...And snow. Add snow to the list.

I'm taking a break from housework--I just keep coughing and coughing.  I've had lots of little asthma attacks, and there's no reason to think this is anything other than temporary.  It's still forcing me to take breaks from whatever it is I'm doing whether I want to or not.  But at least it's been five days since my last post--I haven't felt like whining about how sick I am lately. :)  I've been keeping busy cleaning house (did I mention my husband is going to have a graduation party here this spring?) and playing the piano.

I've dealt with another weather front two days ago, and I may be dealing with one now, which means I may have to take yet another dose of prednisone today.  But at least I'm up and around.

I haven't been out much lately.  It's getting to the children, especially my fifteen-year-old, whose Kid's Club at church even got cancelled this week (because of the weather).  I'm just not capable of going anywhere strenuous.  Going to the grocery store has been enough of a challenge.  I can't imagine walking around a museum for any length of time, or in the cold air for more than a minute.  So I was glad when one of the kids' friends' moms invited them to spend the weekend.  They really needed to get out.  And we've got our monthly pizza with my parents tomorrow night. :)

And my husband is still laid off.  It's been almost a month now, and we still haven't seen the first unemployment check.  This is happening to lots of people these days.  I just did our taxes this morning--it was a good time, since the kids are gone.  I've been known to rise very early in the morning and do them before the girls wake up, just to have the peace and quiet.

I wanted to direct deposit our tax refund, since we could certainly use the money now, but we have a problem--my old student loans.  I've never been able to get a disability discharge, even when I was collecting social security for several years.  Did you know that the student loan people can rule you're not disabled and take your social security disability checks?  It never happened, but they kept threatening, and I looked into it--they can.

The problem is that they want the exact date my disability began, but won't accept any date I give them--birth, the day I dropped out of college, the day I went on social security, the day I was diagnosed with CVID--none of them are acceptable. 

I showed at least one potential symptom as a young child--ear infections, fairly severe sometimes, over and over and over again.  I still get them, even in summer occasionally.  I got pneumonia a few times as an older child.  But the symptoms got somewhat worse in high school, and then got even worse again when I was in my late twenties/early thirties.  This isn't unheard of with CVID.  I didn't get diagnosed until I was thirty-five.  I was attending college (started in my mid-twenties), getting sicker and sicker, and doctors were telling me there wasn't anything wrong.

So (back to the present) we're getting close to the point where the student loan people can take our tax refund, or any other money, right out of our bank account.  I'm still trying to get into an income-based repayment plan--I've already been accepted, but because my husband joined the National Guard a couple of years ago and got his bonus check in 2010, they had our income for that year listed as higher than it actually is now, and they figured our payments accordingly, which means we can't afford it, being below the poverty limit.  So I'm going to reapply for that program and hope we get a better deal.

We're hoping we can get that refund check in the mail and cash it--there's a possibility they could take that, too.  We count on that money every year, for getting caught up on bills, getting new contact lenses/glasses, fixing things around the house that desperately need fixing, buying little things we need, etc.  Last year a medical bill (for my kidney stone surgery) took most of it because they were threatening to take me to court and had the sheriff come to our house.  This year I'm going to get that check, cash it, and spend it as fast as I can.  On sensible things.  We have plenty of bills to pay.  I'll get my contact lenses and new reading glasses, go to the butcher and fill the deep freeze, and whatever else I can do--maybe pay our lp heat bill for next year if there's enough money left over.  And we'll probably order a pizza. :)

We want to be able to show that the money's gone, and where it went, if somebody comes after us again for another medical bill.  No more trying to save half of it to help us through the next couple of months.

Well, in spite of my griping, I'm having a nice quiet day here without the kids.  I have a couple of new music books from Christmas, and I've started playing through them.  And now I'm going to go take more prednisone, because I'm still fighting to breath.  That's just not going to go away.  I've checked--there is another weather front on the way.  You can add approaching snow to the list of things that scare me when I'm even a little sick.  At least the prednisone will probably work.  Then I can go back to what I was doing.

Bye!