The job hunt has come to a standstill. There's like nothing out there...at all. The economy seems to have just taken a really bad nosedive and there's nothing out there. Mike and I are discussing the possibility of struggling through the summer and then I'll just teach again. I've suggested that I could work a couple days a week at the 7-11 and he freaked. He said he didn't want me hurting myself. I don't really want to hurt myself either, but I don't want to lose the house. The thing is if they reduce how much we have to pay each month by even a few hundred dollars we could swing it.

Our ARM is kicking over in August. Basically, if we even got the reduction from that, we'd be better off than we are.

I've put in a beautiful garden. We should have tons of produce by summer's end. I'm really psyched about that. I may start taking laundry to the laundromat though because I'm worried about the well. The thing is when it floods in the midwest, we get droughts.

I love my brother-in-law, Mike's youngest brother. However, I'd anticipated he might stay here a week or two -- not a month or more. He doesn't do anything to job hunt. He just plays games all day and plays with the kids -- which the first week or so, would have been fine. However, it's been more than a month. He refuses to do the things he needs to do in order to apply for a job. He stalls constantly.

And yes, he has helped around the house. He does dishes and laundry periodically. He organized all my cupboards in my kitchen for me. He reorganized my linen closet. He helps with laundry and with stuff, but it's getting much. These are things that are hard for me to do, but that I could do myself. When he does stuff like that it's helpful, but we were getting by before without him around and I'm sure we can again.

Basically, Mike and I talked and as of July 1st, we're going to charge him room and board and he better get a fucking job. We figured our mortgage is about $2200 a month, which means that each bedroom is worth about $733 a month. We have the master bedroom and bath, so ours should be more which we figured at $900, which leaves about $600 per room for the kid's bedrooms. If we split the cost of one room, that's 300 just for the mortgage. We figured with food and utilities, another $250 is appropriate for $550 a month for room and board. It's probably even low-end, but it would also help us out.

If he's going to stay, I want him to move into Russell's room because I want my livingroom back. His blanket, clothes and assorted crud are always out there and I'm sick of it. He needs to stop sleeping on my couch and have his own space. I also need to have a place that people can walk into.

There are some other things...he has to apply for this one position that everyone has told him to apply for. He needs to apply with temp agencies at the very least and look for employment through them. The other thing is that he's up at all hours. Mike and I can't begin to have alone time because he's always around. I'd like to be able to make love with my husband without him out in the livingroom. At least, if he's in Russell's room, if we make noise, he's less likely to hear it.

I know Mike enjoys him being here. For him, it's like one big frat party all the time with his brother. He gets to play games and hang out. But we can't afford to be party animals any more. We just can't. Ideally, I'd prefer he just got on with his life -- job, apartment, girlfriend, the works!! However, if he wants to hang here, he's going to have to pitch in financially.