Thanks for everyone being understanding.

Yes, we are on payment plans for the medical bills. I think if the hospital doesn't give up on collecting (I've heard in these cases they sometimes do), it will be 9 years before that is paid off. About a year for the trauma surgeons, quite some time for the EMS (they let us pay extremely small amounts.) I went to tons of sites for places to help with medical bills and found places that will help with lots of medical issues like long-term sickness (cancer), medication costs, lots of sicknesses that did not include ulcers. It was SO frustrating. Each place would have me phone another and another and another. No help at all. We fortunately do not have credit card bills. We have always paid them off in full monthly. Our cars are both old and already paid off. But now the money's getting down. We don't know how we'll make the mortgage payments and things like electricity, utilities, etc. We can take some money out of my husband's retirement fund for the time being, and that's what we might have to do. We do think when the department wanting to hire my husband at Lamar University in Beaumont gets it together, they will try to get him for a 1 yr. professorship and then hopefully longer, though the drive between La Porte & Beaumont is a very long commute.

I tried Medicaid. They turned us down. It's very hard to get in Texas. I did have it when my husband was unemployed, and the ironic thing was after he had a job with insurance, I couldn't get off of it for like 2 years! I had food stamps too, but when he got work, those stopped. However, there is a food bank at one of the churches. I used it when my husband was out of work. You don't even have to prove income, just that you are a resident of the town (copy of the utility bill & a valid picture driver's license/ID). They have different schedules on when you can use it based on the letters starting your last name. I should probably look into that one again. Food is so expensive.

I applied for substitute teaching and substitute school crossing job work in my husband's school district. Finally got the email that the crossing guard background clearance went through to HR. That might not be a fun one weatherwise, but I think the stress wouldn't be bad, and it pays $12/hr; they are out there around 2.5, 3 hr. in the morning then again in the afternoon. They all work in groups of 2 here. Not much money but a little. We'll see if the substitute teaching comes through. If I don't hear anything by the end of the month, I'll send an email to my brother-in-law's aunt. She is very high up in the school district hierarchy and can help me along if I submitted too late or entered something incorrectly.