The End of 2016

During the move, most of our items were destroyed due to the brown recluse, tree roach, and mold infestation.  We are having to rebuild our life from the ground up.  Yes, even infested items were stolen and the people that stole them are in for a big surprise.

The entire security deposit was kept, and the slumlord used it to remodel the old place.  He was going to give it back to us, then later claimed he had to repaint the walls.  He claims it cost the entire security deposit (and then some) to repaint.  So, in an 800 sq ft home it cost close to $1k to repaint...which is nowhere near how much it would really cost.  It's ironic because the rooms were only half-painted before we moved in.  Husband told me not to fight it, as it is a small town.  It would make living here even harder.  (Don't worry, I reported him to the housing authorities.)  The old rental is still on the market, unable to sell.

We still live in our historic farm house, on the peaceful side of town.  We very rarely go into town now, unless needed.  It's a 45 minute drive into the small town.  We pay the same amount of rent as we did before, for three times the amount of room and a million times the solidarity.  (However, sometimes the owner's nephew randomly stops by at 6am - waking the kids up - and acts like he owns the place.  We consider it really creepy.)

Because of everything that has happened with the old rental, and most of our things being destroyed...we have put finding our new house on hold until this summer.  We are slowly trying to replace everything.  I do mean everything.  We only had our beds, which I had to massively clean, our computers, and a few clothes when we first moved in here.  Everything else was destroyed, infested or stolen.  (I know someone will ask, not a single person has helped us since we moved.  We have been rebuilding by ourselves, while the ILs focus on "more important" things.  We also considered moving back to our old house in Utah, as this move has been disastrous for us.)

I am still room parent to classes this year.  I have been signed up for 6 different classes this year, as opposed to the 4 last year.  My kids are only in 2 of these classes.  Each class has roughly 25 students, which means about 150 "gifts" are handmade by me every holiday.  Yes, parents still reap the rewards of my hard work and really do not care to offer any help.  I was going to stop doing the class helping this year, but I couldn't watch the kids suffer due to the laziness of parents.

My SIL has not settled into new motherhood, at all.  Her boyfriend works 3 days a week, at nights, and she has been known to throw parties while he is gone (sometimes drunk calling here, and we can hear the baby crying in the background).  According to her, it's just SOOO hard being alone.  Also, she is renting my MIL's home for $150 a month.  MIL is staying with GMIL for the time being, as SIL and her boyfriend do not want MIL even coming over to her home due to the rental agreement.  SIL has said some very hurtful things to MIL, and has been ungrateful about the entire thing.  SIL also has issues paying her electricity bill, and begs us for money "for the baby".  We have learned to refuse, because she spends this money on weed and alcohol instead of bills.  CPS has visited her numerous times, and they are considering removing the baby from her care.

We have not had many issues since the move.  We did buy a brand new carpet cleaner, that I was super excited over.  It's amazing.  Yes, I know, it's strange that I get excited over something like this.  But, it's all mine and it didn't cost too much.  It did take a very long time to come in the mail, as we live in the middle of nowhere.

I also had a cap put onto my temporary root canal, which was painful (Novocain does not work on me).  My husband will need his wisdom tooth removed soon.  Dentists here are more expensive then in Utah, especially since we qualify for Obamacare...but do not live in an extended medicaid state.  Meaning, we'd have to pay $450 per adult, per month, to be on Obamacare instead of getting it free like everyone else would.  That equals $10,800 a year for insurance...which is almost 1/3 of our entire yearly income.  This is too costly for us, and we go without insurance because of it.  Thus, we pay the taxes at the end of the year for it - though we have heard that you can claim a "suffrage", and bypass the tax if you make a certain amount.  We are going to try to do that with our taxes this year, however it still means no insurance.  But you know, Obamacare is fucking awesome.  (Side note:  We HAD insurance, but both of our companies didn't want to pay for insurance anymore due to it being too costly for them.  So, they cut the insurance programs completely to keep afloat.)

My husband works full time still, from home.  He got a lot of phone calls from people in Florida, during the hurricane about how their internet was not working and wanted someone to be sent out to fix it immediately.  During a hurricane.  Where even on the local news, people were informed to evacuate and if they did not...to NOT call 911, as they would receive zero help.  Let that sink in for you.  Yup.  He works in IT, and he can be really patient/nice.  They are lucky he speaks to them and not me.

I work about 20 hours a week, from home.  I review case files for the district attorney in Utah.  Then, I send forward important paperwork over the internet back to Utah.  I cannot claim disability, as I "work too much".  According to the disability "board" here, if I was not able to work 20 hours a week...that'd be a true disability.  Ignoring the fact that I work while in bed, or while in my wheelchair.  I was straight up told that if I was say obese, and too big to work, that I'd qualify for disability.  As it stands now, we need my income and I cannot afford to quite working.  So, because I work 20 hours a week...and am a somewhat productive member of society, I cannot get onto disability.  Awesome!  However, I am still labelled handicapped for multiple reasons.

My son is almost 3 now, and he is working on being potty trained.  He speaks more often, as well.  We were concerned that he might be speech delayed like my oldest was, but luckily he is just a quiet little man instead.  He is mommy's little helper on most days.  His curls have officially been cut off, but sometimes when his hair gets too long - you can see a hint of them still.

My daughter is 1 and a half now.  She speaks almost as much as my son, and is a bouncy little girl.  She still has her curls, and will for a very long time.  She is also wanting to be potty trained (I think she saw my son trying, and wanted to learn too).  My son and my youngest are two peas in a pod, best friends.  They are inseparable.

My oldest is in school still.  However, the school is still under the care of No Child Left Behind and Common Core.  Thus, we have been basically home schooling her at home.  I am pleased to say that she is basically on high school math (think algebra: like a+b=c, and PEMDAS).  However, due to the new teachers from the "city" coming here...they have her reading some extremely racist books.  (The first is about a black family moving to be near a white family, and starts out with a lot of "dirty redneck crackers" in it - I lost count after the 30th time this was mentioned.  The white family is portrayed as being racist to just be racist, and the black family is only racist for "good" reasons.  It also ruins the ending of Jane Eyr)  So, basically, SJWs have invaded the school.  We've also had a few issues with HAES, photoshop being the devil, and many other things.  Common Core is still an issue at this high of a grade level.

My 2nd kidlet is in my oldest's school now.  Her teacher has been absent all year (since Aug 1st) due to pregnancy.  She had her baby about mid-Sept, and is still gone.  Thus, my daughter is learning a whole lot of nothing in that class.  Due to No Child Left Behind, my daughter is stuck in front of a computer because a classmate of her cannot read and she can.  So, the substitutes basically try to teach the kid how to read all year, so far, while the other kids do computer programs all day.  She is still required to learn Common Core math, especially for multiplication and division.  I can full heartedly tell you that the old school methods have worked wonders for my children, and these new methods are stupid.  Sure, if you kid CAN do them...let them use the new methods...but if they cannot and are not good at it, then they should not be required to master it, write a paragraph explaining their logic, and make sure they use "key words" or fail a test.  It's basically a waste of time, and frustrates my kid very much.  (Apparently, number lines NEED to be done with with a ruler.  Stupid shit like that.)

Otherwise, the girls are doing well.  They learn most of their schooling at home, as always, and are exceptionally bright.  Probably too bright, as they try to pull the wool over my eyes constantly.

I think that is all to update, aside from us maybe going to Thanksgiving with his family.  I have strictly decline to go, as they have nothing to do with us unless they want something.  That's not the definition of "family" to me.