It's Raining...It's Pouring

What's that saying? When it rains, it pours? (Did I at least get that saying right? I'm known for messing up all the old sayings....What's that, Nutcracker? Two stones, one bird? Thanks for the trip down memory lane recently, by the way...)

Anyway...sometimes lately it feels like it's pouring. Not that crushing can't-breathe-don't-even-want-to-go-outside pouring...just that...wow...that's a lot of rain pouring down right now.

An example of the pouring? Let's see.... (Alert! Alert! Here comes the whining!! If you've had too much whining today, please skip the next couple paragraphs! :)
Air conditioner making some crazy noise and dripping water all over our front porch. Can't wait to find out how much it's going to cost. Some electrical outlets no longer working. Can't wait to find out how much it will cost. Chris started yet a new job--which is great--except he has to work for a couple weeks and then he submits an invoice in which they will pay out 40 DAYS later! Love not getting paid for a couple months. The new job has no health insurance. So we are having to navigate some new territory and figure out which health plan of 4 billion would best fit our family (any tips by the way?) And the new job is as a 1099 employee as opposed to a W2 employee--yeah...all new territory and it's crazy trying to figure it all out (any tips here?) Finding out he now has to be bonded...say what? I thought you only had to do that to get out of jail. You learn something new every day! (Being bonded means you are insured in case the training you developed causes the world to end. Really, if someone is fired because of performance and they sue claiming they weren't properly trained, and the suit comes back to the one who created the training. If you're bonded, you're covered--to me...it just means one more cost every month. :) It's like malpractice insurance, but for educators. Well, and then Carson was sick...then Caleb was sick...then I was sick...now Carson is sick again. Did I mention no health insurance? My car has issues and hasn't been able to be driven for a couple months and we are playing the one car family. TOO hot to walk anywhere. And hence the grass in the yard is dead dead dead. Weeds? Growing fine. :) The extension to the driveway is all coming up because the previous owners apparently decided to add an extension to the driveway by just throwing cement down and doing nothing else. Lots of stuff breaking...bathroom fan, cd player....washing machine with issues. Have I mentioned the gross Texas-sized nasty water roaches? Pretty sure that is their official name. Listed under Species Disgusting. We've only had about one a year since we've lived here. Until the last couple months. They seem to especially like our drains lately. I think we've had 5 or 6 in the last couple months. Not sure if it is the especially hot summer or the fact that I haven't had an exterminator out recently. Or if I'm just plain lucky. Let's see...what else can I whine agout. I guess you get the idea. Each thing individually--NOT A BIG DEAL. All together, feels like it's pouring sometimes.

So after I talked to Chris today and he was feeling bad because he didn't check his calendar and forgot about a meeting (because he ran out for lunch to bring me that one car we are sharing because I somehow managed to forget to mail our car payment and so I needed the car to go overnight the payment so we didn't have to pay a big late fee) and he was also frustrated because then this afternoon he accidentally hit the power strip button with his foot which turned off his computer and made him lose all the stuff he had been working on all afternoon....I decided it was time for action. (Come on...admit it...I'm cool. That has got to be the longest run on sentence you've ever read in your life!!) (And secretly...that power strip thing was pretty funny) I decided it was time for some retail... er uh...restaurant therapy. We went straight to Chuck E Cheese. Land of the stop-the-pouring-rain-any-day-of-the-week!

It was exactly what we needed. We've been busy and crazy lately. We are usually the work hard play hard types. But we've been forgetting to play hard lately. Tonight just reminded me of that. Just the four of us having a good ol' time together. Who cares about all the stuff pouring down. Bring it on. It's kind of analogous to kids teething. When my kids are teething, I would rather have them get a bunch at once. Get it all over with in one crazy week instead of spreading it out by having a little bit of a crazy week by having one tooth a week several weeks or months in a row. Bring on all the rain! Let's just get it all over with at once! We just need to remember to play hard together and take one thing at a time with all that other stuff.

Don't get me wrong...life is good. Every once in awhile, if you sit back and think about everything that is wrong with your life...you can come up with a lot of stuff. Or is that just me?

I have to say though...restaurant therapy really worked tonight. I watched the faces of my three boys as we were leaving. They all had these huge grins on their faces and were laughing and joking.



And after all...we are blessed that we were able to get Caleb's tonsils out and clear up issues about Carson's kidneys BEFORE our health insurance ran out. And our air conditioner IS still working. And it's awesome that Chris HAS a job--and one where he LOVES the people he works with. And at least we have ONE car that works great. And it HAS been fun to drive Chris to work in the mornings and home in the evenings and spend that time together as a family. And at least we HAVE a house and don't have to trudge up the three flights of stairs to our apartment or worry about who we are waking up at 3am. And after we are all done being sick, I sure appreciate our GOOD health that much more. Haven't come up with a good one for the roaches though. I just don't appreciate anything about them. Maybe at least there haven't been 7? No that doesn't make me feel any better. However, at least I REMEMBERED that I didn't pay our car payment in time that I COULD overnight the payment and NOT pay the late fee! And REALLY?!?! There are a whole lot worse things that could happen. I'll take the ones I got, thank you very much. If these are the worst things that happen...I'll take 'em!

Well, what do you know?!? That rain didn't last long at all. We're back in a dry spell. I am learning to enjoy the rain more. It really does have it's place in the world and can do good things. But here's to the droughts too. :)

Wow. All that to say we had fun at Chuck E Cheese tonight. That takes some serious talent.