Stress

I know, I know, I'm posting like crazy lately and you can hardly keep up. I guess I've had a lot on my mind. Let me tell you a story about what is going on in my life.

It all begins back in April. I'm about to finish school, we've been saving money like crazy, and things are good. We decide now would be a great time to have a baby. Next thing you know, boom, I'm pregnant. Sounds cool right? No.

In July, our A/C unit decides to die, and it costs a LOT of money to replace. Then other miscellaneous appliances around the house decide that now would be the best time to take a crap on us. Bye bye money.

Then I tell work the good news that I am pregnant. They tell me that's great, but how will it affect us? I find out that my wonderful "family owned" company does not pay for a maternity leave, so I have to apply for short-term disability coverage. I do that, and last night I get a letter in the mail telling me that they have decided to reject me because I am pregnant. So, no money on my maternity leave. Great.

A couple of weeks ago, my manager calls me in her office for a review. The good news, I'm getting a raise. The bad news, it is a crappy raise that will barely cover the rising gas prices. But I take it okay because I figure who's going to complain about a raise? I mention something about how much time I get for maternity leave and she looks puzzled, tells me she'll ask the "Human Resources" person. P.S. We don't really have a "Human Resources" person, it's just the owner's secretary. The real Human Resource person quit a long time ago and we haven't had one since.

Next thing I know, I'm getting called into the "Human Resource" person's office, along with my manager. I am told that the company has no maternity leave policy, and after 4 weeks of being off of work, I will recieve a termination letter at home. Mind you, the company is "Family owned and operated." Also, the "Human Resource" person has 2 kids herself. They tell me, "don't worry, it's just a formality," and "you'll still have your same pay and hire date when you come back." However, I could possibly lose my benefits, or at the very least there will be a lapse in coverage. And what happens if I get put on bed rest before the baby is born? The clock starts ticking the first day I am out, and if 4 weeks go by before I have the baby, too bad, I am terminated. Just what every new mother wants to worry about, not having benefits.

As you can imagine, I am racking my brain for a solution to this problem. Then a great idea comes to me! When we bought the house, we got talked into paying for this optional Borrower Protection Plan. It's about $39 a month. The mortgage guy assured us that in any event that we couldn't pay our mortgage, this handy "protection" would cover us and everything would be fine. So now I think, great! I can just use my Borrower Protection plan to skip a couple mortgage payments when I go out on leave. Problem solved, right? No. I look through the piles of paperwork, and in there it says that pregnancy is not covered. So then I think, well, I am technically getting terminated from my job, maybe it will cover that. No. Since I am being terminated for missing work (even for a medical reason & under doctor's orders), it is technically my fault and they don't cover that. So, I guess I would have to be dismembered, or hit by a bus, and then they might let me skip a payment or two, as long as it wasn't my fault that any of those things happened.

SO, does anyone have any ideas for how to make money from home? Home prostitution is out, for obvious reasons. I couldn't do that with a baby in the house! How about telemarketing, or phone work, 900 number stuff? Any ideas let me know.

Some people who read this used to work at the same "Family owned and operated" company that I still do. To those people, please do not mention any of this to other people that still work there, namely a girl whose name is also a season of the year.