The Good, the Better, and the Amazing

I realized last Thursday I didn’t do a Good Better and Amazing last Monday and was determined to not skip it this week. Well it turns out that I seriously need to do this right now so no way am I going to put it aside. Are you ready?

The Good

• Super busy with every single aspect of my life– work, kids, school, and the blog. And busy is good. At work it means the conference is doing well, with the kids it means the school year is in full swing, at school it means things are getting interesting, and with the blog it means lots of reading and writing–two of my favorite things.
• Mom and dad helped me out this month. They don’t want me to keep surviving on the credit cards and they can afford it. Apparently they’ve been discussing adopting a foster child so they’re adopting me instead. I’m going to work really hard so that foster kid gets a chance sooner than later, I promise. But right now thanks to them, we have food, toiletries, clothes and shoes that fit, a full tank of gas, and a whole lot of peace of mind.
• I won a blog giveaway for a free salad dressing shaker at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Yay!
• I sent the paperwork in to child support to change the bank account the child support payments get deposited into (if they ever start coming in again). My Credit Union has started to get crazy with the fees so I’m closing the account and going back to ING Direct only.
• I want to give up, get depressed, and withdraw from everyone and everything but I am fighting it and so far I am winning. It’s weird that I can feel it so acutely inside of me and that it takes such a considerable effort to combat it but I’m still at it, resisting stubbornly.
• I’m almost done with my September CAL project. I can’t decide what it’s going to be. I thought I’d make it a capelet but it’s not the right shape. And then I thought that I would make it a shrug but I don’t like it either. So now I think I’m going to make it either a super skinny stole OR a super short scarf. We’ll see how much longer it gets.

Better

• After trying for weeks, I was finally able to get something at Express with the gift cards my mom gave me. The deals at Express aren’t very good unless they’re on clearance. And they don’t put out the clearance until they have their semi-annual clearance sales. But I still like what I scored and they fit nice. Also the conference is quickly approaching and I need to look on point so this helps.
• The Dollar Tree is very helpful for necessities you haven’t been able to score at CVS.
• Last night I got a lot of the papers on my dining table and my desk cleared. I have a lot of “hot spots” in my house– surfaces that attract clutter daily. I am trying to eliminate them and keep them clear. I also threw out of a ton of ancient coupons.
• Food stamps can seriously help people out. I don’t qualify for them as I earn too much money but Stallion qualifies for them; not much since it’s just him, but it’s something and it’s amazing how much they help.
• My best friend let me know she’s interested in NaNoWriMo this year as well. Her idea sounds really interesting and she liked mine. I think it might be fun to banter off each other and I’m pretty sure there’s a big pool of writers participating on Google+ too.
• Stallion had a second interview for a full-time job. He mentioned he is in school and the semester is too far along for him to change his school schedule. He also told them he is not going to drop out of school– he worked too hard to get back in and to get his financial aid reinstated. Instead of passing on him immediately, they discussed alternatives that might work until the semester finishes in December and they asked for a copy of his schedule. They also made sure that if they do hire him and they work with him this semester he will schedule his classes in the future to work with their schedule.
• He has also started his second part time job with Mattel at an American Girl they are opening down here. It has been a very interesting environment so far– super high energy. He mentioned it felt like they were going to find your inner child and put it front and center whether you liked it or not. Thankfully, he loves it. Right now, it’s not really going yet. Just orientations and trainings scattered here and there but soon he’ll be there more often stocking the store. If the full-time job makes an offer, I’d wish he could find a way to keep the Mattel job too. I know it’s a lot but I have a feeling about the Mattel job being better in the long-term. Maybe if he lets them know he has a full-time offer they’ll give him one too?

The Amazing

• Dad bought me a Nexus 7 as a belated birthday present. I love it.
• Two of my posts were featured on BlogHer. One was last week (Single vs Married Families) and the other was the week before (Child Support Collection Methods). Pretty exciting. The one that they put up last week had over 1800 reads last time I looked at it. Crazy.
• My mom had given me JcPenney gift cards as well and that’s where I really cleaned up. I bought a pencil skirt, two tops, and two pairs of cute patterned tights for $25. I have another $25 to go. There is a really cute scarf that I want but it’s regular priced right now for $16. I’m going to wait and see if it drops to the clearance price of $8. There was also a dress that I liked a lot too. It was down to $15 in one location but unavailable in my size and in the location that had my size it was still at $30. Patience pays!

Your turn! What’s good, better, and amazing for you?