Word of the Week

Busy. That is the best word to describe how our crazy life has been lately. In the last two weeks, we have:
1. Bought a new vehicle. My Nissan was making weird, expensive sounding noises and after driving several days in torrential rain and slip sliding all over the road I cornered Dan and told him we needed to decide something. We got a remarkable deal on our trade in and even though we upgraded to a Chevy Equinox, our payments didn't change. We LOVE it! There is so much room and it is a really smooth ride.

2. Lauri & Todd bought a new house. I made a sisterly offer to either help move or keep the kids the weekend they moved and they took me up on the latter. So Natty & Andy came to our house last weekend and stayed. It was horrible, yucky weather so we were all cooped up all weekend, but they had a blast.

3. Then came the snow and ice. I left L & T's on Monday morning to a large amount of sleet and snow flurries. Tuesday morning I left Mineola after checking the radar (clear) and by the time I got to Canton it was sleeting like crazy. Talk about the pucker factor...driving a brand new vehicle in Dallas in the ice and snow...I needed a drink!

So we are all headed to L & T's again this weekend to help them knock out some projects. Carpet cleaning, painting, handy man stuff, etc. I think we will have plenty to keep us busy. I am looking forward to having a holiday on Monday, a day off with the little man. Historically, January has always been kind of laid back, so I am hoping this is a fluke and I can start enjoying some down time ASAP!

Auto Woes

Any of you who truly know us and our situation will understand this post. The Nissan...it's a dyin'. While many people often remark how odd it is that I commute to my job, spending at least 3 hours a day in my car, many others know that I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my home, my hometown, and the peeps that are there. So instead we shop for a vehicle that is safe and fuel efficient. The Altima has fit the bill for the last 3 1/2 years, but honestly it is the most uncomfortable car I have ever owned. It has also started acting like a middle aged person, complete with limps and moans and groans. I will give it some credit though...it has 166,00+ miles on it. The weird thing is that it has never seemed completely "right". We have always had issues with the tires no matter how diligent and religious we are about rotating and balancing, buying high dollar and highway designed tires. Sometimes I just think that cars have flaws and they need a Car Whisperer to figure out what the heck the problem is.

So we are looking again. We did this several months back after a particularly long and uncomfortable road trip and were deterred by the fact that we were upside down on the car loan. Truth is...I guess we always will be at the rate I put miles on a car. At that time we test drove a bunch of crossover type SUVs. Knowing that we have a long-legged child who is doing nothing but growing, we realized that a sedan is not probably our best bet moving forward. But SUVs are not known for great fuel efficiency...until now. GMC and Chevy both offer vehicles that rival what I have been getting in the Nissan. So now we just have to pick one. And get it financed. And roll over the balance that I know they won't be able to meet on trade-in. Lovely!

Almost as lovely as this particular car episode from the summer of 2011!

Lucky 13

So here we are...2013. We missed the end of the world a couple of weeks ago and are marching on! Maybe I can do a better job of blogging in 2013. It has been a very interesting couple of months around here. Most of November was spent working hard and preparing to be gone from work. This is because I had scheduled major surgery for the week after Thanksgiving. So work was busy and I spent the few days after Thanksgiving doing my Christmas decorating since I knew I would be out of commission. Anyway, I had a complete hysterectomy on November 29th. A surgery that was expected to take 2 hours at the most ended up taking almost 6 hours. It really didn't matter much to me, but word has it that my hubby & mom were sweating it out in the waiting room. Dan was a trooper and spent the night in that horrible recliner at my bedside and when my doctor offered to let me go home the next afternoon I was all in! I must say though, if Dan had gifted me one of those handy dandy morphine pumps for Christmas I would LOVE him even more! I have had a great recovery and feel like a million bucks, considering how poorly I have felt over the last couple of years that may not seem like much, but I really do feel great. I received this beautiful flower arrangement from the folks at the school district.

So along the lines of spending crazy amounts of money on healthcare at the holidays, Bailey had surgery on December 21st. Poor guy had to have a hernia repaired and another little unmentionable procedure that causes him to blush a little. Anyway, his was a day surgery procedure and he did fine as well. He has had to take it a little easy over the holidays, but it hasn't sidelined him too much. Here is a picture of Mr. Nervous before his surgery.

Christmas was an interesting time this year. Because of the way it fell in the week, my family celebrated the weekend before. This is the first time any of us can remember doing this as we usually gather on Christmas afternoon. But it was very nice to get to spend some time with just me and my guys. We went to Christmas Eve services and Bailey offered to fill in as acolyte and serve communion when he found out they were shorthanded. As I sat watching him serve the Lord I had tears in my eyes, tears of pride. We went home and whipped up some cookies for Santa and stayed up late watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel. A horrible thunderstorm came through on Christmas morning and woke him up at 5:15 and even though I begged him to sleep a little linger, he was ready to see what Santa had delivered. He must have been good, because he finally got a PS3 upgrade, a new bat for baseball, some headphones, and a couple of PS3 games. Once we got him hooked up, I went back to bed! It continued to rain most of the morning. We headed next door to the neighbors for lunch and while we were there it started snowing. Within an hour we had over an inch accumulation and before it stopped, we had gotten almost 6 inches. It was wonderful. Until the power went out. Luckily we had stockpiled a bunch of wood on the porch, so we cozied up in the living room and read, played solitaire, and watched a movie on the laptop. Power was restored about 3 1/2 hours later.

So I guess that brings us to New Year's. I was back at work for a couple of days last week and then Monday, and now it is officially 2013. Everyone has healed and we are back to the grindstone. I am hoping to make some changes for the good this year. I lost 10 pounds after my surgery and would like to keep up that trend. I would like to get my house in better order and my financial house in better order. We would love to sell the house this spring and move out of the city limits to a little piece of land and build. Who knows what the year holds in store. Praying for God's blessings though!