catching up

Well October has certainly been an interesting month. Sorry I have been away. I just couldn't get out from under the piles of life stuff.

On the home front, my hard drive on my laptop crashed. One afternoon it was fine, later that evening it started doing weird things, like not properly turning on. After a few attempts over the next couple days I finally got it to turn on, only to see the ominous message telling me of hard drive failure. After 2 weeks at the doctor, my laptop is home with a $220 medical bill. I wish I knew what caused it, so I could not do that again.

Going down to the desktop was a challenge as I somehow managed to sprain my ankle a couple weekends ago. I have NO idea how. I went for a great walk. I was fine. I came home and did a load of laundry. I was fine. I went to the school to work and as I started down my hall, I started to limp. It just kept getting worse and worse and a trip to the ER later that week showed there was no break or fracture, but a bad sprain. I spent the next four days with it up as much as I could. No laptop time. Laundry piled up as apparently there is some mysterious technique to it that no one else understands. It's almost healed now.

My mom got some bad news. She had had a couple moles removed this summer from the side of her face. They were sent for testing as per usual. The results were not good. She has malignant melanoma.  She goes next week for massive tissue removal and testing of her lymph nodes. She is very scared and is struggling to think positive.

School is very busy. Having 35 kids in one classroom is hard. Even with good kids. Trying to meet the needs of so many, all at once, is overwhelming.


DS1 has had quite the month. After an opportunity to play in front of some scouts, we have had a flurry of contact (phone, email and in person meetings) with NCAA coaches throughout the US. We now have to choose which school he wants to attend and play hockey for. The scholarships being dangled are quite amazing, as are the costs of US colleges. We have some math to figure out as well. I hadn't realized just how much a year of college costs. It was quite an eye opener. I guess I have to accept that it has been a LONG LONG while since I attended college and quite possibly, the costs have increased since then lol.  The chance for him to play top level hockey though, is something he has worked for his whole 'career' and not one we are going to deny.  He hasn't left yet, and I miss him already.

Fall is quickly here. While September was lovely, October has started to get quite cool. Most of the leaves are already down. It gets dark by 7 now and that desire to curl up under a blanket and watch TV and eat, is so very strong. I miss summer. I sure hope we don't have the long ugly winter we had last year.

While I could not say so before, I certainly cannot say now that  our world is frugal. It really is more a matter of choices and opportunities and making the best decisions for the four of us with the cash we have.

I sure would like to shake that money tree and have some rain down.