One thing leads to another, and another and another....

If only it were good things that were happening instead of trials. Ah well, we learn and grow from them right. Actually I'm doing okay with most of the things that have been going on. T. is working on being okay with them. It's still very frustrating though. Let me explain.

Last Saturday, the fifth, our washer conked out on us. Thankfully we could see what part had broken and we were able to order the part and the manual to help us fix it for around $40.

Monday I had to take the Cavalier in to get a new windshield so that it would pass inspection so we could get the stickers that allow us to drive around without getting pulled over. Thankfully the place I took it to got me a deal and saved me close to a $100.

Wednesday rolls around, and a large amount of snow has fallen so T. drives the Durango in to work in four wheel drive. He gets about three quarters of the way there and he no longer needs to be in four wheel drive so he shifts out of it. All of the sudden he smells this really bad sulphuric smell and loses power. He pulls over to the side of the freeway and smoke is rolling out from under the hood. Lovely. He does make it to his work safely so we don't have to call a tow truck right away. One of the guys he works with is a part time/on the side/hobby mechanic and together they figure out it's the front differential. (Something to do with the four wheel drive). Meanwhile I'm calling all around trying to find a trailer we can borrow so that we can tow it to our mechanics ourselves. We do have tow insurance but they only cover 11 miles and our mechanic is about 35 miles from where T. works. I couldn't find a trailer so we ended up having to call my nephew who works for a towing company to go and pick it up on Thursday. He said that he would give us "the family discount" whatever that is but it was worth it to have him be able to tow it for us. I still don't know what the bill will be. We trust him and he took it to our mechanics for us. Our mechanic called to tell us he was able to find us a used part, thankfully saving us $1200. The Durango was fixed Friday night but T. and I were out on a date so we didn't go and pick it up.

Friday the parts and the manual arrived for the washing machine. Woo! Guess how our Saturday was spent. Well most of it anyway. We had put the machine face down on the floor so as to get to the parts we needed to get to last Saturday and it had remained in that position since then. As we went in to flip it over onto it's back we look in the cabinet below the motor and it is filled with oil and water. Great. T. cleaned that all up and we got it flipped. The actual taking apart and putting together of the washer went pretty smoothly. Other than T. had to deal with oil and grease, which he doesn't do very well but he was a trooper. We get the washer back on it's feet and go to give it a test run.

T. points out the extension cord that it was plugged into, that had been unplugged last Saturday and tells me to hand that to him so he can plug it back in. I look at the cord that has three adapters on it and realize that there is something still plugged into one of those outlets, even though the extension cord itself isn't plugged in. I stopped and stared at it. Crap. The plug that was still in the outlet and yet not plugged in was our freezer. Yep, our freezer. I moved some of the stuff that had been sitting in front of the freezer and saw a lovely dark shaded pool of something or the other on the floor in front of it. Crap. I tell T. and he can't believe it either. So we lost a whole freezer load of food. Much of it deer or elk meat that people had passed on to us. I feel really bad about that. But, on the bright side, my freezer is now defrosted. :) (It's a VERY old freezer given to us by T's grandma.)

So after a long day of fixing the washer and cleaning out the freezer and washing the floor under the freezer I had to iron T's shirt for Sunday. As I was finishing up his shirt I realized the the iron wasn't working as well as it should be. The iron died, gave up the ghost but it did make it through T's shirt so he had one that was ironed for Sunday.

It's one thing and then another and then another. I hope we are at the end of this string of things. I don't think T. can take much more. I don't know if I can take much more. I am trying to look for the positive like how much money we were saved by people working with us and helping us out and our freezer being defrosted.

As Dory says "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. What do we do we swim!"