Better, Faster, Stronger

This week, several things happened which SUCK.  I will go over them for you in chronological order.

1. Child support from husband #1 did not come.

Husband #1 is also apparently incommunicado, because I have been trying to reach him since LAST month (last month’s was ridiculously late, this month’s is… invisible? Imaginary? Nonexistent?). Email, text, phone calls, nothing. The last I knew (and this was back almost a year ago that I was told), he was supposed to be deployed overseas with his Army National Guard guys (I don’t know if they’re a troop, a battalion, or what – I’m kind of correct-name-stupid, for which I apologize) right around a month or so ago.

I have emailed someone in the Family division of the Colorado National Guard, but no response from them either. I really don’t know who to talk to. I feel pretty dumb about the whole thing. I wish I’d written down some things last year, but I didn’t know he wouldn’t TELL ME ANYTHING ELSE for another YEAR.

We are mostly able to deal without the child support income, but it’s always a squeeze – so we re-did our budget for the month to make sure no bills went unpaid and we were still setting aside the rent money. We don’t like being without income we’re supposed to be able to budget in, but we can handle it, so we did.

2. Troy’s hours were cut from 48 to 40.

This sucks because that extra day he lost is an overtime day (think time and a half), which accounts for 1/4 of his weekly take-home pay. Okay, so we buckled down even more. Still doable, more squeezed, but DOABLE. We’re good at cutting corners.

Also, accepting no overtime means that he was able to keep his job without being laid off. Being willing to work with what management needs to do when the company’s income is low means YOU GET TO KEEP YOUR JOB. This is still a good thing, and neither of us are complaining. Extra time at home is priceless, even when it means less income.

3. The car decided not to start anymore.

We think it’s a fuel injector problem, but we’re not sure. My papow has looked at it, a friend of Troy’s has made diagnostic predictions over the phone while Troy tinkered with certain things. Either way, we don’t have money to get it fixed yet, which is made more difficult by the reduction in Troy’s hours (and the missing child support), which leads to thing #2 all over again:

Troy’s hours were cut from 40 to 32.

Again, this is so he keeps his job. Nearly everyone else was laid off. We are VERY THANKFUL that he still has at least four days a week, but now we have a) no car to drive, and b) a very pitiful amount of money to save each week to get the car fixed.

HOWEVER! Have you seen me do much giving up before? Have you seen me wallow and just stay there? NOPE.

I am revving up my business (see the pretty screenshot of my new business site design) and doing everything that I can to stay calm, stay focused, and remain thankful for what we do already have.

In terms of web design, all current and former clients of mine can recommend anyone to me and that person will receive a 5% DISCOUNT on ALL my services – hosting, domain registrations, and all design. I will be putting a special field in my contact page for your referrals to put in your name so they get this discount.

AND! I will be putting together a thank-you of some sort for clients who are able to send people my way. Like oh, say, when I get paid, you get something too?

So, in short: we are down but not out. We fall down and we get up again. In the words of my friend Paul:

…dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Tagged as: caffeinated design & hosting, hours getting cut, we can still do this, web design