Thankfully, they opened (someone else's) car and stole everyone's handbags while they were attending a wedding, so she wasn't harmed...the thieves DID smash the car window, though, and now niece has to replace all her id's (national id, drivers' license, tax id....)...((sigh)) since I had the day off today, I took her to get her national id (step #1 and the cheapest id!- $10.31)...we left the house at 7:30am, dropped Ale off at school, went to the police station to file a report (you need a copy of the report to be able to replace the drivers license) and then to the place where they issue the national id's...we came back at 2:00pm, had lunch and then I went to pick up Ale.. (the other offices close at 4pm, so there wasn't much chance of us making it before closing time...plus, the license costs $52...and we don't have that at the moment! --yeah, we DO need an emergency fund!)...((sigh))

4 files...lists of chemicals and medicines...ugh!...and the files were scanned....and they looked awful (like photocopies of photocopies of a fax!)...but, managed to read it! -- with a little help from a magnifying glass that a friend gave Ale recently as part as an "insect-catching" kit!

Another translation arrived yesterday night...$35 worth! (which is good because work is crazy, so I'm beat at the end of the day and 4 pages is as much as I could handle anyway!)

woo-hoo!

well, those new vitamins the Doctor gave her sure are working!...pants that fit her at the beginning of December (before Dr's visit) are now tight...too tight to be comfy...some look like she's wearing capris!...
She has 2 pairs that were way too big (hand-me downs) and one of those fits... the other one is still a bit too loose...

So, on my "to buy" list now are 1 pair of jeans and 1 pair pink pants for Ale! - don't worry, I'll either get them downtown or at a thrift store...the way she's growing, it's no use buying her stuff to last "forever" anyway!

so, we started preparing the school packages....we figured out what we needed to buy but, because of prices, we bought "closed dozens" of everything (meaning if we needed 140 units of something, we got a better price by buying 12 dozens= 144)...because we were using up our stock first, there were leftovers from nearly all items!Also, we still had some items from previous years that we had been unable to sell....this allowed us to make 6 complete school packages (because public school doesn't ask for as many things as private ones), which will go to: Nanny, 1 for her daughter and 1 for her grand-daughter; the gardener -Don Felipe works both with cousin and with me- for his 2 sons; and 1 full package each for the 2 guards at the parking lot downtown where we park! - one of them has 2 children, the other has 5. AND, there were 3 each of colored pencils, scissors, lead pencils and sheets of bond paper to give to the guy that looks after my car at Church (I always park in "his" area, and he always saves me a spot!)...what's even better is that we even had some left over backpacks (we've had them for 2 years now, so they are not "in" anymore, we really wouldn't be able to sell them anyway) and, with those and 3 that we "purchased" through a promotion at the supermarket (you get a backpack for $0.99 for every purchase over $25!), we were able to get collect 9 backpacks, too!...so, essentially, for $2.97 we helped 5 families!...I feel so blessed!

I got 2 phone calls yesterday offering me pre-approved financing...one is from Evil CArd...no way, never again!... back in my stupid(er) desperate days I took one of those with them...which I then tried to pay off early....turns out, even if you did pay off early, you were required to pay the full interest as contracted ....so, yeah, thanks but, no thanks!....
the other one was more interesting, as it is a re-fi of my personal loan...I could move some of the higher interest debt into that...we'll see...the only problem might be that I don't know if the Embassy accepts "discount orders" (meaning whether they accept the trouble of discounting the money from your paycheck before giving it to you and paying it directly to the bank)...if they don't, I can't even contemplate it...

but, you know what? even if I don't get it, I don't really need it!...

140 packages....our profit will be $560/2 = $280 for each one of us!!!...

of course, it means working like crazy during the weekend, but....

I include this in the Teaching Ale about $$ category because, as usual, if she helps out, she'll get paid!

same bag that cost me $3.09 on Saturday!
...and they tell me Premium gas has reached $4/gallon!!!

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I'm calling a "clan meeting" at my house tomorrow!!

I'm definetely nesting! (what for, I don't know!)...I bought the veggie thingy that I had mentioned to put Ale's stuff in order (in place of the $50 bookcases)...it cost me $7.95 (I thought they were ~$11 originally!)...it looks really cool! (let's see how long it lasts looking clean and tidy, though!)...we went by the "FAbric Zone" and I saw some fabric I have been eyeing for about a year now, as an "end of roll savings"!!!...Needless to say, I jumped at it! (normal price was $6.95/yard...end of roll is $1.95/yard!)...there wasn't enough stuff to make a curtain to fit my window, though, so I bought 2 colors in the same pattern (a burnt orange and a chocolate brown!)...I also fell in love with 2 other matching pieces - blue and yellow...so, I bought them all and now have enough for 2 curtains and some matching pillows (how many depends on the size)....total cost? $10.95...and since I don't like ruffled curtains, a friend will saw the hems for me!...(I have been using an old sheet of my nieces...purple in color, which doesn't do "anything" for the room!...my walls are a very pale blue)...I'm happy!

...went to the grocery store today...bought almost the same things I always do (did not get meats, but had to buy food for both Tonio AND Fiona, as they were both running out)...the total is generally ~$70...today it was $85!!!
...and the MInistry of Economy says cummulative inflation as of November was 5.5%!!!

I'll have to adjust my monthly budgets to reflect these new prices!!!...and I'm guessing the difference will have to come out of the money allocated towards paying debt....grrrrr!

I finished the translation yesterday night and sent it...it turned out shorter than I thought, and it will be $144 (tax included)...I'm pretty good at guessing how many words a translation will have when translating from Spanish to English...but, I was off by about 600 words on the English to Spanish....hmmmm, must start paying more attention, so I'll get a "feel" for the right ratio....

woo-hoo! just got sent my first official translation of the year!!...the original is in English... 3,164 words...considering that Spanish tends to use more words, I guess it will be about 3,800 words when done - or $152, whichever you prefer!...let's consider it ~$150!!!

had to pay for the security co. at our neighborhood ($15) and for gas for my car today ($36.31)....gas was expensive today, but, it should last a bit longer since Ale doesn't go back to school until next Monday (so, 4 trips less) and church group is out until next weekend (1 trip less)...Niece is also on vacation, and is not working at the moment, so....

ugh! One of my goals was to pay off $5K in debt (not counting interest)...I ALMOST made it! ....$4.7K!...
oh, well, it wasn't that bad...and I'm still pending some payments...but those are already Jan 08!...

I've been checking my old January entries and, this is what I was doing back then....

2005
Getting calls from creditors.
Selling tamales to pay for Ale’s psychologist sessions

2006
School supply sale
Second job teaching English
Canceled 1 cc!

2007
School supply sales
Translations

2008
Resting (we will do a scale-down version of the school supply, so we are not putting as much effort/money into it...don't have any translations, although I hope they pick up the second week of January!)

Life is good!

Cousin brought her tenant (she rents him a room in her house) to our New Year's celebration (that's NOT the surreal part, and, we don't mind that she did and he's actually quite social....more so than her son, who came in to say hello, left, came back for dinner, left, and came back before 12!)....anyway... the guy was amazed at the amount of food (plenty of snacks-chips and dips, mostly), ham in pineapple sauce, the giant bowl of mashed potatos and peas...so, cousin started reminiscing about the FEASTS Mom used to host...she once brought her best friend and HE still remembers...that was over 15 years ago...when my parents were still spending like crazy...consomme for starters...there was ham, turkey and pork...rice and mashed potatoes...three kinds of salad...2 types of dessert...that was the way it was with Mom...frankly, I don't think I (we) would do something as elaborate as that, even if we DID have the money (although, we DID have two kinds of dessert last night! ... my friend who visited on Xmas had brought choocolate sherbet and, we bought a can of peaches... LOL!...Mom would faint that we had "only" THAT- no home-made ones!)...we also mentioned Mom's eating disorders, because, she would psychologically pressure you into having AT LEAST 2 servings of each thing- she got hurt and stated you probably hadn't liked her food in such a way that it made you feel you were breaking her heart by not eating!!
But, yeah, thinking about all that excess is surreal! (and the parents didn't have cc's!... but, they used the crop loans to afford this sort of thing!...it makes me dizzy to even think about it!)

my goals for this year:

1. Track spending (I know, I generally am very good at this for the first few months, then drop it, but, this year I got a small pocket calendar!!)

2. Make at least $1,000 per month average from translations. Save at least 10% of that! (still working on the best configuration, given my amount of debt...since I am still owed from the toy sales, I will not know 100% where I stand until I make those payments)

3. Take better care of myself...(financial, because I've been neglecting things like dentist check ups due $$$)...started "last year" by ordering my new glasses...with the new prescription....and bought contact lenses also with the new prescription - I guess this could also be seen as an investment in the business! (can't translate very well if your vision is blurry!)

Ok, that's it for now...I'm off to watch the Rose Parade to see if I can spot "our guys"!!

Saludos!

Ale is sick again....as am I! (and sis, and cousin!- we all catched the same flu bug! ugh!)...another trip to the doctor's office ($30) and another ~$90 in meds...well, I can't complain, I actually had the cash! (well, it should have been paid towards debt, but...it's worth it!-plus, I'll get SOMETHING back from the insurance!)
I hope we all recover before New Year's!!

...I just got told that our quotation for that $1600 translation got accepted...so, they already delivered the materials to my home...that means I have to start TONIGHT! as I only have 15 days to do it...that means we must deliver it no later than Jan 2nd, 4:00pm...
wish me luck!

the school were we usually sell school supplies did not give us permission to sell this year...part of me is relieved...I really don't like it that they force the parents to buy X or Y brand of crayons, colors, etc...and I don't like it that they think THIS makes them a better school...cousin did have the lists already, and she says this year they've gotten even more ridiculous:
1/4 gallon of white paint, to be bought at XYZ hardware store...
1 wooden box with sliding top, to be bought at store #X at Marketplace Y...
1 package of stickers- must be a package of 750 stickers, bought from ABC supermarket...

Hellooo?? both the Ministry of Education and the Center for Consumer Defense prohibit this...why no one has turned them in is beyond them!

So, cousin is bummed, but I'm actually quite happy that we are not going THERE!...we are looking into other schools, though, so it's not like we WON'T be selling school supplies!

my friend called (he still owes me $179; we hadn't been paid!...he's got the cheque!...) this will be the last translation $$$ I will receive in 2007....the translations I've made in Dec will be paid in January!...(these $179 go to my department store card!) ...

woo-hoo!

I survived the children's party!!!
We arrived at the place where the party would be held at 8:30am, to continue preparing the employee's packages and filling the piniatas and all that...we left at 7:30pm, after having written down the names of the people that didn't get a package (no problem, we had 3 boxes full of packages that peopel hadn't claimed...probably some of those will "match", but it really was too late to go over it again...especially since that is something we don't like doing "on our own", but would rather the company's HR in charge were there!)...so, I asked Ale what she wanted to eat (the HR secretary is new and she had problems with the tickets- we give the tickets to HR 2 weeks in advance of the party, and they are supposed to get them to the employees...again, in individual labeled envelopes!- and we kept getting calls that "so and so's tickets were not included"...we kept telling them Yes, they were...the HR in charge now realizes we were right all along, as the people that brought the food (pupusas) were giving people 2 pupusas per ticket and, they served 1,800 pupusas!!! -and there definetely weren't 900 people there!...AND, we didn't even get to eat (were too busy and, by the time we had time, there were no pupusas left!)..

anyway, Ale picked Mc Donald's...we finally got home at around 8:30pm (had to go get gas, too)

Sunday was a bit less hectic, we went to "visit" the Virgin of Guadalupe at 11, then to the supermarket to buy some stuff for a little celebration with my sister (her b-day was on Saturday) and that lasted 3-4 hours...we even got her a piniata!!! an Elmo piniata...(we call her Elmo because she dies her hair red, and once she picked this really bright red!!!)...and we made her hit it, too, it wasn't just for show!...niece has the pictures, have to ask her to send them to me...it'd be fun to post them! LOL!...

After that niece, Ale and I went to see "The Jungle Book" with the National Dance School....really impressive!...that would merit a separate entry!

ok, update is done, now I need to start WORKING!!!

with the translations I'm doing this week, I already have $800 due for January...that is so wonderful...I don't think there will be much more after this week, but, we'll see...one of my goals for next year is going to be to match my salary through translations...(so, I should be making an average of $1014 per month, after taxes- in translations)...wouldn't that be nice??

Ok, part 1 of the translation is done...that was 20,001 words!(or $800.04, whichever you prefer!) ...now there's another law I need to translate!!!...

At least, I got niece to help with wrapping gifts for a while today (called her at 10am, but she needs to pick up Ale at 3:00 and then leave for work)...still, it's help!...

The customer with the additional 187 toys just called...he missed ANOTHER 24 toys!...ugh! and to think I still haven't wrapped MY gifts for family!...will get to it next week!...I hope!

::breath in, breath out::

I'm leaving for lunch now! (it's 1:14!)...brought some spaghetti from home!

one of our toy customers- who's having the children's party on saturday- called and said they had missed "a few children" in the first list, and would we come get an updated one (why they don't send an electronic version, I don't know, but I hate it, because we have to input everything in the computer to work the labels and stuff!)...well, it turns out they missed 187 kids!...187!!!...that' s not "a few"!!!...and, while it is good moneywise, workwise it's the pits!...I mean, we haven't even BOUGHT these toys, and we have to wrap them, tag them and separate them by parent (we make a bag with the employee's name and then we fill it with the gifts for his/her child/ren, as appropriate)...it's crazy!...we only have 3 days...and it's not like we don't have OTHER customers!!!...

So, the last translations from company 1 were paid...after taxes, $1,025...I used $425 today for the toy business (I should get all my money back, plus profit, by Dec 15th, as we have an agreement with all companies that we get paid when we deliver the toys!)...

Now I only have to survive this week! (I have an awful cold...Ale, too!)...

I'm overcommitted for this weekend!...
these are the events:
1. Ale's church meeting (yes)
2. Embassy's Xmas festival for children (don't think we'll be able to make it!)
3. gift-wrapping/order preparation fest with cousin (definitely YES!)
4. Xmas get-together with translation agency folks (VERY difficult)
5. 20-year anniversary class reunion (also VERY difficult)
6. 35 pages of translation....

HELP!!!....oh, and here I am, instead of trying to reduce those 35 pages..I'm blogging!

we're going into panick mode!...we had another call from someone wanting more toys...not that we are complaining, but, it would have been better if it had come 2 weeks ago! (more time to do everything right!)...

and, speaking of wasted time...cousin was asked for a few extra toys for one of the companies that bought toys in Nov...when she went to deliver the toys, she saw they were UNWRAPPING our toys!...they didn't buy ALL their toys from us, just some...they asked us to wrap the toys because they thought the other companies would wrap them too...but, those companies wanted to charge them an additional $0.13 per package....(we offer to do it "at no additional cost"...truth is, the cost is already considered in the price, so if the buyer doesn't want it, it's actually additional income for us!- but, most of OUR customers are OUR customers because of the convenience!- we wrap, tag and even group them together in bags with the employees' names! so all the HR dept has to do is check for accuracy and hand them out!)

this is a Law they want translated...fortunately, this is one law I'm quite acquainted with (acquisitions by govmnt entities)...but, it may be quite extensive...most probably, I'll agree to do only a PART of it, as it is quite urgent and I wouldn't want to overcommit!

they want toys in our cheaper range (up to $3), but, they want 600!!...cousin had to rush to put together a "real life" sampler for them and is showing it tomorrow...and I haven't even been able to help her because I caught whatever it was that Ale had and have been sleeping all day today (could not sleep last night due to high fevers...stayed home today all day...except for taking Ale to school and picking her up...) I'm still a little dizzy, but hope to feel better tomorrow!..........