Frustration....

On Monday our Health and Human Services case worker told Jimmy that they didn't receive all the forms I mailed to them. They say they just received one of the forms, BUT I mailed all the forms in one envelope together!!

So, unless our caseworker finds the paperwork around their office, I have to gather together all the paperwork again. I'm looking around my office to see what I have duplicates of.
They need proof of my income again, proof of Jim's income again, documentation about our loans from Jim's parents, copies of our bank statements. Our case worker said that instead of filling out the same form all over again, my boss can just type up a letter that says how much I'm paid, how often and since October. Rick spent about an hour doing the paperwork for this before, so I really hate that I have to ask him to take time for this again.
We haven't had foodstamps for the whole month of January. Buying the groceries this month cost 2 weeks of my pay. I'm frustrated about the further delay with the foodstamps. No one is going hungry here, but it's hard to pay back debts when we're squeaking by. It's so frustrating.

My bosses hired another girl at work. Her name is Christina. Now I don't work on Tuesdays or Thursdays any more because Christina is there. And I'll get to come in to work at Noon instead of 9:30am this coming Saturday. I'm happy that I will have more time at home, because I'll need the time to get all my homework done.

just me

I got a perfect 100% on the Spanish 4 quiz I took before work today.

p.s. Dave was right... I do make the same face in all my pictures.

Thursday on Campus(es)

My boss, Regina, and I organized a bunch of Flapper-themed accessories the other day. There was a set of white beads that didn't match any of the other flappers. Regina gave me the set of large white beads. I like them a bunch! I've been wearing them almost daily.

Guilty admission: I have the song, "Rockstar", from Nickelback stuck in my head. I keep catching myself humming it. If you don't know the song, it's message is so not right with Christ.

I had a productive day today. I had a 10am meeting with my academic adviser, Ana Martinez. She filled out her portion of my concurrent enrollment form. This is the form that has to be filled out by people at all my colleges, so I get more financial aide than if I only declared my attendance at UNT. Ana completed her portion of the form, said that I am still all set to graduate in August. She also offered an interesting suggestion.
Since I took my online computer skills class as an elective (just to meet the financial aide requirement for minimum hours), I have the option of taking this class "pass/no pass". This means that the class could not help or hurt my GPA.
If I earned anything from an A to D in the class, it'd still just say "Pass" on my transcript. This is a good option, if I didn't expect to Ace the class. I could spend more of my time focussing on the classes that truly matter. If I decide to go for this, all I'd have to do is meet with Ana again and she'd fill out a form. Tempting!

After meeting with Ana, I walked the concurrent enrollment form over to UNT's registrar and had them do their part. Tonight Jimmy drove me to NCTC early for my night school class. NCTC's registrar and financial aide office completed their portion of the form too. I'm feeling really on top of things. All that's left is to FAX the form to Midland College for them to fill in their portion. Once all this jumping through hoops is complete, UNT will decide if I get to keep all my grants, as though I was a full time student at UNT.

Tonight I finally had success finding my last text book! NCTC had re-stocked their Excel manuals. It was $52. I'm consoled by the fact that it's essential to passing my Statistics class... which makes it worth it.

Other good news: Today in the mail, we learned that the kids' Medicaid has been re-newed. No verdict yet on the food stamps (we've gone a month without them!), but the Health and Human services office has a phone-interview scheduled with Jimmy for Monday morning.

For $2 (including S&H) on ebay I bought a sewing pattern for little girl dresses. It's a brand new pattern, still in package and has patterns to make 6 styles of little girl dresses. It's for dresses sized 5,6 & 7. So when I'm not in school this summer, I can stitch up some summer dresses for Elaine. She'll get a whole summer wardrobe for the price of fabric. That's worth the $2 investment. :)

Getting in the swing of things

Today I bought one of my textbooks for the NCTC Elementary Statistics class. There were only 4 copies left at Voertman's! (Yall may recall that the NCTC bookstore was sold out.) Tonight I've been working on homework off and on for all my classes.
It's still pretty easy going in my online computer skills class. The first assignment isn't due until Feb 5th. I have homework still to do for Statistics on Thursday; 25 word problems. I have to read a biography for my theatre class and write a report. It's not due til late February, but I want to get started soon. I got an 87% for my first Spanish 4 quiz. I think that's everything.

Little Chefs and Plastic IceCream

What are the oven mitts protecting her from? The imaginary cold?

School so far

We got the van back on Wednesday. A pulley near the serpentine belt had completely ceased. It's all better now. Jimmy also put in a new air filter himself, because the mechanics suggested it.

My boss, Regina, told me today that if I want to start showing up at 9am, instead of by 9:30am, I can. There are lots of accessories that need to be sorted and labeled. It's hard to get to that task during normal business hours, since I have to help customers. So now I have the option to show up at work as early as 9am whenever I can. If I do that for a week strait, it'd be an extra 2.5 hours! Adds up pretty quickly!

I hadn't filled yall in about my classes, so here goes.
My elementary statistics class actually seems very interesting. I like the professor. She makes the class very interactive. The campus over at NCTC seems very organized and well-equiped. (When I went to registration, I was in&out in about an hour! ) The bookstore is out of the textbooks I need. I'm trying to find it on ebay or amazon for a reasonable price. I haven't had much luck so far. It's called Elementary Statistics: a Step by Step approach (Bluman). My professor is picky about the book. We're supposed to get the edition with the isbn 9780073347141. There aren't a lot of them on ebay. I keep getting outbid. And it's overpriced on amazon. So the search continues. The other book for the class is a manual for Excell (isbn 9780073103778). I'm hoping to find both used near UNT.

I bought the required textbook for my last theatre class, Senior Colloquium. This class is very interactive. The class is tackling the topic of what to do after we graduate. We're learning what all the options are with a degree in the entertainment business. Dr.Wilson is gonna have a tax accountant come and speak to the class about how actors can write off their head shots and haircuts on their taxes. Stuff like that. There's gonna be lots of projects and reading. The textbook is an interesting read though. I have to choose a biography to read as part of the class. I think I'll read 'The Pursuit of Happiness' by Chris Gardner.

I'm a week ahead in my online Spanish 4 class. I hope to stay ahead. :)
We haven't done anything but introduce ourselves in my online Computer skills class.

p.s. Like two weeks ago I found an old walmart gift card in my office with just a few dollars still on it. I figured I could download a song from their music department to go on the mp3-playing camera Jimmy got me for Christmas. Walmarts selection of songs available for download is pitiful. I looked up a whole list of songs and they didn't have any of them available. I finally found one song. LIFE's 'Lightning crashes'...an oldie but goodie.

Some recent pics and an update

Dress up

Elaine painted THEIR nails

Jimmy took down the Christmas tree the next day.

Last week we picked up some clothing for Elaine on clearance at Target. Some of the tops where $4!

Kaylee needed a poodle skirt for her American Girl doll. So I whipped this one up.

Pamela's son, Cole

Elaine at Pamela's house playing dress up.

I was sick Monday at work all day. I had a stomach bug. I kept having fevers and chills off and on all day. Then when I got home, I was miserable all night. Now today, Jimmy seems to have the stomach bug that I had. He's been miserable all day and it's only 8pm and he's asleep for the night with 5 blankets on him. He's, "FREEZING". The kids don't seem ill. Jim took the van to the mechanics on Monday, but they were fully booked and didn't get to looking at our van until late this afternoon. The mechanics say the van should be done early tomorrow morning. Rick & Regina drove me home from work last night. Then Chris, a friend from school, drove me to campus today. And then I walked to work from campus at 2pm. It's only a mile, and the weather was nice. Rick & Regina drove me home from work again tonight, and they are fetching me for work tomorrow morning.

There's already a lot of homework being assigned. I'm determined to finish this charcoal drawing I'm working on, before I have to crack down and do the homework assignments.

Another brief update before I leave for work

Some time during the Florida road trip our van started making a new sound. It's hard to describe... almost a whirring, but not. Anyways, the sound hasn't stopped. We suspect that the serpentine belt stretched during the road trip or otherwise was compromised.
When Jim and I replaced the serpentine belt on his old truck, it was only $12 for the part (if I remember correctly). But the Mercury isn't designed in a way that makes changing out a serpentine belt a D-I-Y job.

After Jimmy drops me at work today, he's gonna deposit my paycheck at my bank and then take the van over to Christian Bros. mechanics for an estimate. We're hoping that with the right tools and know-how the job wont use lots of man-hours. But just in case, we're depositing my paycheck BEFORE he takes the van in. If it takes longer than we expect, I bet my bosses can bring me home from work tonight.
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I'm registered at Midland College, UNT, and NCTC for the Spring semester. I got into all the classes I need to graduate on time. My in-person class at UNT is only Tuesday and Thursday. And my night school at NCTC is only Thursday night. The rest is online.
UNT has me applying for 'concurrent enrollment'. If this works out, I'll get to keep more of my govt. grant, because I am a full-time student between the 3 schools. If it doesn't work out, I'll still get enough of loans and grants to cover my UNT tuition. I've already paid for Midland College and NCTC out of pocket.

I have some new snapshots of the kids that I'll try to upload tonight.

Sooo Tired

*I need to complete a sewing project for Pamela. (more on that later)

*I need to finish a charcoal drawing TOMORROW. It must be done before I get into school-stress and the people already paid 3 weeks ago!

*I need to be on campus at NCTC super early tomorrow (my day off) to do all the running around for admission/registration.

*I need to find and buy the rest of my textbooks. I found two of them half-price on ebay (including shipping).

*I need to dye my hair.

*I need to share pictures from Allan's birthday night. My bosses gave him some animal masks... hilarity ensued.

The kids wore the masks in Krogers.

Very Speedy Update Before I Head to Work

Today is my first day that I'll be opening up the store solo. They gave me a key and a small raise after New Years.

I got registered into my Spanish 4 online class at Midland on Thursday night! I'm also registered for everything I need at UNT.

I requested my UNT transcripts for admission to NCTC/ They should reach NCTC early next week. I might have to go in-person to register at NCTC next Thursday for my Statistics class.

Trip to the Jacksonville Zoo

Allan with one of his favorite animals. (We forgot to bring his lion doll on the road trip. Whoops!)

Hope, David, Jimmy, Scott and the kids are feeding the giraffe.

Flamingos in Training

not the same as Elaine's... but still a photo op.

Barbara Manatee... you are the one for me. Sent from up above... you are the one I love.

Christmas Day

Elaine got an improvised umbrella from her Epa. It sprinkled off and on all week.

Christmas Eve

Jimmy and Dave took the kids to see the ocean for the first time.

Allan ripped some man's fish in half with his hand!! The man didn't get mad.

BRANK TRADITION: Donuts on Christmas Eve

Mighty Al Pal

We went to church with Hope & Scott, and Elaine got to participate in the nativity skit. She was a sheep.



p.s. Jimmy got me a new camera for Christmas. It plays MP3's too! Very cool.