When It Rains It Pours

Have you ever had days when you felt like you should've just stayed in bed? Well, I feel like I should've just hibernated for the last three weeks! We have just had the most unbelievable string of bad luck lately. It's just been the strangest thing. We've been trying to do the Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" which means we're living on a budget, following the "baby steps", and committed to not using our credit cards. We quickly came up with our $1000 emergency fund which is "Baby Step 1" and then just as quickly it went out the door.

I finally got our taxes done. Yes, I waited until the VERY LAST MINUTE. I know that doesn't constitute an "emergency" but I really wasn't expecting to owe anything. Just a slight miscalculation on my part. While the amount we owed really wasn't that bad, it was just that the timing really stunk. You see, just a couple of days before the tax fiaso the transmission went out of the van we bought to replace our wrecked car. So, we had to come up with money for the taxes and money to rebuild the transmission. Guess who is now working 4 days a week instead of 2?

And it just keeps going and going. We got the van back last Friday and the transmission started leaking and acting weird the next day so we took it back to the guy who worked on it. Of course, now both of us are working so we're really struggling with the one vehicle situation. Darren was riding the scooter as much as the weather would allow but 38 degrees is really cold for scooter travel. Think "Dumb and Dumber" traveling to Colorado.

In the meantime, the other van starts making horrible squeaking and grinding noises from the front end which I know means it needs brakes but with only one vehicle what's a girl to do? On top of all that, I had to make a trip to the dentist this Monday because I cracked a tooth. He tried to fix it but ended up having to pull it which was not fun. Then when I returned to work from the dentist Darren called to tell me that he had an unrepairable flat tire on his scooter! Will it never end?

We got one van back from the shop late Monday, took the other van to the shop for brakes on Tuesday and drove the scooter home from church on a flat tire. So now both vans are running (knock on wood) but the scooter still needs a new tire. The good news though is that God provided and we were able to pay for everything (barely) without turning to our credit cards. Now begins the process of trying to rebuild our $1000 emergency fund.

Hopefully our luck is starting to turn because to be honest, much more of this and I'm just going to pull the covers up over my head and stay in bed. Somebody can wake me when it's over.