January 4, 2015

No birthdays today! LOL Today, our ship is sailing around the north side of Cuba and south of the Florida Keys on it's way back to Ft. Lauderdale's Port Everglades!! woohoo!! 

I'll be hitting the gym today too since I know I'll be taking the first few days off when I get back home so I can focus on getting back into the groove of my real life. No worries, I've planned my rest days to be after the trip. I'll be running like crazy and planning it this way means the gym will be one less thing to try and squeeze into my schedule! I'm also hoping to get some time with in the sunshine with the hubby! Maybe even get some dancing in too!!  I'll also have to be packed and ready to depart by midnight!

Short Term Goal for 2015: Go back to work. Since I gave birth to my youngest I've more or less been a stay at home Mom. Sure I worked on the family farm and in the family nursery- but now I'm ready to go back to work for  someone else and contribute to the household finances. I'm so frustrated with some of our financial issues, and that's largely centered around the fact my husband's source of income is inconsistent and people are forever "owing" for work done. They're all good for it- and they do pay just not as timely as I'd like it. The cost of doing business with people who have known you since you were knee high to them.  Me working means we have a certain amount that comes in regularly and from a payroll check that I can rely on. 

Sure, my ex-husband drug me into court over some child support thing he made up and the judge ruled that I have to go back to work - we've been talking about this for a long time now. In fact, I was going to go back to work last year after the summer lay-offs were over. Me getting injured and then having a subsequent surgery schedule kinda killed that. The judge's ruling is based on actual facts and therefore - it's dependent on me being medically cleared to go back to work! Fingers crossed that I'm cleared at my appt at the end of January!  The man can dance around and proclaim all the victories he wants but the truth is that he showed up in court with what he thought was proof of a salon that doesn't exist and never has. I HAD a business where I covered other nail tech appts when they were sick or assisted with large groups like wedding parties or seeing a few of my own clients in their homes but that business never got off the ground and was costing more than it was making!! I finally shut it down because even I can't deny the bottom line!!  Screen shots of shut down website, a defunct Facebook page and an abandoned blog was not considered proof of anything in the face of documentation that I was in ACL rehab, and was following the protocol and documentation of my second surgery. 

Long Term Goal: Get my last two daughter's through High School Graduation and NOT get cut out of that process or have it be the clusterfuck that poor Na-na's was!! Jaedah's won't be so tough as there's no ticket limit because that venue is HUGE but Shara goes to the same high school that Na-na did and I will need to be proactive and work directly with the school to make sure I am NOT cut out and poor Shara is not faced with having to choose between parents the way Na-na was!! I'm still proud of Na-na's choice of not picking either one!! I hate it that she felt like she had to choose - and I was not a participant of that. My ex can say whatever he likes to his friends but the fact is - he never said anything directly to me about any issues he had. He just railed against the idea in front of the kids and involved me not at all. Typical of him - he doesn't confront me about it because he knows where it would have ended up - and he would have lost. Instead, he takes it out on the kids by talking trash about Mommy in front of them. Not happening again, and I'm only sorry for not seeing it coming the first time.