Whatever is cool with me.

First and foremost let’s keep the X in Xmas.

Second, I’m at the in-laws waiting to go to church. I’m not particularly thrilled about it, not that I have anything better to do it’s just that I’d rather be anywhere else.

In an odd twist of events we’re opening presents tonight instead of tomorrow which is fine with me. I don’t care when we do it but if I got something cool then I’m glad to get it early. This year is an extremely low key Xmas so most of our presents are from each other and that’s fine because we buy each other nicer things that way.

December is shaping up to be a good month. Since Sarah is in between semesters she’s working extra hours at the office. With the extra hours we’re able to buy a few Christmas presents and we’ll able to use the extra cash to pay off some of the bills we racked up over the spring and summer.

September and October were rather boring except more random medical problems for Sarah. Fainting, vision problems and other stuff called for batteries of tests, scans, and more ER trips and of course more medical bills on top of ones back from May.

All this time at the doctor’s office and the ER had really taken a toll on her schooling. While her teachers seemed to be understanding, one of her teachers was genuinely concerned her her well being and her education allowing her to make up missed work and exams. With the other instructors being less flexible Sarah had to restructure her schedule for next semester but nothing terrible.

On one of my trips to a remote office for work I had Sarah tag along. It was on this trip that Sarah hit it off with one of the managers where I work who happened to need to staff the office we were at. After an interview Sarah got the call that she would start work on December 1st.

With the end of Summer rapidly approaching we realized a few things. First there was no sign of work as a CMA for Sarah and we had to do something. That something just ended up being sending Sarah back to school to get her nursing degree. In the end things will be better because there is always a shortage of nurses with 5 huge hospitals in the area. I just have to keep making due with my paycheck.

The second thing is that even though we’re just making it we need to take some time and enjoy our lives. We’ve been spending lots of time with our friends down the block but my family hasn’t seen the house yet. We decided to have a huge party at the house inviting neighbors, friends, and relatives to come see the house, drink beer, eat, and see the new (small) pond I put in the back yard.

My sister came over and stayed with use for a week in August as well. We celebrated her birthday, had family photos taken and took a trip to a wild animal refuge together. It was just a really good time. I hope I can do it again next summer and do it better.

Although our problems awe still have fate waiting to crush us, we managed to hold off for a while and just enjoy life.

By July my coping mechanisms had been fortified to withstand just about anything good thing too because there really didn’t seem to be any good news on the horizon.

With Sarah still searching for work we decided the only logical thing to do was to add another financial burden to our lives and get a puppy. We bough Slugger at like 9 weeks old from an Amish out in the middle of nowhere. Slugger is half Australian Shepherd and half Black Lab. In infancy slugger was the quietest most well behaved puppy and I could hold him in the bottom of my hand.

Anyhow the puppy seemed to make Sarah happy and help with the loneliness of me being gone for 12 hrs. a day. In July we ended up meeting a wonderful couple that lives just two houses down from us. With their 7 children they’ve become some of our closest friends. Our life has definitely become better since we met them.