All the drama

Last month my vters came over and gave me some true words. I was voicing my concern over financial matters now that we have teenagers and one of them said (who has grown children)--just wait, it gets worse! Who knew it would get worse pretty much the next day. I do appreciate the heads up though. :-) Tmobile trying to charge us for an upgraded phone we don't have really was minor compared to everything else that was going on.
The car we got for the boys to use in their teen years died. We've already replaced the engine in that toyota corrolla once so decided not to do it again. Oh yeah, and it died within weeks of us doing $800 worth of tire repairs. At least we didn't owe anything on it. The repair place offered us $200 for it. Pretty mean considering those tires were brand new and they knew it considering they had just put them on. I was SO upset over the whole thing. Could have been worse though. At least the car was paid for. Notice how I keep telling myself that.
We decided to buy two more cars. Junior and Nick both are going in two different directions and need wheels. We managed to find two at a used car dealer in the middle of nowhere, Alabama and he even gave us $700 for the corrolla. So their insurance went up and of course now we have car payments--3 actually because Jer's car is still not paid for. And for anyone who may be close to having a teenager drive, budget for it if they don't work because it is not cheap. The boys' insurance is $150 a month each. Not small change for us.
Nick got a job in the middle of all this. Junior continues to look. The first week of school Nick left the house at 6am and got home at 10pm every night. Welcome to the real world. Poor kid. But he's hanging in there ok so far. The boys are paying the car payments and their insurance plus trying to save for missions and do school at the same time (well Junior will as soon as he gets work). Growing up is not so fun.
Jer has been trying to get extra work teaching at the little community colleges here. It has been frustrating because they need him to teach classes but people don't move paperwork. Stuff just sits on people's desks. Classes (for which jer is fully qualified to teach) have kids signed up for them but they still have no instructors. But the schools can't hire people who haven't been put in and approved by the system. And the paperwork still sits on people's desks. So that has not panned out.
Speaking of paperwork--Jer is taking 2 more college classes for music stuff to the tune of $2500. VA owes us this money since it's coming from Jer's GI Bill. But they can take their own sweet time giving it back to us despite the fact that we had to pay it nearly two months ago now.
And Jer says we may lose our 50% retirement if things go the way they are headed (government budget cuts...changes, etc.). We may only get 45% at this point. When you retire before 40, that's a lot to lose. Still, thankful for anything at this point.
Oh, lest I forget something else to whine about--school $$$. Ugh. I though I was doing ok but I should have listened to Suzie. She knew what she was talking about. It is SO expensive. The little elementary school supply lists are chump change compared to other things. And what 1st grader needs a planner? Give me my $7 back. Spencer had to pay $100 just to be in band because they have no money for things apparently. He has his own instrument, has to buy his own books, bring his own stand...??? Then Nick comes home and apparently has to buy a $150 suit for choir. Hope he looks good in it. :-)
I have a crown I need put on my tooth and cavities. The older boys need wisdom teeth out. While our dental coverage isn't great, at least we have some--and hey, we have health care. That's huge.
So now onto tmobile. I actually have been very pleased with them and after talking to some other people, realize we probably are getting a pretty good rate on our phones. But all good things must come to an end I guess. Last month we get this huge bill because they tried to charge us for an upgrade we never did. We called and got it taken care of. Whew, right? No, because they just put it back on, plus more this month. We've called again, this time we'll be good right? They actually now have $230 of our money for a phone they mailed to someone in Illinois. They told us it was an unauthorized purchase. How does that happen?? It really is like they walked in and took that money off our table. Supposedly it'll be credited back to our account. Hmmmm.
I'm never one to share all the details of our lives publicly (although I adore it when others do) but this is just a little taste of our difficulties of late. Calgon---take me away!!!!!!!!!!