Way Back Whensday - Long Edition

Okay, the title has warned you, this is a long one. This Way Back Whensday post actually happens to fall on week where a lot of things happened last year, and I've been reflecting on them personally so it's time to share because all the events led up to some major changes.

Week of 4/28/2008

I was 9 weeks pregnant and found out I need progesterone supplements right away, only one pharmacy makes them and it is on the other side of the island, through vigorous determination on my end of making phone calls and my husband's NASCAR driving capabilities, all was safely obtained, thank God.

The same time we are refinancing, out of desperation, our rate will reset in a matter of weeks, and we need to get this done now! Again, through sheer determination, and fighting massive all day (morning) sickness, we get it together and lower our payments by $400 per month!! WOO HOO.

All that being said, when we received out tax return we decided it was the PERFECT time to take the girls to Disney World, the ages were perfect, I was pregnant but feeling pretty good and we could at the moment pay for it, even though admittedly we should have paid off some credit cards, but we took once in a lifetime attitude and decided to go for it, and make it an extra long road trip/vacation.

On April 28, Lou calls me around 4:00 to tell me that after 10 years, yes I said 10 years, he was no longer employed. BAFFLED. He had given up so much the past 2 years for this company, he sacrificed our relationship for this company, his direct supervisor and I had had a conversation some weeks before and she said to me, "you like the house you live in?" "Then for that, your husband stays here". "In the end, it will be worth it", "He is great at this job, and we just need him to learn the rest of it." At this point in time he was working 15 hours a day, he was only home to sleep, I was suffering mentally, the kids were suffering from not having him around. I couldn't take it anymore, and the money wasn't even great, it was only great because he was working 7 days a week 15 hours a day and the OT was more than his regular salary.

We didn't know what we were going to do and we were scheduled to leave for Disney in 3 days. Guess what? We were still going and it was paid for, now we could take our time. Our new mortgage was funded at the same time. I was COUNTING the money in our pockets, we were going to be able to pay off all of our credit card bills and fix stuff up in the house, but with one phone call it was all gone, that money now had to go to surviving without a salary. They made him sign a paper that said he was quitting instead of being fired to protect their own a$$es, so now we were not entitled to unemployment and COBRA was $1400 per month which my father wound up paying for 3 months for us.

Now the $400 per month we were saving on our mortgage was no longer a savings with no income. Ahhh, the downward spiral continues.

Despite this we head out the door a day early and start driving to Florida, my dad joins us and splits all the gas costs with us, what a relief (even though this was all budgeted). We know that this will be the last vacation we have for a very long time of this magnatude, we will still be unemployed 10 days from now and are determined to enjoy ourselves and boy did we!

The trip was fantastic, we stopped in Virginia (stayed over night both ways), North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia (stayed over night both ways, on the way down for two nights). It was fantastic, I would drive it again and again. We had no DVD player in the car after the first 20 mintues of the ride, so if we can drive to and from Disney World without a DVD player we never need one in the car again. We had a flat tire on the way down, and lost our power steering on the way home. All of it was just bumps in the road of a wonderful vacation.

We celebrated our 5th Anniversary on May 3rd, can't believe this Sunday will be 6 years. BUMPY ROAD again, but we are surviving on our own.

We came home and dealt with reality. It took Lou a couple of months but he found a job, a wonderful one that he is good at and where they show him respect and do not make unnecessary demands on his personal time. It was hard and I had hoped so much for different things but this is the way things are and whose to say that it would have been better or worse if these bumps didn't happen?

For more Way Back Whensday posts or to create your own, please visit: Cheryl at Twinfatuation.