This Rollercoaster Ride Won’t End!
Hello my friends!!! Yes, I am still alive but that’s not saying much about my mental state. I want to get off the rollercoaster!
My intentions were good when I said that I would begin posting more regularly after the first of the year but it didn’t work out that way, obviously. I thought, once I got my Christmas crisis over with, things would all settle down. Wrong.
About mid-January, the landlord informed us that he wanted to move one of his field hands into the house to oversee his AG Chemical business operations (a job he had originally told Mark that he would like him to do once they were sure it was going to be profitable). So, he gave us until the first of March to move out!
In the middle of winter, in Indiana, he wants us to find a new place to live and move our 5+ years worth of accumulated stuff. I spent the last weeks of January and the first of Feb. looking for somewhere suitable, that we could afford, that Sara didn’t object to, that was closer to where Mark worked, etc.
Early Feb. I was successful with that part of this process. I located a 3 bedroom house with living room, family room and unfinished basement. That worked out perfectly for what I was wanting, a room specifically set up for my “studio”. It is 20 miles closer to where Mark works, which cuts his commute from 35 minutes to about 10. But then came the packing up and moving it process. Every day for about 9 days straight I would pack my 4 totes and handful of boxes, take them to the new house, empty them out on the floor of whatever room they went to and go back home to pack them up again. Yes, I was having a problem getting boxes!! Everywhere I went I got the same response, “We recycle our boxes, sorry.” Who knew it would be so hard? I did finally get a couple dozen or so from the local small town grocery store and also from Hobby Lobby. In the end, we had to buy them from the U-Haul place.
As the end of February got closer, I would try to make at least two trips each day doing this. We had to also deal with the weather. One weekend it was below zero windchill that stopped all progress, then we had ice another. To say that we were a little upset about the timing is an understatement.
We have been moving everything over the last two weekends. I have a house full of boxes to unpack with a sore back and knees to.
Along with all of this, we had a hundred other things to deal with. Dad went into the hospital in Florida with chest pains but it’s okay. His memory is still really bad though from the last time he was in the nursing home up here. Mark’s uncle died and his dad is having a hard time with it. Shawna’s friend committed suicide. Sara’s half-sister suffered the loss of her cousin to an accidental overdose. There is more but I just can’t remember everything right now, it’s all been so overwhelming 
I miss you all and decided to take a break and fill you in. You are never too far from my mind. One advantage to this move, I will now be getting U-verse service for my internet and should not have any more problems getting on here to post my thoughts!!!
Love, hugs and blessings to all,
Terri
P.S. Len, I haven’t forgotten you either!! I will get back to work on that little project when I get settled into my house. xxxxx
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 220,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 4 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
First One for 2013
Hi to all my friends!! My first post for 2013. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday. You know how mine was going but this year is already getting better, thank the dear Lord!!
My check finally arrived on the 4th and I was able to actually get the gas company to fill our tank that same day. The first thing Mark said was “Crank up that heat!!” We are now warm and cozy.
Dad came home from the hospital last Friday and is doing better mentally since he got home. He always seems to get so disoriented when he’s not there. They don’t know for sure when they will be able to leave for Florida but are hoping for sometime next week.
Penny is doing better. She has been released to drive now and that helps just knowing that she can go somewhere if she needs/wants to without having to have someone else take her. She feels less like a burden.
I got a special treat last week too. I was checking our stats on the shop and there was a message showing. When I opened it, I was delighted to find an invitation. It was from Main Street Artisans. They asked if we would be interested in joining their group of artisans and displaying some of our “art” in their online store. I asked them to e-mail me the particulars and said I was honored that they would like to include us.
When I received the info, I was thrilled to find out that it is actually a local shop and they have invited us to put stuff in that shop as well. We can either rent a booth or do it on consignment. Isn’t that cool?!!
I had been working on some new clay techniques anyway and thought I would share a few things with you today along with the update.
First up are some jewelry sets that I created using canes I bought from a lady on Etsy. I even made rings to match with these sets.
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And now, these are from canes that I made. The first two sets are pins with matching earrings.
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I hope you enjoyed the display as much as I did creating them.
Thank you for your prayers and support over the last few months, they helped tremendously!!! Looks like this year has gotten of to a much better start and I am encouraged that it will continue on that path!
Love and hugs to you all, God bless,
Terri
I Had No Choice But To Do It Now
Hi everybody! I had no choice but to do another post today and ask for even more prayer. Mom just called and they are admitting dad to the hospital with pneumonia. She said his left lung is full of fluid. He has been sick with the flu since after Christmas and debating whether to go to the ER for the last couple of days but they’ve been so many this year that she was afraid Medicare would stop paying for it. It appears that they waited too long. Please pray for him! I guess it’s good that he’s here and not in Florida. They were delayed in leaving because of the snow, thank God!!
My ordeal started at the beginning of December. I told Sara that this would be a great lesson for her about counting your chickens before they hatched. She didn’t know what that meant, lol, so I had to explain it to her but I’m sure you all will get it right away.
Mark definitely hasn’t been happy with me at all over this whole catastrophe!
It all started in September. I got a letter from my pension fund that my old company was offering me a buyout option. Since I would only be collecting $60 a month from it, and we needed the money now, I decided to take them up on it. We had to have all the paperwork filled out and turned in by the first of November. My benefit to be paid out at the first of December.
With me starting up the store and all, I used some of Mark’s harvest overtime money to purchase supplies and stock my store. I figured that he wouldn’t be done with harvest until some time in November anyway and I’d replace that money when I got my payout. The way the weather was doing, I wasn’t too worried about filling our LP tank until around the first part of December either, we had over 20% still left in it to begin with.
I was getting quite a nice sum. Planned on paying off a lot of bills, fixing my car that’s been broken down since before Thanksgiving, and so on.
Well, the first rolls around and no money. I called and asked what was going on. I was told that there were so many people who decided to take the buyout that they were overwhelmed and the checks were delayed for a week or so. Then a week turned into two. The weather got cold and we started using up the gas faster. I had to turn the heat down to 64 to slow the progress. It’s cold in here and we have to walk around with layered clothing. Right now I’m sitting here with thick socks on, sweat pants, a tee-shirt and a chenille sweater. I have a lap blanket too.
When the money still had not arrived by the middle of December, I called them again and was told that they had to set up two runs for the payments and mine was in the second one. Now I would not be getting my check deposit until Christmas Eve. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. Mark was furious with me!! I told him that I knew it was my fault and all I could do was say that I was sorry. I was bawling for days. He said that it better be here by then or s— was going to hit the fan.
I went on site to check on it the 21st and it showed that the electronic transfer was processed for deposit on the 24th. I thanked God that Christmas would not be totally ruined and Mark could go ahead and use his paycheck to get presents for his family gathering on Christmas Eve.
Not so fast, and this is where the suicidal thoughts came in. That morning I went to check my bank account and no money!!!! I got on the phone to the bank first, just making sure that they were not holding it for 24 hours like they do a check you hand deposit. They said no.
I call the pension people, now a total wreck, and found out that they sent it to the wrong bank transit number!! A week or two prior, one of their ladies and I had caught that error and fixed it. We even laughed about how upset I would have been if we hadn’t. And they still sent it to the wrong number!!!!!!!!!
I think Mark and Sara were doing a watch on me all day. I was in no shape to go to his parent’s house so they went by themselves but came home a couple of times to check on me and see if I was up to coming over, supposedly.
I was told that I now had to wait until the money bounced back to them before they could get it issued in a physical check and mail it to me. That is, of course, as long as that number didn’t actually go to a real bank. If it did, then I would have to go to that bank and negotiate the return of my funds!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to my world! I still have not received my money yet, though it is supposedly on the way. We have less than 10% gas left. All the people that I made payment arrangements with to pay-off on the 1st are still waiting for their money. A couple even threatened to sue.
IT HAS BEEN A HELL OF MY OWN CREATION! Who would ever have thought this would happen? We are talking about TRW (my employer) and Fidelity (pension holder)! They are not some mom and pop operation and have no excuse, in my book, for how this all turned out. They not only ruined Christmas for my little family, who have received nothing as of this date, but now my New Year’s Eve plans with my grandchildren as well!
Now we are faced with dad in the hospital too. I fear that he is not going to make it through this winter. So, again, I must enlist my prayer warriors in cyberspace to do their thing!!
Thank you all for listening to me whine, for commenting, for praying and just for being my friends!!!!!!!!!!
When I say that I couldn’t have done it without you, I truly mean it!!!
God bless, Terri
The Source
Have a blessed, safe and Happy New Year, dear friends, and I will be back to speak to you next year about all that has been going on. Thank you for your prayers and support, I could never cope without you all! I am truly blessed to have each and every one of you.
Hugs and much love,
Terri
A Place To Hide
Image source: dark.pozadia.org
I have not been on here for a few days because I couldn’t talk about what’s been going on in my world yet. This poem will worry some of you, dear friends, but please don’t let it. This is a statement of mindset and NOT of intent. I would ask you to say a few prayers for me, however, for my life to bounce back from my latest crisis quickly. I promise to tell you more very soon, I just can’t get into it quite yet.
With that said, I hope you all had a better holiday than I did and I want to wish you all a safe and very, very Happy New Year!!!
With my love and God’s blessings,
Terri
Update; What I’ve Been Up To
First of all, I want to wish you all a very blessed and Merry Christmas!! I pray that you all have a safe and happy holiday.
Second, I wanted to let you know that dad is doing much better. He and mom are planning on going to Florida after our Christmas party this weekend and Penny is home from the Nursing Home, doing much better also. Thank you all for the prayers sent their way. They appreciated it immensely.
Third, I have my store up and running. I’ve made 3 sales now and have been working on getting it stocked up with goodies. I’ve been trying my hand at making my own polymer clay canes. I think they are turning out pretty good for a beginner. I’ve had two of them “favorited” already, so I guess they aren’t too bad. 
Here’s some new pic’s for you:
Hope you enjoyed these!
God bless,
Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year!!
Love and hugs,
Terri
