Monday, phone is ringing off the hook!

     My oh my I have had 7 phone calls before 10 a.m.  I also had a customer here at 10 a.m. It is going to be a busy day.  D#2 and her boyfriend have both been here all weekend with terrible colds and coughs.  We have been avoiding them, but it is hard.  Medicine all over the place. Two extra bedrooms and bathrooms in use with sickies! Daughter is going to sterilize them today.
 
     I really need to ignore the house and just concentrate on the shop today.  The house will be here tomorrow.  But my obsessive nature keeps breaking through.  I was disappointed in the amount of yard work I was able to get done on Saturday, until yesterday when we ate dinner out on the deck, I could really see how much was done.  You can't do it all in a day.  I know I have tried:)

     My goal this week is to get the house payment done, and I need to pay at least 1550.00 although the payment is only 1406.00 because I want to see the mortgage go under 100,000.  That will be a biggie for me.  But I also need money to go to a Wedding this weekend so we will see how much I can put together. Yikes!  The pressure of not using the CC.

     Saga cont:

     We lived in that house for 2.5 years. So many changes happened in my life during that time.  Hubby was able to get on full time with the State of Idaho as a Forester using his college degree and skill set.  The pay was terrible, but we had benefits.  He was determined to be a Forester and would keep at it until he had secured a job.  Well he was 38 years old so it was time to settle down to a full time job. (sarcasm) We were working on the house, but we really had no money.  It was here that I began to realize I had a problem with spending.  I read Gerrold Mundis's book, How to get out of debt, Stay out of debt and Live prosperously.  Which I still believe to be the best book on debt reduction written.  But try as I might  we were too far in debt with the house to get out.  We had obtained a loan for shingles and for a new furnace, new wiring and a new fuse box.  We also had the basement floor poured and the rock interior of the basement sheet rocked.  Money was really tight.  We just took on to much debt to fast. Home equity loans were not in vogue at the time or I am sure we would have had one.
     I continued working at the school and working at the insurance office, always looking like I had stepped out of a band box.  My Sissie would sent me huge boxes of beautiful clothes.  But the house would be knee deep in dust and clothes and toys.  You name it.  I remember a good friend of mine coming over to help me clean the upstairs and she was no neat nick.  I think she was shocked, first that I had let it go this long and second that I had so much stuff.  I just was not proud of what I had, I was ungrateful and did not take care of anything.  It seems hard to believe as I look back how silly I was, how depressed I was about the whole thing.  But life is a learning process and I was learning.
     Our Bishop at this time came to the insurance office where I worked .  He was actually the head or regional boss of this insurance line.  I had made new curtains for the office as the ones that were there when I started were from the 60's.  He commented on the new look and asked me how well I could sew.  I was not a bad seamstress but I was no professional either.  There was a woman in our ward that was sick with a pregnancy and had a really busy sewing shop.  She had 3 other small children and needed help keeping the shop open.  So as a service to this sister, I would go into her shop on my days off and keep it open.  She was so sweet and she had also lost a child about the same time I lost Franka.  We bonded.  She taught me so much.  I really learned to be a good seamstress and how to fit clothing from her. I could also take my baby who was about 18 months old with me to the shop.  I hated working at the insurance office.  I liked my boss and the people but the work was boring.
     Both the sister and her husband could tell that on the days that I worked there they made money.  I could sew about $100-125.00 a day.  They came to me and asked me to come on full time and they would pay me 50 percent commission.  I was thrilled.  I would be able to get #1 off to school and take #2 with me (no daycare).  They eventually wanted me to open another shop and go into a partnership.  I loved the sister I was working for, but it became clear to me that her husband was mentally ill and very abusive.  I stayed on as long as I could, because I wanted to help her.  She was so frazzled and would often not get anything done in a whole day.  Her kids were unhappy children and at her constantly.  Because she was making no money and I was making all the money her husband wold be even more angry.  I wanted to protect her but I couldn't.  So I asked hubby if we could turn the glassed in porch that ran the length of the house into a sewing shop.  He was scared to death.  I was going to borrow yet another $2000.00 to carpet the shop and put in new blinds.  I also bought 2 sergers and a new machine.  Up to this point I had never owned a sewing machine. I always borrowed a machine and a vacuum cleaner .  We could never afford to buy one. I swept my carpets clean and borrowed a vacuum can you believe that?  Nuts I tell you! 
    Opening my own shop really caused hard feeling with this couple, but I felt I had no choice.  I was busy immediately.  D#2 was also busy.  Oh the messes she could create when I was in my shop.  I would just shut the doors and let the dust pile up.  I would crisis clean on a regular basis.  The shop stayed as neat as a sewing shop can, and my front room was spotless.  I was learning to get out of debt and really trying hard to live within my means, but when you are never happy or grateful for what you have, when you always want more, it was hard to not flounder.

to be cont:

     I am headed for the shop,as I have a lot to do.
Out My Window:  Sunny cool, beautiful Fall day.  I will be inside all day boo, hoo.

Have a great and productive day!

Kim