Well today was a big day! I received a phone call from a Consumer’s Energy representative (and she was really nice and very easy to work with!) from some special department. She received the grievance I filed with Michigan.gov and although I still have to pay the bill she did reduce it by 25% for me! On a $769.00 bill 25% is quite a difference! It ended up only being $551.00 something. I still don’t entirely agree with it (even though I do understand that I have been using more energy than what was being registered on the meter) but Mrs. Ridley (or however you spell it) took the time to explain the situation to me and just simply at least act like she cared how frustrated, upset and mad I was. She said she didn’t like the fact that it had to come to me filing a grievance against the company but she understands why I did. Ok so that’s still a huge financial obligation but thanks to my awesome WAHM community it’s not a problem to pay it Thank you everyone so much!!!

Alright onto the car situation. About three week’s ago now, maybe it’s been one month, I purchased a car for $1200.00 cash ($1300.00 by the time he did the title transfer and taxes) and took it back to the gentleman the very next day because of some weird humming noise it made. Well it didn’t get me very far taking it back to him. I had it looked at by someone and they said they didn’t think there was anything wrong with it other than the tires making a humming noise when I was driving down the road. But there has just been this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach that there WAS something wrong so I decided to take it to another place in town and pay $20.00 to have them look it over.

Hmmm kind of funny how that $20 is now turning into a $300.00 bill (but again thank you to the WAHM community I HAVE the money to pay to have the car fixed!) and how a $1200.00 car is turning into a $1500.00!!! So the diagnosis of the car? A ball bearing (or ball joint - something like that & it will be $200 to have it replaced and that includes the labor). The other diagnosis? A separated rear passenger tire and what that means (because I totally had to ask because it was Foreign language to me!) is that there are metal rings (or something) in your tires for them to hold their shape and keep them round. Well the metal rings in my tire have separated causing the tire to lose it’s shape which is causing the pulling to the right and weird shaking I feel when I slow down so therefore I have to have a new tire put on also (which is costing $60 some dollars). So the grand total for tomorrows repair bill will be right around $260-280 something…go figure. LOL.

I also just put $48.00 into my car yesterday for an oil change and some sort of engine type flush thing. But it was promising to hear that they were impressed with how there were no oil leaks, antifreeze leaks or anything of the sort on my car. They said for a 95 wth 122,000 and something miles the engine is in excellent shape and must of been very well kept by the previous owner! They also said that if I maintained the car well (keeping up on oil changes, etc) that I could definitely get another 100,000 miles out of it! Yeah that made my heart happy

So I’ll be right back at sitting broke (well just about broke) by Noon tomorrow when I go pick my car up and pay that bill but it’s all good! It’s been such a blessing to have the money to take care of things!

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Ok so my son isn’t all that thrilled with me at the moment…lol (go figure). I waited until the last minute to look for a Halloween costume for him and as you probably can already guess - everything was picked over already.

I went yesterday looking for something for him to wear and low and behold there was nothing (and I mean NOTHING) in his size. I ended up having to buy a $7.00 Ninja thing (it came with a Ninja mask, 1 big sword and 2 little swords) for him to wear and then he will wear a black shirt and black pants.

Besides him being upset with me that I waited until the last minute to go get him a costume and now he has to be something he doesn’t want to be, he is upset that he can’t take the swords to school so he’ll have the Ninja mask as his costume and that’s it.

Hey what can I say? Finances have been really tight and a Halloween costume was the least of my concerns. I hate Halloween and what it stands for so every year I struggle with whether to even send Caleb to school or not. This year his class isn’t having a party (I didn’t know it was the teacher’s choice - I thought all teachers had to have a party) and I was totally OK with that!

Caleb has never been into trick or treating (even before I was a Christian) because he’s always been scared of costumes. So I don’t have to worry about trick-or-treating and we will have a good time going to the church for a fun night where he’ll get triple the candy than if he were out trick-or-treating anyways (as if that’s what we need in the house…LOL). It’ll be fun and I’m looking forward to it.

I hate today/tonight and what goes on around communities on Devil’s Night. It never fails - there is always pumpkins being smashed, eggs being thrown and all sorts of other inappropriate conduct going on. Halloween honestly is one holiday that I wish weren’t so!

Until next time….

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Wow!  As my son was eating breakfast and getting ready for school this morning I turned on the TV and flipped it to the Today Show.  I was surprised to hear them talking about a young woman that applied for a job posting she found on Craigslist for a nanny and her body was found in the trunk of her car.

It ended up being a young man living at his parents home that posted the job lead and he didn’t have any need for a nanny at all.  How sad.  Can you imagine?

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My best friend and her family came up for the weekend so Caleb and I got to spend the weekend with them.  It was fun!  My friend treated her mom & I to manicures so we had a ‘girls’ day (even though her husband came with us & wandered around Wal-Mart while we got our pampering).  Her mom hasn’t had a manicure before so it was fun watching her get it done & listening to the lady tell her 18,000 times to just relax her hands….LOL

I got to share with my friend & her husband the awesomeness of the WAHM community and everything that everyone pulled together to do for me over the past couple days.  They listened to Mom’s Morning Show, I showed them my blog post about Consumer’s Energy and then Kelly’s post that started that asked for help.  It was neat letting them see into a part of ‘my life’ (they know about my online business but they are still somewhat ‘clueless’ when it comes to podcasting, blogging, etc) and showing them what kind of community I work in

Another exciting thing is that for several years now I’ve talked and tossed around the idea of wanting to move back to the city and my friend & her husband own a 2nd house that they rent out but it’s never been available at the ‘right’ times.  It’s always been available after I renewed my lease or several months before my lease is up but BUT not this time!  This time the house will be available in May which is when I have to sign all new paperwork and everything for my apartment.

So I’m doing some major praying about things!  I have to take into consideration Caleb and what a move to the city would mean for him.  It’s funny because for the past couple months I’ve been saying that by next year’s school year I would have Caleb out of this school system (I’ve had nothing but problems with them for the past several years!).  Whether it means moving downstate or just taking him to a different school - I’m not sure only God knows that.  But I’m excited to see!

Ever since I first saw this house I have been in love with it!  It’s so cute and exactly what I’ve always pictured my first home looking like.  A three bedroom, one bath with a big open kitchen, big sliding glass doors into the backyard.  It’s just a really cute house.  So we’ll see.  Just because I think it’s perfect ‘timing’ this time around, I know God doesn’t always move in my life the way I think things should go…LOL!

On another note, I have to give the grand total on what everyone gave to me!  I still can’t believe it but the grand total is $1,364.67.  How amazing and I’m still so choked up thinking about it.  We have such an awesome community of wahm’s and I can’t wait until I get to start giving back to those around me!!!!

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I wake up this morning to $300 in my paypal account that wasn’t there the night before. I see a blog post from Kelly sharing my story and the situation I’m in and have mixed emotions - first I’m upset then I’m grateful. Then I hear the Mom’s Morning Show and Kelly and Aurelia talking about me some more.

It’s funny - I posted my vent about Consumer’s Energy here on my blog not expecting anything other than a few comments but now it’s turned into this huge Work at Home Mom Community story where so many people have pulled together to help me. My paypal balance has grown by leaps and bounds - and the total is $993.84! I’m calling to schedule my tests that I need to have done at the hospital tomorrow because I’ll have the money to pay for that now plus I can pay the stupid electric company off!

I’ve contacted Consumer’s Energy again and still didn’t get anywhere with them which I kind of figured I wouldn’t. Sarah Zeldman of Solutions for Busy Mom’s just called me and gave me some advice from her dad (who I believe she said was a lawyer if I remember correctly) about how to handle the electric company. So again I called them and still didn’t make any lead way.

I’ve contacted two local TV stations about my story - the thought of them actually contacting me and possibly having me on TV to share my story HORRIFIES me but if that’s what it takes to get my story out in public locally then so be it! It’s all about sharing my story so others can be on the lookout and make sure they don’t find themself in the same boat.

I’ve also spoken to a local attorney through the legal services of Northern Michigan and she gave me information on filing a grievance against the company so I went ahead and did that today as well.

It’s funny that I used to be this timid shy little ‘whatever happens, happens’ person and now after the past few hours on the phone with people I feel empowered that I’m putting up a fight - so what that I have to pay the bill, the point is I’m making my story known and I’m fighting this big huge electric company! It just shows me that I’ve grown a lot over the years and that I don’t have to sit back and just take whatever comes my way.

Of course that also brings me back to the point of this whole post - I’m at a loss for words - I couldn’t of done all this without the help and support of those of you around me! I was sharing with my mom today the money that kept coming into my account and she was blown away that people that I don’t even know are stepping up and supporting me! How awesome of a testimony is that for those locally that don’t understand what the work at home mom community is all about!

I’m still numb over the financial blessings you all have provided me and the well wishes, kind words and prayers being sent up for me. I honestly can’t even begin to put into words what I’m feeling.

Thank You all so much for loving me enough to care about my situation and to help me!

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