Mom was happy to get out of the office and was looking forward to the weekend. Superbowl XVII happened then Mom was "let go" from her job. This caused stress in the house to rise since no one was working. But "R" and his step-dad went to Boise to take part in the national truckers' strike. In an attempt to get work overseas, Mom worked on "R"s resume with the hopes of going anywhere else but especially some place like Sweden, Finland, the Bahamas, Greece, Norway or Australia. Mom also made us Valentines cookies for our class parties and we were still in wrestling. Mat ended up getting sick and we got our dog JoJo spayed. Mom watched an episode of Donahue and compared the Journal to a story on there. We had our school parties and Mat had a friend spend the night.

Mom placed a star in the margin of an entry she made so we explain the "code" Mom was using and what she was trying to say there without letting "R" know. Mom also reconnected with a friend she'd had a falling out with and she was beginning to get frustrated with her job. One of the coworkers was pushing her to work weekends when she wasn't hired to do so. Because of that she starts applying for new jobs. Mom wrote about a night out drinking and the after effects. She also bought a tape recorder with the idea of recording letters and mailing them to her family and friends. She found out a really good friend is having a baby. Us boys started wrestling and we talk about an attempt at recycling that didn't work out as planned. And we get another instance of Mom dreaming about winning it big and all her plans for the money.

It was Christmas time and us boys got a computer and new bikes! Mom was really pissed about the economy and kept blaming President Reagan. We also welcomed in 1983 without a lot of fanfare. Mom just wanted to stay home so some friends came over to watch TV. Mom was also happy for her dad because he had another lady in his life and things were looking up for him personally. Mom and "R" also did some financial rearranging to make sure things got paid on time and took less money from their pockets each month. Mom also started going to aerobics classes with a friend, she liked it. We also celebrated Mat's 7th birthday with cake, ice cream and family. Also, Mom's mom celebrated her 47th Birthday which got Mom thinking about the future and some surpising revelations to us boys about the kind of people she thought we'd become.

Mom got pissed because she got called in on her day off, luckily things worked out and she didn't have to go in. Then she was finally able to quit Burnhams because she got a new job working regular business hours and weekends off! Phillip had his 8th birthday. Mom's dad had Thanksgiving with the family and Mom went holiday shopping. We talk about Dream Torte, Phillip's favorite dessert. Mom wrote about a computer she bought us as a Christmas present which prompts a conversation about a computer we had later in life. Also, Mom was making plans to take us to the mountains for Christmas.