I thought I should update my journal here to reflect things that are actually going on. To put it short: the world seems to hate me right now. To put it not so short...

I am currently a little over 5 months pregnant right now. Which is brilliant! We're going to have a baby boy, and Matt and I couldn't be more excited about that! Little Isaac is due in July. It just raises some difficulties. Two, in particular. First, our already tight budget is being stretched even more tightly with the medical bills I'm now incurring. Second, I'm the only one with a job right now, which means when I have to go on maternity leave ALL of our incoming money will be gone until I can get back to work. Okay, difficult, but workable, right? I figured I would save our tax refund to help us out in July when the baby comes and I have no money; we can scrape by.

And then someone threw a big boulder into our pond.

Our car broke down.

And by broke down, I don't just mean, "We had a flat tire we had to get fixed" or "The mufflin stopped pumping the magic-car water, it'll be about $300, but no biggie" (I know nothing about cars). I mean, seriously broken down. The conversation went something like this:

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but all your rods are broken, which means we'll have to replace or rebuild the entire cylinder head."
"...and what does that mean, exactly?"
"((technical car mumbo-jumbo))...so it might even be cheaper to replace the entire engine. I'll have to check the prices and find out for you."
"Wait. Replace the entire engine? ...about how much is this going to cost?"
"Well, my best estimate, and trying to keep it cheap for you, it'll probably be anywhere from $1,500-$2,000."

Needless to say, there went all of the savings I had. And the car STILL isn't paid all the way, because I didn't have that much saved to be able to pay it! And it's not fixed yet, either. I'm driving my kind-loving-wonderful-mother-in-law's car for right now.

Why is a car so important? Because all of my doctor appointments are a little over an hour away. They don't deliver babies in the city we live in. That's right: To deliver my baby, I have to drive anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour or more to get to a hospital to do the delivery. A car is important right now.

Another thing that's important? Eating. And having running water. Both of which will be interesting, since we don't have the money to afford either this month.

Where am I going with this? No where, really. Just thought I'd give everyone the heads-up on exactly what's going on.

If you are able and interested in helping, stop by my shop: Oddments and Tweaks and pick up some stuff, or commission me for something else craftsy. Random donations, of course, are always appreciated and helpful ( send via paypal to email address genevevex@gmail.com ). Or, you could commission my super-talented husband for some art work. Check out his gallery here: QuestiontheMajority.

His commission prices are as follows:

Digital Black-and-White One-Character Images: $5
-Additional Characters: $1 Each

Digital Color One-Character Images: $10
-Additional Characters: $2 Each

Original Planet Z Comic Pages

Pages from Issues 1 & 2: $10 Each

Pages from Later Issues: $15 Each