uhhhh....

no.   far from it.   

life around here has not been anywhere near normal for the past several months.  i guess employment was just something we took for granted.  don and i have always worked.  even when i had my babies and was a "stay-at-home-mama" i did something to earn money.  something i could do and have my babies with me.  whether it was babysitting for someone else's children, working at a scrapbooking store or working at our city pool, i've always earned a living of some kind.  some of the jobs i worked was at an opposite schedule to don's so if i wasn't home, he was.  we never had to put our kids in daycare.  and i prided myself on that.  i don't mean to insinuate that there is anything wrong with daycare, it just wasn't for us.

we figured that we would work until we retired. and i was okay with that.  oh, i wanted to stay home and  be there when my kids got home from school, with a plate of freshly baked cookies, but i was okay with contributing to our income.  

who would have thought that the one who has all of the college degrees would be the one out of work.  it sucks, let me tell you.  the job don got a couple of weeks ago wasn't his dream job, but it was a job.  it was better than being on the unemployment dole.  well, life threw us a curve ball last week when don was asked to take a 50% pay cut at his current job.  50%.  at a job where he had already accepted a paycheck that was almost half of what he was making when he was forced out of GM.  

so, it's back to internet job searches, unemployment and the lovely bridge card....(food stamps).  don hates that part the most.  he is the one who does all of the grocery shopping because he can do it much more cost-effectively than i can. which is true.  he doesn't like when i go with him because i'm like a kid.  i sneak things into the cart that he doesn't see until we get to the checkout.  and then he makes me put them back.  the nerve!!  i haven't been grocery shopping in months because i was offended.  

seriously. 

well, anyway, we got a bridge card.  have you heard of this?  it's a credit card that has an amount of money that we are eligible for per month.  $172.00.  for a family of three (and a dog).  for a month.  it automatically filters out the bad things like cigarettes, booze and junk food, which of course, we buy in bulk (i'm kidding mom and dad).

i digress.  

don made me go to the grocery store with him because he was too ashamed to use the card.  NOT ME.   i've earned it.  by working my whole life,  even when my babies were little.   by paying my taxes and contributing 3/4 of my pay to the government every week.  by always providing for my family and not living above our means.   so i don't care.  i walked up to the cashier, waved my card and said, loudly,  "i've never had one of these things before, how do i use it"?  i could hear don groaning audibly as he walked away as fast as he could from the checkout counter.  

make me put my stuff back, will ya.....that'll teach you, honey...heh!

anyway, keep us in your thoughts while don starts his job search again....

thank you!