Recap The Awful Year

Okay, I’m only going to do this once and get it off my chest. But geez louise could something good happen around here? We are due for something positive without even the slightest hint of double-edged swordiness.

Thank you, facebook.

I am going to recap this past year, and I’ll be totally honest with all y’all, it’s going to be a bit of a pity party. I know the people who are in my life already know the extent to which this year has totally sucked ass monkeys, but I’m hoping this exercise will be cathartic and help me to move forward.

May 2012: Our “year” started more than a year ago. We found out we were expecting a baby! A week after that news, we found out Jeremy’s job was being eliminated and we would have to leave Billings, MT. At least his boss gave him plenty of head’s up.

June 2012: Our baby miscarried. We named him Joseph Mary. The worst part was we had just made the Big Announcement that we were expecting so we had to be all like “just kidding.” It was bad.

July 2012: Despite numerous resumes sent all over the nation, no job offers yet. Around this time I started a good habit of walking approximately 2 miles every morning around the scenic neighborhoods of Billings, with Stephen tagging along in the stroller. That was nice.

August 2012: We sold our better car to help finance our upcoming move to a Place that was Yet to be Revealed to us.

September 2012: We put our perfect house on the market and moved away from Billings to Rio Rancho, NM for the sole reason that Rio Rancho was the only place to offer Jeremy a job. I wouldn’t recommend that strategy to anyone. Also in September we found out we were expecting a baby! Because of this, it becomes impossible for me to secure health insurance in New Mexico because insurance companies will not accept new clients with a “preexisting condition.” Such as pregnancy. We resorted to Medicaid and thank God we did. It was one of the better choices we made this past year.

October 2012: Our house wasn’t sold yet, so we were paying a mortgage payment plus rent on an apartment that turned out being more expensive than we had thought it would be. We made some great friends through our church, and that was really nice.

November 2012: Jeremy stoped receiving new assignments in the mail from Magnificat. It was clear that after 5 years as a solid employee, they were terminating his contract without offering any notice or reason. He supposed it must be related to internal company politics. At least they continued to send complimentary subscriptions to our home.

December 2012: We discover that for some reason, it is not possible for us to run the heat in our apartment if we also want to take a hot shower. We may have started noticing this in November, but now it’s really starting to get old. Also in December, we get a solid offer on our house in Billings! Things keep getting slowed down for one reason or another so we don’t actually close the sale.

January 2013: We sold the house in Billings! Whew, now it will slip onto 2013 tax year filings which is actually extremely fortunate. Also in January, Jeremy has a meeting with his boss during which his boss pretty much tells him he is doing a horrible job at work. Without offering any positive feedback or ways Jeremy can improve his performance. I think the complaint boiled down to Jeremy wasn’t kicking enough kids out of the church religious education program. Or something. Sorry folks, it’s the truth. Around this time we realize that we are deeply unhappy and we start seriously considering moving away from New Mexico, but we resolve to give it at least a full year before we decide. Also in January, Jeremy and I join a class at church that will walk us through the process to renew our consecration to Mary.

February 2013: We find out there is Something Wrong with our baby. The perinatologist outlines some stark possibilities and recommends for us to move before baby is born if moving is what we want to do. We reconsecrate our family to Mary. “To Jesus, through Mary!” We need all the graces we can get.

March 2013: Every time we go for a prenatal appointment there is more hard news. We also get all our papers together for filing taxes. At least we don’t have to file a house sale. We also decide definitively to move. Jeremy gives 30 days notice at work and his boss tells him to clear out immediately. I’m paraphrasing. Jeremy’s car needs an expensive repair to make it road trip worthy. We have to sell our piano because we can’t afford to move it again.

April 2013: Taxes are a bitch and a half. We have to break our lease contract to move out now, so we also get hit hard by the management company. They don’t consider losing your job and a medical hardship grounds for waiving fees. At least they agree to let us pay over 4 months and they don’t charge interest. Moving cleans out our bank account. Goodbye savings. Goodbye house sale profits. Goodbye all the generous gifts our amazing family and friends bestowed upon us. Thank God for our amazing family and friends who helped us in our need. We road tripped to Ohio and that was really nice.

May 2013: We moved in with my parents thanks to their generosity. Lots of prenatal appointments for Agnes, with bad news becoming the norm. U-haul over charges for our “u-boxes,” you know, like we can afford extra expenses. We place both our student loans in forbearance and I transfer the last $20 from savings into checking so our check to Costco doesn’t bounce. Thank God I did it in time. At least it wasn’t too difficult to get set up on Ohio Medicaid and they even gave us food assistance. Without those government programs, we would be done for. I don’t care what you think about “hand outs” but I am extremely grateful for those programs. I’m sorry I’m stealing your hard-earned paychecks. Also in May, Jeremy picks up a part time gig as a pizza delivery driver.

June 2013: Still paying off the apartment management company in Rio Rancho. Still banking frequent-visitor points at the hospital. Still trying to find things that are boxed up from the move. More bad news about Agnes. Whatevs, bring it. Agnes is born! Let the fun begin. We practically live at the hospital as Agnes endures surgeries and the complicated recovery. She is “chromosomally enhanced.” I like to think about it that way. I miss Stephen because I don’t get to spend much quality time with him right after Agnes’ birth.

July 2013: I’ve talked about all this stuff in depth elsewhere on the blog. We’re also still paying the Rio Rancho apartment managers $320.12 a month for 4 months. At least Agnes’ care is covered under Medicaid. Thank God for Medicaid. Agnes does start improving which is really nice. It must be because of all the wonderful prayers everyone sends up for her!

August 2013: Our year is still rolling. At least this month was our last payment to the Rio Rancho apartment. Now maybe we can start saving again. Jeremy’s car is broken again–the same thing that was supposedly fixed in March. Agnes just gets more and more complicated. Now she is getting a tracheostomy and a g-tube. The trach is going to necessitate around-the-clock vigilance which means a home health care professional will be spending the night here every night. For some reason, that upsets me more than the trach part. Jeremy has decided to go to nursing school himself, an idea that was maybe kicking around for a little while but finally decided when Agnes was in the NICU and we witnessed those nurses up-close.

I don’t know what the year will bring, but I’m hoping things will turn around. I’m also going to take real actions to make myself feel HAPPY again. Seriously, it’s been since May 2012 when I would say, “yes, I am generally a happy person and I like my life.” I’m going to join a gym, start following a household budget that includes savings again, try to make better eating choices, and join the church choir. Hopefully when I look back at this post in 3 or 4 months, I will wonder why I sounded so down.

Okay. I’m done. I got the complaining out of the way, now I’m going to go be positive. I’m positive. I’m positive.

Accounting

I’m writing a really good post in my head right now, but it’s not ready yet. So I’m going to fill in with a couple sub-ideas that are going on.

A big task I have to do tonight, if I have time before bed, is balance the checkbook. Jeremy is going to get his severance pay in one big lump and it would be helpful to know what we already have when it comes time to divvy up what will be our last income for a while. We do have a bit in savings (Thank you, Dave Ramsey!). We put together what Dave calls the “baby emergency fund” back when we first started getting our accounts in order: $1,000 in a savings account that you don’t ever touch except for emergencies. We also opened a totally separate savings account for sinking funds, like saving up to buy new furniture, or a replacement car, or saving for home repairs that may come up in the future. Then when we sold our house back in January, we used some of the meager proceeds to buy Jeremy’s motorcycle then put the rest in the emergency fund so we would definitely have it later when we would need it. We didn’t have any emergencies along the way, which is good.

So we are by no means flat broke, which is a huge relief. But. We are looking at some serious outlays that do have me worried.

First of all, it’s time to file taxes. Unlike many people who look forward to this time of year, we dread it because we always have to pay. Jeremy was technically a self-employed contractor editing for Magnificat magazine, so his paychecks from there never withheld anything. The past couple years, even though we bumped up the withholdings on our other jobs’ paychecks, we still owed about $2,000 in combined taxes to state and federal. When we moved to New Mexico, Jeremy bumped his tax withholdings at his salaried position way up to compensate further, but I’m not too certain it was enough to eliminate our tax payment. All I can realistically hope for is that the damage isn’t too severe. Thank God the sale of our house didn’t close until January 2013. So at least we don’t have to deal with that right now. We just have to mess with filing in two different states.

Second, since we are breaking our 12 month lease early, we have to pay a penalty. We also have to pay back the promotional free month of rent we got for signing a 12 month lease. That is going to be significant. Apparently, losing your job and moving for health reasons aren’t good enough reasons to waive the penalty. The only thing that will do it is a letter from my doctor saying I must move for my health.

Third, moving itself is going to cost a pretty penny. The cheapest option of course is the least convenient. We still need to decide how we want to handle the move.

I think we will come out in the black after all is said and done IF we don’t owe a ton for taxes and IF we can convince the apartment manager to cut us break. It may be possible. Jeremy suggested we pray a novena to Saint Matthew. You know, the former tax collector. He was only half joking.

So if you’ve talked to me lately and were confused about why we’re moving–is it for the baby or for finances?–I hope this kind of clears it up. We are moving because we had been intending to move anyway, just not this soon. My doctor said we should move now rather than wait for the baby to be born. But I am concerned about our financial picture. I think it will turn out okay, but like I said, there are some “ifs” about it.