Overwhelmed in 2014

I realize it’s Wednesday, but our weekend was ok. Nothing eventful. We wanted to check out a new Mall Friday night, but it was misting pretty heavily and the mall was outdoors, so instead we we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. Scott spent Saturday night with our friend Garrett in the city. They went and saw Weezer together. Sunday just me and the kids went to church, and then Salem and I had our final practice for the Christmas Musical. The main focus of our weekend was making a parody trailer of the new Star Wars Episode 7 trailer. We are total nerds.

Speaking of the Christmas Musical, it’s tonight! I am so glad that it’s here. I know it sounds terrible, but I will be so glad that it’s over with. Originally we were supposed to be doing a whole production of a Christmas play about a kid who gets locked in a department store and the manikins come to life and she teaches them the story of Christmas. It was really cute and we started rehearsals in September. But then a few weeks after, our Pastor announced that him and his family were moving to Indiana because he accepted another job at a church there. It put the whole church on a kind of stand still accept for Sunday services because of staff meetings and other planning issues. So we didn’t have practice 3 weeks in a row, and they decided to nix the play and really do more of a caroling and celebration service with one little scene in the beginning kind of telling the story of what the original play was supposed to accomplish. That is what I am doing, I am the only adult part. Salem gets wrapped as a present in that scene, and then does a scripture reading, and is part of the choir and dancing in every other song. Basically it is going to be totally cute because they are kids, but we really have not had enough practice because, and not a single rehearsal has gone smoothly. I’m really hoping that next year we get a shot to do it better.

We still don’t have a new pastor by the way. We have had a few guest speakers which have actually been interviews for pastors that have applied for the position and are being considered. I loved the last two and would be thrilled with either one. I am hoping that they have an announcement for us come the first of the year.

Also, a big portion of our weekend was spent talking to my youngest brother Corey. Essentially, life is not going as planned for my brothers or my mom in California. My mom’s health just keeps getting worse and worse, and she is unable to get a job outside of the part time care giving she does for my grandma, so she can not afford to move out of my aunts house. My oldest brother continues to be a man child and does nothing to change his situation so continues to not have a license or car despite being 25 years old, and only makes about $150 a week on average at his current job, so he also can not afford to move out of my aunts house. My youngest brother has been making terrible decisions in order to try and get himself into a better position, but just keeps digging a deeper hole for himself and hanging out with all the wrong people, and therefore also can not afford to move out of my aunts house because he quit the steady job he had, and has only been able to get temp work here and there. None the less, all three of them are moving out. My oldest brother is moving to my dad’s in Arizona, and my mom is planning on living in her car which is enraging me. My mom did apply for Social Security disability and should be hearing something by early February according to the lawyer who is helping her and the plan is that she will move here whenever that happens because she does not want to stay in California.

My youngest brother though, is smart enough to realize he has to change his life, and so he’s called us to ask about coming to live with us and getting a fresh start. We’ve offered it to him since day one in Georgia. It’s much easier when you have no bills, and no stuff to really bring along with you, to make this kind of change. We laid out ground rules, and goals for what will happen when he gets here. We still have a lot to finalize, but it looks like he will be moving here early January. I am a little disappointed though because I haven’t heard from him since Sunday night and we asked him to keep in touch with us about decisions he could only make, and if he should have any questions that might come up. It just worries me that maybe he isn’t ready to take things seriously yet.

We can afford Christmas this year thanks to this being the first month Scott gets a commission check, but we can’t afford until he gets that check, on the 24th! Literally the day before. It’s a little overwhelming because it’s hard to plan when you really just can’t. I think we are planning on going to Walmart and starting a lay away so that we at least have the stuff, and then we can pick it up on Christmas Eve. It sounds silly to do one for two weeks, but it’s pretty much the only way we can guarantee that the stuff the kids want will be on the shelves at the store.

The weekend video we posted was pretty short because we spent so much time on the Star Wars teaser. We included it at the end of the video so you can see it.