Less Money, Mo Problems

You know what?

I'm tired of being poor. I really REALLY am.

Before I go into this, I will start with a disclaimer: I know there are people in worse off situations than I am. I know that I should be grateful for what I do have. I KNOW. Believe me, I know.

Its just sometimes I get so tired of worrying about how we're going to pay this bill or where the money's going to come from to pay for this that just came out of nowhere. And I'm tired that every penny has to go to something responsible. Maybe sometimes I want to buy something fun, maybe I want to buy some clothes, maybe I want to be frivolous for two minutes without regretting it. Maybe I don't want to have to worry if its going to be okay to go out to dinner or to the zoo, like normal people get to do.

I shouldn't look at other people and compare their situations to mine, but it is SO HARD sometimes. Its like all these people are right there in my face constantly with their big houses and their money and I WANT THAT. I WAAAAAAAANT IT.

People are so judgemental towards people who don't have money too. If I told you I was on food stamps and you saw me at the store buying soda and chips, you would think I'm being irresponsible or wasting that free money right? Well, gosh dang, I can't buy anything, you're going to begrudge me some freaking chips too?! Do I get any sort of indulgence ever?

Honestly, I want to be rich because I want it to just be easy for awhile. There are a bunch of other things already that weigh on me, and I would like the money weight to be lifted.

That would be nice.

Okay, pity party over. I feel like I go through highs and lows where I'm okay with our situation and I realize that money isn't whats important in life, but then when things start to pinch I want an easy solution. And of course, nothing I come up with to make extra money is ever going to be instantaneous and solve all our problems, so I'm stuck feeling overwhelmed by it. Someday I'll figure it out. Or else we'll get rich and I won't have to. I really hope its the second thing... ;)

You Are What You...Hate?

Does it ever hit you that you're one of those people that does the things you hate about other people?

Do you know what I mean? You're like "I HATE it when people gossip!!" but don't realize how much you gossip yourself? Or you think, "People should really pray and read the scriptures every night!" except for the fact that you don't actually do it yourself. You think you do, but not really.

When my husband was gone last year, all of a sudden I was in charge of ALL the money. I hadn't had to pay tithing in a long time, since my husband always took care of it. Then there was the fact that we didn't start getting any income at all for almost two months (that was fun) so I guess it slipped my mind when the money started coming in. Then I had a conversation with someone about someone not paying tithing who said they were, and I was like "That is SO WRONG!!....wait a second...I HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING TITHING!!!" It wasn't a conscious thing, I just didn't realize I hadn't been doing it.

I got super sunburned yesterday and the day before. I hate chronic sunburners', like seriously, learn to put some sun screen on. It makes me crazy. And here I sit, burnt to a crisp because I didn't have sun screen to put on (the first day) and didn't put extra sun screen on my neck and face (just my arms) the next day. Stupid.

My husband's out of town this week, in Washington DC again. I let it sneak up on me and didn't actually prepare for him being gone, its like my brain is seriously not functioning--even worse than usual. Scary thought. I mean it would be a scary thought if my brain could think. But it can't process anything right now. I blame too much Mountain Dew. "Don't do it kids--it'll melt your brain!!" (Thats a quote by me.)

I'm lazy, and I don't like it. I would do something about it, but I'm too lazy to. And thats the honest truth.

I hate lazy people.

Achy Breaky--I'll Break Your Leg

Hellllooooo there!

So.

I'm back.

For reals this time.

My computer is fixed and I think I've made it to a happier, less stressful place and I am ready to blog again. I think.

You know what I feel like blogging about? You are so about to find out!

Last night my husband and I watched that "Surprise Homecoming" show. I really didn't think I could stand watching it, I was tearing up bad just watching the commercials. This wasn't planned either, we were just watching "Cake Boss" and this just so happened to come on afterwards, and we were totally sucked into it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, especially because Billy Ray Cyrus is the host.

Can I say that man made me crazy the entire show?!

Just starting with how the man looks. He still has a mullet. Which makes me want to punch him in the head. Then he was wearing some ridiculously--and I mean ridiculous--tight pants. With a leather jacket. Gosh what a douche.

So then every time he opened his mouth it was some outrageous crap. At one point he was introducing this soldier during an assembly and was all, "This man is my hero. He is my biggest hero. Please applaud...(pulls out an index card and READS OFF HIS NAME) Cpt. Blah Blah Blah." Are you freaking kidding me?! You couldn't respect this man enough to remember his name?! Then he says some garbage at some point about how he can relate to having a child in a war zone and how hard that is...uhhhhh, he does?! And THEN he said something like "I am so glad I could do this for them." What, you really didn't do anything. They would have a homecoming whether he was there or not, whether it was on tv or not, he really didn't do much of anything. At one point he tried to make some joke about Miley waiting out in the truck and I wanted to kick him in the groin. He just came off as such an idiot. By the end of it, I was irked. I just think the host should be someone who has the tiniest inkling of whats its like to be apart of the military, but its a pretty intense situation and deserves someone that knows how to treat the families with some sensitivity.

Alrighty, that is all. For now.

Rambling Madness

So I'm back. Not because my computer's fixed or anything, but because I'm bored and...yeah.

We were supposed to be in Utah this week. I don't want to talk about it.

My husband still took the time off work, we're just staying here and doing fun "family" things instead.

Today we took the kids to a nature center, we looked at turtles and snakes, played at a cute little park and took a 1/2 mile walk around a lake with a bridge in the middle. It was fun. (Imagine awesome pictures I took, that I can't load on here because I don't have a computer I can upload them to:)

*picture of kids going down slide*


*picture of turtles resting on a log*


*picture of us walking along a trail*

Then we went to this restaurant we saw featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" that my husband's been begging me to go to for months. Its called "Southern Kitchen" and this is what you should expect if you went there:

I smaaaall area to sit at, which will be ridiculously crowded. The crowd will be....(whats another word for ghetto?) yeah, that. Because its located in the heart of Tacoma (if I called it Tacompton, would that help you visualize better?). The service might be slow, but they are very friendly. The food will be pretty good. But to be honest, I would have been just as happy with the fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy from KFC. At least then you could eat it at home, and not with some gang member two inches in the chair behind you asking the waitress if they had a liquor license because he needed at drink at 2 in the afternoon...anyway, I think my husband was happy, so thats good.

Then I decided I really was going to dye my hair. It was going to RED and it was GOING TO HAPPEN this time. Do you think it happened this time? No. My hair is stupid and it sucks. And I hate it too. I seriously spent hours last night trying to figure out the best way to get the result I wanted, do you know how many YouTube videos I watched about dying dark hair red?! A LOT, thats how many.

And you know what?!?! I can't even show you guys a stupid picture of my stupid hair because my stupid EXPENSIVE computer quit on me!!!!!! (*heavy panting, because I've totally worked myself up*)

Hey, have you ever noticed when you dye your hair it feels like your brain is swelling out of your skull? Or maybe it feels like your skin is swelling like a giant hive? Anyway, its a weird feeling...and perhaps you shouldn't blog right after you've dyed your hair because it killed a lot of brain cells...

Anyway, I think thats my hint to stop this hot mess...

Mac Daddy

I know its been awhile, and I have a valid excuse (not just laziness, which is my usual excuse). My computer is broken. :( Wait now, did you read that right?

MY COMPUTER IS BROKEN!!!!!

My life line, my muse, my best friend, the only one who understands me, my one true love...is on the fritz.

I've been having problems with it freezing up every couple weeks, it will last a day or two and then be fine again. This last week it started freezing up, and it never got better. I was reading the help site and doing some of the things it said when I came across the hard drive, it said something awful. It said: FAILING. ("Copy as many files as you can, and then see a licensed Mac representative.)

So anyway, thats why I've been gone, and thats why I officially lost my mind this last week (the separation was horrible). My husband brought his work laptop home and is letting me use this. Hopefully next time I blog, it will be on my newly mended computer. And pray for me that they'll be able to save all my pictures, otherwise I might honestly lose my sanity. Ugh, I don't even want to think about it.

Yup, I'm Talking About Hair...Again

So I cut my hair a week and a half ago. It didn't quite turn out how I wanted but its not a big deal. I guess I was hoping for more of a change, but it just doesn't look that different.

So I went out and bought a box of hair dye. I know I should have gone to a professional, but I really just can't afford to pay someone $70 when I can buy a box for $3. I even talked to my friend who's a hairdresser and she showed me the color of hair dye I should buy and told me just to do it myself if I wanted to save money. So I went and bought some.

I was really nervous. When I see other people with the color hair I wanted, I really like it, but trying to picture myself I just couldn't do it. I was afraid I'd look totally weird. But I finally mustered up the courage and I DID IT.

This is how it turned out:

Does this look red/auburn to you?! Nope, it pretty much looks exactly what my hair normally looks like, with a slight reddish tint when the bright light hits it. I would never look at my hair and think "Oh she has red hair!" Nope, its brown. Stupid dark brown that doesn't want to be dyed.

So now I'm angry and annoyed and I think I'm just going to chop it all off short and dye it blonde. And its going to work even if I have to fry my hair to do it.

WIN A TRIP TO PARIS!!

In 2008 my mom and sister were in a car accident. An older woman pulled out in front of them and hit them head on. My mom received three torn discs in her back, which won't heal even though she's done everything her doctor's said and is a very health conscious person, like the perfect patient. The woman's insurance refused to pay for anything.

You see, that insurance company is Allstate.

If you don't know anything about insurance companies, there are a few you REALLY don't want to have, the worst being Allstate, and others like Nationwide, State Farm and AIG.

If you read up on any of these companies you would be appalled. Despite the fact that its what their company is paid to do, they will do anything not to help when its needed. They want to pay NOTHING out, they want to keep all the money.

My mom wouldn't accept that, so she pushed the issue and they sent her to arbitration. The arbitrator said he would award my mom the highest amount he could ($50,000) and would give her more if he could. Of course, Allstate wouldn't accept that, so they took it to court.

Here's the thing, while in court, no one can say anything about Allstate or the arbitration. They made it look like my mom was suing the little old lady that hit her. Who was a police officer. Yeah. They also had their doctor do an "exam" (where he ignored what my mom said, didn't even look at her MRI and basically didn't do a dang thing), even though my mom had FIVE doctors saying what she had, this guy came in, lied and the jury believed him. What have we come to in America? Where our courts protect the wrong and make the people out to be liars. The doctor they used was kicked out of another state for malpractice, works for L&I and was being sued from a previous case for making an injury out to be less than it was, but none of that was allowed to be said in court. WHY? The lawyer for Allstate lied his freaking head off and then had the nerve to go up to my mom and say "No hard feelings huh?" afterward. I don't know how people sleep at night.

And my mom, who is the most honest person I know was called a liar and irresponsible and ripped to pieces. And now has thousands of dollars of court fees, besides the medical fees she'll have for the rest of her life. Its sickening.

You should know: don't support Allstate--they will NOT support you. Think about it, if you bought a shirt from a store, but they refused to actually give you the shirt, would you sit back and be okay with it? I don't understand how an insurance company can refuse to do their job and then be PROTECTED in court about it.

Okay, I think I got some of it out, but I'm still so mad about it. Its just wrong.

Now I think there was something about Paris in the title? I know, that was way tricky. But 'Oh Happy Day' is having a contest to win a trip for two to Paris. Amazing. If I won, I would take my mom. :)

The Weather Isn't the Only Thing Gray Around Here

A few weeks ago I was braiding my older sister's hair and noticed she had a couple gray hairs. I was a little shocked since she's not quite thirty yet. She was all "Oh yeah, I've had some gray for awhile..." all nonchalant and whatever. So it got me thinking (see: obsessing) if I have any gray hairs. I looked and saw nothing, asked my husband if he saw anything: nope.

Then the other day I was sitting in my car putting make up on. I looked in the mirror and behold what did I see?!

A GRAY HAIR!!

You know what I honestly think? I focused so much on if I would get a gray hair, my body responded and grew one.

I suck.

You know who else sucks? Our new neighbors.

Oh yeah.

Our seriously crappy old neighbors moved out (actually were kicked out--they were that crappy), and were replaced by people JUST. LIKE. THEM.

They smoke outside my front door. They BBQ at 9 o'clock at night. Play their music super loud all day long and into the night. They have a dog thats even louder than the old neighbor's dog, that will probably poop on only our lawn like the last one. And they've only been here TWO DAYS. No wonder I'm getting gray hair.

Don't worry, I'm going to go look at a house today and hopefully we will be out of here by the end of this month.

Pray for me.

And Now...A Letter

Dear Utahns,

I know you've been having a lot of rain and bad weather lately, and I'm sorry about that. Who am I kidding, I am not one bit sorry. I've noticed a little something about Utahns, and that is: you complain about the weather--A LOT. Every Spring there is the obligatory "What's with this SNOW Utah?! Don't you know its the end of March?!" Dude, the weather does this EVERY year, when are you going to get used to it? I remember one year it snowed in flippin' JUNE, and I remember saying those same things then too. But now that I'm not in the middle of the Utah world, I've noticed that Facebook status's from Utah constantly say the same thing (see above quote). Now for ME, I can complain about the weather all I want because I live in Washington, which really does have horrible weather. At least Utah actually gets a great summer, so boo. Just thought I'd let you know.

Someone who's a little bitter about the weather and maybe slightly hypocritical,
~Melinda

Sip of the Crazy Life

My three year old just had a melt down over juice.

He said "Mommy, can I have apple juice in a cup pwease?"

So I got him some apple juice in a cup.

Simple enough right?

NO!

He wanted apple juice in a SIPPY cup. So he sat there and stomped and cried and I said sorry, but I already got you juice, drink it or don't.

Then he laid on the floor and very pathetically moaned, "I want my daddy." over and over. He even turned to his sister to make sure he made his point, "Maddie...I want my daaaaddy! waaah!"

It was ridiculous.

Over JUICE!

Of course now he's playing toys and laughing his head off, but who knows where we'll be in another five minutes. I live with a flipping' crazy person.