I missed the trash, dammit!

And that's the way the day begins: A virtual ton of trash, and I missed the truck. There's something so damn agrivating about hearing that big engine whizzing down the street, knowing that there's no way you're going to make it to the road with your stuff before they get there.

Oh well, it'll just have to hang around until Wednesday. By then I'm sure we'll have nearly two tons.

The morning only got better from there when I logged in to my bank account, only to find that we were more than $100 over-drawn. Ugh. Never done that before. I always know how much we have. I guess we forgot to write something in... like the mortgage check! No big deal, though. My paycheck got deposited this morning, so that's settled.

It's been a rough couple of days around here.

Thursday night, about 11:00, Jonas sits straight up in bed and starts barking like a seal. The rest of the night was a struggle for him, trying to catch his breath between coughs. Any mother who's ever heard their child emit a barking cough knows immediately what it is: croup.

An early morning visit to the doctor confirmed this, and now he's on steroids to keep his throat from swelling shut. All in all, he's in pretty good spirits considering the fact that he feels like he's breathing through a straw. A little whiney, very hold-me, but otherwise smiley and content to play.

After our visit to the doctor, I had to leave him with Granny for the rest of the day because there was just no way I could take the day off of work.

Today we went and picked up a few groceries, purchased with a technically bad check, since the paycheck deposited this morning won't actually be posted until Monday. But you gotta eat, right?

Tomorrow is Wil's birthday. I feel bad because I can't get him anything. It's not that we expect gifts to be lavished upon us or anything, but just a simple little something would have been nice. I know he's been looking at watches. He needs a knock-around watch that he can wear to work without worrying about it getting scratched and broken. I almost bought one for him, but I have too much of a conscience to go buying things that aren't complete necessities when we're in the negative.

But, on the good side, our re-fi is finally in the works, and we should be in a much better position soon. We'll be paying off our two biggest debts, as well as doing a lot of repairs to the house. Of course, along with the repairs, we'll be doing a lot of fun upgrades that are totally unnecessary, but hey, you gotta live, right?

If all goes well, we'll have our bathroom fixed, our carpet replaced, a new laundry room, a new screened porch, a fresh coat of paint on the outside, and stucco repaired. We'll have a/c (praise god!) and possibly even new kitchen counters. I'd really like more counter space in the kitchen, and if we get the new laundry room, that'll be possible.

Of course, we'd also like new livingroom and bedroom furniture, but that's probably going to have to wait a little longer. We're trying to focus on doing repairs that wll add value to the house. I can't justify furniture yet.

Hmmm... do you think that all of this is do-able with about $20,000? I sure hope so.

Anyway, J-man is up from his nap. He's dancing along to "Jack's Big Music Show" and laughing. It's so cute watching him transform from a baby into a boy. Just in the past few weeks it seems like he's changed into a totally different child. He's starting to show preferences and dislikes with things that he used to just be indifferent about. He used to be content with any toy in the world, now he goes and picks a specific one. And music, god he loves music! Any kind of music will send him into a happy little dance.

But that's enough rambling for one day. Time to go figure out lunch and maybe do something constructive with the rest of the day. Maybe we'll bake Daddy-o a birthday cake. I've got a shaker full of candy sprinkles. Jonas would LOVE covering a cake in sprinkles.