Taking the Scenic Route

This week will be a busy one, filled with several doctor’s appointments put off until Zach’s return.  We are in the lull between chapters of our life.  This week Zach signs a contract to be an instructor for the next year.  He will be doing essentially the same job he has done the last few semesters, but will be an actual member of faculty instead of a GTA.  He deserves to finally be recognized for the work he does, but it is sometimes amazing when it actually happens.  We are not used to things happening that are good, even when it is appropriate.  lol.  

The job means we are losing our food stamps.  I could have probably gotten them another month, but we chose not to do the renewal when the paperwork came due at the end of July.  The amount of paperwork to keep the food stamps is insane and since our money does not come in typical paycheck fashion, is usually delayed and we have to go through even more work than normal.  If a mistake was made along the way (which seems more likely than not given our past experience with this office) it could mean us having to work to get them to stop on time once the paychecks start rather than keep paying them and then demand payment back with interest.  It isn’t worth the hassle.  We will be getting paychecks in a month.  We can survive that long.

We will also start getting regular heath insurance instead of Medicaid (or Medicare, can’t ever remember which one it is.  lol).  It means we will have more freedom, but it is more expensive.  Hopefully, it will pay for some of Zane’s therapies because we are likely going to lose at least some of our financial aid for that too.  Right now, his therapy is around 13.5K/year.  We will also be losing our financial aid for the YMCA, so there is another expense that goes up.  Thankfully, there are several possibilities for ‘2nd jobs’ for Zach because with all of the financial aid the paycheck will knock us out of eligibility for, we might need some more income to be able to have the same lifestyle.  That is sad.  lol.  The possibilities include:  helping a professor with some forensic computer recovery/data mining for a court case, working in a Cisco lab, and being paid by NASA for some further research.  None of those is a definite thing, but all are possible.  We will see what the year brings.  All of them would work around his instructor responsibilities nicely. 

We are looking forward with a lot of hope for the future.  The possibilities seem limitless right now and it is a fun feeling.