April change

I really haven't had much 'change' to report in 2015.  Between illness and how I spent my money, it just never quite seemed to accumulate.

This month I actually got to go to the bank.

1 roll of toonies - $50
1 roll of loonies -  $25
2 rolls of quarters -  $20
1 roll of dimes -  $5

Grand total - $100

I am excited for this and I took it to the bank  yesterday and put it straight down on the college LOC. Every little bit counts.

Funny story from the bank.... So I go in with my rolls of change and end up at a younger ish teller. Here is how the conversation went.

J - Yes I'd like to put this money down on my LOC please
Teller - Ok (glances at the rolls) so $105
J - $100
T - (with a sigh of exasperation and tone she looks at the5 rolls) $105
J - (with a smile and a quiet voice) There's $100 there
T - (takes her pen and emphatically taps each roll and snarks as she tallies for the obviously stupid client) $50, $75, $85, $95, $105
J - (with a small smile taps the dime roll with her finger) A roll of dimes is $5, so $100
T - Pfffft  whatever


I said nothing but I'm thinking 'ok I am ok with an extra $5 but your count will be out at the end of the day'

I am going with 'She was embarrassed she was wrong and doesn't have the skills to handle it'. 

The car heard me talking

I really should know better than to talk about windfall money coming in. Appliances, vehicles and such hear you when you do.  Murphy hears.

Last week DS2 took his car in AGAIN to a mechanic to have it checked for the same things we went  in for in Feb/March. Estimate from them for a transmission and everything else $6600.

That's more than we paid for a car we were told was in pristine condition.

So back we went to where we bought it (and where we have this warranty through), info in hand. The ladies in the parts department were pissed.  I was really calm and really well prepared with my info and didn't swear or anything. DS said I had a bit of 'that tone you get when you are trying to be nice  and sound nice but you're angry". Not sure if other people heard that too.

So back this car goes tomorrow to where we bought it so THEY can inspect it and see what is wrong and then they have to submit that info to the policy people to see what they cover.

I just want it to , be fixed, properly, and not have to go back. I am sure they want to see me, as much as I want to be there.

Between the policy and myself, we have spent $3000 on this car in less than a year.

le sigh

The backpay has arrived

As I had mentioned here, all the final pieces have fallen into place with the prolonged contract negotiations at work.  April's paycheque included the back pay from the almost two years of limbo.

Everyone at work has been curious how much it would be, and what would be left after deductions.

What I liked about our pay stub was that most of the deductions were listed twice...one for the regular deduction and one reflecting  the backpay piece. Then you could see the actual monetary amount that came off from the backpay piece. The only ones that did not show twice were the federal and provincial taxes, but I could look at March and Feb (which were the same) and just subtract the difference. I don't believe that the last time we were in this situation, things were listed separately.

Deductions came off for the two taxes, EI (Employment Insurance), CPP (Canada Pension Plan), my Pension and a dibble for professional dues.

The verdict....48.9% of the backpay never made it to my account.

I net $1200. I am grateful for the money. It would have been great to have all 100% of it, but that would never happen :-)

 I see it as a bonus or a gift. I have added it to my snowflake jar and placed it in my BMO savings while I think about it. 

RRSP Update

Last Friday my statement came for my RRSP portfolio, so it's time for my first update of 2015.

When last I wrote in November 2014, my RRSP was sitting at $8650. Right at the end of November, I added $1200 for the 2014 year, which was $800 short of my hoped for goal.

This put my portfolio balance just shy of $10 000 at $9850. I remember being annoyed at not being able to get to $10 000, even though it's really just a number.

My portfolio had increased $236 between the summer 2014 and November 2014 statements.

My statement currently is sitting at $10 196. Woo hoo!!! I am over the $10 000 mark and only tens of thousands below my contribution limit lol

 This gives me  a net growth of $346 between this statement and the last.  I had honestly expected it to be less given how badly the Canadian dollar tanked and my portfolio consists of Canadian Bonds (35%) and Canadian Equity (65%).  Anyone more familiar with how the dollar may or may not have affected this number is welcome to share with me. I freely admit to really not knowing squat about investments.

My RRSP goal for 2015 is  $1500. I hope college and Murphy doesn't crap on me enough to prevent this from happening.

Ok I take it back

I had to run to Walmart this morning and was feeling colitis strong so I thought I would do a quick price comparison of a few of the items I bought at Shoppers yesterday to their cost at Walmart.

Scanning my Shoppers bill, I saw that pretty much everything I bought WAS on sale. I don't have the original prices on my receipt so I can't do an authentic reg cost to reg cost comparison.

I didn't do the Kleenex or the Shoppers brand cleaner or my book and one other thing that escapes me at the moment.

Here is the breakdown below. The first price is Shoppers and the second is Walmart.

Fiber 1 cereal  - $3.99  vs $4.97
Swiffer dust cleaners -  $4.99 vs $4.99
L'Oreal Shampoo -  $3.99 vs $3.92
Covergirl -    $12.99 vs $16.46
Folgers K cups $6.99 vs $11.99
Huggies  - $34.99 vs $33.99
Huggies Wipes - $4.99 vs $3.99

Total for these items at Shoppers - $72.93
Total for these items at Walmart - $80.31

Holy wow. I found this interesting.  Since my bill yesterday said I saved $25, the regular priced costs is approximately $97. Definitely not cheaper if the items were not on sale.

I bought Gel at Walmart. $3.99 instead of Shoppers' price of $4.99

I thought my foundation yesterday was $19.97 but the bill said $12.99. Must be a change in the line coming that it was on sale. I should go back and get another one. $7 savings per item is a good deal to me.

Anyways, for those who care, that is my learning experience this morning.

Spending my points

It was spend your points day at Shoppers Drug Mart today.  I had acquired some with all the meds I have had to get over the past month so I went to redeems.

Usually I take pics of my free stuff, but DH was home all day and  he gets seriously weirded out by blogging and such so I didn't :-)

I have to say I am much more careful than I was a couple years about what I buy at Shoppers. I recognize  their prices are higher than our only other real choice, Walmart. There is something to be said for being able to zip in and zip out of Shoppers. Now that we have a 'super' walmart here, it is a bigger time commitment to go there and have to run to the far reaches of the planet to get things I need. Some days I am up for it and others, not so much.

I went with a list of a few things (and I just realized as I typed this I forgot Q tips) I needed. I got most of what was on my list, but I have to say I don't feel the woo hoo I usually do with these events. My little cart just felt empty given I was getting $100 of product for free. (For those in the US, our prices up here are so much more than you have down there so none of this will probably seem like a great deal :-)

The first two things on my list were Huggies and wipes. No, I have no deep secret news for you. My friend at work was having a baby shower for her daughter (and new granddaughter). They are a young couple with little money and I well remember the days of trying to stretch out the diapers to make them last. Prices have gone up in the 18 or so years it's been since I bought them. go figure. A case of diapers and wipes set me back $40 of my free dollars.

After that the list was short with most of the items I got, on sale. "you've saved $25.30" my bill says.

I got 1 box of Fibre 1, five boxes of Kleenex, 1 covergirl foundation, 1 loreal shampoo, 1 eye make up remover, 1 container of Life brand laundry detergent and a pack of K cups. My splurge was a trashy book by an author I enjoy.

That's it. That all cost $100. I paid $6.44 in taxes out of pocket.

I really wanted to get Herbal Essence hair gel but it was $4.99 for one tube of it and I just couldn't do it. I will have to go to Walmart this week sometime.

I have to say, out of all my 'reward cards', I use my optimum one the most.

First week back to work

Well I made it through my first week back to work.


 It feel very odd to have been gone for so long. The kids all seemed to be happy to see me so I take that as a good thing.   I spent most of the week trying to figure out where everyone was in their assignments and who needed extra encouragement to get their butt in gear. Professionally, it was WHAM back into the game with meetings as we make plans for all the documents and parent meetings I need to do before the end of the school year.

I was not 100% by any means. Two of the days I had chest pains that made it super hard to move and breathe....like an elephant and his family were having a sit down party in the middle of my chest. It's a side effect of the steroids. I still was grateful to be near the bathroom....in case.  At the end of the day I was tired...physically, mentally and my legs shook. When you are laying on the couch for weeks, your legs get week.

I definitely need to get my butt to the school this weekend and tackle the mountain of marking waiting for me.

And I need to work with DS2 on a few scholarship applications.

And we had trouble with his car...again.

TGIF

Credit cards back at $0

Now don't worry....there wasn't a balance carrying over. No  wild and crazy retail therapy.


I have been waiting for all the transactions and payments to go through and get me back to that $0 happy place.

On my Visa, I had put the dress I had purchased for DS2's grad.  It took four days for the online transaction to go from 'pending' to actual expense. Then I got an email from the company saying that dress was out of stock. It took another 5 business days for the refund to make it back onto my CC. 

On my MC, I was waiting for DS2's European expenses to show up Since he is not 18, I had to get him a secondary card on my account for the trip as that was the only currency that the ship would accept.  He had the 'unlimited drink package' from the cruise ship. That charge took 9 days to show up. The second charge was his silver pendant /keychain thingie he bought in Athens. That took 7 days. Once they showed up, it took 3 business days for my payment from BMO to BMO mastercard to go through. That part baffles me. I log in to one account to see both my chequing account and my MasterCard and just do a payment, but it takes forever to go through.

They are now, happily, at $0

I have to say I appreciate that Visa shows the pending transactions. BMO MasterCard does not. It  shows up in that my 'credit limit' is lowered because of a charge coming, but I can't see the where or what.   (Do your CC's show the pending transactions?)

I knew what was coming, just not quite how much, with the Euro/Canadian exchange.

That being said, I realized how anxious I get, to get those cards back to $0, even though I know what the expenses are, and I have the money to pay it. Interesting psychological development in me. Ah well, better than being anxious about balances ON the CC and how I am going to pay them off, like I used to all those years ago before I started to take control and understand (a tiny bit more) about how money works.

A quiet weekend

Perhaps it is an indicator of how things will be in the fall when the nest is empty. Perhaps it's just the feel of one of those weekends.

It has indeed been a quiet weekend.

Thursday I felt great. I made a road trip (one hour each way) to DS1's girlfriends' house. It is their one year anniversary this weekend and I went to deliver the "It's been a year but we are both broke and in college' gift, and visit with her family. Great people. I was VERY nervous about driving that far with no place to stop for bathroom emergencies. I stopped eating and drinking about 3 hours before I left and did not have anything while I was there.  I made it there and was fine. I made it home. Just.

It was great to visit with them and I felt semi normal for the first time in a long time.

Friday I felt awful. Just exhausted and in pain and a headache from the steroids. It started to clear up before supper.

DS2 headed up to his beloved Scout camp so it was just DH and I home.  Supper was....hmmm what is in the fridge to eat. Zero cost, but boring.  I know we will have to make plans of how to cook for two again this fall so it isn't a lot of days of 'why bother'.

DH wasn't feeling well so he went to bed by 7. Just me and the cats. Very quiet and very odd. I lit a couple of candles and made some tea and settled in to watch some playoff hockey. I watched the Chicago game (to feel close to DS1). They lost so he probably wasn't thrilled.

Today DH and I ventured out to Walmart. A big outing for me to see if I was able to. Success. I spent $140 on groceries (milk, juice, bananas, peanut butter, bread, coffee, cereal, cheese etc) and household items (cat food, litter, TP, Motrin etc). Probably 50% for each category

Supper tonight is beef stew from the freezer, some of my mom's homemade buns, and some cheese. I feel like having wine. It's been awhile. We shall see :-)

I am wondering if any Canadian readers out there can recommend a place to buy kitchen valances online. I am getting rid of the past their expiry date blinds in my tiny north facing kitchen and decided to go fabric this time. I don't want to spend a ton.  I checked out walmart and sears. I found the following ones below at bed bath and beyond online.

I only want a top valance and not the side panels

Any other suggestions??????

Finally got the chiro rebate

Way back at the start of January my neck went out. Then locked. I went to the chiro twice and ended up in ER twice when the  inflammation  pain just about did me in.

It took me til the end of February to submit the bills to my insurance, and 7 weeks later, the cheque has arrived. I get $80 of the $100 back, which is great. I am really appreciative of that.

The time delays mean though, that a girl has to have a spot in the budget to pay that bill when service is rendered, and not rely on that reimbursement coming before the next Credit card cycle.

I am popping that $80 onto my College LOC today. Every little bit helps.

DS2 is home

Well, he had a wonderful time.

He got in around 2 AM Monday night/Tuesday morning, after travelling almost 24 hours in the last day. He was surprisingly full of energy and wanted to show me what he bought and some of his pictures, so we did that before heading off to bed.

His favourite place in Greece was Rhodes. He loved the medieval look of the area and felt it was the place he most deeply connected with.

He didn't really spend a whole lot of money. Less than his brother did, I would say. I think more of 2's meals were covered by the program than 1's were, so that is a part of it. He took 300 Euros with him and never went to a bank machine to get more.  He has  about 80 Euros left, so I would say he did a pretty great job.

He brought some Greek figurines for himself, as that is a passion of his. He bought a bunnyhug (hoody) in Mykonos, and his silver medallion that he is pretty excited about. (It was smaller and lighter than I thought it would be). He bought me a small painting on canvas. It was the one that spoke to him the most, though it probably wouldn't be one I would have chosen. That part doesn't matter to me. I know how much thought he puts into everything he buys, so that alone makes it special for me.

We paid an extra $236 Canadian for tours they were on. We will get $76 of that back since weather did not permit them to visit Santorini.

He loved the ship, though many people who cruise a lot said it was a very base kind of ship. He spent $73 over 5 days for the unlimited drink/snack package. We knew that cost was coming. |Meals were provided, but there was  lots of downtime on the ship and this would take care of those needs.  He said he  tried every fancy (non alcoholic) drink  and coffee there was in all of the restaurants and cafes on the ship. Given those drinks were $6 or $7 euros each if he had paid that way, it was a good deal.

He tried all of the different food offered, though he didn't care for some of it. He found olives bitter. He learned how to drink Turkish and Greek coffee, with the dregs at the bottom.

On the way there, they spent a day and night in Toronto. He toured the Aquarium there ($33) and said it was an amazing experience. I was hoping he would love it. The people who chose the CN Tower tour instead said they felt like they spent all their time in line, rather than experiencing it, so I would say DS made a great choice.

Would he go to Greece again? To Rhodes, yes, but otherwise, he feels he saw most of what he wanted to see. Italy would be his next place to visit, should the opportunity come.

I am so glad I was able to save up for, and give him this trip.

Not Back to Work, and a bit of a raise

Well today is the day  I was supposed to head back to work. Home still for a few more days.

 I realized I had forgotten to mention the raise we got. We have been without contract for 2 years and earlier this year it was settled. No vote by the members. Just settled.

Anyways, at the end of March we got our first cheque that reflected our raise over the past 2 years. I net approximately $100 more a month.  For the teacher next door to me, the raise bumped her into the next tax bracket and she now makes $70 LESS a month than she did before the raise.

We ended up getting less than 2% for each year.  Annual cost of living in our province is 1.2%

I will put this extra $100 towards the future college costs of DS2. I will obviously have to tweak the budget for the fall to accommodate two of them in college, but for now, I am just sending the 'raise' that way, and continue on with the rest of the budget as it is now.

We get our back pay at the end of April. I have no real clue what it will come to and how much will be left after taxes.

Lovely, lazy Sunday morning

It's a beautiful morning here in SK. Sun is shining  and the energy just feels great.

Bacon is cooking and I will make pancakes toute suite.  Just taking a moment with my coffee to.......... appreciate.

I made it to my friend's wedding last night for a few hours. What pure joy those two shared with each other. It was such an honour to be there.

My admin feel I should take another week off to continue to heal. I will go in today and organize and plan. Trouble is that subs (supply) teachers all seemed to be booked for the upcoming week, so I may have to work anyways.

I think I could do it, but another week of rest wouldn't be so bad either.

We shall see how things pan out

Edit : They managed to find someone for me for Mon - Wed. I went in for four hours and prepped for those three days.

Heard from DS2

We were told the wifi would be impossible on the cruise ship, so I didn't expect to hear from him or his teacher, though I will confess to checking several times  a day.

Now that they are on their last two days, and in Athens, wifi is kicking in. We got several updates from his teacher (she emails the parents of the whole group) and sent a few pics. Looks like they had mostly good weather, though there was a lot of wind when they visited the Acropolis.  On the day they were to get off the ship to go visit Santorini, the winds were very high and the sea was rough and they could not dock. I am sorry he didn't get to see it.

He said they went to a market where you could have silver pendants /keychains etc made with your name in Greek letters. Being an avid scouter, he got his to say Scouting on the back and he's pretty excited about that. It was a bit of a splurge. We told him it was better to get one nice thing that was memory filled than a bunch of little things like T shirts and such that will mean little to nothing after awhile.  He has been searching for inspiration for a tattoo and this Greek letter just might be what he was looking for.

Their tour guides have mostly been good. They had one local one, who, according to the teacher email, went on and on in a droning voice with an overload of historical detail. This was keeping the kids from actually viewing the historic site. The teacher said this is the first tour guide she ever told to please stop talking and let them experience it. When she would not, our group walked away. Much nicer to actually LOOK at the Aegean Sea, than have someone talk for 45 minutes about it.

DS didn't take his phone, just his ipod. He just messaged me on facebook to say he bought me a beautiful set of worry beads so I would stop worrying about him whenever he left the house. I laughed and wrote back that I would never stop worrying about him, but was so proud of the person he has become.

It was a lot of money to save for this trip, but I am so glad I did it for him. Sounds like a life changing experience.

Saving money while sick

Being down and out for a month (really out for 2 weeks) has definitely shown itself in my weekly variable expenses.

Gas - I filled my vehicle yesterday. I honestly can't remember the last time I filled up. At least 3 weeks ago. I usually fill up once a week to 10 days. Not driving sure saves on fuel :-)  I put one weeks' worth of the extra gas money in the jar to save for road trips and the other I funnelled to DS2 for spending money for their day in Toronto.

Groceries- Well with me not really being able to eat, and DS2 gone, we didn't go through a lot for groceries. There was a lot of eat from the freezer for DH. Pieces of  one week's grocery money went for  DS2's luggage and travel thingies. Week 2's bits and pieces went towards a dress for DS2's grad. It hasn't arrived yet. We shall see if I like it when it gets here.

Water usage - Up and down. DS2 being gone saved us on his 'why doesn't he understand he can't shower that long' use. Of course I was flushing a ridiculous amount so some of that balanced out.

Meds - I had many dif meds we had to pay the dispensing fees on ($5 each under my plan). Much better than the hundreds the meds actually cost, but probably $50 on dispensing fees instead of $5 for the month


I also burned a lot of candle votives. I had bought a bunch of partylite  for $10 from a friend at her garage sale last spring and I actually found the box of them in the garage. I decided if I had to be at home in bed or on the couch, these little guys could be my splurge. I wanted it to represent the hope that I would get better and would have a chance at a normal life again.  I burned all the scents I didn't like first, to get rid of them :-)

End of my week off

I am super grateful that we had this week off school and it gave me time to rest, rest, rest and work towards healing. I would say there is a small improvement with the colitis. Will that remain with the busy-ness and stress of back to work? no clue.

I am still bound to the bathroom and that concerns me. I am weak, weak, weak. I went downstairs to change  a load of laundry and came up weak, winded and needing to sit down. You would think I had trucked down to the river and back.

It's really helped having DS2 gone. He is on his trip to Greece and will be home late Monday evening. We haven't heard from them. His teacher usually emails, but we were warned that wifi was ridiculously poor on the cruise portion of the trip, and very expensive. This morning they got back to Athens, according to the schedule, and will stay in a hotel tonight. I expect there will be a flurry of email updates waiting for wifi to send. 

My mom was to thank for helping get DS ready. I just didn't have the strength before he left to get to all the places so he picked her up and off they went to get his luggage, his camera, some clothes, the travel size things etc.  At one point they were on one of their last outings and I was in ER.  No one was allowed to tell mom I was in ER until they were done their shopping. :-) I may have been very sick, but my diabolical thinking was still active.

Today I need to get to the school for a bit. There are exams and essays and projects waiting for me to grade, along with planning for the upcoming week. Not sure what I will be strong enough to do, but I have to start.

It was 17C here yesterday. Gorgeous. I wanted to be out walking so badly.  I just kept forcing myself to reframe things as: "isn't it great that it is such nice weather to have while you heal?"

Taxes are done

I took advantage of this week off from work to get a bunch of to dos off my list. A big one is the taxes.

Two years ago I did them all on my own, only to learn there was a 'fatal error' in the Turbo Tax program which meant things went all horribly wrong and I ended up getting the "you owe money' statement right before Christmas.

Last year we went back to H and R block for mine and DH's and paid about $85 each to get them done. But at least I knew they were going to be done right and I wouldn't have that error stress. I did the boys' taxes on my own on Turbo tax free and was pleased at how easy that was.

This year I opted to take DS1's to H and R block with us. With his scholarship and the out of country tuition, I just didn't feel confident knowing how to handle all of it.  I had two send two forms down to his college for the admin to fill in and authorize. DS then had to go in to sign the documents and the college then sent them back to me. He is allowed to sign over $5000 Canadian worth of tuition to me to claim. That had to be converted according to the govt dollar exchange %. I would not have known that. The rest of his tuition he gets to carry over until some year when he is employed again and can claim it.

This $5000 transfer gives me about $1400 in tax refund, along with my refund of $600 nets me $2000 in refund. The $1400 will go back into the college fund.

I did DS2's yesterday on Turbo Tax free. With one T4 form and the info carried over from last year, it took me 15 min max to file it. (let's hope I did it correctly :-)

Next year I will have two kids in college. I hope DS2s will be easier since it's in Canada.


So nice to get this off my list.

Holy Medical Bills Batman

I remember when I was getting ready to pay DS1's first semester tuition and fees last August.

I remember being overwhelmed by all the different fees.

I remember being more than a little OMG at the required health insurance fees of $1050 US per semester.

Soooo different than our world up here in Canada.


Well I am seeing it in a different light now.

DS got hurt in February during a game.  Ended up missing the rest of the season from the injury unfortunately.  He got one xray and one MRI.

The bill came yesterday. Just under $4000 US

I about died. Up here, we'd wait for a while before getting the procedure done but the cost would be covered.

I can now see why having good health care coverage in the US is such a critical thing. I can't imagine what folks do who aren't able to get it.

Where the money stands

as of April 7, 2015

Debts
Mortgage - $21 320.88

**Total Debt - $21 320.88


Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $5100
TFSA in waiting to be added - $1300
RESP - $16 800
RRSP - $9 957 
Grad 2015 - $1000
Summer 2015 - $500

**does not include the LOC

Suit up

I really have to send a shout out to my mother. She also suffers from colitis so she truly does know what I am going through. She really pulled through for me in the last month as I tried to get different pieces of my world organized from a sick bed.

DS2 decided he would go to prom. He was wavering.  She was super excited when he decided to go.

Suit shopping time!

She has gone with each of her grandsons for their graduation/prom suits. It's been a source of great pride with her. DS2 is her seventh and final grandson to graduate and it kind of broke her heart a bit when he wasn't going to go to prom. Graduation day only needed cap and gown. Not quite the same.

So with me too weak to head out, she and DS headed off to get his suit. This particular suit shop has been the source for all the other grandsons' suits, as well as DS1's hockey suits. The owner actually used to coach DS1 back in the day.

We let him know that DS2 is very dif from his brother. He is a camouflage woodsman and not a suit guy. He likes more neutral tones and isn't one to draw attention. He hates (loathes) clothes shopping,  hates spending money and is incredibly particular.  The owner was amazing for him and DS2 was impressed.

He pulled out four dif suits....two in grey tones and two in black. With every suit he snapped a pic and sent it to me at home so I could see it with a couple dif shirts. As DS tried on suit four, the owner said 'No! wait!' and went through the suits that had just come in, pulling out a charcoal grey 3 piece suit. "This one'.  DS put it on and it was the one.

I really appreciated how he 'managed' DS and made him comfortable in this experience. He also made DS laugh when he said he was so much easier to fit than his brother. Apparently DS1 has a 'big ass' from playing hockey and there are a lot more alterations needed when he shops. The owner also targeted a couple new ones for DS1 to look at when he comes home. "He needs a new black one. He's had the same one since I coached him" :-)


Mom had the time of her life shopping with her baby. She felt needed (and she WAS), and DS is happy.

thanks mama

Colitis returns

I have been AWOL. Around the beginning of   March my colitis symptoms started to return.

Within two weeks I was in full flare.  Aside from the obvious colon and bathroom issues, it brought total and complete exhaustion.

Last week I ended up in ER with chest pains. I was too dehydrated for them to get the multiple IV attempts in. I am not a big fan of IVs but I have never, EVER felt pain like that before.

I have lost 15 lbs in the last month. For an overweight girl like me there is a bit of a woo hoo, but not really, knowing how my colon is being damaged.

I was off work all last week, and pieces of the three weeks before.

I am now back on steroids, hoping desperately to get this flare under control. When I was last on flare we never did find a stable med that would kick it and not kill me with its side effects.

Humira has been suggested. Anyone have experience with it and colitis? Side effects?

I have enough energy to lay in bed and watch Netflix. That's about it.

This flare is far worse than my original one three years ago.

I am very grateful that this week we are off school for our Easter break. I am hoping to see enough improvement that I can return a bit to life.