It's been a daunting few weeks...

and I really hated not being able to keep up with my posts. We are officially moved in and have been since October 30th when we turned over the keys to the landslums. I can tell you right now we will be taking them to court. They refused to do a walk through with Chris and told him that they would be keeping the deposit without stating why. I am not going to go into full detail because it still pisses me off to no end and I would rather save my energy for the day we get in court. We are well within our rights and Chris has taken over 150 pictures of the house before we handed over the keys. I am confidant that this will work out in our favor.

Now I am focusing my energy on getting the new house organized and settled. I still have some boxes out because I am not quite sure where to put all our crap. Can you believe it? We had a garage sale before we moved and I think we will need to have one in the near future.

Jeff and Katie are settled into their new routine. Jeff now takes a bus to school instead of being driven by his dad every morning. It gives Jeff more time to get ready in the morning and he can now take showers in the morning instead of the night before. He likes the fact that he gets home earlier from school. Normally I would pick him up but by the time he got to my car and we would have to wait for the buses to leave before we could inch ourselves into traffic.

Katie and I walk to and from her school. She absolutely loves that. I like the fact that I am getting good old fashioned exercise. I may even shed a few pounds doing this. That's of course if I do not have houses to clean. I don't have all my days booked just a few. Tuesday's and Thursday's are my solid days. I am hoping that word of mouth advertising does the trick. I know it takes time to establish and grow.

The dogs and cats are really getting along well. Except that the cats find the birds and hamsters a little too interesting. We lost a hamster last night. Cuddles was trying to get inside their cage and knocked the cage off the table and it flipped and landed on it's top. Bear survived but Pooh did not. Katie was upset and I felt so bad for Pooh. She was just so tiny and what an awful way to go. Reese whined the whole time while we wrapped Pooh up and cleaned the mess from the cage. Every time Cuddles tried to come over and investigate, Reese would chase her away. I checked on Bear this morning to see if he was still with us and apparently Katie had the same idea because she beat me to it. She was so cute when she explained to me that she worried all night that maybe he had "eternal bleeding". She is something else.

Ok.. I am off to get more done and I need to clean out our water cooler for Chris. The office is cutting back on their water delivery and Chris is bringing ours in.

Bad Credit will hinder...

I have always been one that struggled financially. It wasn't that I didn't pay my bills, it was more of not having enough money coming in to pay the necessities. Being a single mom for the first nine years of Jeff's life was rough. I didn't get help from his father and was I was way to stubborn to get all the help I could have from the government. I know I was entitled to some things because I did work and contribute. Nonetheless, I would rather work my self ragged than apply for assistance.

My credit is ok. Could be a hell of a lot better but I did my best to pay everything. There are a few marks against me because I am not perfect. I even took out bad credit loans when I was about 23 years old. I wanted to get things straightened out while I was a struggling single mom. It actually helped a great deal back then. I never got myself into deep water again after paying the loan off. I have learned to charge only what I know I can afford. I am so picky when it comes to credit cards as well. I can't believe the interest rates on some of them. I now know that the better your credit is the lower the interest you pay. I kind of wish I knew that back then.

With the housing economy coming to a stand still and many mortgage companies declaring bankruptcy, there is no telling how many people are going to be defaulting on their mortgages and how many banks will be foreclosing on homes this year and next year. There are so many houses for sale in Sarasota alone. The amounts that are being asked for are mind bending. You would think now would be the time to snatch up homes but I am telling you that the bottom will not actually drop until next summer when these people realize they are not going to get what they are asking for. Think about what I said and watch for it to happen

It's official... I have lost my mind...

after being out of school for almost 19 years, I have decided to further my education by enrolling at a University that allows me to get my Bachelors online. I am going for Bachelors of Science in Business. I have wanted to do this for over ten years but figured my life was too hectic and with raising a young family it wouldn't be feasible to do. This is going to take me until 2011 to complete but I am so anxious to get started. My first class starts this Wednesday, November 7th.

My family is behind me 100 percent and my son has volunteered to help me with my math... haha... thanks Jeff. I just may take you up on that offer.

There are three reasons that factored my decision to pursue this. 1: Proving to Jeff just how important an education really is to getting a better paying job, 2: This will give me tremendous knowledge to get the online store where it should be and maintaining the business and 3: To get me out of my dead end, going nowhere job I have now. Before you ask whether or not I got a chance to talk to my boss about a raise, the answer is no. He has not been in long enough to corner and apparently his golf game is far more important.

Wish me luck.