Girls only: Wardrobe update

So the black pants that look like a chiffony skirt didn't fit. They might have fit a couple of decades and more than a couple of pounds ago.
But magically I found a skirt that I hadn't worn in several years in my closet. Even more magically it fit!
It's Navy blue. I know, it sounds weird. I wish it were black. But it's probably going to be a crowded reception, and hopefully no one will notice.

After I tried the skirt on, I called my friend/newly-hired fashion consultant and asked her what she thought about wearing Navy. Terry hesitated but then said the sparkly tops will draw the eye away from the solid Navy bottom. She is so supportive. And I will be so dazzling.

To top it off, she offered to drop off three evening bags for my consideration this afternoon after work (the school at which she teaches is around the corner from our house...I had to say "at which she teaches" because Terry is an English teacher).

Details to follow.

Wedding (attire) blues

I have nothing to wear. Ladies, I know you hear me on this. Guys, not so much.
We are going to what will probably be a semi-formal evening wedding reception (ceremony is at 4:30) on Friday.
I have nothing to wear.
But a teacher friend of mine who I haven't seen in months just dropped off a sparkly top, sparkly long jacket and a pair of chiffony black pants (that look like a skirt) for me to try on.
There's a good chance all three pieces will fit. They seem rather sophisticated for little ol' me. But I am tempted to wear them. Too bad she doesn't take a size 10 shoe...
I hate clothes shopping. But I am starting to panic.

More later.

Rise and blog

It's 2:30 a.m. Do you know where your children are? I know where mine are, they're sleeping.
Something I would like to be doing right about now.
For the second night in a row Kid 1 has inadvertently woken me up as she was preparing to go to bed.
That was a little over an hour ago. She's still on college time.
She misses college, I know. Heck, so do I. (Well, not really, but I thought it would sound funny there.)

I'm not happy because our alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. and the only thing I can think about is how the heck am I going to function later today?

As I was lying awake, my mind started wandering. So I decided to "rise and blog."
Wonder if I will be able to "rise and shine" at the appropriate time.

Sending a message of peace

I couldn't connect to the Internet this morning. Errggh. It was a stressful couple of hours, but it's working now. It just seems really slow.
Over the weekend my husband and I each made a peace globe for our blogs to mark Blog Blast for Peace June 6. It was his first globe, and my second.

Creating a peace globe takes just a few minutes and I recommend making one. It will make you feel good. People all over the world are taking part.

For complete information and to see other people's creations, visit Mimi, founder of the Peace Globe Movement.

Homer's not home

And home is not home without Homer.
After we went to watch Kid 1 and Kid 2 march in the Memorial Day Parade down Main Street, Homer and Kid 2 went over to our friends' house for an all-American cookout. Who knows when they will come home, since these folks usually bring out some fireworks.
I was tired and opted out, as did Kid 1. We both took our much-needed cat naps and the girl is still sleeping.
I made pasta salad for tomorrow. Homer will be surprised!
I am catching up on my carnival submission reading. Better late than never.

A patriotic old bear

Teddy bears are some of my closest friends. I have quite a few.
I figured if I could get blog posts out of my garden gnomes and people would actually comment on said posts, I could get one out of this garden flag.

The sad part is, this photo is from several years ago. The flag got brittle and shredded from years in the direct sun and I had to throw it out last year.

The dilemma du jour is I need to find a replacement flag. I have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and harvest-themed flags (picture pumpkins on a wagon), but I need a Memorial Day/Flag Day/Fourth of July-themed one.
And I cannot seem to find one that I like.

The day after

Yesterday I participated in the Carnival of the Mundane, hosted by Michael C, and sadly I have not yet read all of the other submissions.
After blogging, reading other people's blogs and comment sections in addition to working on two stories in front of the computer all day yesterday my eyes were burning from a condition that could be called monitoritis. (Weak, I know.) Or maybe computer screenosis.

Obviously now I am back on the computer ~ but not for long. I am about to go do something that may involve getting some fresh air.
I look forward to visiting all of the other carnival attractions in the near future...And I'll try not to be a dreaded lurker when I do visit.
Happy long weekend to all.

Still termite-free

I thought the "witnesses" were knocking on the front door again this morning. But lucky for me that was not the case.
It was merely the friendly termite-control technician checking the traps around the exterior of our humble abode.
Good news! We passed with flying colors. ~

Welcome my friends, to the "fun" side

Step right up, and enjoy the carnival.
Warning: the following is totally G-rated. (I sense my scant readership scurrying to another site.)
Today's host of the Carnival of the Mundane is that ever-amusing young man from sunny southern California, Michael C.
He asked people to test the waters with him and have some fun writing in a mundane way about summer. And/or the beach.
"Summertime, and the livin' is easy..."

Summer is OK, except for the heat and humidity. I can't take too much of it. The sun is nice, but exposure to it can kill you.

It's easy to see I'm not one for the beach. It's hot and sandy. And the sun beats down on you mercilessly. And those darn screeching seagulls are everywhere. And that seaweed.
And those waves keep crashing onto shore. They just won't stop. I wish they would at least slow down. After a while the monotony of the natural cycle gets me crazy.

But so much for what I don't like.
I do like The Beach Boys. Now there's a group that really brings back some memories. And those "Fun, Fun, Fun" memories lead to "Good Vibrations." (Attempt at cuteness is failing dismally.)
"Wouldn't it be nice if we were older, and we didn't have to wait so long..."

I was very young when that Beach Boys' song was popular. At the time I'm sure I wouldn't have minded being older. Now, I don't want to get any older than I am today. You fellow boomers can relate, I trust.

So don't go looking for me at a beach along the Connecticut shoreline (Long Island Sound) any time soon. If I ever am in the vicinity, I'll be in the shade, wearing sunblock. And shades. You won't even know it's me.
But then again, you wouldn't recognize me anyway. "God Only Knows."

How? I wonder

Re: Carnival of the Mundane

How can my usual subject matter possibly get more mundane?
It's definitely a challenge.

* Getting ready to party *

Tomorrow I will be taking part in one of my least favorite things: a carnival.
Fortunately it is of the blogospheric variety.

Michael is the host of Carnival of the Mundane XXXVI, and he basically begged people to help him out and write about summer. In a mundane way.
He suggested writing about the beach. Another non-favorite of mine.
I think I'm not a very fun person.

Blogging jones

Just a few short months ago, I would check my e-mail first thing in the morning.
Now I check my comments section. And then other peoples' comments sections. And then their blogs.
What does that say about me?

Loss of sleep = :-(

You know things are starting to get to you when you wake up an hour before the alarm. Like today.
That hasn't happened to me in a while, but $$$ problems can do it to a person.
Just yesterday my mental health professional, who knows all about our situation, asked me if I have been sleeping OK.
I told him I have been, which was true. But then last night I didn't. And I'm tired. Woe is me.
Life is so unfair.

This auto save feature is blinking at me as I write. How annoying is that? It has a mind of its own, I guess.

Have a sparkling day.

A smile a day ~

I thought I would share my son's latest "away message." Here goes:

WORST PICK-UP LINE EVER: "Hey, does this rag smell like chloroform to you?"

Dang - I fell asleep

I am seriously thinking of changing the name of my blog to "An Extremely Tired Mama."

(But in deference to Lynn, my tired blog friend and a mother of two, I won't.) It would, however, be an accurate description of moi.

Yesterday I was busy all day and overtired from a busy Saturday and I, well...I fell asleep a few minutes into the 400th anniversary episode of "The Simpsons" which I had planned on watching. Homer tried to wake me up, but I drifted off again when he left the room.

Dang.

Happy 400th!

Tonight will mark the airing of the *4ooth* episode of "The Simpsons."
Let's hear it for that lovable family from Springfield, Any State, USA.
I thought I would take a minute here to congratulate the cast and creators of this show and to thank them for many years of enjoyment.
There is nothing I can write that can do the show justice, or that hasn't already been written.
I saw some clips from tonight's episode on my homepage yesterday and I am looking forward to watching it.
I don't watch too much TV (I prefer using the computer and sleeping) so this is a big event for me, as I'm sure it is for millions of other fans.

A few years ago I took to affectionately calling my husband Homer.
I don't always call him that, but it does slip out from time to time.

Trouble with chopsticks

Last night I had trouble eating with chopsticks. Either I was way tired or else my "cheating method" of using them finally got the better of me.
I could pick up the vegetables and meat, but those darned grains of rice really gave me a run for my money.

When I was single, long before I met Homer, I had a friend who was much more knowledgeable about the ways of the world. She is the one who taught me how to use chopsticks. I was never too good at it, and I guess I developed my own style to get the job done .

This friend thought I needed to learn some "social skills" as I meandered through the dating scene of the early '80s. Just let me stress that they were not your mother's "social skills" as in saying please and thank you, holding a door for someone or giving up your seat on the bus to an pregnant or elderly person.
These were more along the lines of walking a certain way (I wasn't too good at that) and sitting a certain way at a table or dare I say on a barstool.
She also thought I needed to know how to play board games...
Needless to say I kinda failed her class.

An apple a day

On Tuesday I met a great guy. He's a celeb of sorts in the Connecticut-New York area.
His name is Stew Leonard Jr. and he is president and CEO of Stew Leonard's, a small chain of food stores around these parts. His father, Stew Sr., opened the first one in 1969.
Leonard visited an elementary school to help our local hospital's parish nursing and community outreach to program kick off a healthy eating initiative. And I covered the press conference and the subsequent fun visit to a second grade classroom.
Leonard has written a children's story book, The Healthy Way, with Meghan Flynn, a registered dietitian, to teach kids good eating and exercise habits.
All proceeds from the book go to Stew Leonard III Children's Charities Foundation.
Leonard donated 5,000 copies to the parish nurse program, which does outreach in many area schools. He read the book aloud to the children and they were quite enthused about the whole visit. They clearly had been taught about nutrition and exercise already, and this just reinforced the lessons.
When I asked the kids afterward what they learned, one boy told me, "I have really strong teeth because I eat lots of apples. My favorite fruit is either bananas or cherries."
What a perfect age...second grade.
For a treat the kids each got a Gala apple. The grownups got one too! Yum.
Anyone for an apple?

Me thinks I shall tag ...

The other day I got tagged by Joan to link to five blogs that make me think.
Since she and her sister, Lynn, are two bloggers that spark my brain cells into action I would have tagged them.
I may have trouble getting five others who haven't yet gotten the Thinking Blogger Award.
In a show of sheer nepotism I'll nominate Ralph, he hasn't won any, but four others? Is it OK to nominate someone who already displays a Thinking Blogger Award?
Am I thinking this out too much??
OK, not thinking any more. Just typing. Hey, this is kinda like my day job!
And you sillies thought we had to actually think when we wrote our newspaper stories...Well, considering how many people view the press today, maybe you don't think that we think. Never mind.
Drum roll please...
I'll also tag: Michael C
Sari
The Curmudgeon
and
Muffin 53.

If you should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme. The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Another day, another "away message"

Kid 2 and his ever-changing away messages:

Use constant names like LancelotsFavouriteColour instead of blue and assign it hex value of $0204FB. The color looks identical to pure blue on the screen, and a maintenance programmer would have to work out 0204FB (or use some graphic tool) to know what it looks like. Only someone intimately familiar with Monty Python and the Holy Grail would know that Lancelot's favorite color was blue. If a maintenance programmer can't quote entire Monty Python movies from memory, he or she has no business being a program

Streaming . . .

or at least trying to.
So today is Thursday, and I told myself I would get something done before sitting down at the computer.
But did I? Not really. I did get Kid 2 off to school and Homer off to work. And the very first thing I did was feed the cat.
That's about it so far. I need to run to the grocery store, (out of bread and almost out of coffee) refill a prescription, do some laundry and then ...
I'm happy that I know what I am going to make for dinner tonight. Actually I may have Kid 1 do it. It's something she has made before.

Any old post will do?

Does anyone else notice the posts that you think are the least scintillating seem to draw the most interest?
I sit here scratching my head.

At-home musing

When you leave the house to go to work, you avoid having to answer the door to "witness" two people wanting to read Scripture with you.
I have nothing against Scripture, mind you. Just describing my morning.

Writer's block hits Homer

My husband Ralph, aka Homer, looked troubled when I returned home from a work assignment last evening.
He was in front of the computer, staring at the screen and suffering from a clear case of writer's block. He expressed concern that people would forget about Airhead 55! I reassured him that that wasn't the case. I told him they would return.
You will, won't you? ;-)

He did find some photos he may share in a future post...stay tuned.

Tuesday morning smile

OK, I am feeling a bit better now after a quick trip visiting s0me, but not all, of my blogosphere friends.
Enclosed find smile : -) to start the day. It's from Kid Two's away message, which somehow updates daily. Too technical for me.

A pilot once turned a plane in to the shop with a complaint that read "Unfamiliar noise from engine."
The next day, the plane was ready for him. The engineer's logbook entry read: "Ran engine continuously for four hours. Noise now familiar."

No more lullabyes ...

... no more "Goodnight, Moon."
You see where I am going here. It's a sleep theme today. And I feel like ranting.

Teen-agers!!!
They won't go to bed at night, and they won't get up in the morning.

Monday morning java

Fellow coffee lovers: You know when that first cup in the morning is just right?
Well, that just happened to me (it doesn't always work this way) thanks to my freshly-brewed mug of organically grown, 100 percent Arabica.
Just a tad more costly (it was on sale) than the usual drek, but such a treat.
~~~
Happy Monday !

Let there be peace

Mother's Day is over. It was a peaceful and quiet day in our household, and I hope yours was the same.
Our family was all together. My husband made a delicious dinner, with some help from our children. My mother and I went out for an hour for coffee while they worked away in the kitchen.
And I was lucky enough to have some time to myself, to blog. So I finally did something I had been thinking about doing for awhile: I put a peace globe on my blog. I placed it at the top of the sidebar for all to see.

Right now I don't feel as if I can write as eloquently as fellow bloggers have written about peace. You can learn more about peace globes by visiting Mimi, Queen of Memes. She founded the Peace Globe Movement in the blogosphere last October.
The goal is for all blog posts to be titled Dona Nobis Pacem on June 6, 2007, and for everyone to display their peace globes on their blogs that day.

Ah, my kiddos

It's just not fair that the blogosphere wasn't around when my two children were little and cute.
I have lamented that fact before, and I am doing it again. Oh, the stuff that I could have blogged about.

Yesterday I was going through a drawer and found two scraps of paper, one from '93 and one from '95.
I had taken the advice of experienced moms to write amusing kid stuff down; it just wasn't always as organized as it could have (or should have) been.
So scribbled-on scraps of paper, and kitchen wall calendars filled with notes and such, are mostly what I have from those days.

Here goes : on Aug. 9, 1993, just weeks before Kid 1 was about to enter kindergarten, she was watching a video on fighter jets that were flying into the "wild blue yonder."
She turned to me and asked, "What's a yonder, Mommy?" (Glad I wrote that down).

A second scrap of paper was dated Sept. 12, 1995. Kid 1 had just started second grade. After breakfast, she got on the floor and laid down on her side.
"I just had my first kitten," she told me. "We have to go to the vet," she announced, and off she marched.

Another time I clearly recall and I'm sure I wrote down somewhere was when Kid 2 was 3.
He was in his car seat in back, and I was talking to my mother about an elderly man I had interviewed for the newspaper. He had been a prize fighter in his day.
I said to my mother, "Mr. So-and-So is retired." A little voice from the back seat commented, "He should take a nap."




~Happy Mother's Day~

Time sure do fly ~ ~ ~

Our daughter, Kid 1, has finished freshman year of college. I cannot believe how fast the school year went. Yikes.
We are picking her up tomorrow (A, dear, if you are reading this, stop now and start packing up all that stuff!) and then she is home for more than three months.
I am happy she will be home just in time for Mother's Day. Maybe she and Kid 2 will remember mumsie this year with a loving token of affection.
Chocolate is always good... Just a thought.

A beautiful day in May

Tomorrow is our 21st wedding anniversary. Ralph and I tied the proverbial knot on May 1o, 1986. And we are still going strong.

Sometimes it seems like a long time ago. We got engaged six months after we met.
How did we meet, you ask? Through a dating service, long before the Internet and whatever goes on today. I have no clue.
All I know is back then if you liked the person the agency matched you up with, you'd call up and say you wanted to go "on hold." I did that soon after we met. I never called back to take myself off hold.
And apparently I never looked back!

A lesson in cropping

Our son, who for anonymity's sake I call Kid 2, just gave me another Paint Shop Pro lesson. He took time out from doing whatever he is doing on the other side of the room on his computer.
The family that clicks and scrolls together, stays together, right?
I want to be able to crop my own pictures, and not rely on one of the teen-agers in my life.
So I practiced with this photo. I call it "Me and Humphrey."

A day late, story of my life

Yesterday I took part in a meme. I was working at the same time and forgot to tag some folks, which I am about to do right now. Hope it's not too late.
The rules are easy. (I cut and pasted the directions from my retired librarian friend Joan. Is that plagiarism?)
Joan tagged her sister Lynn, who tagged me.

Joan wrote: "Simply go over to Wikipedia, type in the month and day of your birth, and then post three events that happened on that date in history, two people who share your birthday and one person who died on that day." Notice I used direct quotes, so as not to be accused of plagiarism. :-)

I tag Ralph, Michael C and Empress Bee.
Have fun!

"Some" of what happened on my birthday

Lovely Lynn at A Tired Mama tagged me to go over to Wikipedia and come up with stuff that happened on my birthday, which is December 29. (You fill in the year)
The best thing that happened to me on my birthday was the birth of my daughter on Dec. 29, 1988!
There were other interesting things that occurred on this glorious day.
In 1808, Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, was born. He died in 1875. In 1936, actress Mary Tyler Moore was born.
In 1980, American musician Tim Hardin died. (I had to look him up--he was a folk/rock singer from the 60s. So I learned something from doing this, Lynn.)

As for my Today in History for Dec. 29:
In 1845, Texas is admitted as the 28th state.
In 1975, a bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11.
In 2002, Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field is demolished.

A dinner suggestion...

unless you're a chicken.

Mental Health Awareness

I am being serious today.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and each year I cover one or two public events that our local behavioral health organization holds to mark the month.
When I observe some of the folks who need and receive services to help them function in society, I count my blessings.
They are mostly middle-aged, unemployed or else they have menial jobs.
They like to talk a lot about their recovery. I find they are all amazingly self-centered. They seem to have no empathetic feelings toward others. They are pleasant enough, but it ends there.
I don't know if I am making sense with this. I am not belittling them in any way.
I have been greatly helped over the years by psychotherapy. Last week I was telling my mental health professional about my blogging. It's scary because it was almost all that I wanted to talk about, I enjoy it so much.
He doesn't know much about it, and was asking basic questions. He said "it's like talking to yourself" because there is no human interaction, as there is in traditional talk therapy.

It's true, but I told him how many interesting bloggers Ralph and I have met already and it's nice to know there are like-minded people out there.

Pigs on a blanket

'Twas a success

Dear friends thanks for reading
as for the numbers you're needing
I must say we did fine
the total was 579 -
dollars that is
that we made today.
Now it's time to go play.

Or should I just go away?

Editor's note: (that's me) The final tally was 608-
Now isn't that great?

Tag sale is over

The cleanup was a chore
A good cause it was for.

We all got a bit punchy
And missed out on lunch-y.

I moved lots of crap
Now it's time for a nap.

Rhyme time

Church tag sale is here
It comes once a year
And I always volunteer
To help sell the crap
The breakables I'll wrap.

Not far will I roam
And soon I'll be home
to sit down and post
for friends who are the most
or else I'll be toast.

For haven't you heard?
Folks hang on my every word.
So blogging shall resume
When I return to this room.

~ ~ The End ~~

Corny

I thought today's Garfield strip was timely, since just the other day I was writing about "almost corn," as our son's friend likes to describe school cafeteria-style corn.
I admit it. I love Garfield.

An interesting tidbit

According to the Today in History facts automatically updated here on the right-hand side column, today is the infamous day, back in 1626, when the Indians sold Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth and buttons.

Wow, that would be about $2,400 in today's money. OK, it's a joke. It would be somewhat more.

The Native Americans did pretty well for themselves after the White Europeans arrived on these shores, didn't they?
Or on second thought...

Fiber-ific

My husband and I have been spending what I would consider an inordinate amount of time fretting about fiber these days.
Do we have enough in our diets? Would we, well, feel better if we increased the amount we ingest on a daily basis? These are questions for the ages, I daresay.

Ralph recently had his first colonoscopy.
Good news: No polyps. Bad news: Ulcerative colitis.
The only positive thing about learning the diagnosis is at least we know what the problem is.
He also is taking medication for it that was just approved in January by the FDA. That's also good, right?

Yesterday we found out he needed another prescription, this one for potassium supplements.
We can only hope the medicines, combined with a more fiber-filled diet, help him along on the path to better health.

Never-ending cycle

Work a little, blog a little...
Work some more.

How is a woman supposed to get any work done when there is so much blogging to do all day? Not to mention laundry, and cooking and...you know the drill.
This working at home stuff is not all it's cracked up to be. Or is it that I am cracking up???

Homer! Help me!!!

Eat your veggies

Re: Almost corn
When my son, Kid 2, read today's earlier post about his friend's description of school cafeteria "corn," he remarked:
"It was almost corn, so I almost ate it."

I'll miss him when he goes off to college ... sniff

Seeing spots

Arf!

I guess this pooch has some 'splainin' to do...

Close but not quite

The other day our son, also known as Kid 2, told me what his friend Brian calls a certain vegetable served in the high school cafeteria.
He refers to it as "almost corn."

I love it. That boy has a career in stand-up ahead of him, don't you think?

'The Onion' takes on blogging

If Someone Wanted To Publish My Blog Entries For Money, I Wouldn't Say No

This tickled my funnybone. Click and see.

Change of pace

This blogging stuff has really gone to my head and I wanted to change my style, for awhile.
It's all about having fun and being creative, no?

so here goes...

10 "interesting" things about moi

I've been tagged by Joan

to come up with ten (10!) interesting habits or facts about myself in a game of Chinese Freeze Tag.
Being the novice that I am I admit to a case of the jitters. But here goes:
1. I like to blog. It's therapeutic. And you can do it anytime, without having to get dressed or brush your teeth.
2. I like writing in general.
3. I wear a size 10 shoe (Joan told us her shoe size, so I thought I'd follow in her footsteps)
4. I'm 5'8".
5. I stopped wearing contact lenses when I needed a trifocal prescription.
6. I collect gnomes (regular visitors already know that important fact).
7. I love to see how much my children have accomplished in their lives.
8. I look forward to seeing how much more they will achieve.
9. I wish (as do all bloggers I'm sure) I could get a book deal after my blog is discovered by a literary agent looking for the next...
10. I hope my sense of humor shows through my writing, at least some of the time.
Like my blog friend and Joan's sister, Lynn,

I'm not going to tag anyone. I can't because I do not yet have enough blogosphere contacts to do that. I could only come up with three bloggers, other than Lynn, my husband, and Empress Bee, who all were tagged by Joan. So I guess that is it for now. ~

A slice of life, literally

Here it is folks: another attempt at making somebody smile.

I hope my cutting and pasting isn't in vain, and at least one person is smiling out there.
:~)

Frowns :- ( and smiles : ~)

So which one should I start with?
Looks like the smiles have it, since this cartoon instantly attracts the eye. Just another twist on the toilet paper theme that has been floating around in the blogosphere after Sheryl C's "one sheet of TP" remarks last month...T
I didn't post anything last night. I was bummed out because we got some (here's the frowny part) bad financial news in the mail yesterday.
It's a long story that goes back many years, but I'll attempt to sum it up without putting any of my blog friends to sleep.
The quickest way to sum up the problem would be to just say HELP!!!!!!!
But that wouldn't be productive, or therapeutic. But telling some of our story may make me feel better.
My husband has a form of muscular dystrophy and is considered 100 percent disabled. He uses a power wheelchair, and drives a gas-guzzling, un-politically correct, modified full-size van.
It's the only way he can get around. In the past our efforts to get him transferred into the passenger seat of my small economy car when the van had to have some work done on it have not been easy. Or pretty.
That said, Ralph works full-time and does a good job at what he does (I really don't understand what he does, but it is in the aerospace industry).
He is active in our church, and is even a deacon and periodically shares distribution of communion duties.
Ralph has had periods of unemployment and periods of working temporary jobs, some really good, some not so much. He has had to go on Social Security Disability Insurance, but is not on it now. There are problems with SSDI that I won't mention here, but let's just say that they tell us we owe them some money. And yesterday we were informed that the government took our income tax refund to "apply" toward what we allegedly owe the SSA.
I was counting on that money to put toward bills that are piling up.
We are not happy about this, and are wondering if it's time to look for an attorney.
Any thoughts?