What a year!!!!

Hello Everyone,

What a year! I am 35 school days away from the end of my first year teaching and I have have had a blast! On my first day teaching, August 11th, my house flooded because one of my dogs chewed a water line under my sink and made my house an indoor swimming pool. Construction just ended this week and I must say as much as I hated that dog in the past, I LOVE HIM RIGHT NOW! (but probably not for long) My new kitchen and wood floors are beautiful! I did not realize how different a wall looks with baseboards. We have had no baseboards throughout most of the house since August and now that we have them, what a difference. We had to spend all of the money the insurance company gave us, so I had all of the doors repainted along with some additional work and with the repairs from the flood the house looks great! I used some of the undamaged kitchen cabinets around the house. I had some hung in the home office, the garage, and on the back porch. Like I need more storage space. I still have a few cabinets in the garage. I am going to offer them to my brother and sisters. If they don't need them, then I will try to sell them!

2008, and so far 2009, has been tough! Sales in the retail industry, as most of you would expect, are down and with me being a teacher, my income low, paying bills is almost a joke in this house......

Our creditors have killed all of our financial plans. As they have with most Americans, they have cut our available credit down to our current balances. Our mortgage company even did the same with our equity line of credit. We had a line of credit of over 65,000 and when they decided to cut our available credit down to our current balance, unfortunately, we only owed 23,000. Had I known they were going to do that, I would have wrote a check to myself for the difference. I need that to money to play with to stock Play N Trade, our retail store.... Well, trying to keep a retail store up and running it has made life more miserable than we could have ever expected. I did find out that we do qualify for "Freddy Mac" with our home mortgage, and I am "still waiting" for a call back from them to see what they can do for me????? (It has only been 21 days since I called them) Is that the male version for Fanny Mae????? Well, it isn't better. As most men are, I am still waiting for "him" to call me back!!!!!

With all of this, our spirits are high. We MUST have a gas leak!!!! Oh yeah, we don't have gas in the house! We know, we have done ALL we can and it is up to God to keep us afloat. He has been there in the past and we pray He will not give up on us now!

Did I tell you, 35 days until summer!!! I know because the children tell me EVERY day. They have even talked me in to tracking the days left on my board in my classroom.

Sarah has talked me into having a sleepover for her birthday this year.... I will have 11, 7-9 year olds staying the night at my house next Friday. We will make homemade pizzas, have popcorn and cake, and watch a movie. Doug informed me that he will be closing the store that night. Typical men. I told him I would close the store, but I don't have a clue how to work the register! So, I will be here! It'll be fun.......

I will try to stay on top of my blog in the future.