I was hoping for a nice relaxing drama free day today, but I guess it’s not to be.  Ellie and I did enjoy sleeping in this morning, but that’s really the only good point of the day so far.  We crawled out of bed at 10am and followed our normal routine.  Usually she stumbles to the couch in the playroom, I tell Bubba (our bulldog) to get off the couch, and then Ellie crawls up for a diaper change.  I then proceed to stumble in the kitchen to start coffee, let Bubba out to pee, and fix Ellie breakfast.

Our normal routine got as far as stumbling into the playroom and telling Bubba to move.  Apparently he didn’t want to move this morning, and it pissed him off that I made him.  He climbed off the couch, walked across the room, and lifted his leg on Ellie’s stuffed giraffe chair!  W-T-F!?  I yelled at him to stop, and he just gave me this “what ya gonna do about it?” look.  UGH.

I picked Ellie up and put her in her bedroom, moved the baby gate over so she couldn’t escape and dance in the pee, and I hauled Bubba outside by his collar.  He has an issue with excitement that will cause him to pee in the floor when strangers come over, but I don’t know what’s up with this new thing he’s doing.  This is the third time in the last month he has done something like this, and I swear it’s like he’s retaliating and peeing because I’m making him do something he doesn’t want to do.  Replace the car window sticker of the little boy peeing on *insert car model, sports team, etc, here*, with a cartoon bulldog peeing on something, and you’ve got the new version of Bubba.

Thank goodness we’ve got linoleum throughout the house, so I mopped up the pee, sprayed it down with enzyme cleaner, carted Ellie’s chair off to the bath tub, and after one more quick mop let her back into the playroom.  That left me with two new problems to work through (and I hadn’t even made it to my coffee yet).

I went to work trying to figure out how to clean the chair.  Bubba has excited peed on stuffed animals in the past, and those get tossed in the washer with some enzyme cleaner.  The chair is much too big to wash.  I left it in the tub and gave it a good spray down with enzyme cleaner, and after letting it sit for a few minutes I rinsed it with the shower sprayer.  Now it’s outside on the porch soaking up some sun, and I hope it will dry quickly.  Still, I’m not feeling like I got it clean enough.  I don’t want to throw her favorite chair away, but now I’m always going to wonder if there’s still a hint of dog pee soaked inside.  It may get another good spray down with lysol and more enzyme cleaner after it dries.

Onto my second problem…what the heck is wrong with my dog?  Why the heck is he purposely peeing when he’s mad at me?  I’ve got to have a talk with Ben about this when he gets home this evening, and we’ve got to come up with a plan to put a stop to this.

I don’t think this has anything to do with an underlying medical issue.  It has become obvious he’s doing it on purpose.  We sold our kennel years ago because we no longer needed to use it, but I think we need to make a trip to Tractor Supply for a new one tonight.  I hate to put him back in a kennel, but I will not allow him to use my house as his urination station.

Hey Weather, can you listen up a minute?  Would you be so kind as to make up your dang mind already?  Are you so indecisive that you insist we must experience Fall, Winter, and Spring all at the same time this year, or have you just decided to toy with us?

In all seriousness I have definitely loved the warm days this Winter, but I would be just as happy with the cold if you would just make up your mind already.  All this flip flopping is driving me crazy, annoying my sinuses, and causing horrid headaches that I would rather not deal with right now.

The constant rainy days I could live without.  I would really enjoy it if my husband could actually work at his new job, but rainy days don’t keep the bills paid.  Can we get a break for at least a week or two?  I’d really love to keep my power on.

No, I didn’t particularly enjoy the thunderstorms yesterday either.  I usually appreciate the fact that you allow my thunderstorm phobia one season each year to rest. I don’t think “thunderstorms” and “January” should exist together in any circumstance.  Alas, I took my dearly departed great grandmother’s words into consideration as soon as I heard that first rumble around noon, and I began making preparations for snow to arrive.  A few of my friends told me I was crazy, but I believe Granny Wilson’s wives tale to be true.

Winter thunderstorms will be followed by snow in the next seven days.

Oh, you just had to do it didn’t you?  Imagine my lack of surprise when I checked the weather forecast this morning and saw the possibility of snow showers tonight.  No, we aren’t expecting any accumulation, but snow is snow.  When I asked for a break in the rain I was actually asking for a break in all precipitation, but I imagine you’re laughing right now at my lack of clarity on that point.  The mountains are expecting some accumulation, and that means yet again Ben will more than likely be home tomorrow driving me crazy with his complaints of being stuck at home restless and bored.  Thanks Weather.  I owe ya one.

I’ve been so busy today, but while I sit here looking at the huge pile of laundry across the room that still needs to be folded I feel like I haven’t gotten anything accomplished besides washing the dang clothes. Ellie spent the day with my Grandparents, so I thought I’d have this house sparkling. It’s exactly the opposite.

I’ve been on the couch glued to my computer all day trying to help Ben find any job that’s available while he’s out going to every business and staffing agency he can find. We’ve expanded our search to Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg, and Greer. He doesn’t want to commute 1 1/2 hours each way, but something’s got to give. I have $20 in my Paypal account, $3 in savings, and enough in the bank account to pay the car insurance…oh, and a $20 Walmart gift card I got for my birthday that will be going to buy groceries this week. If he doesn’t find something soon we’re screwed. I do have more money coming in this month, but work has dwindled down to nothing for me this week. I have just enough coming in at this point to keep the power and water on, but I don’t have enough to make the car payment. It really upsets me knowing we’re right at $1000 away from paying our car off, but we could lose it if something doesn’t turn up soon. It’s even tougher knowing it’s our only vehicle. Well, we have the bike, but you can’t transport a toddler on it, and it’s been sitting at the in-laws for a few months now with a flat tire that we can’t afford to replace.

I want to think he’ll find something, but I have to admit I’m not very hopeful. The last time he was laid off it was right at a year before he could find anything else. This time…well…let’s just say it isn’t possible for us to go that long without one of us finding something. It’s discouraging, though, when we’re both spending hours upon hours searching, submitting applications and resumes, and nothing is coming of it. We’ve even discussed trying to move to a new place with a better job market, but we both know how that will go. The job market sucks everywhere, and you have to have money to move.

*Sigh*

I know something good will come soon, but it’s the wait that’s killing me. We’ve always managed, and this has happened plenty of times before. It’s just different when I look at Ellie knowing that someone has to find a job to support her. I know it will happen, but sometimes I just need to vent about it.

I don’t have many people I can talk to about our situation. The people I’ve tried to talk to, well they either are in the same situation and don’t want to hear someone else’s problems, or they just don’t realize how close to rock bottom we’ve gotten. Yeah I still have my internet, but that’s because I have no choice. It’s the only way any money is coming into this house right now, and I’ve already cut everything else out. Our cell phones will be the next to go, but thankfully we still have them right now. We’re 3 weeks behind on that payment, and we know we can go up to December 3rd before service is suspended. I’m very thankful we’re in the cold months now because that means our power bill drops drastically…well if you don’t count those $400 power bills we’ve been battling every January that are outrageous. We don’t have heating costs. We use the wood stove for heat, and our power bill is never over $140 in the other cold months. It just makes no sense, but no matter how much I bitch about it nothing is ever solved. At least I know we’ve got a couple more months before we have to worry about that bill.

Okay, I have to stop now. I’ve ranted as much as anybody can take for one day, and if I keep going I’ll keep sidetracking from thing to thing to rant about. I need to take myself away from the computer for a bit, get a bite to eat, and try to chill out.

Some days I wonder why my Grandparents bought a computer if they aren’t interested in learning how to use it. It just sits there all alone on a desk in the corner of their laundry room, and the only time it’s ever been turned on was when I turned it on to let Ellie play in the word processor one day. It’s not like they picked up some old used computer either. They purchased it brand new last year!

What they don’t realize is how much they would enjoy using it if they would just let me teach them to use it. My Grandparents both love all things 50s, so I could show them how to get to Fifties Web. I know my Grandma could spend a lot of time on that site!

Then there’s all the stuff they’re always asking me to do for them online. When they needed to change Medicare supplement plans who did all the research? Yep, that would be me. What they don’t realize is how easy it is to search for what you need to know if they’d just be willing to let me teach them. I mean, say they decided to visit California. Not only could they use the internet to decide where to go, but they could plan their whole trip online.

Then again, these are also the same people who pay for everything in check. They’ve got debit cards, but they won’t use them. My Grandma is that little old lady holding up the line at the grocery store because she not only pays with a check, but she insists on filling out the whole thing even though the machine will just print the information right over the top of it!

I know I’ve been writing a lot about being down and out lately.  I’ve even gone so far as to surf around a few websites about Calgary thinking maybe getting out of the country for a few months would do me some good.  Luckily it’s just all been a bit of depression that I’m working myself out of.

Why Calgary?  I’ve always wanted to visit Canada, and I have quite a few friends who are in Calgary.  I would love to visit there one day, and who knows.  I’d even be willing to take an extended vacation if finances allowed.  That wouldn’t happen right now, but you never know what the future might bring!

For now I’m going to enjoy the fact that I’ve been feeling very happy over the last few weeks.  My Tigers are 7-0 right now, and I think since the little one is with her MomMom tonight we may be heading down to Death Valley to welcome them home when they roll into town in a few hours.  Go Tigers!  The Shock The Nation tour is in full effect!