Feelin' Old

It's been a rough 2 weeks for my body. 2 weekends ago I was putting on a pair of jeans and when I lifted up my leg to put them on I felt a sudden pain in my hip. It stayed there for a good week and finally started to subside by the next weekend. However, it remained stiff just to let me know it was angry. Even now, sleeping on my left side is almost impossible because my hip gets grumpy and feels I need to move in order to make it some-what happy.

Then this morning came. I got in a good 30 min on the elliptical, showered and dressed, dogs for a mini-walk around the block (cause it was raining, so I wanted to keep it short), garbage out and all of the sudden I turned to grab something off the counter and BAM! pain! in my upper back, right under the left shoulder blade. Almost like a knot but very painful. It lets me know it's unhappy every time I move it. I walk around like an old lady leaning forward with my shoulders, just to try to avoid making it mad. However, we're out of litter and I was doing a Target run, so of course I get some (the big 35 lb bucket of course!). Putting it in the cart required lifting over shoulder height. Upper back did not like that! Then I was thinking crap, I have to do this 2 more times once to get it on the counter and once more to get it in the car. Curse the cat litter! My back yelled at me but it's now in the car and Rick agreed to bring it in the house for me when he gets home.

Meanwhile, it's time to start popping some Ibuprofen like it was candy again. I'm too young to feel this damn old....isn't that a Garth Brooks song? That makes me feel even older!

On the plus side, it's one week until I get my new phone....Palm Treo Pro :D and I take a small step in the direction of Dog Assisted Therapy.

The WI Humane Society is offering a 1.5 hour class covering everything you need to know about this kind of thing. When we first got Bella I wanted to do therapy with her. But she gets scared easily, and doesn't take to new people all that well. I have a sliver of hope that the Canine Good Citizen class she starts next month will help her enough to be able to like seeing people, but I'm doubtful it will help that much. Tucker on the other hand will be awesome at it. As the neighbor girl says, he's that smiling dog. It really does look like he's smiling sometimes! He absolutely loves people and I'm sure he'll be great at it. I have to wait for him to turn 1 year old and pass the Canine Good Citizen test, then we can get involved. I'm psyched!

Fitness Blog

I've started a second blog that I will use to track my journey to becoming physically fit. You can check it out here.

My first challenge will be the One Hundred Push Up Challenge. Wish me luck!

I'm Free!!

Today was my meeting with my Attorney. Basically he said that this is what he was hoping I'd do but since he represented my ex and I he couldn't tell me to dismiss the case. He also said that my ex had called there and told him to dismiss the case. He was like what kind of idiot has someone else paying their bills and then actually requests for that to stop? Someone who is scared of another person coming after them for not making court ordered payments, that's who! Now, he will be held responsible for his back child support and other bills, not me!

In the long run it works much better for me. One MAJOR plus is that I fall just above what the average household of 1 makes. If you fall above this you do not have to send half of all income tax refunds received in to the trustee. I know, kinda messed up, since if you fall below you do have to send that money in. Go figure! The cons of the situation are that I have to extend this thing for 5 years (I was set to be out of the last one in Nov. 2010), and if anyone dies and leaves me money in those 5 years it goes into the bk. Other than that it was a good meeting.

Under the new laws you have to attend credit counseling. Basically it's a waste of time. But I did it and it's done and over and it wasn't too painful. At least it's something you could do online! So I'm well on my way for better days :) YAY!

The Negatives

During my marriage I did not control much of the financial aspect. It stressed me out to the max and my Husband just took it over. I learned this was not such a good thing. Not only did my credit get shot to hell, but it led to the filing of a chapter 7 bankruptcy and a chapter 13 bankruptcy. Yes, it really was that bad. Had I known what I know now things would be different. I'm a little more careful with my credit and it's on the rebound. Or I should say was on the rebound.

This year the ch 13 got to the point where I was now paying off the $5,000 in back child support belonging to my ex-husband. It all fell on me when we split. He was court ordered to pay $307 a month and has not made 1 payment. Muchless any part of the $1100 I thought he paid from income tax returns a few years ago. I got frustrated and gave up, decided screw him I will just let it go and refile. So I skipped a payment. Actually at the time I was thinking I'll just skip it to see if he'll make any of it. Turns out no he didn't and the day after I sent in the missed payment and the current payment the Trustee filed a motion to dismiss the case.

This is where a part of me I just don't like came out. When I don't want to deal with things I just shut down and won't talk to people, even if they are there to help. So I sent in the payments, the tax refund and went about my business. Then a few weeks ago I get a call from my lawyer's office. I of course ignore it. Then this week I open up the mailbox to a letter saying the case was dismissed and another one saying to call the law office. This time I realize that I messed up. I called and she informed me that the case was dismissed.

Doing some research I find it's not such a good thing this happened. Now I want to reinstate the case. I hear it's possible and I've contacted my attorney about it. I just hope it doesn't call for any action on my ex. That just wouldn't be good.

Also, my mother called. Get It Now called for me at her house (mind you I haven't lived there for 10 years now). She didnt' give them info, but it will be shortly before she's inundated with calls from these types of people I'm sure. So now I wait, and work on owning up to my mistakes. I think I've made enough for a lifetime and wonder how many more I can make before everything just falls apart.

I've also been in a funk about my weight. To the point where I'm so sick of seeing emails/ads about exercises to do and ways to cut the lbs. I have the desire to lose weight, there's just something there blocking me from doing it. I've been eating crappy and the only exercise I've been getting is my two 45 min. walks with the dogs per day which I don't know if those even count. Yes they're better than nothing, but they're not full out exercise. I've also been in a pretty bad funk over all my mood, my attitude, everything. I hope I can get out of it soon, because I'm seeing things I don't like.