An Emotional Rollercoaster

The last week and a half has been rather odd at our house, filled with a myriad of emotions--happiness, worry, excitement, stress, sadness, etc.

Happiness because our Savior, Jesus, rose from the dead on Easter morning, and our church's Easter morning worship service was very uplifting for Tom & me.

Angela and Me

Worry, anxiety and excitement because our daughter (pictured right at age 9 or 10) left Thursday morning for Virginia to interview for jobs and find a place to live around the Virginia Beach area. Her decision to leave was sudden as it was based on all the opportunities (job, housing, etc.) that just seemed to fall into her lap all within the last 1 1/2 weeks. Thankfully, she has a friend that lives just outside of Washington DC and she was able to divide the trip into a 2-day drive by spending Thursday night there. She arrived safely at her ex-college roommates' apartment in Virginia Beach today at 4:15 p.m. The moment she left, I was a complete worry wart, but now that she's arrived safely, I feel much better.

Her leaving got me to reminiscing about life with her as a youngster. I sat at this computer last night viewing the many photos I have posted of her on my Facebook account...just remembering how much fun she was while growing up. There was never a dull moment in the house when Angela was around, that's for sure!  :-)

Tom & I have both been feeling a lot of stress from our jobs the past few weeks. My stress has come from all the extra work that I've had to get done in preparation for Holy Week and Easter, and then this week creating and mailing the monthly church newsletter, which is usually a 12-page "monster," and a lot of work. I'm usually thrilled with the final product, but the articles, graphics, lay-out, etc. take me a good 16 to 20 hours to complete. I have to work tomorrow (Sat.) too. <sigh>  Tom's stress has been due to his bosses giving him new paint colors to "match", then staying on him to match them like...YESTERDAY. He's wonderful at what he does (he's been matching colors for 30 years now), and is one of the best, fastest color matchers in the business. So to put that kind of extra pressure on him is just totally ridiculous. The end of this week found us both wishing VERY BADLY that we could retire NOW!

And then, of course, Tom & I felt sadness Wednesday & Thursday as we watched, in horror, the devastation the tornadoes caused. Mother nature has certainly become much more volatile lately, hasn't she? It makes us wonder how severe the May & June storms will be in Michigan this year. We seem to have a tornado in Detroit/Metro Detroit once every 5 years or so. I hope this isn't one of those years.

We know that God holds us in His hands, and so we pray daily that He will take away our worry, and help us to trust him always.

Have a really nice weekend, all!

This and That

I was checking out our front flower garden today, and found that some of our hyacinths are blooming, but I think we need to add some nourishment to the soil because for the past few years, our hyacinths have become more and more wimpy-looking. (I apologize for the photo not being clearer, but all I had on me at the time was my cell phone camera.) Do you gardeners out there think a healthy sprinkling of Miracle Gro would help?

These are plants that I purchased through our church's "Buy a Plant for Easter" program. They look MUCH healthier than the ones already in our garden. I'm sure it's because they were grown in a greenhouse. I plan to plant these two above my mom's grave stone as soon as they're done flowering.

After taking the above flower photos, I was in the mood to take some pics of our Miss Becky! (Again, with my cell phone camera, so they aren't all purty and such.) In the top photo, she was watching a squirrel in the back yard through our doorwall; in the bottom one...well...she was just being her lazy ol' self laying around in our living room. You can see her large, fatty tumor on her shoulder in the bottom pic. It's grown so much larger over the past year, but we just don't have the money to have the vet remove it, and he said as long as it's not bothering her, we shouldn't worry too much about it. Plus, surgery at her age (12 years) might be dangerous. Still...we feel bad for her, and it certainly is an eyesore.
We love you, Becky!!!!!

Ahhhh...Rest and Relaxation

Whew! The Holy Week and Easter festivities have concluded and I'm finally enjoying a day off of work today. I slept late, and have decided to do NOTHING but relax.  :-) I'm very thankful for the break!

The picture to the right is my hubby and our daughter playing a TV video game called "Kinect" at my sister's house on Saturday. The game has a box with an "eye" in it that sits in front of the TV, and the eye picks up the movement of  your arms, legs and body which are then used to move your character in whatever game you choose to play. Here, my hubby looks like he's flapping imaginary wings, which was apparently necessary to move his character around. I laughed so hard! I played the next round with him, but thankfully, no one thought to take pictures!  lol

So how was everyone's Easter? Ours was really nice, filled with several church services, dinner with my family on Saturday at my sisters, and dinner with Tom's family on Sunday at his dad's. The weather was halfway decent for both days, which was a nice treat. Today is cloudy and rainy, which looks to be the trend for most of this week. Hello, spring! Our flowers and grass have to be loving this.

Last week, our daughter discovered an opportunity to live and work near Virginia Beach, Virginia, and she's really excited to move there and start a new chapter in her young life. One of her college roommates who lives in Virginia Beach and has a job as a Veterinary Technician, had been telling Angela that the number of veterinary hospitals in that area were staggering, and many were hiring (unlike here), and she invited Ang to come live with her while Ang gets herself established down there and into a place of her own. Even though Angela has a full-time Veterinary Technician job near our house, the managers at this place are very unprofessional in their animal care, and in the care of their employees, and so Angela is excited to move elsewhere and find a job at another veterinary hospital. She has already heard back from a hospital in Chesapeake, VA (just west of Virginia Beach), and following a telephone interview with her, they are VERY excited to meet her in person and possibly offer her a job. Angela's tax refund should arrive this week, and as soon as she gets it, she and another friend from high school plan to head to VA that day so she can (hopefully) interview with as many vet hospitals as she can, check out apartments, etc. She'll then come back home (hopefully with a job offer), pack what she can in her car, and head back to VA to work probably around May 1. Once she's able to save up the money for a place of her own, she can come back here and move her furniture back to VA. At least that's the tentative plan.

Tom & I are definitely excited for Angela and this wonderful opportunity, but we'll certainly miss her if/when she moves. She is, after all, our only child. However, we're looking forward to watching our little "chick" fly the coop and work to make it in this world, and you can bet that we'll try to visit her as often as we can if she does move. She traveled to Virginia Beach once before on a band trip in high school, and she really liked it there. So...GO, ANG! We wish you the best of luck, honey, and you know we'll be here for you if you need us, and you can come back home anytime if you need to.  :-)

Peace to You During This Holy Week

Well, this is Holy Week, and as a Christian and a church worker, I have to say that it's a very significant time in the life of the church and also in my own life. Tom and I will be attending several worship services this week including my favorite, the joyous celebration of Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday morning. I'll be singing with our church choir that morning (and during Maundy Thursday's service), as will our Youth Choir. Our handbell choir will also be playing. I always look forward to seeing all the little girls in their fru-fru fancy dresses and little hats. I miss being able to dress our daughter like that, but at her age, I'm just happy to have her in church with me on Easter!

Do any of you have special plans for Easter? Tom and I look forward to sharing dinner with our families--my family will be gathering at my sister's house Saturday afternoon, and  Tom's family will gather at his dad's house Sunday afternoon.

Of course, this week will be really busy for me at work. I have to complete 4 worship service bulletins by Friday (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday noon worship, Good Friday Tenebrae service and Eater Sunday) AND start work on the monthly church newsletter that has to be done by next Wednesday morning. Ahhhhh! But it's always like this during Holy Week, and after being at my job for 12 years now, I'm used to it. Somehow, it all gets done.

Oh, and before I forget, thanks, Jeanette, for stopping by today and dropping off a loaf of the Fugasa bread you made! Tom and I each had a piece and it was delicious!

Wow, thanks so much to my blogger friend, Laura, from A Simple Happy Life who kindly awarded me this Kreative Blogger Award. It was certainly unexpected, and very much appreciated.  :-)

According to Laura, I'm now supposed to list 10 things about myself. Hmm...I never know what to say about me, but here goes I guess:

1. I'm the oldest of four children.
2. I've lived in Michigan my entire life.
3. I love purses (just like my sister-in-law, Jeanette!), but limit myself to buying only one or two a year and I always try to make sure they're on sale.
4. It's difficult for me to live in Michigan sometimes because our state only gets 75 sunny days/year and that can be really depressing for me.
5. I LOVE to camp!
6. I'm a huge animal lover.
7. I went away to college (Central Michigan University) to become a radio d.j. and worked at the college radio station. Somehow, I ended up going into office administration, financial reporting and bookkeeping. Go figure.
8. Just like most mom's, I believe you can NEVER give your kids too many hugs.  :-)
9. My hubby & I can't wait to retire, and we'd love to buy a used RV and travel the U.S.
10. My hubby is my very best friend and makes me laugh A LOT.

By the way, I never did continue shopping and looking for a spring jacket. A girlfriend told me about an online company called "haband.com" that has quality clothing for good prices, and I found a couple of jackets I like there, so I'll probably order my jacket from them. Just thought I'd share the website in case anyone is interested.

The weather has been awful here the past two days--cold, snowy and windy. I hate cold winds! We're supposed to have possible thunderstorms tonight. We'll see. I'll take those if it means having warmer temps later this week.

Have a wonderful and blessed Holy Week, everyone, and I hope your weather is much better than ours! Hugs!

Where is Mr. Clean When I need Him?

OK. Is there anyone else out there who just HATES cleaning bathrooms? We have ceramic tile on the walls and floor of our full bathroom on the 2nd floor, and the grout is so difficult to keep clean! Of course, I probably don't scrub it as often as I should. And when I do clean it, it's all I can do not to cuss (cuz that wouldn't be very lady-like, don'tcha know? LOL) and yell out loud to no one in particular, "I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS CRAP!"

Normally when I clean the bathtub and ceramic-tiled walls, I alternate my cleaning efforts in an attempt to distract myself from the disgusting job at hand. These distractions might, and often do include:  scrubbing lightly; scrubbing roughly; panting from the exertion of scrubbing; opening the bathroom window and gasping for clean air because silly me sprayed an entire can of Dow Bath, Tub & Tile Cleaner in the toilet and tub while praying that those little scrubbing bubbles would clean the surfaces so I wouldn't have to and now the noxious fumes are sending me into respiratory arrest; scrubbing more; panting more; wiping the sweat from my brow; yelling at the cat for having the gall to do a #2 in his litter box and stinking up the bathroom while I was busting my butt trying to clean it; stopping to grab a hair tie and baretts from a nearby drawer because if that stupid lock of hair falls into my face one more time, I'm going to cut it off; mumbling under my breath, "If Tom and I lived in a motorhome with a 3 x 3 bathroom I could have the entire bathroom cleaned in 10 minutes flat!"; and let's not forget the old "hindsight is 20/20" adage where upon finishing the scrubbing and washing down of the tub/shower, I conclude that I probably should have worn a bathing suit to do this job because now my sweat pants are so soaked with water that they've fallen down over my rear end and I'm afraid I'll trip over the side of the tub while exiting. Have I forgotten anything?  :-)

Have a great week, everyone!

Baseball and Apple Pie

Today was payday for both hubby & me--woo hoo! We rarely splurge on items for ourselves being the frugal couple this world forces us to be, but tonight we made plans to drive to our local Wal-mart store to buy me a spring jacket with a hood, and him a new pair of tennis shoes. (Yes, this is what we old folks do nowadays on a Friday night...lol)

I prefer jackets--winter, spring, or otherwise--with hoods because since I was a young girl, I've always had an issue with the wind blowing my hair around and messing it up. (I know, it sounds vain, but wait until you hear why!) When I was 8 and 9 years old, I had thick hair down to my waist, and my mom used to struggle (and try not to cuss) while trying to get a brush through it. Whenever it would get wind-blown, it would get so tangly that I'd hide from her so she couldn't find me and brush it because it hurt when she did (she never had the patience to SLOWLY brush out the tangles).

I remember when my grandmother bought a used Thunderbird convertible, and she'd take us kids around town in it. The neighborhood kids would say to me, "Wow! How cool that you get to ride around with the top down!" and I remember answering, "No, not cool! All that does is tangle my hair!"  LOL  One day, when my mom got tired of fighting with me over brushing my hair, she suddenly dropped the hairbrush, picked up a pair of scissors that were sitting on her end table, and before I knew what hit me, she'd cut my hair up to the bottom of my ears! I was just devastated and I cried. She cut it just a few days before school pictures were taken and I absolutely HATED that photo of me. Ever since then, I haven't liked the wind blowing my hair around and if it's windy outside, I always put up my hood. (OK, so maybe my reasons for not liking the wind-blown look aren't as convincing as I'd hoped. But still...you can see my side of the story, right?)  :-)

But I digress...so hubby & I went to Wal-mart to buy TWO SIMPLE, ALL-AMERICAN TYPE ITEMS that ANY department-type store should have on hand--spring jackets and tennis shoes. Only there were NO ladies' jackets of any kind to be found, and very few tennis shoes for men. And the ones my hubby did find weren't in his size--an average guy size of 12. Disappointed, we put our empty shopping cart back and walked out of Wal-mart totally dazed and confused, with large, invisible question marks hanging over our heads. How could this have happened? I mean, we almost always find what we need at Wal-mart! No jackets? Only 1 row of tennis shoes? These items are akin to baseball and apple pie! How un-American!!!  LOL

And so, we'll try again tomorrow at nearby K-mart and Meijer stores. In the meantime, the winds tonight are just howling outside, and I am, once again, looking forward to finding that cute, hooded spring jacket that I KNOW is out there somewhere with my name on it.

G'nite all!

The Sound of Music

I had fun at church choir practice tonight. But I have to say, learning a large quantity of music for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday can be pretty taxing at times. And confusing too! I can never remember which pieces we're singing on which days.

I usually sing the Alto part, but sometimes, our director has me singing up high with the soprano ladies, and other times she tells me to sing an octave higher along with the basses (the guys). Can you believe that?  Given a choice, I definitely prefer to sing in the "girly" section, but I always try to give those boys a run for their money whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Being a self-taught music reader, I know the note names well enough, but singing them on pitch is always a stretch. Learning a new song usually means listening to my part over and over again. I'm sure that drives my hubby nuts (oh, wait...he was nuts when I married him, so I guess nothing's changed).  LOL

I also get to fill in as a handbell ringer once in a while when the director needs a substitute, like when a regular ringer is absent. When we first got handbells at our congregation, I directed the bell choir because we HAD no music director. That experience was rather like the blind leading the blind, but we all learned a lot, and I was proud of the ringers for playing so well during church services. Now we have a musically-trained director, Pastor's wife, and she really knows her stuff!

It's fun to fill in as a ringer, although I normally don't get to see the pieces I'll be helping out on until a few days before a rehearsal. Since I don't want to be a detriment to the regular ringers, I cheat:  I copy the music, then highlight the notes I'm supposed to play. Hey, whatever works, ya know?

Anyway, I think life is a lot more fun and enjoyable with the sound of music in it. Singing, dancing, ringing, listening...all of it makes life just a little bit sweeter.  Have an awesome week, everyone!

My, How Time Flies

Ahhhh! Time has gotten away from me the past few days! I've truly been meaning to update my Blog, but just haven't found the time to do it. And what has occupied my time? Well...

Saturday was filled with a combination of working at my day job (church work), and also helping to greet, organize, cook for, and transport 32 high school choir kids that came into town, and visited our church Saturday and Sunday. The kids were from Greendale, WI (near Milwaukee maybe?), and from the same high school and choir that our very own pastor attended/was part of 20 years ago. It was such a joy for him to welcome the choir director (who was also HIS choir director 20 years prior) and some of the chaperones who were his former classmates. And boy, could those kids SING!!! What talent. They gave a performance Saturday night for the public, and then sang several songs during our church service on Sunday.

Five of our church families played host to the kids Saturday night, letting them sleep over and feeding them breakfast in the morning. The kids got to sleepover in groups of anywhere from 4-8, and they had a blast, as did the host families. I don't believe our congregation has ever met 32 nicer, more mature, or polite kids. Both the kids, and the host families, felt blessed for having gotten to know each other. It was great.

I didn't take any kids home with me (we didn't have enough available beds in our house), but I did help transport a group of 8 boys to a host's house about a mile from our church. These boys had me cracking up laughing. They all had so much personality and stories to tell (their 5-day choir tour had already taken them to sing in churches in Toronto and middle Ohio). I also returned to the host's house Sunday morning at 8:15 a.m. to help take the boys back to church. They were eating breakfast as I arrived, and it seemed that as fast as Jim (their host) was making scrambled eggs and pancakes, the boys were devouring them! It was like watching piranhas attack a school of goldfish! LOL I was smart though. I stood back against a vacant kitchen wall and kept my fingers clear of their dishes. :-)

Following church, Bible Class, and then a 30-minute Church Council Meeting I had to attend (I'm the church's Financial Secretary too), I came right home and....well...I wanted to nap, but Tom had just arrived home from his Lumberjack weekend. We caught up on his "male bonding" experiences (he had a blast), he showed me all the cool photos he had taken, and THEN I took a nap. I had pert near run myself ragged!

Somehow, the rest of  Sunday flew by. It was gorgeous outside, but we really didn't take advantage of it (I have no idea why) as we found things to do inside the house. With our luck, the temps won't climb back into the 80's now until September. LOL Maybe we missed the warm-weather bus, but I sure hope not!

Tonight was full of errand-running, which we did together, but the night flew by (again), and so here I sit at 11:50 thinking to myself, "I AM going to update my Blog, darn it!"

OK, Blog. I've done my part. You're updated. I'm relieved. And now I'm heading to bed. Nite all!  :-)

I've Got the House to Myself This Weekend!

OK, so hubby and his buddies left this morning for their annual weekend guy trip they affectionately call "Lumberjack Weekend." They brought their warm clothes, chainsaws, LP gas heaters, lots of food (and, I'm sure, lots of beer) and headed two hours north of here to camp on 20 acres that one of the guys owns on the Rifle River. There is no electricity and no running water; just one port-a-john and 3 travel trailers that stay on the property permanently. Their goal each spring is to clear the property of all large branches and trees that have fallen over the winter, and make the land "purty" for us "Lumberjack Widows" who join the guys up there in the warmer months to camp, tube on the river, cookout every night, and hang out under the stars together. Awwww, what a bunch of sweethearts those guys are! 

Ah yes, I can see them now...
sitting around a large campfire...laughing and telling jokes...just about 3 sheets to the wind...belching loudly and passing gas, then giggling about it like little girls...belts and the top buttons of their blue jeans undone because they ate too much dinner and with all that beer they've downed, they can hardly breath...the bottoms of their hunting boots smoking because they've practically got them in the fire in an attempt to warm their toes which are starting to freeze because the current temperature up there is 34 degrees...

Yep...I'm quite sure they're having a blast!  LOLOL My hubby even went so far as to send me 2 photos via his cell phone camera today SHOWING ME how much fun they're having. Here's the first...

Hamburgers on the left side of the grill, fish and potatoes cooking in the pan.

At least I know they're eating well! (Not that that was EVER in doubt.)

Here's the second...

 

(They're burning whole pallets in an attempt to stay warm.)

So..........what will I do with myself this weekend? Well, the first thing I did when I got home from work was to DECISIVELY take control of the remote! I gave it a BIG bear hug and said, "Yeah! Come here, you...YOU'RE MINE!" Next, I watched American Idol (taped, of course, but shows 1 & 2 from this week), Dancing With the Stars (taped) and House Hunters on HGTV. Now I'd say it was probably right about then that I realized how boring it was watching TV without my husband around. He's always good for a few laughs, and/or for me to poke fun at, so now I'm quietly working on my Blog with the TV off.. LOL I think that the 3 cats and our dog are rather bored too because they're all sound asleep on the couch. Oh well. So much for the fun of having the house to myself I guess. :-)

On a good note, at least I got to SEE our daughter briefly as she came downstairs to get some pizza and salad that I'd brought home for dinner before she smiled at me, said, "Thanks, mom," and bounded back up the stairs to her room for the rest of the night. Did I mention that 23-year-old children don't always make for the best company on a Friday night?  lol

Seriously though, I will be keeping pretty busy this weekend. Our church is hosting two high school choirs from Wisconsin tomorrow night and Sunday, and I'll be helping out in the kitchen tomorrow afternoon as we work to feed them, and several of our own church members, dinner Saturday night before the choirs perform for the public at 7 p.m. They'll also be singing during our worship service Sunday morning. My hubby was nice enough to make 4 batches of homemade spaghetti sauce before he went up north (he's a phenomenal Italian cook!), so all I have to do is heat that up in our large crockpot tomorrow at church, boil the mostachioli noodles, combine the two, and serve them. Easy as pie! And then there will be the usual house cleaning, grocery shopping, errands, etc. Before I know it, it will be Sunday afternoon, and my handsome lumberjack will be back home making me watch his bloody TV shows and old war movies. Heck, if he's REALLY nice to me, I might even consider giving the remote back to him!  :-)

Hope you all have a nice and relaxing weekend. Take care!

Animals Enjoy the Sun Too!

Hmph. Go figure. It actually hit 50 degrees here in Metro Detroit today. I'll admit. I was a doubter, especially when I left the house for work, had my winter coat on, and could see my frosty breath floating through the air. I guess spring really is on it's way, and all I can say is: IT'S ABOUT DARNED TIME!

When I went home to have lunch, I found all 3 of our cats laying in front of our doorwall, just taking in all that warmth and sunshine. I guess I'm not the only one who enjoys those things.  :-)



Mmmmmm, mom. This sunshine feels GREAT!

I also noticed that our tulips and hyacinths are poking up from the ground in our front flower garden. That helped to make my day. Below are some of my hyacinth plants. I can't wait until they flower because they always smell SO good!

And since I was taking photos at lunch, I figured I should throw in one of our loyal and treasured dog, Becky. She's an oldie now (will be 12 next week), but certainly a goodie, and a wonderful friend and companion. We  love her to pieces! Here she is laying on her favorite couch spot. She's a mix--Black Lab and Great Dane. I know, what a combo, right? She's a very large and powerful dog, but has a heart of gold.


Becky "Marie" (named so after her Aunt Jeanette...lol)


OK, that's enough photos for one day. I hope the temperatures in my neck of the woods continue to warm up this week, and I hope life warms your heart each day by sending you a little something ~special~.

Bits & Pieces

Today I feel like throwing a whole bunch of small comments on my blog as a reflection of my mind's ability to be in 12 places at once. (No, I'm not a Schizophrenic, thankfully!)

I sure wish I could dance like those dancers on Dancing With the Stars! They're so graceful and smooth. You can tell they've devoted years to practicing their craft. I don't have that kind of patience and dedication, but they sure are fun to watch!

My cold is about 80% better now! Still having some sneezing & sinus issues, but I can function somewhat normally (or at least fake it for the most part). Unfortunately, my hubby is down with what I had, and he's absolutely miserable. Poor guy. He had to come home from work after 1/2 day at the office, and who knows if he'll make it into work tomorrow. We normally share almost everything with each other, but I truly didn't mean to share my cold with him!

While at work today, one of our church members stopped by to drop off DOZENS of fresh farm eggs that he and his wife get from the many and various birds on their farm. We then sell the eggs to our members as a fundraiser, then donate the remainder to area food pantries. I don't know why, but whenever he makes these kinds of "drop-offs," the shape, size and color of the eggs just amaze me. There were two types of chicken eggs (one group was small and blue in color), and eggs from ducks, turkeys and geese. GEESE? Yeah, and they were HUGE! All I could think to say while our Pastor & I were loading the eggs into our church's kitchen refrigerator was, "Well, no wonder geese make such a racket when flying overhead! They're probably in pain from pushing out such large eggs!" My hubby & I have had fun cooking with all the different egg types over the past 4 months, and they're all really good. (TIP: 1 goose egg = 2 chicken eggs.) If you ever get a chance to try out various egg types, give them a shot (or...er...a scramble)!

Oh, and the egg donor also asked if Pastor & I wanted rabbits for Easter. We both immediately responded, "NO!" So then the guy asked, "OK, how about not as pets, but as meat for rabbit stew?" I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't. Poor bunnies. He was able to talk Pastor & I into taking some rabbit meat sometime down the road, but I did add the stipulation, "It has to be dressed and ready to cook. I don't want to see ANY fur!" A view like that would just break my heart.

I don't normally sleep well at night, so I decided to try some sleeping pills (over the counter) tonight and see how that goes. If you see my typing go all wacky here shortly, you'll know why.  :-)  (They are starting to work though as I do feel a little sleepy.)

Is tomorrow Friday yet? If not, it should be. lol

The weather here today was odd. When I left for work, it was in the 60's with a warm, strong breeze blowing out of the southwest. Then the temperature took a dunk in the toilet and it's now 39 degrees. Hmph! Thanks a lot, Weatherman, you Indian Giver!

Does anybody have any  Grey Poupon? (See? These pills are starting to work already!)

OK. I better get to bed before I fall asleep in my computer chair. Have a great night, everyone!

It's Only Money--Cha Ching!

In between working at my day job on and off most of the day today (trying to catch up from being out sick 3 days last week, and YES, I know it's a Saturday...), my hubby & I took Ol' Bronzie (my 1994 Ford conversion van) down to my brother's auto shop (about 25 minutes southeast of our house) for a repair. The engine had been making some loud, obnoxious, "grinding" noise, and we were hoping the repair wouldn't be too costly. Fortunately for us, my brother was able to get us the part (a tension pully assembly? You know...a "thingamajigger") at cost, and his head mechanic installed it for only $20, which equaled a $60 total bill. Not bad at all considering the last 4 repairs on it for some VERY major items last summer cost us a total of $2,200! But hey, it's only money, right? You all know that as car owners, we struggle with the decision of whether to make high, monthly car payments, or spend money on hit or miss repairs on a paid for, older vehicle. This time we got lucky. Thank you, Lord!  :-)

Have a super weekend, everyone!