New Year same challenges...

Today has been a busy day.  My daughter had all four wisdom teeth taken out and I had two doctors appointments - all before noon.  Thank goodness for her boyfriend who came to take her home for me and stayed until I got back.  My sweet daughter doesn't handle pain really well and we couldn't get her pain meds until I got back with the car.  Poor thing.  She just woke up very hungry so I have homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove smelling wonderful.  Dad and I will have grilled cheese sandwiches with it.  Perfect for a rainy night.  

Well my dear son, Ian has officially withdrawn from college and has applied at a tech school.  He wants to study computer IT and found out that there is a nine month wait to get into the program.  So now he needs to find a day job to go with his night job.  His night job only gives him 20-27 hours a week and he will need more than that.  He is thinking of applying to substitute teach for the county.  His finance knows that this will delay the wedding but is happy that he has figured out what he wants to do to support them. ~smile~.

Rachel is going back to ETSU next week after a very successful first semester.  She is scheduled to take 16 hours this semester.  She is also scheduled to work over 14 hours at the daycare on campus.  She will have a private room this semester also.

The big news is -- I have a pantry now.  During dear husband's Christmas break he installed four new shelves on one side and moved one to the other so I now have eight shelves where my washer and dryer were.  Once I moved my food there I realized that I don't have as much food in the house as I thought.  I showed my best friend and she said the same thing.  Appliances take up three shelves and food on five but it is kinda bare looking.  I moved my home canned goods into the kitchen.  It is nice not to have them spread out over many different rooms.  However my deep freeze and my freezer (beside the fridge) are full to busting.  LOL  I don't need more frozen food.

My new laundry room is set up except for the cabinets.  We are saving our money to pay cash for them.  We will have a L shape cabinet with maybe above cabinets.  I can't wait.  Winds damaged part of my new patio screen.  Once we get some drier weather we will fix it.  We normally get strong winds in the spring so we will have to figure out how to keep it from damaging again.

This month has brought some unexpected bills our way.  The insurance finally paid on dear husband's hospital bill from last summer and we got our bill from the hospital today.  Also Rachel oral surgery and my co-pays for the new year that I had forgotten about when I scheduled the appointments.  I found out today that I will need a CPAP machine and the insurance only pays so much for it.  I also need another pair of diabetic shoes for casual times.  My other pair are very heavy and it is a dress shoe.  Also our utility bills were a little higher than budgeted.  While dear husband was working on the pantry I couldn't use my kitchen really for about a week so we ate out much more than normal.  Can we say ugh.....At least I need little from the grocery store this month.  I am still debating whether to get an Angel Food box for this month.  I was impressed with their fresh fruit and vegetable box last month and they are offering it again this month.

Dinner tonight is homemade chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese.  Still planning the rest of the month.  God Bless everyone.