Friends coming in

Our friends Katy, Chance, and their little boy Dash will be coming to see us next weekend (Labor Day weekend) And, I am off Monday and Tony is off all weekend! woo hooooo I can't wait!

Now if I can just find some things to do this weekend to keep myself from pure BOREDOM, we will be ok! (Tony works all weekend)

Is this for real?

Frustration of the day ( I know this is becoming a recurring theme of my blog, but good lord I just get frustrated with some things)

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571

This is a story about how all Texas public schools will now be required to teach the Bible. I haven't done enough thorough research to see if this is truly accurate but I will take this story at face value.

My reaction : Are you freaking kidding me? Will they be teaching Judaism? Buddhism? Islam? Hinduism? Or any of the other major religions practiced in the U.S., and in Texas for that matter?

No, just Christianity. I do not see this as something that should be tought in PUBLIC schools. Ugh

Article...

If you are at all interested in the healthcare debate, read this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2224938/pagenum/all/#p2

It is my opinion, that regardless of whether you agree with the Obama Admin's views on healthcare reform or not, it is useless and barbaric for mediagogs, on either extreme, to put out rumors and horrible things that are NOT true. I believe that people should make informed decisions based on facts and decide for themselves what they think is right, but no, our country is made up of people who want someone else to decide for them. So, they turn to the cracked out neo cons on Fox News, or even worse, Rush, and they believe every word. That would be like me listening to Left talk on Sirius for ALL my news and developing my opinions based solely on whatever they say. Ridiculous, yes? YES.

Ok, I am rambling, but this is what I abhor about politics in the U.S today. Noone wants to do some research, like ohhh I dont know, read the freaking proposed bills yourself instead of listening to some talking head tell you what MIGHT be on it. If you are going to accuse the president of being a socialist, or an effing Nazi for crying out loud, why don't you do some research on what those terms MEAN before you take it and run with it. mmmmk?

More good news...

I got a raise this week! Totally didn't expect it - I haven't even been there a year yet... but I certainly did not turn it down!

A slight change in the wind..

So, not many people really know this, because I don't tell every detail of my life to even my closest friends... I guess I am kind of a private person. But anyways, the last few months, since December actually have been pretty rough. Tony's work has been on a downhill slope. It just kept getting worse and worse.... After all was said and done, Tony and his boss had to lay off 17 guys, some of which were close friends. Tony's salary was cut by 5 %, then 5 % again, and his commision was cut by 20 %, and then a month later, another 20 %. THEN they cut 401k matching and some other crap too. You know, recession. That's how it goes. Well, we always say Tony's dad must be watching out for us because we always come through things, and I guess this is no different. A year ago when we moved here Tony was making a very good amount of money. More than we ever thought. I am SO glad we did not see that raise in income, move up here and buy a 300,000 dollar house or something and just go CRAZY. For some reason we kept our heads on straight, not forseeing the recession or anything that was to come.

Thank GOD. Well, we have made it through all the paycuts, the budgeting and the thinking OMG there is NOTHING in savings anymore... Time to ignore that and just pay the bills! But we are still ok, we can still pay all our bills and eat and have a little tiny bit left over. So it really hasn't been that bad, but it's just frustrating when you move somewhere for something that is supposed to be SO great and it just slaps you in the face.

Ok, to the point. We got word yesterday that Tony's company, Newpark, picked up 9 more rigs. This is REALLY good news. Not only does that mean more work and more commision for Tony, but he gets to hire back 2 of the really hard working guys that they let go a couple of months ago, who STILL had not found work yet. This also means we can breathe a sigh of relief and not spend every waking second worrying about saving, spending, BLAH BLAH. (Ok, so the worrying is more me than Tony, he has no idea about the money or budget lol)

I will say that I am very grateful for this past year. It has taught us how to be practical with our money, and we were SHOCKED at how much we couuld do with what we thought was so little. I had to remind Tony several times of the small amount of money we made it on when we were first married lol. Somehow you always forget those things.... and it is easy to get caught up in it all, to want the new cars and the stupid crap that piles up in your house for God knows what reason. It just becomes a bunch of bullshit, and it is easy to do that.

I am glad we didn't get there. I am glad we are finally at a place where we have our heads on straight as far as our finances go, and that Tony's work situation is looking up again. He certainly deserves it, he has worked his butt off since the day we were married. I am so proud of him.
And that is the end of that rambling mess ,lol.
Now, time to celebrate!! Too bad all of our friends up here have little kids and can't go out.... ;)

Update on the car situation.....

So, there is apparently nothing wrong with the car.

Acura ran a full check and sent us all the paperwork that had ever been filed on the car, and there was NO sign of ANYthing. We also had our friend who has worked in used cars in Tyler for years run the VIN and he found nothing. Then, we took it to the other Acura dealership in DFW and they ran every diagnostic imaginable and found nothing, again.

Tony tried to call the mechanic that originally called us and the phone was off... And the guy never even said his NAME. I mean its all a bit shady... but I have a 100,000 mile warranty so I guess if anything ever does happen they will have to cover it!

I wonder if the guy just had it out for the Acura dealership.... whatever, I'm just glad it's over.

I hate buying cars....

So, here's the story. About 3 weeks ago, we traded in my old car and got me an Acura. Used, a couple of years old but NICE. Nicest car I've ever even thought about owning. Only had 28,000 miles on it, still had 100,000 mile warranty, certified used, leather, sunroof, bluetooth,you know, all that. I love it.

SOooooooo then last week on Thursday a guy calls my work and asks for me. I was out meeting a volunteer so she took a message and he said that he was a mechanic at the Acura dealership and that he no longer works there, but he has some information about my car that the dealership withheld and he wants me to know. So I get back to the office and they tell me this , and I am like what the hell? How random is that? I had Tony call him because I didn't want to deal with it. The guy said the manager of the dealership was pushing cars through that had been bought at auction, wanting the mechanics to certify them as "Certified Used" even when they had problems. He said my car has possibly been wrecked, and he was certain it had been flooded, and he wanted us to know because if a car has been flooded all kinds of things can go wrong because of the computer system that basically controls the car. He said it could be dangerous to drive. We were like OH GREAT.

Attempting to make a long story short.... Tony called Acura (not the dealership, the company itself) and they directed him to the dealership compaint department, where they filed a claim. They finally called Tony back today and faxed him all the documents that had ever been filed on the car. It was originally bought new in Florida, then purchashed at auction and transferred to Texas, where it was leased to a company for a year. They tracked down all the documentation, auction disclosure documents and everything, and there was nothing that stood out. They faxed all the information to us.

We are hesitantly breathing a sigh of relief, but we are taking the car to another Acura dealership in DFW tomorrow and telling them to run certain tests that the guy from Acura told us to run so that we can see if the car might have been flooded.... sooooooo we will MAYBE know for sure tomorrow. Acura said that if the other dealership finds something that they will take away their dealers licence to certify, and proceed further with the claim, whatever that means. They said they have not had any complaints of this kind for that dealership though, and we are starting to think this guy might just have it out for the dealership or something. I really hope he was lying because I do NOT want to deal with all this. IF it does turn out, however, that something is wrong with the car Acura better pay up, and if they do not I will seek representation.

SOOOOO that is the latest saga of the Patterson household lol!! Who does this happen to? Good Lawd!