Update and Pictures

I just thought that I would stop in and give you an update. The last year in a half has been a roller coaster for me. You may remember that back in the late summer of 2010 the ceiling in my craft room collapsed on top of all of my craft supplies, desk, computer and all of the crafts that I  had made and was getting ready to mail out for swaps I was in.  Wow what a mess that was! Not only did I have a huge mess to clean up but I felt bad that I could not mail out my creations for the swap. You see there was very old insulation on everything and it was very dangerous! We had to wear masks just to clean it up and sometimes the masks didn't even help.

Anyhow a few weeks later I lost my job as a bill collector. (apparently I am not very good at asking people to pay there bills). Then wouldn't you know it just less than 2 months after I lost my job my husband was laid off. Who would have thought that a truck driver delivering gas to the gas stations would have been laid off. Funny thing is that we use to own our own truck and we sold it so he could take this job thinking that it was a stable job with insurance. Three years later he gets laid off due to the company losing a huge contract with Murphy Oil which is the Wal-Mart gas stations. Go figure, right?

So he ends up finding another job and then they laid him off not once but 6 times in a year. He would work 5 or 6 weeks and then be laid off 3 to 5 weeks. Talk about a roller coaster and not knowing from one day to the next if you can pay the bills or put food on the table. Just so you know this is the only time in his life that he has ever been laid off. He was looking for a job every single day but there just weren't any out there. We never thought we would ever see the day that you couldn't hardly find work. We have been married for 31 yrs and I thank God we only had each other to take care of and not a family. Our grown children all had careers and were doing well.

By Sept 2011 we started worrying about whether or not we would be able to pay for heat through the winter. Our daughter must have been thinking about it also because she offered to move in with her family and pay the winter bills. It was a win win situation for all of us. I watched the kids and her and her husband paid the bills and not a moment to late. Just 2 weeks after they moved in my husband was laid off AGAIN only this time for a whopping 5 months.

As of mid January 2012 my husband finally went to work and was told that he would not be laid off again. The company he is working for just signed a huge contract and that contract is good for at least 3 years.

In late February my daughter and her family moved back into their own home about 30 miles away. I am no longer taking care of the grand-babies and I am looking for work. However I cannot stand on my feet due to some medical conditions I have had for many years that prevent me from standing or walking for long periods at a time. So that limits me on the type of jobs I can apply for but I am optimistic that something will come my way.

Since my daughters family moved out I have been unpacking my crafts and setting up my things in my husbands "man cave"..lol.. The room that use to be my craft room was converted into a spare bedroom when my daughter moved in and we have decided to leave it as it is. However we have another bedroom downstairs that we are getting ready to clean out, fix the ceiling and flooring and then paint that will be my new craft room. Of course this will take a while because right now we are trying to build our savings back up.

Okay now for some pictures.

Remember this?

That is a piece of my ceiling that fell. Look at all of the old fiberglass insulation on the floor. Makes me itch just looking at this picture. The ceiling is now brand new with new insulation in the attic.

When we went to do the walls we thought the walls were drywall until we went to remove the drywall and found out that it was actually very thick heavy paper over pine board. This house was built in 1925 so there is no telling how long ago this paper was put on these walls.We removed the paper (I never want to do that again) then cleaned the walls up and then put polyurethane on it. We didn't even have to stain it.

This is what it looks like now. 

So now.....

This is my temporary crafting area.

Most of my stuff is still in boxes out in the hallway.

His side (right) , Her side (left)..lol..
Wasn't that nice of hubby to share his "Man Cave" ?..lol..

* Just a note to let you know that I have been working on some scrapbook pages and some cards that I will share with you in my next post.

Well that is all for now. I hope I haven't bored you to death with my story.

God Bless!

Later..