My funk..

I've been in such a funk the last two weeks. It's cold outside, and I want winter to be over with. I can't seem to get motivated to work out and all I want to do is snuggle up with a blanket. I need to snap out of it, easier said then done. Also I'm on Day two of the " no smoking" so my system is being detoxed, I'm sluggish, and feel like I have a cold. Not fun at all, if I could just be at 6 months quit already, but alas, everyone who quits smoking has to go through day one, day two, etc. I just hope I keep this quit this time, because starting over and over again is just tiring!

On a good note, looks like we might go snow tubing this weekend. If so at least that will get me out of the house and moving around! I suppose if I can just get moving around, my mood will start getting better and I'll have more energy.

Also looks like we will be receiving all the paperwork by tomorrow for my DH to fill out. This is so he can fly to CA and work for my company for a month or two. Also we are setting him up as a part time employee so in the future he will be able to work for my employer on a moments notice. So another week or so and then he may be out in CA and I'll be a single parent for a bit. I'm mainly worried about cooking..lol and our cats! I'm sure it will be fine, but after not cooking anything really for years it might be alittle bit of a challenge at first. But this will be a good move for our finances and for our relationship. After both of us working together from home for years, this will be a nice break for us.

Ok back to work!

Not much of anything..

Well my ramblings for today are, thank god it's almost Friday! And tomorrow is payday! I have been still tracking all my expenses for the month so that is going good. This week has been filled with issues at work, I always like the weeks when everything goes smoothly, but this has been a bumpy week. On the debt settlement side of things, I need to get my DV letter out to this new Collection agency that has been calling, once I do that I'll feel better and see what they say and then I should start working on a plan to take care of these last two CC's that are in collections. This weekends plan is to start gathering all our tax return information and get our business returns done. I can't do our personal taxes until our business ones are completed as our income from the business has to be submitted with our personal. I would like to get that completed so once I receive all the 1099's etc that I'm waiting on, I can get this over to our tax lady asap. If we owe and how much we might owe is concerning and I would rather have this done and have the figures so I can come up with a plan to pay it and stop worrying about it!

Another one bites the dust!

Well on our business CC, card #3 we have have managed to workout a settlement. I spoke with someone about this card 3 weeks ago, I guess they were the general collections and they weren't very helpful. Our balance has climbed to $13800 and they were offering a 98% settlement. So nothing at all really. I offered them $5000 to settle and they said there was no way they could do that. So that was fine, I figured I would just keep waiting. Of course they do call every phone # we have (4 numbers) every day but I would just not answer the phone. Well yesterday a representative left a message and his message actually sounded nice and helpful. He said he had some programs or possibly settlements that he could help us with. He also mentioned he is not in the general collections group and had more authority to help us. As this account is not with a 3rd party collection agency, I did want to get this one taken care of.

I called him last night and spoke with him, he was actually pleasant on the phone and offered us a $8900 settlement. I told him I could pay $5000, after a few minutes back and forth he said that was just little to low, I then said I could go up to $6k, he asked if I could do $6500 because this would be about 50% of the total but I explained it I was already stretching it to 6,000 and that was the most I could do. He did say he would submit this and it was approved this morning! So I just paid the 6K (came from our taxes fund so I'm keeping my fingers crossed with my DH's job and mine we will be able to cover whatever taxes we may owe).

That's one more debt out of our life forever! Now to start building back up our EF/Tax fund for April!

Good News!

Just found out today that my DH is going to CA! They are starting the paperwork and housing info (a corp housing type apt they are paying for) I will find out more tomorrow, but I do know it's for 30 days at least. And the company I work for is going to add him as a part time employee, this way in the future if they need him he is already on our payroll and in our system. This would be great, sort of like a continued as needed job. I know that usually during the 4th qtr we get really busy and can use extra tech's. So keeping my fingers crossed that they like him and he works well with everyone. I have complete faith in him, he's always been great with the tech stuff, but being in another state, learning their procedures etc, you just never know. This will also jump start our year!

In other news I have a new debt collector calling me. While I was in Vegas someone called, my hubby looked up the number and thought it was for medical bill. I do have 3 bills left that I'm waiting for the hospital to correct and resend and thought it might be one of those, that they didn't send it and just sent it to collections..(all other medical debts 9K we paid off last year) anyway I answered the phone because if it was for medical I wanted to take care of that right away, it wasn't - it was for an older debt and this is the 3rd collection agency. I can't take care of this one yet, and I'm not even sure about the CA, I've read not so good things, and the phone call I had confirms this, so I will be sending a DV letter off to them next week, certified of course and then go from there. We are saving up money to get these last 3 CC's settled, so moving along there we just need alittle more time and then I hope we can work something out. I would like these all done this year so we can really start moving forward again.

I'm Back and ready

Well I got back in yesterday and spent today recovering and catching up on my sleep. It was wonderful to see my clients and spend sometime with them as well as alittle fun in Vegas. Now that I'm back I am ready to get this financial stuff in order. Starting today I am going to track every single dollar we spend. I always have a general idea but after reading alot of blogs you don't really see all the little things add up if you don't track every penny. This will be a challenge so I will be putting a small notebook in my purse to be able to quickly write it down, if it becomes a chore I won't do it, so by keeping it simple I should be able to keep up with this.

In other news, my DH may have a temporary job with the company I work for. Turns out we had some issues and had to let some employee's go at our California facility and we need a technician right away for a few months. As our operations manager met my DH and knows he does all kinds of computer work he wanted to know if my DH would be willing to fly out to CA and work there for a few months. As our embroidery business is very slow right now it would be a perfect time for him to fly out and work for a few months. This would also of course help our finances. I should know more tomorrow, and hope this works out, this would be a good jump start to our finances for 2009!

Off to Vegas! But not for fun..

Well off to Vegas tomorrow for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, our largest client will be there and we will be meeting with them, and walking the show. Usually the days start at 8AM and go to about 8 or 9 PM including dinner. Should be a fun week as I always enjoy these types of events. I'll be back Saturday evening! Have a good week everyone!

New Year's Eve Drama

On New Years Eve my boys went to spend the night with my parents, and as I mentioned before my older brother has some mental issues. He sometimes isn't very stable and he has been on and off of drugs his whole life. Thus dealing with him is always a roller coaster ride. On New Years Eve, while my boys where at my parents he came to my parents house, screaming and hollering, my mother let him in because she wasn't exactly quite sure what was going on, it was 2AM and they had all been sleeping, after he came in he continued screaming and creating an unimaginable scene, my brother is a very large man, and walking around screaming at the top of his lungs could scare just about anyone. My 2 boys had to witness this and my parents had to call the police three times before they finally arrived! Things of this sort have been on and off with my brother "B" for years now, but according to my mother this was the worst she has ever seen, and with my two boys there who had to see it. In speaking with my mother I explained that the risk was to high to let the boys stay over there anymore if she continued to open the door and let my brother in, he needs help and it's a battle to get the government to help. They did take him and put a hold on him for 72 hours and I am hoping this time they will finally put him somewhere he can get therapy and assistance he really needs. If they let him out my parents have agreed that they will not open the door anymore and immediately call the police if he does show up at their house.

It's really sad because sometimes, even for weeks he is fine my "normal" brother, but I can't take the risk each time he goes over there, my children need to be safe, and as my parents are getting up in age, they need to be safe as well. It's time for my brother to get help, because we can't help him, and we can't be around him, it's dangerous.

At this point I am little numb to it, I know we can't do anything and we have been dealing with this for along time, but what do you do when even the parents can't help? I know my parents love my boys so much that it would be painful if they couldn't go over there and spend time, but I need my parents assurance that they will not let my brother in. I really do hope after all these years and the medical/prison/arrest history, they will get "B" the help he needs. We will see.

Happy New Year 2009

I'm on vacation until Monday, which has been nice, I haven't been doing much of anything although I did work out a few times this week and plan to workout today. I did also manage to get about 8 loads of laundry done, yes I'm one of those hate doing laundry so I really let it pile up, almost to the point my husband and kids have to go without undies..lol. So today I am enjoying my day, but my husband went out and bought a carpet cleaner a few days ago, so I'm sitting here enjoying him move all the furniture, vacuum our family room, and a few minutes ago start cleaning our carpets. Thankfully I'm counting the purchase in last year because this year I want to stop spending so much. But I have to say, our carpets haven't been cleaned in 6 years! Gross I know! Although you can't really tell, we purchased a lovely color tan type carpet, like a shag but not as long and when we vacuum it always perks right up and looks great. My DH is also amazing, if anything spills, etc he cleans and scrubs it up right away. Of course though now that he is cleaning it we can see in the water all the "hidden" dirt and that is gross. So he will be spending the next few days taking one room at a time cleaning and then adding to my list of 104 things to do will be clean the carpets at least once a year, or every six months if we can manage it.

Ok better get going, he's kicking me out of my chair so he can get this part of the carpet.