List of Grievances (blah blah blah)

I'm afraid I have been holding out in reporting some bad news. I wanted to make sure that everything was finished toppling before even mentioning it, and now Lord willing, it is done. So here we go.

[grievances]

Last week on Wednesday night, after I left for Idaho, Heath parked the Jeep in the parking lot by the gym while he was there with his students. The car was broken into and everything of value was stolen--his backpack (including school books, students' homework, his cell phone, etc.), the GPS device my parents gave us (which we hadn't even used yet), and who knows what else. At least they left the car seats. Heath filed a police report, but there was little chance of finding what we had lost. He then planned to get a new phone over the weekend.

The next morning, as Heath was driving Julie to school, he saw noticed something about our truck, which has been out of commission and parked on a side street. It was vandalized--the driver-side window totally smashed in. Nothing was stolen; it was merely random vandalism. But it still stunk. Heath covered the window with plastic.

The following day was Friday. Heath had arranged for someone to come and check a mysterious leak in our crawlspace that afternoon. As it turned out, the entire water heater (along with various plumbing accouterments) needed to be replaced immediately.

Yeah.

Thankfully, my parents came by on Saturday to watch the kids and our friend Joey drove down to help Heath clear out the crawlspace of all the wet carpet remnants, plastic, boxes, and other stuff. There was little damage to our personal belongings, which was definitely something to be grateful for.

Monday, the truck had a notice on it that the vehicle would be towed for being "abandoned" on the street. I'm sure it did look pretty abandoned by that point, totally cleaned out, with plastic covering one window. We actually had it towed away today for a mere pittance compared to what it was worth.

Heath handled it all really well on his own though. That man works best under pressure, and this was an incredible burden of strain on him while I was gone. I felt awful that I couldn't be there to support him, but every time we talked on the phone, he told me not to worry and that I shouldn't let any of it ruin my time with Midget. Man, I got lucky with this one!

Int he end, we still have our two Jeeps to drive. Heath was able to get a free cell phone by renewing our contract. The new water heater works great. The dirt is drying out in the crawlspace thanks to a fan Heath set up. And God is generally taking extremely good care of us.

There isn't much to complain about really. It all happened so fast, but now it's over. Thank You, Jesus, for not drawing it out and for sparing us from further craziness! Any prayers for our sanity and the continued calm of household would be most appreciated.

[/end grievances]

Today was a normal day of productivity. After Julie got home, I made hot chocolate for everyone while she finished her homework.



Meanwhile, Everest got a hold of my camera again and proceeded to shoot anything he could find in the living room.



We went out to run errands--Heath's school, library, my parents', bank, Target, and ended with Chick-fil-A for dinner. The kids did fine eating and getting ready for bed. The rest of the night was spent working, working, working.

I have an early meeting in the morning, however, and I must retire or end up staying awake all night, worrying about getting to Starbucks on time. Eep. Goodnight.