My dad is doing better every day. He was able to eat popsicles today and you would have thought that he was eating filet mignon. He was also able to get up and walk a little. The morphine sure makes him say some funny things too.

Parking at the hospital is $7 a day. I paid $15 for 5 days. My mom insisted on giving me $15 more for the next 5 days. I have been been bringing food from home for us all to have for lunch the past two days.

Unfortunately DD1 lost her cell phone and fortunately we have insurance on it and I ordered her a new one for $50. Also, her school sent home a notice for class rings for the year 2008 with a $50 deposit. She is only in the 11th grade. Also homecoming is coming up and I told her she could go but I would not spend more than $20 on a dress. Well she found one today at Ross and a pair of shoes for $13 so I guess she is going.

Tropical storm Ernesto is causing people to freak out and go crazy buying gas and non-perishables. I stopped today to get gas because I needed it and the station was out of regular and mid-grade. I did get some at 7-11. The school board just called with an automated message saying that school may be closed on Wednsday.

Tommorrow I will be at the hospital all day and then I start my Human Anatomy and Physiology class tommorrow night.
One more class after this one and then I can apply for the nursing program. After today I know more than ever that this is what I want to do.

Thank you to everyone for your comments and prayers for my family. My father is doing well. His surgery was long and he is recovering slowly. He has slept for the last three days waking only ocassionaly. He was taken out of ICU yesterday and is now on a step down floor. We do not know when he can come home.

Because of circumstances I have not been spending much money. We have been alternating between buying food in the hospital cafeteria and bringing food in from home.

I did go on an interview at the local college on Thursday and it looks promising. It is a 20 to 30 hour a week job and I can choose the hours. I will know by Wedns.

My dad went for a colonscopy on Weds. On thurs. they called with the results. He has colon cancer. This is his 3rd time. They said that is extremely rare and that he must carry the gene for the cell. He first got it when he was 38 and then 4 yrs later. He is now 63. They want my dad to have ileostomy where they remove the large intestine so that this will not happen again. The doctor said the surgery will be hard as my dad is overweight, has lots of scar tissue from before, and hernias. His surgery is this thursday. My poor sister is moving to NC on tuesday and she is beside herself w/ guilt and grief. I did warn her this could happen when she told us she was going to move but it is too late now as they already bought a home. I am making dinner and cupcakes and bringing them to her house tonight and helping her pack. Of course she will be there for the surgery and unfortunately miss her daughters first day of 1st grade. Please pray for my family.

Did not go in the attic today. Too hot. What the heck was I thinking? I went to Super Target instead because I had coupons that I printed from their website. I got excellent deals. They had:

$1 off Goldfish crackers (the bags) they were $1.37 so I paid .37 cent each!

$1 off 12 pack of coke/diet coke. They were on sale for 4/$10.00 so I paid $1.50 each. I got 6.

BOGO Jazz Diet Pepsi. They were $1 each so I got them for .50.

.75 off Ragu sauce. They were $1.34 so I paid .59 each. I bought 4 of them.

All together I saved $19 using coupons today.

Today I also made an appt. with Kelly services to be a substitute teacher. I used to be one 3 years ago then I was offered a full time job with a school. Well the automated system has been calling me for the past three yrs because I was not taken off. Well I know that I am not active so I called today to tell them to stop calling me because it is approx. 3x's a day and it is annoying. Then I thought maybe I should just start subbing again. It is flexible, you work when you want, no weekends, holidays etc. So they said that all I have to do to activate myself again is to have my fingerprints taken again and a criminal background check. They said I should be able to start subbing again by Sept. 5th. Yeahh! They pay $60 a day if you do not have a bachelors degree. I can even do this while pursuing my nursing career.

Well yesterday I thought was a no spend day but my DD1 had to do a project for school and needed to print something out and we were out of black ink. We had to go to buy some and that costs around $22. Darn!

Now already this morning I spent $20 to renew my suscription to Webroot Spy Sweeper. The computer was acting really wierd and I am sure it was due to spyware.

Today I am not going anywhere just staying home and going through the attic. I may have a garage sale on Saturday.

Today I stayed home and applied for jobs online. These days you do not even have to leave your house to look for a job. The other day I did apply in person at a BJ's and they called me today for an interview for next tues. I just want to work PT.
I also worked in my yard. I mowed, raked, and pulled many weeds. My back yard has been completely taken over by weeds. This was due to our yard flooding in the past. My DH put in a french drain and now we do not notice any pooling of water. Of course it has not been raining here much lately so we hope it works. Anyway our only recourse is to take out all the weeds and resod the yard. We do not have the $ now. We will have to wait on it.

Tomorrow should be another stay home day w/ no spending as I want to go through the attic and see what I can sell at a yard sale this weekend.

Here are my totals for the week:
Food- 101.04
Gas- 43.35
Bills- 533.00
Toiletries- 14.47
Household- 59.08 (inc. lawn pest control guy spraying for cinch bugs)
Kids lunch- 14.00
Dining out- 12.46
Dh cash- 20.00
pet food- 21.07
School misc-19.69
Car misc- 67.72 (front end alignment)
Health/Beauty-2.86
Not necc- 157.80 (ouch!)
Clothes- 40.97 (2 hoodies from Aeropostale normally $39 each they are on sale now for 50% off pre-winter and I had a $10 off coupon. Did not need now but will eventually and this is much cheaper. Oh, plus DH undies)
Entertainment- 20.00
Charity- 15.00 (school donations)
Dr- 78.00 (my contact exam)
Saved $13.05
For a grand total of $1121.37!!

This week there will be:
NO not necessary!
I will cook all week
Not buy clothes or school supplies
I will keep food at $80 or less
Entertainment at $20 or less

Saturday I did not spend any $. Sunday we went to Olive Garden and the movies to celebrate DH bday on Wednesday. We met my in-laws at OG and they paid for the lunch. Movies cost us $20 as only myself, DH and DD2 went to see Talledega Nights. DD1 already saw it. It was a funny movie. On Wednesday I will cook a nice dinner and we will buy a couple of fishing lures for his gift.

It seems that no matter how sincere I am about my intentions to not spend money, I still do. Most of it I can justify but not all of it. This past week so far I have spent $1082. $533 of that money was for bills and $152 was for items not necessary. The rest was for gas, food, the eye doctor, toiletries and household items. I was good on gas as I only put in $45 this week and it lasted the whole week. I did really well with grocery shopping. If you take other store ads to Walmart they honor the other stores sales. Well I brought the Albertsons ad and they had some BOGOS and for example they had Edy's icecream (large one) BOGO and Walmart sold two of them to me for $1.62 each! The not necessary was related to our pond we put in. I bought Tennessee flagstones for $45 and small river rock. Now I am kicking myself. I should not have spend that money because I really could not afford it considering my financial situation. It is pretty though.

Tonight I took another baby bird to the bird rehab lady. This one may have been trying to learn to fly and was on the ground when my cat saw it. I am proud of my cat as he could have eaten it but he hardly touched it. It was more scared than anything. Bird lovers will tell you that people should keep cats inside so they will not kill the birds but I don't think it's right to keep an animal inside all its life. Of course I take my chances because they can die while outside but my theory is that they at least had a happy fullfilling life being allowed to go outdoors ;0)

I started an excel spreadsheet on the 1st of this month to keep track of my expenditures. Here is the damage for 7 days:
Food- 123.24
Gas- 68.35
Bills- 245.00
Toiletries- 21.05
household- 18.02
Dining out- 66.68
DH cash- 50.00
Pet food- 15.64
School supp- 68.90
Tools- 20.75
Donations- 10.00 (school)
Health/Beauty misc- 9.00 (haircut)
Not neccessary- 148.45
clothes/shoes- 79.42
Entertainment- 10.00
For a whopping total of $927.94!!
The not necessary came primarily from a pond liner that my DH found. I have always wanted a pond so DH dug a hole by the front door and put it in so I went and bought the pump, filter, fountain, electric connector,and misc. A free item cost us $127.00.Hopefully DH will put in this weekend. I saved only $14.84 w/ coupons.

My sister is 37 married w/ 2 kids. She has been a registered nurse for 2 yrs now. My BIL works for the airlines. My parents, sister and I have lived within 6 miles of each other since we moved out on our own.

Well, about three weeks ago my sister tells us her and BIL are moving to NC. My BIL was aceepted for a transfer at the airline he works for. His family lives there. They are not moving there because of them, rather because Orlando, FL is not the town we knew as children. It is crowded, the traffic is horrible and the schools are overcrowded and the crime rate is way up. Also, the price of homes here is astronomical compared to what they were a few years ago. That is why they are moving. Well we want to move there too but in a few years when we are in the right place. My inlaws are moving there too as soon as they sell their home here. They have built a home on a mountain,

My sister put in an offer on a home today. It is 3,000 sq ft. in a gorgeous subdivision. The home has wood floor, fireplace, two bonus rooms, etc. The price...... $379k but they offerd $360k due to outdated appliances. The same house would sell here for $525k easily. They sold the home they bought here 3 yrs ago that they paid $140k for for $269,900. They sold an acre of land they bought for $45k four years ago for %200!!! My parents will move when we do.

I am looking so forward to escaping from here myself. I cannot understand why people continue to flock to live here.

I have been keeping track of my gas usage since 7/14. I drive a 1993 Kia Sedona LX. So far I have put $190 into my tank. $190 in 21 days!! I really do not drive that far as we have every store you can think of within three miles of my house. I can only think of three times that I drove maybe 30 miles round trip. Just yesterday I made such a trip to bring a newborn baby bird to a lady who takes in such birds. This bird was no larger than my pinkie with no feathers. It was hungry and kept opening its beak. She has dedicated her home and life to the care of orphaned, and injured birds. I also left a $5 check for a donation. Hope the little think makes it!