Easter Showers (411 Days to Go)

So yesterday was Easter.  And there were random showers throughout the day.  Luckily nothing quite like what they'd called for on the weather reports that I'd read.  Especially since my eldest niece was given the task of seeking out camouflaged eggs out of doors.  The rest of the children had it easy finding brightly colored eggs inside out of the rain.  The girls were all very excited and very pleased with everything they got for Easter.  Apparently the bunny had been very kind indeed to them.  Granted, the bunny had indicated to Jeff and I that a kite would be a good gift for Breanne and a "laptop" for Mackenzie would tickle the little girl.  Mackenzie is always trying to play with her pappy's laptop so we figured she'd want one of her own.  It's aimed at girls older than her and has educational aspects, but for now she's happy to just hit buttons and make stuff happen on the screen, whether or not she understands it.

If only those showers coming down from the sky would have been the only damper on the day for Jeff and I.  Unfortunately, we were also struck by the misfortune that the shower in our apartment now has a cracked floor which is causing an incredibly large amount of leaking into the shop below us.  In short, this means that we are without a shower and will be until we can buy an entirely new shower surround.  We went this weekend and looked at Home Depot and are considering buying a corner unit because it would make our teeny tiny bathroom feel a little more open and we would be able to install some shelving in order to create ourselves a place for our linens.  I'm extremely in favor of anything that will make our bathroom feel larger considering that since I've moved in, all of my makeup, hair accessories, and anything else cosmetic has been in a large Rubbermaid bin that has gone completely untouched because there's nowhere to put it.

We've also been coming to the conclusion lately that there is no way we'll ever be able to afford to move out of our apartment--for at least three years.  This has caused me incredible amounts of stress.  In the months that I've lived here, it's never really felt like home.  I've been living out of boxes to some degree and have never been able to establish an area to be a workspace for sewing, scrapbooking, or whatever.  And with the wedding coming up, this essentially translates into me having no place whatsoever for me to work on things such as putting together save-the-dates or invitations or favors.  So now we've decided that it's time to turn the attic upstairs into a liveable space.  Essentially right now it has holes in the floor and looks exactly as it did two days after it was burned out many years ago.  When Jeff and his parents fixed up the apartment, they'd never bothered really with the attic.  So now we have to tackle that as a project as well.  So we're basically going to end up investing a decent amount of money into remodeling our bathroom and attic just to make our place liveable for the sort-of short term instead of being able to save the money towards a down payment on a house.  Essentially we're in a Catch 22 situation.  A little amusing considering that Catch 22 is Jeff's favorite book.

It's been another one of those incredibly stressful weekends.  I keep hoping that something will give (aside from me) but it seems as though luck is not all that much in my favor.  Jeff keeps telling me to not feel so responsible for us, but it's hard not to when I know that I should be much better off career wise and I just can't seem to get there.  Everyone keeps telling me that it will all come in time, but I feel as though I'm not asking for too much to be able to afford to buy a house especially when I have a masters degree.  Instead, I have the debts belonging to that degree and the salary belonging to a lucky high school dropout.  I did get a job offer from that interview I had last week, but the offer is incredibly low.  I now have to wait until I can review the offer packet and see if I can somehow negotiate a better offer.  What makes it more stressful and frustrating though is that I can't really turn down the job either.  There aren't other jobs available and I can't stay where I'm at either.  Yet another one of those incredibly frustrating Catch 22s.