Bad luck or a test?

I think I am being tested to see if I really believe what I wrote in my last blog. You know, the part about "it's just stuff and it can be replaced, so it's not worth getting all upset about".

I wrote that in the context of all of the stuff we had damaged by the lightning during the storms on April 27th. Well, here's an update on our "stuff" since Friday when I last posted:

Sunday night, Travis figured out that one of the speakers in his surround sound setup isn't working properly anymore. We are guessing it was due to lightning damage also, but we just hadn't noticed it yet. Eh, no big deal, we've already got to replace the TV and Blu-Ray player, what's one more thing?

Monday at work, I get a call from Travis. He's on his way home from work, and his car is overheating. Like all the way in the red as far as it goes. He pretty much coasted all the way to the repair shop so he wouldn't burn up his engine, and by that time, it was about 5:30 PM, so he just left it overnight for them to take a look at it on Tuesday. Travis was hoping it was just a hose leaking or something...

A little later that evening, we are about to sit down for supper, and we notice that our ice maker hadn't made any ice all day. (Travis took his lunch in a cooler to work Monday and emptied the whole bin). Hmmm...that's strange. It's a brand new refrigerator. Didn't even look like the previous owners used it before we got the house. Travis tried everything he could think of to get it to work. Googled it, tried everything in the manual, nothing. Of course, the 1 year home warranty the sellers bought for us when we bought the house doesn't cover refrigerators. You have to pay extra for that. So, we've ordered a new ice maker, and it's on it's way. 

Fast forward to Tuesday morning. Travis hears from the repair shop about his car. The radiator and thermostat need to be replaced. Almost $700. If you remember, this is the same car that we were debating about getting rid of before buying a house at the end last year. The car isn't even worth $700...haha. But, rather than make a hasty decision about buying a new car, we decide to just get the radiator and themostat fixed and hope the car will hang on a little while longer. 

Tuesday night, Travis notices that the thermostat in our house (you know, the programmable one that he was so excited about installing a few months ago) is starting to MELT. Just a little corner of the cover, but it definitely has a dimple that it didn't have before. And that part is really hot. Not sure what's going on with it, but I hope it doesn't catch our house on fire. Could have been damaged with the lightning too I guess...

By the way, Travis got his car back Tuesday evening after work, so that was good.

So, then, yesterday Travis gets home and tells me that the A/C in his car quit working. Seriously? At this point, we have decided we aren't throwing away any more money into that car, so he's just going to have to live without A/C this summer I guess. 

It's still early today (Thursday), but I'm wondering what's going to break or malfunction today that I just don't know about yet. 

Now, I'm NOT telling you all of that to complain. I'm really not. It's frustrating and it's going to cost a lot of money to fix everything. But, surely things cannot continue to break or fall apart at this rate. All of you "responsible adults", do you really come home EVERY DAY to find one or two things not working anymore? I'm hoping this is just a bad stretch of luck that will end before too long. And if it's not just luck....if it's the devil tempting me to go back on what I said last week, then I'll show him...haha. It's still just stuff. I'm not happy about it all breaking and having to replace it, but it can be done.  I'm going to look at this as a personal challenge to maintain a good attitude even during frustating times. 

"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world." Philippians 2:14-15

How has your attitude been this week? You can be part of this challenge with me: Let's all try to complain LESS and be positive MORE :)

In!

I think we set a record.

We were just a few days shy of it being 3 months since closing when we moved in...haha. We took our time...no one can argue with that. In the end, I'm glad we did it this way. The new paint on the walls looks great, and it would have been a lot more difficult to do all the painting with our furniture and other stuff in the way. 

Thanks again to everyone who helped us move on Saturday!! We couldn't have done it without you! I think everything was loaded up at Baugay's and unloaded into our house in about 1 1/2 hours....it was great! The weather cooperated too (no rain!), so we were glad about that. It's definitely a lot harder to get everything packed while working though. Every other time we've moved in the past, we were still in college, so we'd just spend 3 or 4 days straight getting everything boxed up. This time, though, we're in the working world, where unfortunately surgeries and helicopter modifying don't come to a standstill so you can have time to pack and move. I was literally throwing stuff in suitcases and duffel bags after people got there on Saturday to load our stuff up. Talk about last minute! It definitely wasn't for lack of trying to get it finished sooner though. 

So, our stuff in officially in the house, but the house is nowhere near presentable yet. We do have a bed with sheets on it to sleep in, and a shower with a curtain on it, so that's good news! The kitchen is probably the closest to being finished of any room in the house, and that's because I already had a bunch of my kitchen stuff put away before we moved in. The main thing left to do in the kitchen is buy/hang curtains and pictures. So, here are the "before" and "after" pictures of the kitchen:

"Before"

"After"

"Before"

"After" (ignore the boxes on the floor...haha)

"Before"

"After" (this picture turned out a little dark...sorry)

"Before"

"After"

"Before"

"After"

So, there's our first room transformation! As we get more stuff unpacked and organized, I'll post pictures of the other rooms. Hopefully it won't be another 3 months before everything is completely in its place! A big thanks to Mom and Dad for buying our kitchen table and chairs as our Christmas present. I love it so much! Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits, and the chairs are actually really comfortable. 

LOVE :)

It still feels weird to be living here in some ways. Last night when we left church, it felt like we should come by our house to put the trashcan in the garage (b/c that's what we did every Wednesday night for 3 months!) and then go back to Baugay's to take her trash out for her. Old habits are hard to break I guess. We really do miss seeing you every day, Baugay! Saturday night was our first night to sleep here, and I actually didn't sleep very good. I kept hearing all these "strange" noises and waking up all night. Ever since the first night, though, I've slept great. This neighborhood is really pretty quiet at night, which is awesome for sleeping! :)

Last week, we noticed that Travis's car was getting louder and louder when we drove it, and we could see that the muffler had a huge crack in it. So, yesterday morning we took it to get the muffler replaced. Well, they got it fixed by the afternoon, and the mechanic took it out to test-drive it around, and he got hit while he was on Hwy 72. Apparently, some guy in a Dodge Charger didn't see him as he was changing lanes because Travis's car was in his blind spot. I haven't seen it for myself, but apparently it's not too bad. There's some damage to the driver's side door and back left passenger door, but both can still open and close. The guy in the Charger has insurance too, so that's good. So, they called the police and filed a report, and we may just end up pocketing the insurance money if the damage isn't that bad. After all, Travis's car is 16 years old...it's probably not going to be around that much longer anyway. The mechanic was going to take it to a few different repairs shops to get some estimates this morning, so we should have the car back by this afternoon. It's always something! :)

This weekend, we're going to spend most of our time getting things organized around here. Travis wanted to go to the A-Day game in Tuscaloosa, but we've just got too much to do to spend all day Saturday there. Plus, he's leaving Sunday night after church for Nashville for work, and he'll be gone til Tuesday night. So, it's going to be a busy weekend/week next week!

Speaking of busy, I better get busy around here. I've got to run, make cookies, write thank-you notes, and keep unpacking. Hope you're having a great day!!! :)

A Much Needed Day Off

I got today off work, and it has been SO nice! It's really been tough working Monday through Friday for the past several weeks and waking up at 4:30 every morning. I've been going to bed by 8 or 8:30 every night, and I still feel tired every day. Then, the weekends fly by so fast that I don't feel rested at all before it's time to go back to work all over again. So, today has been a welcome break for sure!

Travis and I had a lot of fun this weekend. We caught up on 24, played paintball all Saturday afternoon, ate lots of good food, and celebrated Emily's birthday. Paintball was definitely an experience, and I have the welps to prove it! Hiding didn't protect me very much, so next time I guess I'll have to come up with another strategy!

We reworked our budget yesterday afternoon, and we've got over $2000 saved for our "new car" fund. Yay! Who knows when we'll actually get Travis a new car, but we're trying to save up some money in case his car bites the dust anytime soon. It is 15 years old after all!

Today I went shopping at Kohl's and actually had some luck! Shopping, for me, is either really good or really bad, and today it was really good. I got 2 dresses, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of capris, and 1 pair of shorts, and I saved almost as much as I spent. My closet has been looking pretty bare up here (most of my clothes are in t-town), so it's good to have a little more variety of things to wear while I'm up here!

I'm working the rest of this week (Tuesday through Friday), and then I'll be going to Tuscaloosa for the weekend. Saturday is the A-Day game, so hopefully we'll get to go to that if Travis can find time for a break from all the papers/projects/homework that are consuming his life! 26 more days til graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!