So I am mailing in an application to take the civil service test to work in the actual court system, instead of freelance work!!! There's no scheduled test date yet, but word in the court reporting community is it's coming up soon.

If I get to work for the courts, I'll be SALARIED, no more of this commission stuff making life so stressful day to day wondering how much my checks are going to be for. A salary would be awesome! Also a HUGE thing would be the benefits that I assume state or county employees get, and being that we pay $450 a month for my husband's health insurance, that will be HUGE. The salary starts around $44,000, BUT I would also get paid for the transcripts that I do produce which could be anywhere from an extra $10,000 to $30,000 a year, depending. So that combined with the benefits AND *gasp* paid vacation would be AWESOME!!!

I'm actually not too worried about the test, although I will practice at home for it. Not to sound all high and mighty, but I know I do my job very well. The test is 225 words a minute for 5 minutes and I have to transcribe that, and then that's what it gets graded on. Then you get put on a list according to your score and they go down the list when they need people...

So yeah. It would be great. : )

I spent this week relaxing and cleaning up, looking for stuff to sell. I was happy that the house was in a somewhat good order for once. Our last foster dogs, the mom and her puppies, of course caused a LOT of mess!! I do miss them though. I was considering not fostering for a few months or so just to take a break, but then I got a call about a deaf AND blind one-year-old dog. I haven't met him yet (later tonight) but how could I resist not helping that poor soul?? I guess he's been living outside all his life. So a deaf and blind dog with no house manners whatsoever. I'm up for the challenge.

Looks like all the good thoughts for today from you folks pulled through ; )

I went to work and was told the job WAS NOT going. I was pretty upset. Like VERY upset. I sat there and worked on what I had to work on while trying to not burst into tears. Then my phone buzzed around 12:30 and said the job WAS going and I had to get there ASAP!! I was SO HAPPY. And it went until almost 4:00 so it should be fairly long. I won't know how much I am going to get paid for it yet because I don't know how long it is, but I'm assuming it's around 130 pages (a conservative guess) then it will be an extra $315 for me next month. Which is good. I do have my fingers crossed that it's longer though. It was really fast so I'm hoping!! But I am SO GLAD it went : )

Well, I'm just rambling now. I have others news to babble about, but more on that later ; )

I'm trying not to panic, but I am. I just got the mail, bill, bill, bill, bill. That's fine, I'm used to that. And I'm used to trying to scrape the money together to pay them to the best of my ability.

Unfortunately, work has been SLOW. Today I added up all the work I did this month, after tomorrow I will be all caught up and out of work and being that it's a stupid holiday week, there's nothing going on and no jobs to go on.

When I get my checks next month, they will be HALF of what I'm used to get. Yes, that's right, HALF. I have no idea what to do. I've sold everything except my soul. I have nobody to borrow any money from.

I try to stay positive, but this might be the end. I mean, I know if I miss ONE credit card payment with the amount that we owe on the credit cards it will make the interest go to high that we'd be unable to pay it. $7.00 in the savings account.

I'm scared : (

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As soon as I was about to hit publish, my phone rang and it was the office saying that I'm on STANDBY for a job that "might" go tomorrow. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEEEEEASE cross your fingers for me that this job goes so I can get paid for it when I so desperately need the money!!! Sometimes they go, sometimes they don't when they're standby cases. I NEED this to go!!! *crosses fingers*

I got a letter today from the bank that holds my car loan. It said I could defer December's payment! Normally I wouldn't even think about it... but it's a $30 fee to defer my $323 car payment.. We have been painfully slow at work this month (which means less $$$ next month) so I am going to do it. I'm not too happy about it, but with paying the $30 fee and NOT paying the car payment, I SHOULD be MAYBE able to catch up on the bills and then start off 2009 on a GOOD note.

We've told everyone, once again, we can't afford to do Christmas. We'll still go visit our families though. For Thanksgiving we're spending it here, because I don't want to spend the gas $$ to be driving 4 hours, 2 hours there and 2 hours back. Plus now that I'm an adult (or something, LOL.) I thought it would be nice to spend a holiday at home with just my husband and our dogs. We sadly won't have Thanksgiving dinner though, unless I can find really, really cheap stuff to make it. But anyways, like last year our family insists on giving us gifts, even if we can't give them in return. Just like last year : ( it makes me feel like a heel. Although my husband said his mom was getting me new tires for my vehicle, which I need and haven't been able to afford. So that will be super sweet.

Our anniversary is coming up!! I've been trying SO HARD to think of something awesome and cheap to do for my husband and am coming up blank with any good ideas.

I've decided we're going to raise our tenant's rent. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope he doesn't move. His rent is way too cheap though and he's had it for a while. If he does say he's going to move, we're screwed. I'm trying to figure out how much I can raise it and have him decide it's worth staying here.

I really do. I stink at it. If I made the same amount month to month it might be easy, but every month it's something different. The way it works is I bill the company for all the work I did for, let's say, October. Then for November, they divide that total up by four, take the taxes out, so I get four equal checks dated on the Fridays for the month.

I don't know why it's so hard. I think because things overlap (like the last check from X month goes towards paying the mortgage for the next month, etc.) And if I could get current on the bills, then I think that it would be easier to budget. I'm just so bad with numbers. I do think next week I MIGHT be able to get everything current, which would be a HUGE load off my mind.

I'm so paranoid because work seems really slow this month. I hope December is busier, but usually it's not

I'm so stressed. Going to go take the dogs for a nice cold Sunday walk.

Sundays, when I sit down and pay the bills for the week. I used to do it Friday when I got home from work, but it got too depressing over the weekend knowing there was like 1$ left in my bank account. So I started saving it until Sundays so I can cling to the hope maybe there's an extra $20 in there for something.

I actually have today off, a RARE thing. Between the two jobs I can't remember the last day that I had off! I hardly know what to do with myself, so I've been cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The mama dog I'm fostering and her puppies are all ready for adoption, so things are going to be very quiet (and clean!!) around here without them. Of course for every foster dog that leaves, there's another to take their place, and then some : (

I can't wait for December... I really hope I get a decent bonus check. Last year I think it was around $700 and I could REALLY use an extra $700 right about now! I'm hoping that between next month and this month I can get current on the bills and then STAY that way. I've been paying the cc's and loans on time, but utilities and other things I haven't and I'm pretty sure we're very behind. So my first priority is getting current on all those.... I haven't turned the heat on yet, and I don't plan to until it's current. No way. We have sweaters and blankets (thank god we don't have kids, no way I could get away with this if we did) so we should probably be fine.

Blah.