, which meant we bought significantly less. Now all the credit companies are failing, and I have to wonder, did we all have the same idea at the same time? I've often wondered what it would be like, what would happen, if everyone started living off of just what they have, like all the gurus suggested. Hm, maybe this is it? And if that's the case, the banks don't need a bailout, why continue a product that no longer sells? Of course now we are in the position that nothing is selling. We would buy a new car, but are afraid we'll lose our jobs, because no one is buying new cars. We would buy a house, especially now that prices have dropped so much, but oops, now we owe more on our house than we could get for it. This whole thing is a catch 22. What are we going to do? Everyone is saying that banks won't release the funds for new mortgages, I think its just that no one is asking. Hmm, what next? There are layoffs at work happening today, furloughs last month and next. Maybe if I stick my neck out there and tell hubby to buy a new car, everyone else will too? Come on, America! We need you to shop even more now than after 9/11, oh, but I'll wait til you're done, lol.

My first post

OK, I set this account up quite sometime ago, and have never blogged anything. Here it is at 2 am and I can't sleep, too much running through my head. Scary and exciting all at the same time.Big upheavals at work this week. Improvements. Realignments. Reorganization. A flattening of the reporting structure. Little boxes everywhere on the new Org Charts. Where's my box? My department no longer exists! Oh, there's my box, well, it's not garaunteed to be my box, but I've got a pretty good shot at keeping it. New department, new manager, new supervisor. At least I have a box, some don't. Good friends, good workers, more pedigreed than I. Would I trade places with them if I could? I'd like to say yes. A year ago I would have, for the severance and a little more time with the kids while they are young. But in these economic times? Sorry, no can do. Most of those leaving have degrees, they'll find other jobs. I can justify it that way in my mind, I guess, if it makes me feel better. I have too much to do. I have too much to pay for. I want so much, just like anybody else. We can always put the boys back in public school, dh says. That's always his fallback. He'd feel better if they were in a "normal" school, learning something. But that wouldn't make enough of a difference, so I'll take my new little white box, and keep the private, unique, New School for now. Maybe I'll get to learn something new. Maybe I'll go back to school, who knows. Maybe in another 6 months I'll get a severance package, too. Maybe, maybe, maybe. See why I can't sleep?