Not a Great Week Here

The one bright spot to my week has been getting to see my younger son for 4 days.

We sent a gangly kid off in August and this is who returned for Thanksgiving Break......

Most Freshmen gain 20 lbs. the first semester.  College Boy(formerly known as #2 Son) actually lost 30 lbs.

He said it was from missing meals in the dining hall.  With the mountain of work/practice he has had to do he's forgotten about mealtimes until after the dining hall closed.
He's been going to a local bagel shop(as they take the meal ticket)and basically living on a high carb bagel diet. lolz
So I spent 4 days getting protein into him so he survives another 2 weeks until I go to pick him up after finals.


And the beard!!! 8-)
It has a ginger quality to it too.....but then again, he gets that red hair recessive gene from me.

We didn't see him much over those 4 days, as he was out late at night hanging with his buddies(lots of catching up to do there), sleeping until 2pm or in his room practicing or studying.
And I think he ate his weight in stuffing. lolz

Then he tells us on Saturday that he has a bill in his account that needs paying before he can register for classes.  Oh, and registration ends next Friday, 5 days after he gets back to school.
Huh?
So I am frantically trying to get into his school account for HOURS to see first, what the heck this bill is for, and to pay it, if in fact it needs paying.  I can't imagine what it's for as I paid his bill back in August in full!  Did he charge a bunch of stuff on his account or what?
And come to find out, he's known about this for WEEKS!.....and said nothing.

After waiting on him to contact me about this bill on Monday(which he didn't do)I took matters into my own hands and got into his account to see what this was all about.

Seems this college makes you pay your next semester's tuition bill IN FULL(but NOT the room/board bill)before they let you register for classes for that semester.  This is the third state school in PA that we've dealt with and neither of the other two schools had This Policy!
ARGH!
So I paid the bill and let College Boy know he could now register for his classes.
And then I went and had a tiny little nervous breakdown.....because I deserved it.


Two days after Thanksgiving we had to put down our last dog, Cherry.

Here she is checking out the trick-or-treaters at Halloween.
She got some extra treats on her last day, like an order of her most favorite food in the world, French Fries, from the local fast food place.
She is now at the Rainbow Bridge waiting for us, with her beagle brother, Peanut, who we lost to bladder cancer in September of 2010.
I just need to get use to not having her underfoot constantly as my new normal.
That will just take some time.

After College Boy returned to school on Sunday it was very quiet here.  I have been off kilter the last few days, not hearing the clicking of Cherry's nails on the tile floor or hearing her raucous snoring in the evening.  I keep reaching to put the gate across the doorway from the kitchen into the dining/living rooms to keep her out, as she developed a liking for going pee on my living room rug in the last few months.
I keep waiting for her to start barking for her meals.
And I find myself talking out loud to her like she is still in the house. 8-(

Cyber Monday came and went and I bought nothing.
Not a single present or needed item.
I got pissy Monday went I discovered that the gift my daughter wanted for Christmas, that I had purchased for her on Thanksgiving online for $XX amount went on sale at a different merchant online on Monday for $50 less than what I shelled out.
bleh.

Then I went to pick up an online order from KMart this morning, which I paid for online, only to find that 1 of the 3 items in the bag was the wrong size.  Nope, I ordered correctly, someone picked/packed the wrong one.
Ugh.  I guess I can take this back for a refund to a closer KMart(it wasn't available at my closest store for pick-up, only the one on the other side of Wilkes-Barre).
It just aggrevates me that A-I didn't check the items before I left that store and B-that I have to return/exchange something.  Something that needs to be mailed so I can't sit on this return/exchange and do it later after the Holidays or something.  I have to go back into a crowded store and wait in a horrendous line again.
double bleh.

I also had someone buy a piece of fabric on Etsy and when I went to pack it I noticed a manufacturer's flaw on the piece.  I wrote the buyer to let her know about this and see whether she still wants the fabric at a discounted price, of course.  It's been 2 days and no word back so I wrote her again.  If I don't hear anything by tomorrow I'll just cancel the transaction and refund her money....which means Etsy will pull money from my credit card on file because they already deposited the funds for this transaction into my bank.
triple bleh.

On the good side of things, I sold that Longaberger Basket on eBay the day before Thanksgiving and shipped it out on Friday.  It was delivered today but so far no word from the buyer.  I worry at this time of year because she has Zero feedback and the crazies come out on eBay at Christmas time as regularly as reindeer poop on your rooftop.

The new battery charger for my camera arrived today(!!!) and I am impatiently waiting for it to finish charging so I can use my camera again.
This is holding up my Rite-Aid shopping reports(1 report from Sunday)and posting about my next Giveaway.  Pictures are required for both ya know.......

It snowed again here today and getting home from KMart was jaw clenching.  Now the wind has whipped up and I can hear the trash cans outside blowing away as I type. 

Hubs got the Christmas tubs/boxes down so I have plenty to do to keep me busy until College Boy returns in a week from this coming Friday or Saturday, depending on the weather.  I am just not in the mood yet for the Holidays and all that needs doing just feels so overwhelming.  It would help if the sun would come out one of these days and lighten my mood.


So now you are up to speed on my crazy life.

What's new in your world?

Sluggy
 

I'm Still Here!...I Think....

This button should give you an indication of how my week is going.
Today especially has been one knot-in-the-gut inducing winner!
It is definitely my week to be the BUG!
It also explains why I have been MIA most of this week.
And it isn't anything I can share here......for now.

I'll just say that it involves college, medication(or lack thereof), death threats, authorities not taking certain things seriously, college administrators not doing their job and the District Attorney's office.
Just keep us in your thoughts.
And send me all your spare Maalox.....

And the other normal stuff I've been dealing with this week?  Well, none of it has been normal!  Everything has been a big old load of Manure this week.

I totally missed my Monday Spending Report/Menu for the Week post.
Not much point in posting it at this late date in the week, huh?
Hubs was out of town for 3 days so #2 Son and I just made it up as we went along.
I never got around to thawing anything today since I was busy working on getting my Stress Levels through the roof, so it's Breakfast for Dinner or Take-Out tonight.
Tomorrow might actually see me cook a proper meal.....but don't be taking bets on that, as it's not a sure thing! ;-)

I spent $95.00 even last week at the grocery stores, in 3 transactions.  The reg. retail was $183.12.  I 'may' have used a coupon or two but don't recall exactly.  My savings rate was a little less than 50% altogether.
My food spending for the month now stands at $345.63.  It's over my monthly budgeted amount but may still be within my budget with my leftover monies from Jan. & Feb.  I'll check on that later, IF I feel like going to that much effort. ;-)

That $95 included bags of discounted salad, eggs, cabbage, 2 gallons of milk, onions, a roasting chicken at .88¢ lb., a head of iceberg, 7 packages of sliced mushrooms(I froze 3 of them for later use), sour cream, a yogurt(I was hungry!) and 5 cans of chili.  Weis "Pound Me In The Ass" Markets is having a Grand Re-Opening of their remodeled store so they sent out a sheet of coupons-4 are good each week.
I went there to get some cheapies--corned beef briskets(3 of them at $1.49lb.), 5 packages of ground beef with store discount Qs making them less than $1.99lb., BOGO stuffed clams, $1 a bag ravioli and oranges on sale.  Since all that came to over $50, I was able to use the $5 off $50 Q they sent me.  I also used the other 3 Qs($2 off lb. of deli meats, FREE 2 ltr. Coke and FREE pkg. of cookies).

I made Chicken Fajitas on Sunday and Hubs and I had the leftover last night.  They were soooo good!
I've got a craving for them again so if red peppers go on sale again here, I may make some Beef Fajitas next time.  I am all over Veggie Fajitas too but Hubs wants meat in his so maybe next time I make chicken ones, I'll put the chicken to the side and go vegetarian for the day.

Alright back to making calls.
Dang, have I ever told y'all how much I DETEST talking on the phone??!!
Ick.

Sluggy

Mommy MeltDown

What do I have in common with this place?

Besides both of us being located in PA, we both have/had experienced a meltdown.

While my current meltdown is not radioactive, I'm having a really bad week.  Not "loved ones dying kind of week" but the "nothing is working out right kind of weeks" that's left me an emotional puddle of goo.

I have like a zillion projects and things I need to attend to here.  And nothing is getting done.  Making lists won't help since there is no one to delegate jobs to, so the lists just remind me what a failure the situation is right now.  There is no cooperation from the family, just more pressure.


Plus my health is not the best and no matter what I do, it's not getting any better.  Maybe I just need to face the fact that my body is older than my mind thinks it is and it just can't do what I want it to do anymore.

Ok, so this is turning into a 'poor poor pitiful me' post and I don't want that because well, nobody wants to sit and read that, right?lol

I am at a point where I have no motivation for literally ANYTHING!  I don't want to cook or clean or tackle any projects(except the gardening and I can't do much of that myself).  "If breathing weren't automatic I'd probably die" kind of lack of motivation.

I don't even want to hunt the deals.....shocking, I know!lol

I am burnt out of eBay already(again!lol), and my decluttering has come to a standstill.  Decluttering because of the hoarding gene I possess is an emotional ordeal at best for me anyway, but add in the lack of support from my family and I ask myself, " why the hell am I  trying to accomplish this since it feels like a punch to the gut every time I try?".

Add in a situation with one of the dogs that keeps deteriorating and I am made out to be the bad guy because I don't want him here.  My house is a mess and we can't do anything about it because of this dog....a dog that was forced upon me to begin with.

Then pile on a weeklong stay by a relative that is putting more pressure on me that I don't want/need because I have a hubby who won't stand up to his family.

I just want to get in the car and drive.  I haven't felt like this since I had extremely bad post partum depression after #2 son was born, were I sat and cried for 6 months and then did actually leave home.

So keep some good thoughts for me.....


Sluggy