Unemployment, month 1

Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the financial belt tightening is going well. Pat's picking the kids up right after school, which means we don't have to pay for aftercare, and we have a little more time for homework and projects. Or cross country practice! I've also stayed away from Target (not getting the Sunday paper and all its ads helps, too!), and no one's short on clothes or shampoo. We did have a TP crisis last week while I was out of town, but we got through it.

Other good news: Pat did some research on the mortgage, and talked to the bank - we qualify for an emergency refinance program that doesn't require requalifying or reappraisal of the house. We'll have to pay a penalty on the amount in our home equity loan, which put me in freak out mode, until we got the dollar amount from the bank. Ended up not being to terrible - and certainly easier to manage than paying off the HEL in a lump sum. Sigh.

The bad news: Pat is having to attend meetings at the state unemployment office. Ooh, he's not a happy guy. The busy work and time sink is frustrating for him. In addition, the advice they're handing out is garbage - the counselor last week advised the group to apply at some of the areas larger employers, including the company that just laid Pat off! Clue-less!

So, Pat's even more motivated to get off the unemployment and back to a real job. My suspicion is that the 4th quarter hiring freeze has come early - businesses are not yet ready to "buy into the hype" that the recession is over. It may be lessening, but no one wants to risk it just yet.

So, we'll be continuing to buckle down for the long haul. I'd better stock up on TP. ;-)

It's Freezing In Here!

Well, we're on Week 2 here in Layoff Land. DH is still hitting the job sites and sending out resumes like crazy. No interviews as of yet. We should receive his first of two severance checks this week.

This impromptu diversion has meant a change in our spending habits. Right now, it's all about cutting out the little things: game and movie subscriptions, dinners and lunches out. We're also doing menu planning, eating from the freezer stash, shopping from a list. (And making excellent use of my new slow cooker!) I have found myself on somewhat of a spending freeze - keeping purchases to The Essentials, and staying away from Target. I can always find something to buy in Target, if not for me, then for the girls...

Now, I'm not sure how truly frozen my spending is - I still allow for a lunch or two out, McDonald's for the girls, and dinner with the grown ups. But, I feel like we're spending carefully, and keeping things in check. A little tightening of the belt, and hopefully, we'll come out of this quickly and only slightly scarred.

Coincidentally...

Oh, my, it's been a long time. I guess you can blame it on Facebook. Or just Life in General. ;-)

Today, I'm wondering about coincidences. The last few days have had some odd happenings that seem to be happening in an odd order.

Exhibit A: Friday. There are not normally a lot of people in my office, but Friday, vacations aligned and I was the only one there. I was pretty nose-to-the-grindstone until after lunch, then I got fidgety and decided to pack it in and head for home. As I left, I waited in the hall and watched the door to our suite close all the way. That's not part of my normal routine, but I remember waiting and watching the door.

This morning, the security guard from upstairs tells me that the cleaning people couldn't lock our office door Friday evening. They told the management company, who came in on Saturday and replaced the lock.

So, what made me pay attention to the door closing Friday night? General creeped-out-ed-ness at being the only one in the office? Extra feelings of responsibility? A keen interest in the half-full candy bowl?

Exhibit B: Saturday. Nice weekend, squirrely kids, we end up doing some painting projects in the garage. In order to have space for said painting projects, I need to back my car out into the driveway. Where it has remained until today, because the painting projects are in various stages of done-ness.

Exhibit B, Part 2: Monday. Work day. Crazy work day, I might add. And I've got enough to keep me busy for a few weeks, so I brought my work computer home, intending to play catch up this evening.

This evening, there's a large crack sound in the garage. Turns out, the spring on the door has broken. Ooh, not good. Pat tries to lift the garage door - can't. Ooh, really not good. But, again, in the whole "lucky coincidence" department, my car is parked in the driveway, and I have my work computer at home, so Pat can use my car while I work from home and wait for the people to come fix the garage door.

Did I know something in bringing my work computer home this evening? What about the car in the driveway? Does that have some special meaning? Or is it all just a series of lucky breaks? Yeah, lucky breaks. And not the bone kind!

Was That _My_ WalMart?

I'm home today, trying to reach a delicate balance in my packing. Enough stuff, but not too much. Fewer suitcases, but not too heavy. One of my secrets - vacuum bags! (Not the kind that go in your vacuum cleaner, but the kind that you seal and press out the air.)

I've used these for my work trips for several years. Especially in the days of carry-ons and inspections by hand, I liked having my dirty clothes somewhat contained. When my hair product packaging prevented me from carrying on my suitcase, I continued to use the vacuum bags, to better use the available space in my suitcase. Yes, things come out wrinkled, but part of my first-night-in-the-hotel ritual is to iron everything for the trip, so it works out.

So, in this week's pack-stravaganza, I ran out of vacuum bags. Not sure how that happened, as I've had occasion to pack for the whole family for a week-long trip before. But, I've also slept since then, so there's no telling if I bagged things differently, or found a new place to stash my bags (and then forgot about it). I also have one bag with a tear along the seam, so I justified it was time for some new bags. I've taken the day off from work, so I figured I could shop after I dropped the kids off at school.

Ok, it's confession time: I'm not a WalMart shopper. The cluttered aisles, the sheer volume of things available at the store, the nutty parking lot arrangement; I just don't like it. However, there are things I like to buy at WalMart: kids hangers, some crafty stuff, etc. I've discovered the only time I can tolerate WalMart is first thing in the morning, when no one's there. (And yes, it's a 24-hour store, but there's usually no one there until after 10 am.) So, on this morning, I stopped by WalMart in search of my vacuum bags.

I walked into the store and sensed something was up. There were more bodies in the store, but they were employees, or maybe even Managment or Corporate Management. The regular employees were very heads-down, getting their stuff done, but watching this cluster of men in button-down shirts out of the corners of their eyes. I rounded the corner toward the pharmacy section, and discovered a clean, wide expanse of linoleum...all the in-aisle displays were gone. Hey! Maybe these guys in the shirts should come by more often! But, I sensed flux, not total change. Sure, the aisles were clear, but I know WalMart...this is not a permanent change. The clutter will be back, urging me to pick up the value pack of two deodorants or hand lotion.

I tracked down my vacuum bags and browsed the store, looking for other items on my list. Sure enough, there were several wide open spaces around the store - all the aisles, but within some of the merchandise areas as well. Interesting...

(While I was checking out, the "remodel team" was paged over the intercom, which suggests to me that the clean aisles were truly temporary - just for the convenience of the remodel team.) Sigh.

Turns out, the vacuum bags I bought are too big. So, I'll be touring WalMart again this afternoon. I'd report on what has changed since this morning, but, as I'm not totally memorized the floor layout, I'm not sure I'll notice!

Having Cake and Eating It, Too!

Edited: The After Photo!

We're starting the week of birthday celebration at our house tomorrow. Since the family is flung far and wide, we usually end up celebrating birthdays once locally, and again with the out-of-towners. Sometimes the out-of-town party is closer in proximity to the actual birthday, other times it's delayed by several weeks. But, we always get a chance to party! ;-)

The first order of business for any birthday party is, of course, The Cake. I have been making and decorating birthday cakes around the house since the girls were new - I took the Wilton Cake Decorating class just to hone my skills. (Only got through Level 1. I am not certified for fondant, and just barely made it through Roses.) I have a toolbox full of cake tools - decorating tips, icing tints - and a nice stash of shaped pans - metal and silicone. And I'm not afraid to use 'em.

Some cakes have been awesome: the Homestar Runner series (The Cheat & Trogdor), The Monkey Cake (tweak the frosting with a fork to make it look like fur!), the flower cupcakes...Others have been less than stellar accomplishments: the Barney Cake that almost read "Happy #2!", last year's pink and brown bowling ball fiasco (first attempt with the spherical cake pan and an off-site party. Transportation fail!). Then, there's the year of the Mickey Cake and the Almost Ugly cupcakes (a legend among the Sisterly Drama stories around my sister's office - I blame my pregnant alter ego, Hormona.) But, this year's cake has great potential to be Really Good.

Kate chose the color scheme, based on a butterfly cake set in the Wilton cake book from a few years ago. The cake's from a box, but the icing is from scratch (buttercream: mmmmm!). The Wilton version is all fondant, but this cake is the first time I've successfully been able to use the "smooth the buttercream with wax paper" trick to make it look like fondant. And, the lettering around the edge of the cake (suggested by my husband) turned out straight (albeit a little slanted) and legible. Yay!

Tomorrow's the big fun - I will turn the icing bag over to the girls to handle the top of the cake. Come back and see the after photos. ;-)

The Quest for the DAR

A couple years ago, I was traveling to the east coast for work, and scheduled some time to visit my grandmother in Baltimore. I believe I was walking out the door to head to the airport when she mentioned the Daughters of the American Revolution group. She'd done the research, and we qualified as decendants of a Revolutionary War soldier. She didn't think she had time to join and "do all that paperwork," but it might be something I could do. Hmm...

This information hung out in the back of my mind for a few years. When my daughter was in 2nd grade, I helped chaperone a field trip with her class, and we visited an historic home in our area that is maintained by the DAR. That peaked my interest again, and I started conversation with the local DAR chapter to see what I had to do to join the group. (Maybe it includes initials I can include after my name. "Alison Caufield, 6th generation DAR" - probably won't get me any pull except with the second graders.)

Now, just browsing the "how to become a member" information on the web site is a bit daunting - they talk about proving the lineage, through birth, death and marriage certificates, tombstones, military documents. I imagined this process as embarking on something along the lines of the "National Treasure" movie - traveling far and wide to track down clues and pieces of the puzzle. But without having to break into the White House. ;-) Luckily, my grandmother has documented the family lineage, and I got my hands on it. So began the adventure.

Turns out, a lot of the "way historical" work has been done, and you don't have to re-do it for each applicant. The DAR has a list of eligible soldiers/service members, and when you apply, you can connect to lineage that someone else may have already done. So, most of what I have to do is track down certificates and documentation from my generation backwards. There's my project for the spring!

Turns out, I can also trace my ancestry back to the sister of George Rogers Clark. My husband would like to see if we can use this to our advantage, and possibly of "take over" some cities in our area that are named after him. We can all dream, right?

She's Gone Multi Syllabic!

I guess I first noticed Kim's new words while we were home with all the snow and ice. I don't remember the first multi-syllabic word she threw at me that week, but the second was this:

"Mom, you have had plenty of opportunities to finish the bedding for my baby doll. When will you have that done?"

Another example from tonight:

"Mom, I'm embarrassed that I don't know how to fix things." (Said during a fit of tears after we'd found some damaged baby doll furniture. Broken furniture is in the glue-drying stage as we speak, and should be good as new tomorrow.)

I'm sure she hears these words all the time, but it surprises me to hear her use them. Then again, she is a First Grader, and that, as we all know, is the Big Time.

So, where I once would have scrambled for a notebook or scrap of paper on which to write these little quotes (to save and embarrass her with later in life!), I now have The Blog, where I can keep these gems forever and always. Yay, Blog! ;-)