Wednesday, November 21, 2007

House Cleaning Update

I'm up to three rooms complete. As long as the health inspector doesn't ask to use the bathroom or see the sleeping quarters we're in business. Oh, and the laundry room. I think I see the washer peeking out now but we're still searching for the dryer!

(Hey, Jen. Two posts in one day. Aren't you impressed?)

I'm still here...

I guess when someone wants to know if you're still alive that's a good sign you haven't been keeping up your blog like you should, huh?

Yes, I'm still alive and well here in Flemingsburg. Just incredibly busy. I'm trying to work 4 days a week, do Bible Bowl practice two days a week, take care of 3 kids and a husband, and slip in other church activities whenever I can. You will notice that nowhere on the list of things I'm doing have I mentioned taking care of my house and doing laundry. Sadly, both of those things have been sorely neglected. My house would be condemned if the health department happened to stop by and the laundry is piled so high that we can't even find the washer and dryer in the laundry room. On top of all this I've had two sick kids this week. Noah has had the runs since Saturday to the tune of like 12-14 soiled diapers a day. His little behind is so raw that he walks as if he's been on a cross-country horseback ride. Jarrod has been sick to his stomach and running a fever for three days now. Jacob has been lucky enough to avoid it so far but I fully expect he'll be sick tomorrow when we're supposed to go to Darren's mothers for Thanksgiving.

I've been home from work for three days this week with anywhere from two to three kids so I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. Darren has artfully managed to avoid the house altogether except to sleep. He insists that it's pure coincidence but I'm not buying it.

Today all three kids are home since school is out and I have convinced Jarrod that even sick people can fold laundry. So we've been making a concerted effort to clean up our little pig sty. It would now be okay for the health department to visit two rooms of my house.....as long as they didn't go any further than the kitchen!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

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.