DS#2 graduates from high school a week from this Saturday. We are keeping it simple this year. He has refused to have a party, so that cuts expenses. We are giving him more money as a gift than we gave the 2 oldest since we won't have that expense. And to be honest, it's nice not having that pressure hanging over me with all the preparations.

We've only been invited to one other graduate's party, so that will certainly save also.

The next thing on the agenda will be for him to find a car to replace the one he totaled in April so he has transportation back and forth to college.

Right now the class is in Toronto for their senior trip. They head back to the States this evening. They had a fun agenda planned and I'm sure they've enjoyed all the experiences. They started out with a jet boat ride on the Niagara River. Then in the evening they had a dinner cruise.

Yesterday they did a mini Amazing Race through part of Toronto that ended at the Toronto Climbing Academy to enjoy some indoor rock climbing. Today they are visiting the CN Tower and going to Casa Loma.

I wish they had had senior trips like that when I was in school!

I have a question about auto insurance and haven't been able to get an answer anywhere so I thought I'd pose it on my blog and see if anyone out there knows the answer.

What is the reasoning behind a doctor refusing to see a patient that has been involved in an auto accident? DS#2's neurologist refused to see him after his auto accident in April. He is already an established patient. The only answer I got was that he doesn't see 'no-faults'. I couldn't get any further explanation out of them. Does it have to do with billing horrors, not as much compensation for them, or what?

DH has been carpooling for several years now with a friend that works at the same place as he does. Last week they added a 3rd rider so he'll only have to drive his truck every 3rd week. Well, in order to do that, he will need to take my car the week he has to drive since his truck would be a bit crowded for 3 grown men. So that means I either drive the truck or start carpooling.

The only reason I haven't been carpooling is that most everyone I know that works in the same town I work in leaves before kids go to school in the morning. I really don't want to leave the kids at home alone to get ready. I did that one year and suffered from horrible guilt the days it was storming out and they had to walk in it.

So I'm on the search for a carpooling partner that leaves around 7:30 or later in the morning. I have yet to come up with anyone and only have another week before DH drives again. I can drive the truck, but I'm not comfortable with it and would rather not.

The search continues...

Tonight is DS#2's Senior Night at school. In order to graduate, they work on researching a chosen profession for their junior and senior years, ending in a presentation that they develop for the entire community.

DS wants to be a flight medic so he has chosen to set up a mock accident on school grounds and have the fire department respond. Hopefully, they will be using his wrecked SUV and one other car. DS#3 and a friend will be the victims. They will have makeup applied so that they look like they've been injured.

Once the fire department responds they will request Mercy Flight to be put in the air and, if weather cooperates, Mercy Flight will land at the school. Mercy Flight is the helicopter that flew DS#2 to the trauma center just last month, so this project is quite appropriate. Almost too much for me.

The only hitch is that the weather doesn't appear that it is going to cooperate. They're calling for thunderstorms this afternoon. He's going to be so disappointed if this can't all come together. He's worked long and hard on coordinating all of this and it really would be a great project.

But, even if Mercy Flight can't get in the air, the fire department will still be there regardless of weather. I just hope the storms will hold off for him and it can happen as he has planned it. He's already been told by his advisor that there is no way he's going to fail whatever happens.

I had posted before that we earned enough points from buying our groceries at our local Tops store that we could fill up one vehicle for 80 cents off each gallon. DH took his truck down yesterday and filled up at $2.89 a gallon. It still came to $62 to fill it, but he saved over $17.00. That sure helps the wallet a bit!

He also found out today that his radiator needs replaced, so that's going to be another $120. He's going to try to put it in himself to save money.

My car goes to the garage on Monday. It's making all kinds of creaking noises when turning. After using all the car repair money for the paint job on the truck, it looks like we'll be dipping into the EF to pay for these repairs.

Always something!

I had mentioned in a previous post that DH's truck was getting some body work done that was long past due. He had taken it up and asked for a written estimate, which we never got. But the guy doing the repairs had looked at it and told him it would be between $900 and $1000.

Well, today we got a phone call that it's not all done but the body shop has got a lot of work coming in so we could come pick it up, pay for what is done and they'd finish the rest in 2-3 months.

The total for what has been done? $1378. The balance of what still needs to be done? Another $800!!! A far cry from a total of $900-1000. I could see if the entire truck was being done.

So needless to say, the car repair fund is bottomed out and the $250 that I just got and was going to apply to the mortgage has been gobbled up along with our federal tax return.

Still, I am counting my blessings. It's only money and after the week we've had, it's not a big deal. I keep telling myself that we could have been attending a funeral this week. I'll gladly pay the $1400 for the truck instead.

I haven't blogged for a few days. I've been busy dealing with unexpected life events instead. It's taken me some time to get my thoughts together enough to sit down and write a blog entry.

At 12:30 a.m. on the 7th our fire department was toned out for a roll-over vehicle accident. It was reported that "Car 40" was on scene. That is never good news because that is code for the county coroner. As DH is getting dressed to respond, I realize that I don't hear DS#2 moving around in his room to go also. That means he did not get home from work yet. He should have been home an hour before this. I knew immediately that it was him in the accident so I got up and got dressed.

Sure enough, DH got on scene with the 2nd ambulance and was immediately pulled aside and told that it was our son. The county coroner had been responding to another call and was the one that discovered him. He had fallen asleep, crossed the opposing lane of traffic, climbed the enbankment and hit a rock outcropping with the undercarriage of the vehicle. That sent the SUV rolling over. He rolled at least 3 times before bouncing back up onto all 4 wheels. He ended up sitting across the lane of traffic for 30-45 minutes before the coroner came along. Thank goodness no one else had come along and hit him meantime. He was unresponsive and the coroner thought that he was dead at first.

He ended up being flown out to the nearest trauma center. All we knew as we made the 2-hour drive was that he had become responsive to the ambulance crew before they flew him out.

Miraculously, he had NO injuries! Not even a bruise from the seatbelt. He was discharged from the ER 3 hours after we arrived and has only had a headache since.

I highly recommend the Mitsubishi Montero. If it had been any other type of vehicle I don't think he would have survived this accident. It costs an arm and a leg to keep gasoline in it, but it sure outdoes itself in an accident.

The picture above is one that the firemen took on-scene. Pretty scary for a mother to imagine her child being involved in that!

We may have to dip into the Emergency Fund this week. DH made an appointment to get some rust taken care of on his truck and I'm afraid it could amount to more than we have in our car repair fund. We have kept putting this off because the money was always needed in other areas. It's time to get it done before it's so far gone that it can't be repaired.

This truck is a 1989 GMC. It really looks great for its age, but time has taken a toll on it. It's been a very reliable vehicle for us with few repairs. It has well over 200,000 miles on it. Since it is still reliable, we do not want to get rid of it and get anything else and feel it is worth the money to touch it up to make sure it will pass inspection.

If we do have to kp into the EF, our tax refund should be coming in soon and I'll get it back up to $1,000 with that.

Walking Her Home by Mark Schultz is one of my favorite songs. I usually can't listen to it without shedding a few tears.

I was doing a search on youtube the other night and found that someone had made a video with this song using scenes from the movie "The Notebook". That is my favorite movie and I love the book it's based on. My grandfather died with Alzheimer's so it touches a sensitive nerve with me.

If you click on the link be prepared to need a few tissues.

We have received 10 inches of snow and ice since Friday afternoon. The road conditions are still treacherous and it doesn't appear as if the state is going to do anything about it soon. Yet we traveled to church today, which is located 4 miles from us, in another state. This state always has better road conditions than our state. Sure enough, their roads were totally clear. Not a trace of snow or ice on them at all.

Why is that one state has such a difficult time keeping up their roads, yet the state just north of it can consistently keep their roads safe for motorists? Perhaps our state should take some lessons.

My job includes making book deliveries a couple of times a week. My routine is to head first to the McDonald's in town and get a large Diet Coke to take on the road with me. My reasoning for this, instead of taking a 24 ounce bottle of pop that I have at work, is that it's easier and safer to pick this up to drink with a straw, than it is to unscrew the top on a bottle of pop while driving. I don't take water because it tends to make me have to stop several times along the way to use a restroom, where pop doesn't have that effect on me. And some of the places to which I deliver are quite remote and have no such facilities.

So, I pulled into the McDonald's drivethru on Thursday morning and placed my usual order. Said no to the breakfast burrito that was offered and was shocked to read $1.90 on the screen! I had just made a delivery earlier that week and paid $1.69. I commented to the person that took my money that the price took quite a jump and that this would probably be my last visit for my Diet Coke.

I'll be finding a cheaper option in the future. I can get reimbursed for my expenses on the road through my CE account, but have been using that to take college classes instead. I'm not giving up my education for a Diet Coke!

Today was not my day. It started out by me forgetting to take my lunch to work so I had to end up buying a slice of pizza while I was on the road doing a delivery.

Got to the library. Got out of the car and slipped on the ice and fell flat on my left side. Both hands were full so I couldn't even break my fall. Get into the library, and since it's Thursday and the library director works, our lights were not on. (She can't be bothered to flip on the 2 switches at the end of the row that she turns on). Marched up front and turned the lights on and told her I'd fallen. She laughed. That really made me happy. It is her responsibility to call the borough and get them out to sand. She didn't bother.

On my delivery I came around a bend and was face to face with a semi. A state truck was pulled off the road on the opposite side with it's 4-ways on so the semi had come into my lane to go around it. Thank goodness the System Jeep has good brakes!

Get to my delivery place, unload all the books and audio books onto my cart. Start up the ramp into the library and get halfway up and slip on ice. Managed to catch myself so that I and the cart didn't go sliding to the bottom.

Yes, it was an exciting day. Not one I'd care to repeat again. I hope I'm able to get out of bed tomorrow. I'm already feeling the effects of the fall.

I did have to sort of chuckle at my one delivery stop. I was checking in the books and realized that the radio station that was on was playing Bad Day by Daniel Powter. Couldn't have been more appropriate.

I have had my Equinox to the shop at least 5 times over the past 3 weeks. It has a bad strut that they believe is a result of my accident several months ago. Well, each time I've taken it up and left it, the strut that they are going to put on it hasn't fit. After trying to force 2 of them to fit and ruining them in the process, they finally contacted the manufacturer. They had tried to make them universal so that they would fit either side. Someone wasn't thinking too clearly because the place where they fasten on is on the wrong side if you are trying to do the driver's side. So now they have recalled ALL of those struts!

The shop found one factory strut in a dealership near us, but the cost is over twice as much as after-market struts. They are trying to turn this into my car insurance and get it covered since they also found that the strut plate was bent and it's on the side that ended up in the ditch. So we are waiting to hear whether it will be covered or not. If not, it's going to cost us over $500 if they have to put the factory strut on! That's about what I have in the car repair budget, but that was being saved to get DH's paint job done on his truck that keeps getting put off.

I've spent way too much time the past 2 days watching repeats of Lost. I had watched it when it first began but didn't see any of last year's episodes. I decided I wanted to get back into it again, especially when I saw that you can watch all of the previous episodes on-line for free.

So yesterday I began with the pilot episode and am making my way through season 1.

I figured this is a much cheaper way to do it than buying the DVDs for all 3 seasons!

I sat down this morning to figure out how much I could pay on the mortgage payment that is due tomorrow. I want to pay $604.16, but looks like I'll only be able to pay $307.48, maybe a bit more depending on how much overtime is in DH's paycheck. But that's more than the minimum I have to pay of $235.34 so I guess that's better than nothing. The oven repair set me back this month and then the unexpected ER visit and DD#2's new medicine that she's taking for migraines.

I should be getting my first paycheck for the new bookkeeping job in a couple of weeks, so I'm planning on putting that on the mortgage.

And I've been told that I may be getting another bookkeeping job. I guess the librarian at the library just across the border in NY state is pushing for me to do their books for them. I went over a couple of weeks ago and helped her treasurer get their QuickBooks set up. When she heard that I do a monthly report for the libraries so that they know what they're spending, she was interested. Right now they pay an accountant to do their books. All he does is figure payroll and then inputs the yearly information into the annual report. He doesn't give them a monthly report so she never knows exactly how much she's spent on collection items or anything else for that matter. So keep your fingers crossed that she can convince her board to hire me!

We've had 2 expensive days in a row. Yesterday we spent $46 on a new prescription for DD#2. She's been having migraines lately and the doctor wanted her to try a couple of new medicines. So a trip to the drug store resulted in being $46 poorer.

Then, of course, the ER trip last night wasn't cheap either. We haven't paid anything yet, but we have a $55 co-pay so that bill will be coming in the mail, plus any fees from the doctor that we'll have to pay $20 toward.

Today we had to have a repairman come and fix our oven. It needed a new ignitor. I was thinking it would be about $65 or so. Ha! Just to have him come out was $85 and the part brought the total to over $150!!!

Guess my first paycheck from my new library bookkeeping job will go to pay for the oven. Bummer!

We were at DS#3's basketball game tonight and DH was the EMT at the game and I was selling 50/50 raffle tickets for the Sports Boosters. Shortly after the 2nd quarter of the varsity game began my mother came in crying. Our 17-year-old had called her since he couldn't get us and told her that he was walking down the street going from his job at Subway to his job at McDonald's when 2 guys came out from the shadows of a building and started hitting him. They had something in their hands (he's not sure what) that they hit him in the head with. They went to hit him again and he lifted his hand to protect himself so they got him in the wrist instead.

They took his money, all of $2, and ran off across the street. He said he was kind of dazed so he leaned against a pile of gravel for a bit and then continued on to McDonald's. He called the State Police from there and they sent the town cop over. He told him what had happened and the town cop said that based on where it happened he's pretty sure he knows who the 2 guys were (this is a small town) and they are awaiting sentencing on drug, weapon, and rape charges!!!! So he said DS#2 may have to come down and identify them when he rounds them up.

Yikes!!! It could have been SO much worse! We took him to the ER even though he looked and acted fine. He has a red spot above his right eye that is probably going to bruise and his wrist is just sore. DH is supposed to wake him up at 3 when he gets up for work to make sure he's okay and can answer questions. Then as long as he's up and acting okay at 7:30 he can go to school tomorrow.

I don't think it's all sunk into me yet. I noticed on the way over the hill to McDonald's that I was trembling pretty badly, but my emotions haven't caught up yet.

This is the very same child that has had multiple concussions, hemiplegic migraines, and seizures. He is also the one whose car was wrecked by the school bus backing over it. He is the one that anything and everything will happen to!!! I just don't understand it.

This week is going to be an expensive one for us. Tomorrow we take our oldest DD to college. It's 2.5 hours away and we'll be leaving right after church so we'll need to eat lunch and dinner. Lunch will probably be McDonald's, but we decided that dinner is going to be a special treat at Red Lobster. We don't have any Red Lobsters around us so we're going to take advantage of the trip and treat ourselves. DD#2 will also be going along with us.

Then on Tuesday, DH's father is having 5 heart bypasses done so we'll need to travel 2 hours to the hospital where that is taking place. Another day of eating out. Hard on the pocket book, but necessary.

Also hard on the WW plan. LOL! I am .4 pounds away from hitting the 30 pound mark so I am trying to be very diligent with my eating and exercising.

We celebrated our 23rd anniversary yesterday. After work we went out for dinner to one of our favorite restaurants. DH had received a gift card for this restaurant from his supervisor at work, so that was really nice. I indulged and went off my diet for that one meal and had crabmeat stuffed shrimp and peanut butter ice cream pie with hot fudge topping for dessert. I only ate 2 of the 5 shrimp and one third of the pie. The servings were just too big!

We bought a Magic Bullet and each got nice headphones for our anniversary. We were going to go see a movie but never did make it there. I'm not a movie person and tend to fall asleep so I hate the thought of spending $10 for me to sleep through the movie.

Last night I made a dent in my Christmas shopping, all from the comfort of my own living room. Just a few clicks of the mouse and the gifts are on their way. DS#1 is getting some art supplies and Star Wars books, DS#2 is getting a paramedic bag (fully loaded with supplies), DS#3 is getting a computer tool repair kit and flash drive, and DD#2 is getting a digital camera. I will actually have to go out and get what DH wants and DD#1 has given me no ideas as of yet.

I love shopping this way. I have never been much of a shopper so to be able to do it without leaving the house and fighting the crowds is wonderful for me. I have them delivered to my office and then I don't have to worry about anyone 'accidentally' finding them either. I wrap them at work and then bring them home just before Christmas and place them under the tree. Simple!!!

I actually ended up saving money on DD#2's digital camera. I had done my 'shopping' little by little as the ideas came in and placed them in a cart on Amazon.com. The items stay in the cart for 90 days and the prices get updated if anything changes. I logged in yesterday and the price on the camera had dropped $10, so by not placing my order right away I was able to save money. Of course, the opposite also applies, so you're taking a gamble and also the risk of the item selling out if you don't order it right away. I did not know this about Amazon.com until this year.

I am going to have to actually go Christmas shopping this week with my mother to help give her ideas for the kids, but at least the pressure is off of me, since mine is practically done.

This has absolutely nothing to do with finances, but was triggered by a Martha Stewart commercial I saw this morning. One of the newer slang phrases has been bothering me for quite a while and viewing this commercial this morning is to blame for this blog entry.

I can't stand to hear anyone use the phrase "my bad". Bad is not a noun, so it can't be yours! It just drives me crazy to hear people say that.

Sorry...just had to get that off of my chest. LOL!

We had to take DD#1 to the ER today. She didn't tell us until this morning that she wrecked a friend's ATV yesterday afternoon. Her hand is all bruised and swollen and we were also worried about internal injuries. She is complaining of lower back pain also.

They did x-rays and found nothing broken. They said that she sprained her hand and neck. They did splint her hand so that it would have more support as it heals and told her to go back to work with light duty for the week.

She said the reason that she didn't tell us was because she knew we would make her go to the ER and she's worried that she might not be covered under our insurance since she's taken the semester off of college. DH had checked with human resources at the beginning of the semester and they assured him that she would still be covered. I guess we'll find out.

So far the visit cost us the $50 co-pay, but at least I can sleep tonight knowing that she's been checked over and is apparently okay.

Last week DH's clutch went out of his truck in the middle of an intersection. We had to have the truck towed to the repair shop. A week later & the repairs are done and the total came to over $375! Wasn't expecting that much so had to ask the shop to hold the check a couple of days until I could transfer that amount from my Electric Orange account to my local checking. This is when I wish Electric Orange offered checks.

We be reimbursed the amount of the towing bill from AAA. That will help a lot.

I haven't been blogging much lately at all. Seems like life is too busy at the moment.

I did want to drop in though and say that my friend and I have done a good job this summer of finding free things for the kids to do to keep their summer from being a total washout.

Our church sponsors an AIA (Athletes in Action) baseball team and we've been going to their games. Free admission and you can buy dinner (hot dog, chips and drink) for $1.75 if you want.

Last night we took them to a Power Team event at a nearby school. They really enjoyed that.

Last weekend my friend and I chaperoned "Wordstock", a teen concert put on by our youth group. They had bands from around the area come and play and also had volleyball tournaments, pie and hot dog eating contests, and water balloon launching. We had the night shift so we were up all night. The kids had a great time and plan on making it a yearly event that will hopefully grow bigger. This year we had 65 attend.

So that's what I've been up to. Still saving money and still paying down debt. I am keeping my sidebar updated even if I don't have time to post anything.

I hope everyone has a very happy and safe Fourth of July.

For the first time in 7 years we will not be having a yard sale today. I am so thrilled! LOL! I guess I'd better give some background:

Each year on the 4th of July weekend our town has a Country Festival. The day starts off with a pancake breakfast at the Senior Center, followed by a parade and then festivities in the park all day. There are vendors selling all kinds of stuff and the community groups sell food to raise funds. There are games for the kids to play and rides.

This is the time that there are a LOT of yard sales in town. Since we are on a corner lot my mother has always felt our home to be the perfect location for her yard sale each year. So she would normally start bringing things down for this sale the night before and store everything on our large wrap-a-round porch. The day of the sale her and her friend would arrive at 6 a.m. and start setting up.

Our porch is always the finance center of the venture so people would be tramping through our yard all day (and usually the gardens too) and then onto the porch where they would often come look in our windows. (Our house is one of the old Victorians in town and people are always interested in seeing what it looks like inside.)

Our whole family has always dreaded this time of the year because we are just not yard sale people. But we felt obligated since we owed my parents money for DH's truck. Since the truck is now paid off we decided that this was the year to say no, we did not want the yard sale to be here. It's also perfect timing because DH has been replacing the porch roof and siding around that area. My mother was not happy, but decided to have the yard sale at her own home instead.

It's been such a relief to enjoy the weekend without strangers milling around in your yard that next year I'm determined we're not playing host either. We can actually enjoy our holiday weekend.

My apologies to all you yard sale lovers out there. I don't mind going to them, I just don't like hosting them.

I have an appointment tonight to get my hair cut so I've been looking off and on all day for some styles that I like. I think I've finally settled on this one:

Right now I have a bob and I'm tired of having to pull my hair back all of the time to keep it out of my eyes. This style would take care of that problem and still be cool for the summer heat.

This Wednesday will be a fun-day for us. We've made plans to take our 2 youngest kids to an amusement park. We are going with another couple who are taking their 2.

We got a discount through Boy Scouts so that instead of well over $100 for 4 of us it only cost $60. We are planning on packing our food and eating at the picnic benches just outside the park, so that will save a bundle. The park is about 2 hours away so it will cost us a bit to drive there but I think we're doing pretty good at keeping expenses to a minimum.

With having so many kids, we are hardly ever able to do anything like this, so it will be a special treat.

I must invest in some good sunblocker though. My daughter (a redhead) and I burn extremely easily and I know we'll need to apply sunblock quite often throughout the day.

We got home today and found this update in our email:

We finally brought Syd home on Friday. She slept most of the way in the ambulance. She's now home and doing well.

We're having problems adjusting her formula so it's right for her, as the amount the hospital had prescribed overloads her tummy and makes her throw up. So we have cut her back to almost
half of what they wanted us to feed her and we will gradually work back up. Her little tummy just can't take the full amount yet as she has been weeks with little or nothing going into her,
except IV's. Because of her inhaling the vomit the night of the seizure it is
probably one of our biggest fears at this time.

Because of the damage done to her brain stem she is unable to regulate her own body temperature, and has to be watched closely for fevers and chills (yes I said chills, she had one the other night,
and her grandpa and I thought she was having a seizure but when we see her stats were okay we realized it had to just be a chill-her body temp had dropped to below 97 degrees).

The hospital was unwilling to send us home with oxygen and a pulsox(unsure of spelling) machine for her vitals. So we called her pediatrician, Dr. Tronetti, and he ordered them for us. She doesn't
need oxygen all the time and hasn't needed it at all since we've been home, but we just feel better knowing it's there and handy for us to use. It's always good to be able to watch her vitals so we can see if they're dipping or getting too high.

Her other set of grandparents are starting to learn to give her her meds and do the suctioning, the more people that can help with her the better for her and her parents. We want them to be able to go places and not be tied to the house all the time, especially since they have two sons to care for
also.

DS#2's settlement check for his car accident finally arrived this week. It's been almost 3 months since the accident. What a long, complicated process it has been.

First thing he did was pay off the car. The previous owner has been extremely patient while waiting for his money for a car that doesn't exist anymore. He included a $50 bonus for that reason.

Next, he paid us back for the money we loaned him for his tux for the prom and the car registration.

The last thing to pay for are the repairs he'd made to the car the day it was totalled. Thank goodness everyone has been willing to wait for their money!

He wants the remaining money put into an ING or Emigrant savings account for the summer while he's at camp so he can earn some decent interest on it. He'll use the money to buy another car when he has been seizure-free for 6 months and can get his driver's license back.

I am glad to have this all taken care of now. I don't like owing anyone money and felt responsible for the whole thing. It's been at the back of my mind constantly for 3 months.