Control

I am in no way controlling in a freakish kind of way. But I like to have control over things in my life. I really don't like the unexpected. I like organization and plans.

The car dying was NOT in the plan. But getting a van out of it is very nice. I really have wanted a van forever.

Not having money...is NOT in the plan.

But it's happening. I checked Loren's LES (leave and earnings statement...paystub) today and on Friday we're getting $267 and some change. Because Loren had a credit card when he was in the army the first time. He still owes on it and living paycheck to paycheck prevents us from paying off our debt in a timely manner. So they periodically take money from his paycheck. The card is a military thing. So they can dip into his pay whenever they want. I wish they would just take out a little every month, but they choose to wait several months without a payment then they decide to take whatever they want. So this time, they took over $800 from ONE paycheck.

And Loren gets casual pay while he's deployed. It's kind of like spending money since they don't have banks over there. Army Finance comes by their bases once a month and if they choose to, they can take out up to $300 or so. Well, it's not free money, so they get it taken out of their pay. That's all well and good because it's supposed to happen. But because it happened at the same time as that $800 coming out, we were left with that measly $267.

When I saw that, I about had a heart attack! But instead of having heart trouble, I went to the Army Community Services building and got paperwork started for a loan. We've used them before. They loan the money and it gets paid back through small increments from the paycheck.

I'm going tomorrow morning to put the paperwork through. I would've done it today, but didn't have time.

So hopefully all of that will go through and we'll be okay. I mean, not only do we have bills to pay, but we also have to feed ourselves. And babies need things like diapers and wipes and formula.

I did talk to some really nice people today though. The guy in the AER Loan office got all the paperwork ready today so that when I go in tomorrow, everything will already be ready. And he suggested I come back in the morning because I had to run over to Loren's "work place" to get his SSG to sign a paper so that I wouldn't be running back and forth with Kaden in the car. Theona was at Monica's because she's running a fever...another thing that WASN'T in the plan.

Loren's SSG was really nice too. I had already gone up there once today for him to sign the paper and had to go back again because he had to sign in two places. Army paperwork sucks!

So while things happen that we don't plan, at least it's not the end of the world. I can deal with this and I'm not freaking out or anything. The hits keep on coming but I'm staying in the fight.