Late February Adoption Update

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Not much has happened in the month since I gave my last adoption update -- unless you count what feels like a step or two backwards.

Winter Storm Jonas hit our area hard.  My husband was stuck at work for a couple days (thankfully he was provided with a free hotel room from the place he works, although he did expect to have to share it with another employee who worked another shift.)  I sent him out of the house that morning with extra clothing, snacks, and made sure he had things like his phone charger.  It seems like much of his free time for the next week was spent shoveling.


As unpredictable as our winter always is, I decided to not list on eBay this month but work on other things.  I still have plenty of items up for sale, just no new listings.  I have my first flea market this year for my Paparazzi Jewelry Sales scheduled in March, so spring is around the corner.

I've been going through boxes and bins and tubs of *stuff*.  When I say stuff, it could be anything.  Garbage Pail Kids cards (the original ones) get tossed in a bin that is specifically for eBay items.  A spool of ribbon gets sorted into craft supplies.  A coupon that expired in 1987 gets trashed.  Our house is full of stuff.  I inherited this 130 year old fixer-upper from my mother.  My parents (and I) moved here 29 years ago, and both my parents were a bit of pack rats.  Every eBay seller is a bit of a pack rat, and my husband moved furniture into the garage in hopes of actually using it. (We already had two computer desks in the garage before he brought his.)  I'm hoping to have a gigantic garage sale this summer.

I have found a contractor who can do some of the stuff we need done.  We just need the money.  My application is in for the Catholic Church Home Repair Program.  I applied for the windows to be fixed.  We still haven't heard if we made the first round of applicants where we would be visited and what we need done looked at.

I am thinking that my March focus may be new eBay listings.  I've gotten a lot done this month and perhaps instead of trying to do a little of everything every day it may work better to concentrate on one thing at a time.  I may even try doing days or weeks to see how that works.  I would likely be able to stay more caught up on everything.

The bad news is I learned I am going to have to pay a fine for not having health coverage all year.  We are still paying off the $2,000 emergency room bill from when I thought I had appendicitis on my wedding night.  I had health insurance the next week.  If that stomach bug had waited several days, I would have had to pay $150 co-pay instead of $2,000.  Last spring was the perfect storm with bills, and we are still recovering.  We had expected about twice what we got in wedding gifts.  We had car repairs that cost more than our wedding.  (It was a frugal wedding, but still.)

I have been working on saving money, making money, and stretching money so we can get the repairs needed done to the house.  This is the first time in years I have been in debt, and so sad that it happened on my wedding day.  But we are getting there!  :)

So right now, the adoption focus is preparing the house and paying off bills.  That's where we are at.  I was hoping to have better reports this month, but things take time, and we will get there!