Taking the Scenic Route

I haven’t heard how Joy did on her tests today and it is too late to call my mom now, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.  (unless she sees this and calls me, but I think she is asleep). 

I cut Zane’s hair today.  He might still look like a girl to the people around here who think the only appropriate boy haircut is a buzz cut,   but at least he won’t look like a girl with psycho hair.  I wish he would hold still for a ‘real’ haircut, but there is no way I am paying money when he won’t sit still enough.  I can give him a bad haircut for free.  There is no way I am giving that child a super short cut in the middle of winter when his head is used to 5 or 6 inches of hair covering it either, which is what I am sure the stylists in this area would try to push me into.  I did cut off several inches though.  I still need to even the bangs out a bit, but it isn’t too bad.

Zach came home from school tonight saying that halfway through his evening class, he seriously thought about dropping the class because he was so lost.  He didn’t take the prerequisite for the class and he really began to question whether or not that was a good idea.  As of an hour ago, he figured it out and can’t believe how easy it is.  He is so much smarter than he gives himself credit for sometimes.  I know it isn’t normal to take an 800 level class without the prereqs, but I knew he could do it anyway.

Filling out the food stamp paperwork tonight and realized that this month we are making $3 less than our basic expenses (rent & basic utilities)  There is money in the bank from student loans, but that is how much he is getting paid.  It is going to be a lean semester.  We did our taxes too.  I am not going to say what our income is, but I have no doubt that our net income for the year is probably about what my FIL gets paid in a week.  I know that our gross is less than my brother makes in a month.  No wonder we feel poor…we are.   To say we have no tax liability is an understatement….we could make about $13K more and still not have any tax liability.     I am guessing we shouldn’t have any problems getting food stamps back again…unless they mess up the paperwork again.  I hope they let Zach be counted as a person in the household…it is iffy…we had one caseworker count time in class as “work” hours (since he can’t work during those hours) since he is an adult student/parent, and a different one say he can’t be counted since he isn’t working enough hours.  Hopefully, they will combine his hours as a GTA and a student which will allow him be a member of the household so we qualify for FS for 3 people instead of just 2 people.  I do not get the ’system’ very well.  I seriously beleive that the only people that say it is too easy to ‘milk the system’ have never had to use the system.  It is a big pain in the butt and seems to be almost a full time job to keep your benefits some times. 

My *big* excitement today was that my middle toenail on my left foot finally came off enough that I could cut most of it off.   Now there is a little ridge of grabby toenail leftovers, but the whole thing won’t grab on to everything and feel like I am ripping my toe apart all day long.  I might actually be able to wear some socks and some shoes other than clogs by the end of the week.  (I have the hard plastic birki clogs with toe room…only thing I have been able to wear for about 2 weeks.)  Needless to say, I haven’t been working out for a few weeks due to this…I even called to ask, but they won’t let me wear birkis on the treadmill or the track.