June 5, 2014

I feel helpless at this point.  And stressed to the max.  Where is that money tree growing around here?
Sunday, I did our regular grocery shopping, and as I'm putting away groceries, the bag rips.  Needless to say, the 2-liter bottle of Mountain Dew inside managed to do a good job of injuring my big toe.  So much so that after two hours of crying and defrosting all the frozen vegetables in the house in lieu of an ice bag, we took a trip to the ER.
After X-rays and Vicodin, I was informed that unfortunately it wasn't broken.  Worse, I had a deep contusion on my toe, which would be more painful healing and would take longer.  They recommended I have off work for a week. 
Well, I don't have that money tree growing in my yard, as previously mentioned.  We live well, but we're still paycheck to paycheck.  We're not "poor."  We are the working middle class.  I have a pre-owned Jeep, but still a very nice car (when it's not breaking down on me).  We live in a nice neighborhood (although we rent).  We have smart phones and cable.  Only occasionally do we need to get Hamburger Helper to make sure we're all fed for the week.
But can we afford to take half of my paycheck for missing a week?  No, not at all.  So I went into work yesterday, showing my note but saying that I could do something stationery, like working on the pack lines to ship out the orders.  My manager agrees, but said I need to get the EMT and HR department to sign off on it.  As soon as the medical department saw my note, they said I would have to go back to my doctor and have them list if I have any restrictions or not.
So I took the day off yesterday to do so.  Went to the doctor at 2:00PM, she laughed and asked if I even wanted to work when I couldn't walk right, but understood and signed off that I had limited restrictions.  Immediately fax the paper in...and wait.
Picked my boyfriend up from work at 6:00PM, still hadn't gotten an answer.  So today when I dropped him off, I made sure he took the original papers in.  By his first break, I hadn't heard from HR, so I called and left a message.  They called back shortly before lunch and said they did receive it, but it usually takes a day or two to process what my restrictions would be.
In other words, it sounds like I'll be taking the whole week off without pay until they figure this out.  That's what I get for being honest. 
Boyfriend isn't feeling good.  I feel bad because he has to work otherwise we have no money.
Cleaned up the house a bit to try to feel useful. 
Got irritated and chopped half of my hair off.  I've been trying to get to the salon for weeks because my split ends were getting frizzy and out of control.  They are only open four hours on Sunday, and that's really my only day to get stuff done with my work schedule.  So today, after struggling five minutes against a hairbrush, I put it up in a ponytail, grabbed the kitchen scissors, and cut straight across where the split ends started.  I'm fairly certain I just lost ten inches. 
My little ladies are napping.  I'm not going to lie, I am very happy that at 3 and 5 years old, they cherish naptime.  It's mommy's sanity time!!  Schylar will sleep for four hours if you let her; Vivienne usually only naps an hour or two.  I guess that will have to stop come September; she's taking the big step into kindergarten.
I swore I'd never be ready for this day, but somehow I went from thinking she was far behind, to her learning everything she needed in a month and now we've gotten to the point that I'm teaching her addition and subtraction already.  The main thing she struggles with is phonetics.  Putting sounds to letters.  I've signed them up for ABCMouse.com, hoping that will help.
Schylar...teaching her is a nightmare.  I feel like such a horrible parent, but at three years old she doesn't know her colors yet.  At first I was concerned that maybe she was color-blind.  But after buying flash cards and telling her to match up all the same colors, she did it without issue.  She just doesn't want to learn that red is red, blue is blue.  She loves green and pink, but sometimes she doesn't even get those right.  Any suggestions?