October, Already?!!!

Things have been pretty interesting since July. My husband returned to work only to be permanently laid off at the end of July. We went on a little camping vacation up north right after that and slept in a tent. That was not very relaxing at all. My husband applied for unemployment and did not get a check for 5 weeks. He was so ticked since he has been working since he was 14 years old, served his country, and never collected before.

Next at the end of August, even though we were broke, we took a trip to Chicago for our oldest daughter's soccer tournament. The whole family went which was actually a good time. My two younger kids and I took a trip into the city on the Metra train to see the sights. We had a nice time walking the streets of Chicago. We stayed 3 nights at the Sheraton in Schaumburg, a very nice suburb.

Because my husband was not working I was able to transfer my status at work from part-time to full-time. Not only did this increase my salary by nearly 50%, they also allowed me to get full benefits effective the date of my status transfer. They also gave me one week vacation this year and 3 full weeks next year. They allowed me to keep my time in service at 11 years even though seven of them were part time. They have been a wonderful employer. They did this because of my situation not necessarily because they needed another full time employee. This is an automotive supplier in the Detroit area and we all know how the economy is. Thank God For them! Anyway, my husband found a new job, too. His new job is only 4 miles from home as opposed to his old one that was 48 miles one way! The gas savings alone is about $4,000 a year, not to mention the time he was wasting making that drive. The pay is not as much as his previous job but you take the good with the bad. And as I said at least he was only off work for about 5 weeks. That is a miracle in this area of the country. Thank God!

My daughter Chelsea has a boyfriend that she has had for about 3 months. We thought it was just a summer thing because he goes to a different school and lives about 15 min away. But they are still seeing each other. I cannot believe that she will be 17 years old in December. Wow! She is busy with soccer. My daughter, Amanda is busy with soccer and marching band. My son started his hockey season and was on his school football team for a couple of weeks. He got a throat infection, followed by the flu and missed 6 days of school and 2 weeks of football so he decided to give the football up. No complaints from me on that!