Defunking...

So I realize it has been a very long time since I blogged last. I also realize I haven't posted pictures in quite some time either. So I'll be giving an update on things and posting some pictures on here.

First, I want to update on how things have been going in our lives the past month. One of the reasons I haven't posted (and the reason for the title of my post) is that I've been in a funk of sorts. When I'm in a funk, I lose all desire to blog. The funk has many reasons behind it, none of which are an excuse to let myself fall into this funk and forget that God is always in control.

We have had many things happen lately that have been neither fun nor easy. It all started about a month and a half ago when the van's battery kept dying. I had to jump start it almost every morning and then get jump started at work before coming home. That was a pain. Then we discovered that the AC in the van did not work either and that it will cost somewhere between 1000-1500 dollars to get fixed. Bummer. We don't have that kind of money laying around.

On the Saturday before mother's day Brooklyn ingested an anti-depressant at my in-laws that she found on the floor and no one saw her swallow. By the time Waylon got her home to me, I could tell something was very wrong with her. She usually fights sleep to the end and I couldn't keep her awake when I took her out of her car seat. She was very groggy and her head was bobbing around. After waiting and observing a few minutes to see if she was just working her way out of a very deep sleep, we realized this was more than that and Waylon called his mom to see what she could have swallowed. We got the name and strength of the pill and called the ER who then referred us to Poison Control who then told us to go immediately to the ER, they would call ahead so the ER would be waiting for us. That was a very scary drive. I sat in the back with her and tried to keep her awake and it wasn't easy. Waylon drove as carefully and fast as possible. It was a whirlwind of activity once we got there and I don't want to relive all that. They confirmed through a urine test that she did indeed have the drug in her system and then called Cook's Children's to bring an ambulance to take us there for an overnight observation stay. We later found out (at Cook's) that this particular drug is very dangerous to toddlers and can kill a toddler with just one pill. I'm glad I didn't know that until the end when they had already assessed that she would be ok and just needed to sleep it off. We were at Cook's until noon on Mother's Day. I was never more happy to get home and see Brooklyn being her loud, active self. We spent the night at my parent's house that night as well to get some extra sleep and help with her since we were both exhausted from sharing a twin size bed in the room at the hospital.

A week and a half later, we were in a wreck. We were T-boned on a busy street near our house while I was making a left turn into a shopping center. All three of us were in the car but thankfully Brooklyn was in her car seat behind the driver's side and we were hit on the passenger's side. Waylon was sitting in the passenger seat and if he hadn't had his seat belt on he would have jumped over into my lap. He screamed the loudest, only to be out-screamed by Brooklyn after the initial impact. It scared her quite a bit. I jumped out of the car as soon as we stopped (we hadn't even moved the car out of the street) and got Brooklyn out and she didn't have a single scratch or bump on her (Praise the Lord!). No one was hurt, save a bruise on my knee and a crick in my neck. The girl who hit us was very young and was crying. She started crying when she saw me pull Brooklyn out of the car. She was so afraid she had hurt the baby. I assured her that Brooklyn was fine and we asked her if she was ok and she said she was. I think her leg was hurting a bit. The cops came and looked everything over and we were actually able to drive our car home. Both doors on the passenger side were un-usable. We got a rental and turned the car in the next day. We still have the rental but are hoping our PT Cruiser will be ready either tomorrow or Wednesday. Wrecks are a pain in the rear, but if no one is hurt in the end, it's really not that big of a deal. We could have walked away a lot worse than we did and like the cop said, that's why we have insurance, to cover these risks.

Around the same time as our wreck, we got a notice of disconnection in the mail from our electric company stating we owed almost $500 and that if it wasn't paid by May 17, we would have our electricity disconnected. The due date on the notice said that the payment was due on April 24th, but we got the notice in the mail on May 4th. Everything about this was off. We had been paying our bill every month so I didn't know where they were getting this amount that we owed. We called them immediately and found out that b/c of our dogs and the fact that our gate was locked to the back yard, the meter guy had not read our meter and had estimated our usage and they billed us an estimated amount based on previous month's usages. The notice was the difference of the three months that were estimated and what  our actual usage had been. There was a lot of tension and going back and forth trying to place blame on someone as to why they had been able to read our meters in previous months but then for January through March they had not been able to. It all came down to the fact that they could do nothing to help us and we were going to have to make payments. So now, we're on another payment plan to get caught up with our electric bill.

We are still paying off the tickets Waylon has gotten.

I was sick for 2 days in April (like really sick, not just a little) and stayed home from work even though I didn't have any PTO. Because of this, my paycheck was $500 less than normal. You can imagine what a dent that puts in your budget when you just got started on making a strict budget and have places planned for every cent that comes into the bank. Thankfully, Waylon's pay check was quite a bit bigger than normal because he got a lot of subbing in March and April. This helped make the difference. We are making it work and finding that we can live on much less than we thought we could. God is providing for us and keeping us on our feet during this financial time.

Now, lest you think that only bad things have happened, let me make sure you know that we have had our share of blessings lately as well.

Waylon will start a new job tomorrow! He will be working for a company called 20/20 who is a marketing brach of sorts for all the major cable/internet/phone companies. He will be going door to door to sell the Verizon plans. He likes sales and he is good at it so I think this will be a great fit for him. He also turned in an application for a dispatcher for one of the police departments here. This will be a long application process though as he has to pass tests and stuff to be a 911 dispatcher. It's a salaried position though that pays very well and would be a huge help for our getting out of debt plan.

Another good thing is that Brooklyn has begun taking steps! She's such a big girl! She's growing like a weed. I'm going to do a whole post about her later though so I won't say much about her now. I will post a couple of pictures of her though:

                                                                She loves to craw...

                                                      A new favorite way to sit

                                        This one is just so precious to me, I had to put it on here.

I hope this makes up for the lack of posting. I'm coming out of my funk and will hopefully be posting on a regular basis again. This is my last week of work and then I'll have a whole summer ahead of me to do lots of fun things with Brooklyn and have a lot of mother-daughter bonding time.

Can't wait till Friday!!