The whole family was home due to the storm. We've had nonstop rain and wind for two days now, yuck. I guess it all comes to land tonight?

I filled the day with homework for my online class. I also started an apron that I am sending SO's sister for a birthday gift. It is almost complete. The girls and I baked cookies as well.

SO and I came up with a basic financial plan to keep the house if she gets orders to D.C. Managing two households will be tight, but doable. The good news is that I helped SO refinance with her mortgage lender, they did a streamlined refinance over the phone. After all the paperwork goes through we will save about $280 a month! We are both thrilled, and that will really help us keep the house and an apartment for work.

Besides that there isn't much going on. Just Waiting. And shuddering everytime a big wind wooshes by, praying it doesn't knock out a window.

Today I finished errands: picked up a refill of meds for $5.00, got our regular groceries (only $51, a savings of $30!), and dropped off a check to my daughter's voice teacher. Now I can hide out in the house until this storm passes.

This afternoon we discovered a leak in our upstairs bathroom, from the window made of glass blocks. Luckily it is dripping right into the bathtub, but we will have to deal with that once the storm passes. It hasn't even hit yet, hoping this will be the extent of damage.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing homework for the course I'm taking and graphing data collected from my students.

I ran 3 miles and did a quick 15 minute kettlebell and abs workout. It's amazing how fast your heartrate can go up just lifting some weights.

SO and I have decided that the girls and I will remain in this house when she gets her orders. She may be moving to D.C. which is only a few hours away. I want to keep the girls in their current schools and near family. Now we are just working on a budget to make all of this work out financially.

The girls just returned from their dad's house and are doing homework and crafts. Planning on a quiet night!

I was up at 4:30 to take SO to the airport, she's checking out a car whe wants to purchase a few states over. Apparently it's such a deal that it is worth the trip, we'll see when she gets back.
After the airport I headed over to Wal-mart (what else is open at 5am?) and picked up some "storm supplies": water, ramen noodles, toilet paper, wine. Only when I checked out did I discover that our state does not permit beer and wine sales until after 6am! Darn, there went my breakfast plans!
I got home and had enough time to run 2 miles on the treadmill, shower, and head to the car service station for some routine maintenance. While I waited I drank coffee and read a book, two of my favorite things!
When I came back home I did some cleaning before I picked up the girls from their dad's house. I was taking the oldest to pick out a Halloween costume. She's 13, a tough age for costumes- most costumes are either "kid costume" or "trampy costume". We lucked out and found one we both approved of, Red Riding Hood. Before I dropped them off with dad again we stopped at the new Target and picked up some ink for my printer, as I have more study guides to print out for my class.
I took a test for my class. We are allowed to take test A and B, and we keep the highest of the two grades. I took both of the tests, and scored a 78 and then a 95. I am going to take both tests every week. Not only does it give me an extra chance to improve my score, but it is also extra practice. 9 weeks to go!
All I have left to do tonight is print out my study guide and then pick up SO from the airport. She was planning on driving the car home, but with the impending storm she is choosing to have the car delivered later in the week.
Tomorrow I plan to sleep in, run, and do several hours of studying. I know this class is seriously cutting into my free time, but it will be worth it. Plus I still get to do the really important things- spend time with my family, work, and exercise, so it isn't that terrible. I just have to be very careful with my time.

I jogged 50 minutes this morning, so I will count that as 5 miles! That is a "long" run for me, usually I have been running about 3 miles at a time.

The rest of the day will be quiet as well. I have homework to do for my class, that can easily eat up the rest of the day. I also want to start sewing an apron I am going to give as a birthday gift.

I may also check out a thrift store for some work shirts. I look for well made ones that are professional yet comfortable. And if they get ruined by activities throughout the day then I won't get upset.

We are grilling ribs for dinner, looking forward to that! It's supposed to be in the low 80s today, love October around here and will enjoy the warm weather as long as it lasts!

SO will be receiving her new set of orders any day now. I went ahead and submitted an application for teaching positions at our potential new duty station, for next school year. This place doesn't post positions available but accepts applications throughout the year.

I started class #2 in the certification series. Scared of the hard work ahead but I went ahead and did it anyway. In 10 weeks I will be done with this class!

My ex is still looking for a new job since he retired from the military. Of course I'm annoyed at this but he has been paying the minimum child support, based on the retirement pay and rental income he receives. It's still half of what it used to be, though. Once his savings runs out he's really going to be taking the job hunt seriously, he has some hefty living expenses right now.

Despite that drop in monthly income, our family is happily moving along. Not saving as much as I used to, but that is what it is. Hopefully that situation will resolve itself soon.

Time for one more cup of coffee and then a three mile run on the treadmill to get my energy boost early in the day!

Although today was a cold, rainy Sunday, I've enjoyed puttering around the house getting things done in an easy fashion.

After church this morning SO and I decided to clean out the garage a bit. We tossed out the dollar store summer toys and some other things I was holding onto if we ever had a yard sale. Now I can happily say that both of our cars fit into our two car garage! I'm going to enjoy loading up the car from the garage this winter as opposed to the great outdoors!

I then made some tuna pasta salad for lunches this week and drank lots of coffee. After cooking I learned how to make a grocery tote bag out of a t-shirt off the internet. I made two bags out of old t-shirts, and they are pretty cute, if I say so myself!
Finally, I did a Rosetta Stone lesson online while dinner was cooking.

I love having fun without spending any money! It's only 6:30 right now, so I have the rest of the night to read and relax and get the kids all set up before we start another week. I will work on loosening up so I don't get so upset at the things I cannot control. No more complaining! That doesn't solve anything and only brings more negative things into my day.

Love my Fridays! My girls' dad should be back in town from his trip so the plan is for me to drop them off for the weekend after voice lessons. They will be happy to see him, he's been gone several weeks. I usually don't do much else on Friday nights, I'm pretty wiped out by the end of the week. Plus SO is on watch tonight til 10pm. I stopped at the thrift store last night, though, and picked up some easy reads so I will be content to read tonight!

I injured myself at work Wed lunging for the door when one of my students was having a huge meltdown and was about to make a break for it. I went ahead and used the workmans comp doctor to have it checked out. Pulled the hamstring. I'm bummed because it is a reinjury- 2 years ago I spent the summer going to physical therapy for that pulled hamstring! I really don't want to go through the long recovery process again.

Despite the work nonsense I want to get healthy again. Healthy body and healthy mind, I've been doing too much "thinking" and it's bringing me down. So work is not perfect, oh well. I have so many wonderful things in my life to be thankful for, I must step away from all of the negative thoughts and rejoice in the positive while taking steps to make things better. That's another reason why I picked up some cheap, easy reads. It's a way for me to relax and get my mind off of my problems.

What I do know is that shopping and buying some gadget, or "treating" myself to an expensive meal, is not going to make me feel better. Spending money I don't need to spend makes things worse, not better. At least I have learned that through the years!