Can we erase last week, please???(very long!)

Last week was nuts, so nuts that I couldn't even blog about it until I had some time to wrap my head around all of the events. It began Monday evening when Chad found out the contest that he has been seriously training for five months for got cancelled do to a recall and legal issues for the sponsors. He has truly busted his rear to get into shape for this and it has kept him (and his supportive wife, yours truly) motivated to drag our tired butts into the gym five nights a week on top of the five mornings a week he did before work. Boy did that take the air out of his sails!

Then Tuesday afternoon, we had a tiny misunderstanding with the water company. We thought we had paid the bill and they so very graciously informed us that we hadn't......by shutting off the water! So we promptly paid the bill over the phone only to be told there were cutbacks at the water company and they didn't have a dispatcher so they couldn't give us an absolute time when they would be there just that it would be by 6 pm. This was at 1 pm! For almost five hours I sat here with seven children, and no water. OH JOY!

Wednesday was uneventful, went to the park with the kids.

Thursday morning Chad wakes me to kiss me goodbye for work....fifteen minutes later the phone rings, "Honey, you're gonna love this one," he says, "First of all I am fine, but I wrecked my truck."

Can I just say if there are words that will pull you right out of dreamland those are the ones!

As it turns out he is fine. The truck is bent up but he managed to drive it home, he's not at fault at all and the other car was REALLY wrecked. So he spent the entire day trying to get everything sorted out and a rental in place before he had to be to work on Monday....unfortunately, the insurance company had different ideas. They told us they weren't even dealing with the situation until they had a police report in hand or their client could speak to them with a clear head (she had an anxiety attack and was a bit looped out when she called the insurance company so they weren't relying on the info she gave).

Friday morning (AKA Chad's birthday) his boss calls promptly at 8 am (so much for letting the birthday boy sleep in after his crappy day before) to find out if Chad would mind going back to being a stocker. Let me remind you that the stocker position was likely responsible for the two surgeries he underwent last year. Chad told him he would go wherever they needed him but he wasn't crazy about beating his body up anymore. Long story short, they were eliminating his office position and the stocker position was his only option if he wanted to remain an employee.

Later on Friday we managed to get an insurance inspector out to look at the truck, the insurance company still wasn't budging on liability because apparently the other party was "in a fog" the day of the accident and doesn't remember exactly what went down that day. The inspector called us about two hours later to tell us that they were probably just going to total it out. If you look at the truck, it is in no way totalled. A new radiator and possibly a fan and them body work. But with the economy the way it is apparently parts cost three times as much so they are going to cut their losses.

We don't know how much they are planning to pay for the truck. But we are seriously praying it covers what we owe on it!

pause........



breathe......



focus.......

It's wierd but I really can't get worked up over all of the uncertainty of these events. I can hear GOD speaking to me in every event. The contest is HIM telling us to focus on taking care of ourselves so that we may be more efficient in what we are put here to do. Not to focus so much on attention or a prize, but to find peace in feeling better and being healthier.

The water situation was a nudge to me to take more of an active interest in our finances. For too long I have left the bookkeeping up to Chad because it was the easier thing to do. When the water was shut off I had no clue where to even find the bill to call. This is truly something I can take off of his hands to make his life a little less stressful.

The accident was a push to simplify. We have been over extended for quite a while and it was a littl silly to have a "bought and paid for" vehicle sitting in the driveway for most of the day doing nothing while we financed one for Chad to get to work. When we actually did the math on how much the truck was costing us every month (payments, gas,upkeep, insurance and registration), this actually will free up close to 800 dollars a month (assuming the insurance company truly pays it off, but I am not gonna worry because I am not in control, GOD is!).

The switch to the stocker position is a blessing in disguise too. It came with a significant raise and possible overtime every week (they weren't even giving Chad a full forty hours a week in the office until just recently). He is in far better shape now than he was when he last worked in this position, so he's not as likely to get seriously hurt just from the job itself. Last, the hours are very early in the morning until early after noon, so he is home to hang with the kids and I more.

A further note on simplifying.....The money for Dish network ended up going to turn the water back on so bright and early on Mother's Day we had no tv.....Chad made a trip to WalMart to purchase an $8 antenna and I now can watch all my local stations in high definition! I get a better picture on my TV now than I did with Dish FOR FREE(and yes it's a digital tv so it's gonna be that way even after all the networks switch)!

So I am content, Chad is not hurt, there is nothing that has been taken from us that we can't live without. We can take this time to enjoy the simple things....kids running in the sprinklers on a hot day, a bedtime story, the smell of bread baking and the love and laughter shared around the dinner table.

It seems we still have all of the essentials!

Love and Hugs,

Mary