Hooray!

I had my end-of-year review at work yesterday. In the past, my review has often been a thing of stomach-churning dread, something to be feared, and I know there are times I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth or less. But for whatever reason, my manager didn't just give up on me. He found ways to keep me there, and now that I've settled into another role, it's working. This was the best review I've ever had, and he told me it was a nice change from some of the previous conversations we've had. That made me feel really good. :) So, maybe I am where I'm meant to be, at least for now.

Please vote for Little Miss Hannah's video

Of all the posts of mine that I'd hope might be picked up by BlogHer, this tops the list. Please feel free to share it on other blogs, message boards, anywhere it might be seen. Hannah is the daughter of my friends Carrie and Robert. She's not quite two years old, and has been diagnosed with Gaucher's disease, type 2 or 3, a rare genetic metabolic disease that is fatal unless a cure can be found.

Carrie has made a video about Hannah - it's part of the Extraordinary Measures movie quilt:

http://extraordinarymeasuresthemovie.com/?videoId=169

The winner gets a $10,000 research gift for the charity of their choice. The winner is chosen at random, but the more votes the video gets, the more ...chances it has to be pulled (sort of equate it to a raffle ticket for each vote). If Hannah's video wins, the money will go to continue much-needed research into her condition.

People can vote every day until February 5th. Would you vote? Would you help spread the word and get others to vote? Every little bit helps. Thank you!

I'm saving this for future reference

Project 52: Date Nights

I like the idea of having a date night every week, but like Simply Modern Mom, we're not exactly flush with cash, and babysitters are hard to come by when your family all lives out of town. So I'm going to follow along - I'm looking forward to seeing what ideas she and her husband come up with for free or inexpensive at-home date nights, and trying out some ideas myself.

A handy little something for those of you who are handy

If you're like me, and married to a man who likes to putter around the house and fix things up, check out these specials and coupons from Harbor Freight. They've got really good prices to start with, and you can save a little more with these current offers. If you aren't sure where to find a Harbor Freight nearby, you can use their store locator.

It looks like all of the coupons are good until January 29, so that's plenty of time to shop!

A little bit of relief

So today I got in touch with the guy we've been working with on the mortgage restructuring. He needed some more information from us, and said he's pretty sure the lender will be willing to work with us. Praise God, what an answer to prayer! Brian and I have talked, and we're going to make good use of whatever time this gets for us to really work on cleaning up the house, fixing things up, decluttering in a major way, and getting it ready to sell. We figure we'll be better off selling out of this one, getting out from under the huge mortgage we face now, and buying something a little older, a little smaller, a little more cost-efficient (9- and 10-foot ceilings look pretty, but they are a huge energy suck when you're trying to cool off in a Texas summer - and for someone as short as). We can use whatever equity is left in this one to put toward a new house, and then get a smaller, more manageable mortgage, at least some of the cost of which we'll likely be able to offset by the savings on utilities. I've already started looking at houses for sale, just to see what's out there. If we can find a nice older house in the town where we now live, with a good-sized yard, that's been well-maintained, I'll be happy. I'd prefer it to be in the district for J's current elementary school, but going back to his old school would be OK, too. It will all work out, even if I'm not sure right this minute exactly how it will be accomplished. I reckon that's God's department, not mine.

Something we need to check out

Dave Ramsey's name seems to keep coming up - in conversation, in blogs I'm reading, everywhere. Brian and I think we need to check his ideas out. I don't know if it will help in our current mess, but if nothing else, it could be a help going forward.