All kinds of badness

I haven't written anything in a bit...things have been rough.

I have been just so exhausted lately, and sometimes literally will come home from work and go straight to bed! Being pregnant, working full time, and having a 2 year old were to blame... or so I thought. Turns out I am really anemic, with my hemoglobin (RBC count) below 9! Normal should be up around 12.

So yesterday I started taking iron. Hopefully it won't take long till I start to feel better. But unfortunately that wasn't the only bad news the OB had to tell me. She also said that I failed my glucose tolerance test. I have to go back next week to do the 3 hour one. I am freaking out that I am gonna be diabetic, not only for this pregnancy but later in life too. The risk of diabetes goes way up in women who are gestational diabetic...bad news :(

At work I refer tons of people to a certain Imaging Center to get mammograms and bone density screenings done. When the rep came by and saw that I was pregnant she offered to set me up with a free 3D ultrasound! Joe and I went and got to see amazing pictures of our little girl! (yes they once again confirmed it was a girl, I was really worried it had grown a penis!) We got to get some pictures too (which are too technically difficult for me to post here....sorry!)

I was really excited about the entire thing, until I told my OB doctor about it. She was pretty mad about the whole thing! She said there is some study out that prolonged 3D imaging can be harmful to the baby! I feel just terrible now, and stupid that I didn't know about the study and possibly put the baby at risk.

The other really crappy thing that happened involves our rental property. We currently have great renters in there. They have been there for two years and always pay rent on time, no problems what so ever. We found someone who was interested in buying the place, so I got all excited that we may be able to sell. Then the lady changed her mind. Well at least we still had our renters...nope! They will be moving in August! So now we have no buyers, no renters, nada!
Oh the stress. Our property manager is working on finding some new renters....

So that was my week...all kinds of badness...

Outcome of Fight Back Challenge

Well, sadly I lost my battle of the Nebraska taxes. I went to the on base tax center and they took a look at what happened. Somehow Turbo Tax calculated my taxes for Nebraska as if I was not a resident of Nebraska at all. So much to my dismay, I won't be due another 2,000 dollars like I wanted!

But I did not take this loss in stride....I vowed to figure out a way to fight someone! Instead of the Nebraska taxes, we are taking on our home phone. We hardly use the darned thing, but I really insist upon having one since I don't always keep my cell phone on me. Plus for emergency purposes I like to know where I can get to a phone that will get me to someone immediately. With a cell phone I never know where it is.

Right now we have Vonage, which I am very happy with. But my mom has something called a Magic Jack, that is 40 dollars for two years! We almost pay that much for one month of Vonage! I am sending Joe tomorrow to get the Magic Jack.

In addition we are considering switching from our local cable company, to satellite. I think it will be cheaper, I am just concerned about installation fees and such. We need to sit down and figure all that out and if it would indeed be cheaper.

One money saving thing I did this week was make Homeade Yogurt. It turned out okay, just a little runnier than I had hoped. I will experiment and get it just right! There are several reasons I wanted to make my own yogurt. First my version will have much less sugar in it than the store bought. Plus it is much much cheaper! And there are no plastic cups to end up in the landfills since I put them in reusable containers.

I will keep you all updated on my Fight Back!

Fight Back!!

I read this blog called the Red Tape Chronicles, and read an inspiring post today.

It is about taking on some stupid fee in your life and taking an hour out of your day to fight back!

We pay too damned much for our tv, internet combo. This week I vow to spend some time trying to get it lowered, or switch to someone who is cheaper.

The other thing I vow to do is figure out our Nebraska taxes. After I did my taxes, I was supposed to get some money back from the state of Nebraska. Then we got a check in the mail for about half what I expected. NO explanation, No means to contact them to figure out....nothing. I will get to the bottom of this!!

I will report back in one week and let you know how it went....

What are you going to fight this week?

Taxes...

I hate taxes. For over a month I have been collecting forms and statements for taxes. I have reviewed bank statements for anything that could possibly considered tax deductible. Hours have been spent on the phone with student loan people to get info regarding interest paid...

Today I was on the phone trying to get the interest for Joe's student loan. Thank goodness the customer service rep was really nice. After a few minutes of taking Joe's info, he said, "Now you don't sound quite like the typical Joseph..."

I complimented on his keen wit. He laughed as I explained that I was Joe's wife and if it were up to Joe they would never see their money! He verified that the payments come from an account with both of our names on it.

Then very nicely he explained that because Joe had never sent them a power of attorney form he could not tell me that Joe had paid 284.30 in interest last year. If Joe had sent in that form than he would be legally allowed to tell me that a total of 284.30 had been paid, but until he received that form he could not tell me about the 284.30 of interest that he paid.

He was so nice! A rarity in todays world of rush, rush, rush to have someone who understands how it is to be a busy family. He could hear Jordy crying in the background and said, "I hope that little guy can still get some nice toys despite the 284.30 that Joe paid in interest."

I thanked him profusely and then hung up. I will eventually get that form done...

Now this is really scary!!

I just finished watching I.O.U.S.A.

It is really scary to think of what may happen, or rather what will happen.

Please watch it! There is a 30minute version online you should watch!