We Did It.

(From Will)

We bought a new mini-van. After paying a small fortune to repair Deanna's car and then a slightly smaller fortune to fix my truck only to discover that Deanna's car is broke again, we had to face facts and buy something more dependable.

The D@dge Carav@n. It's an '08 model with the fold away seats, dual air and remote start. I said "new" but of course it's really "used". It has 24 thousand miles on it and already has a few scratches so I don't have to worry about that "first scratch". We weren't able to jump through all the hoops they wanted in order to get the 0% financing on a "new" van so I told them to forget it, this one is good enough and we really did our research and paid a decent price for it.

There were two reasons we considered brand "new" over "used". One was the zero percent financing, the other was the "life-time" warranty available with a new vehicle. Our not being able to purchase new meant we couldn't have the lifetime warranty. We were however able to purchase a six year, 100,000 mile warranty; which made us feel a whole lot better about going into debt. The U.S. government has agreed to cover the warranty should the manufacturer go bankrupt and I've never bought a car warranty that didn't pay for itself. So again, I was much relieved by that addition.

Still, I would love all of your prayers that the Lord blesses this van with the most dependability and lowest cost of ownership okay? Amen!

The above picture is just one I pulled off of the internet. The one we bought looks exactly like it: A silver van that needs...something. I'm going to have to customize it someway that is both taste-full and subtle. I don't what or how yet but I can't stand the way it's so...anonymous. It just needs something that will make it easier to spot in a parking lot or so family and friends will know it really is us when they see a silver van. If you have any ideas we would love to hear or see 'em! Just remember the words taste-full and subtle; even classy okay?

The sad thing about all of this is we still have to replace Deanna's car. She can't use the van for work....

Well, because we haven't spent enough money yet to jump start the worlds economy - I know- it seems like I have- I now have to take Jacob to the eye quack..uh I mean doctor and see what's up with him. The other night he woke up and his eye was hurting. By morning, it was swollen shut. So we're off to jump start the economy! Woo Hoo!

Will

From Will: AARRRGH!

...whew! I feel better...sort of...
First, I'm sorry that this blog has been so...inconsistent lately. It's been stressful around here lately with lot's to do and lot's going on. While we we're on the subject; I've added the "follow" feature on the right . If it works the way I understand it, it will notify you every time we post something new. If you get annoyed checking our site to find we've added nothing new, this might be for you. In the mean time we will try to get better about our postings; no promises or anything, but we'll try.

Part of the reason I'm not going to make any promises is that our "main" computer died last night. I don't think it's a hard-drive crash but a power supply problem; but then again, I'm no 'puter expert. We plan on taking it to the 'puter ex-spert this week and see what they say.

Which brings us to the next thing that's been occupying our time lately. Un-planned expenses. Stressful? Ask my wife she'll tell you that I took ten minutes to talk to her about my feelings and my thoughts (yeah I know, very un-manly of me but wait:) and basically all I did was babble incoherently. It's the truth. I finally ended my ramblings with "...Just take some time and think about what you think I'm trying to say okay?" No lie. No, I'm not losing it; it's long gone!
Why did my 'puter die? Nothing else on the surge protector had any issues! It certainly wasn't on the agenda of things to be replacing. At least not yet. Never the less, it did and we have to deal with it and this 'puter I'm working on now takes 5 minutes for int*rnet expl*rer to boot. It's old but it works...sort of. I'm so glad I have it though! or how would I use the internet to whine so??? My poor wife would have to deal with more of my senseless babblings! But thankfully we do have this antiquity so I can babble to you! whoo hoo aren't you blessed?

Blessed. That is the way I'm trying desperately to look at things. I'm trying to take the perspective that Deanna got her raise in time to take care of these things because we would never have been able to before the raise. But there is still a part of my flesh that wants to put the horse on the other end of the cart and ask how come right after she gets her raise and we might be able to dig our way out of the quicksand did her car suddenly need a thousand dollars worth of work? We didn't fix it completely, we decided we didn't really need air-conditioning...sigh.... THEN! my truck starts having issues and bam! there's another 600 bucks! So, there I am considering all the really big nickles and dimes that our vehicles are costing us and the fact we don't have a back up vehicle (we both have to have one), so the wife and I talk and decide maybe we need a newer vehicle. Now is the best time to buy a car that's only a year or two old. Well, it should be.
I thought about it hard and I gave up my spot at the real man's club and had to admit that a mini-van makes the most sense for us at this point. With stow @nd go seating it would be very practical and versatile. So, I agreed to the "mommymobile". We looked. We searched. We did our homework and Friday found the best deal on an 08 van with only 24 thousand miles on it. Looks new, acts new and drives great. Only, it's an "used" which means there is an interest rate on the car loan. If I buy a brand new 09 model I may qualify (key word "may") for zero percent interest. That means for a couple thousand more (less than a hundred bucks a month "maybe") we could have brand new and pay a bank nothing! I really like the pay the bank nothing part but there's more! the 08 comes with the remaining factory warranty but the 09 comes with LIFE-TIME warranty! As in as long as we own the car!!! wow!! what a deal! wow! w a i t!!!!
Still, a hundred bucks a month???? I don't know about you guys but that's a lot for us.
What. Do. We. Do????? really??? So we pray. We ask our parents and our friends for their advice and opinions. We go to bed and wake up this morning to a fried computer. We drive to church in our loaner van because my trucks in the shop and by the end of the day (now) I'm babbling incoherently.

What matters: I love that these are our problems!s My gosh when I think about some of the things my own friends and family have to deal with and these are our problems?
What problems?!? Yeah, money is tight again. We are very close to living at 100% of our means again and I hate that. But, Dea and I both have great jobs. More importantly we have each other. Most importantly we know God loves us and that He has a plan and we just have to watch and wait to see what He's going to do.

I've said it before and will again:
When you've done your very best and done all that you can do and it's still not good enough; That's when you have a 50 yard line seat to watch God work.

Don't miss it!
Will.

We're so proud of our speller!

Jessa didn't make it to the final four this year, but she made it a good ways into the competition until she was downed by a word. She spelled the word right, but it was the wrong word. Misleading sentence to explain the word in her case. The word was "counsel" but the sentence they used made her think the word was "council", so she spelled "council". Frustrating for her and especially frustrating for me. I knew what she thought as soon as she thought it and there was no correcting it. Her face just fell when she knew she had spelled the word she spelled right, but they said it was wrong. It's hard to get out on a rightly spelled word. She did really well though and didn't cry. I almost did.

Will and I went with my parents and my Aunt to Olive Garden afterwards for lunch. Jessalyn went to Culver's for lunch and icecream with the rest of her schoolmates and one of her favorite teachers. She'd rather have icecream than about anything....something she has in common with both of her grandmothers. Anyway, we had a wonderful time in the restaurant talking about the government and what Glenn Beck had said recently. The people behind us were listening to us talk and every once in awhile I'd hear the woman say "did you know that?" or "I didn't know that". Too funny. It was a great lunch time.

Well, we went and looked at cars again. We have pretty much decided to go ahead and order my right hand drive jeep right away (depending on financing and rates). With my route being about 1/2 hills (big, steep hills) we have decided a right hand drive 4 wheel drive is the way to go. I need the 4X4 in the winter and the right hand helps for obvious reasons. We have also decided to bite the bullet and buy a minivan, if we can find the right one for the right price. The cars are at the point that they are costing more and more to fix. For what I have spent on my car and adding in the tires that I need to get, I could have made payments for about 6 or 7 months on my jeep. Now we're looking at lots of work on Will's truck. It's hard to know what to do. We've been without car payments for about 4 years now and going back into payments is very, very scary and somewhat depressing. We need wisdom Lord, bunches and bunches of wisdom.

Jessalyn's room is painted. This afternoon I plan on vacuuming the carpet and steam cleaning it before putting her furniture back in. I have one more thing to paint in there and that's her desk/cabinet. Right now it's this strange peach color and that really is not a good color for the 2 tone purple room. I hope to have everything back in there by tomorrow night so that I can start on another project on Friday. This weekend is also the time to plow my garden. I'm excited!

Well, time to get the kids off to school and then head out to work. Everyone have a great day!
dea

Almost 80 degrees on this last Saturday....

and snow today. Bummer. It's supposed to be in the high 70's again starting Thursday. What weird weather. With the daffodils blooming and the crocus blossoms sticking up out of the earth, we have snow?

I don't go to work tomorrow. We are heading over to West Salem to watch Jessalyn in the regional spelling bee. She is not extremely nervous like last time. Hopefully she will do great like last year, but no matter what happens...I'm proud of her....Besides, how many kids make it to the regionals 2 years in a row? What a kid.

Jacob is going to be in concert choir next year. I'm impressed with how serious he is about his music and learning the songs. When the teacher directs the song, he follows directions and watches her so closely. I'm proud that he really gets into it and knows what he's doing.

Both kids are playing with the dog right now. Well, actually Jake is playing with the dog and doing the rough housing. Jessalyn is the cheerleader. She is sleeping on the couch tonight for the second night. We painted her room on Saturday and Sunday and I don't want her to sleep in the fumes. Hopefully it will be calmed down by tomorrow night and she can put her stuff back in there. We'll see. I think the whole effect is going to be great once it's done.

We'll finish her room this week and then this weekend I hope to stain the concrete floor in the sun room and entry ways. I'm trying to do a room a week. It is going to be busy and be hard, but it's something that I have committed to and I'm trying to follow through.

Well, need to get busy.
Have a great day tomorrow.
dea

The things a husband goes through...

My poor hubby is the best. I'm am a "spring freak". I just love spring. I love watching the earth come alive after it's winter slumber. I love the smell of the ground baking in the sun. I love how tree branches turn different colors as the leaves get ready to form. Suddenly the whole forest is alive in reds, yellows and greens; without any leaves to show for it. I love watching the pussy willows come out. The return of birds makes my morning. I am known for making the kids stop their noise as we wait for the bus so that we can hear some new bird sound. I have been known to stop in my tracks to watch Canadian geese or Tundra swans fly overhead. I will stop on the road when no cars are coming to count Sand Hill Cranes, Whooping cranes and deer. I pull over and watch red winged black birds as they sway in the breeze clinging to cat tail reeds.
I love spring.

MY FAVORITE THING IS....the singing of the frogs at night. I often stop my car in the evening when no one else is on the road and open all the car windows and just listen. Wednesday night was the first night the frogs sang. I stopped Will's truck as Jake and I came home from church and made my son listen. You could tell he was thrilled. We came in and I asked my hubby if he would go with me to listen to the frogs again. He very graciously said yes and we tramped to the car (the dog came too). Sam (dog) sat in the back seat with his nose stuck out the window....sniffing his rhythm sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, exhale. It's always the same 4 sniffs and an exhale. We laughed all the way to the frogs and then we got there and I rolled the windows down to listen and it was glorious. Even the dog was quiet and listened. Not one sniff. We listened as long as we could then turned toward home. I could tell that Will was not thrilled, but he came anyway. He didn't have to and I told him not to if he didn't want to, but he did it anyway. What a good guy.

I head out to work today for the last mail day of the week for me. You know it surprises me how easy it is to get used to having weekends off. I really enjoy it. It sure takes the pressure off of me when I do not have to work Saturday. So much stuff gets done then and I don't have to try to fit it into the rest of the week. I've started spring cleaning and I'm sure that my children are doing their best to stay out of my way (although they just might be trying to stay out of my sight so they don't get asked to do something.)

Well time to leave for work. Jake's going with me to go and spend the day with his girl. They spend the day together every once in a while. Her family likes him and that's a great plus. Who would have ever thought I would have a 16 year old?

Have a great day.
dea

He's Alive!!!!!!!

Happy as a clam in the mud...

Well, I was sitting in the dirt...Spring is finally here. The crocus's are blooming. The earth is warming and I finally got to do one of my favorite things. I wait all winter for that first chance to sit down on the ground in my flower garden and weed around the bulbs that are coming up. I just love sitting there in the sunshine, letting the dirt sift through my fingers while I erase last year's leftovers with the hope of this new spring and all it's glory....

Now I've started into spring mode and I'm a happy about it. I could dance, except that I have two left feet, but inside I'm doing a happy dance.

Went yesterday to practice with one group I'm playing for tonight at the Good Friday service and tonight I practice with 2 that I'm singing with. My Uncle Ken is back in town, so New Journey can start singing again EXCEPT that my Aunt Marjorie has pneumonia, so we are without a piano player. We are scheduled to sing tonight and then again tomorrow at the local community Easter breakfast. So we are going to sing it "Accapolco". Should be interesting.

My youth group built a cross and painted a sign that says "Jesus died for your sins, but the tomb is empty" (answers inside). We put it up in front of the church last night. I figure if you can have a Christmas tree you can have an Easter tree and I know which one I think is more important.

Final thought for today...... read through what Jesus said from the cross today and really think about it. Even in "dying" he taught us how to "live".

Have a great day.
dea

I'm really glad that God has a plan..

I mentioned that my windshield wiper quit. Well, other things needed working on, but they were just minor things like the windshield washer fluid would not squirt on one side because the little hose broke. Things like that. Up until the last 3 weeks on the route my brakes were fine. After going on the route they needed replacing. There had been a whine when we drove and it sounded like the power steering pump. I had replaced it once before and it had made the same sound. I took it in and had them look at it and see what needed to be done. Oh yeah, Wednesday afternoon it developed a vibration....on the mail route you go through bearings often because you drive through so much crud on the side of the road, snow, mud etc. It usually is the right hand bearings you have to replace. It's one of those "givens" like brakes are.
Took the car in.....tahdah!!!!! $800-$1000. OUCH. So I'm back to the one step forward 4 steps back financially. BUT God has a plan. I can prove it.

Last August a friend of mine was working out at the local military base rebuilding some of the officers quarters. They were getting rid of fridge's. Only a couple of years old and they were selling them for $50. I ordered one for me and we ordered one for Cranfest. They delivered both to Cranfest and we used them there because I did not need one yet and we needed it there for volunteer food etc. It's still there because I was not ready to move it into the apartment yet.

Well, after getting a head's up on the car bill....Sunday morning I wake up to a dead refrigerator. I mean dead, dead, dead. Everything is thawing or has thawed. I put the perishables into an ice cooler, transferred the frozen stuff to the freezer in the garage and refused to be bummed or panicked. I went to church and told them that we are to praise God in everything....so I'm praising him for a huge car bill and a broken fridge. Came home and remembered that we already have another fridge to replace it for now.

Then my friend Vicki called relatives and found out they were taking a load to the junk yard today. They were looking for one more broken/dead fridge to fill up the last space on the trailer they were pulling. They came yesterday afternoon and picked up the fridge. Today we pick up the other one from Cranfest. God had a plan....even back in September/August and he also knew that they were going to need that one last dead fridge.

On a better note Mom, Jessa and I left Friday afternoon to go to Rockford for my cousin Dan and his new wife Becca's wedding. It was beautiful. It was very nice and we had a great time. They all partied long after we left. I get up so early that 9:00 feels like midnight. We lasted as long as we could and then left to go to our hotel, which was on the other side of town. Good time there too. Got up the next morning and went to Cr*acker Barrel. Jessa had pancakes with cherries. Wow. She ate it all, but boy what a huge platter of pancakes, fresh cherry topping and whipped cream. She loves cherries and enjoyed every bite. A quick trip to Sam's club and then a longer trip to the Penney's outlet store. I could spend many hours there.

We hurried home about noon because they had forcast a huge snow storm for here. Again, God is good and it snowed for a couple of hours but nothing stayed on the ground. 50 degree weather is supposed to start again on Wednesday and I'm starting work on my flower gardens. I planted seeds last week for my veggie garden and they are starting to come up. I'll plant more this evening I hope.

Well, I'm off to work. Have a great day.
dea

Congratulations Jessalyn!!!!

For the second time in a row.....Jessalyn made the Regional's in the "Spelling Bee". We are so proud of her. Last year she made it to the final 3. I don't care where she ends up this year, I'm just sooooo proud of her. It takes a lot for that shy little girl to stand up in front of all of those people and be the center of attention.... while people wait for you to goof up.

Had an interesting youth group class. We discussed the death of Jesus and what he actually said from the cross. It was neat to see some of the ideas dawn on them. I walked in to a mutiny though. I had left a couple of pizza's in the freezer there for emergencies. They talked me into getting out the pizza cooker (one of those spinning things) and we cooked pizza and they ate while they listened AND talked. We cannot get through a lesson without quite a few side notes and unrelated questions. I guess I should be glad that they feel comfortable enough to talk like that and not just sit there like lumps, BUT sometimes it makes it hard for this "age challenged" person to keep her thoughts together when I am trying to make a point and keep getting interrupted.

The car started having issues on the route the other day. It was actually funny, but Yes, the stupid things rule did happen again. I was out on the route in the rain, when the windshield wiper on the driver's side started dying. It was quite comical it started acting like it had directional issues and flopped around for a bit, crossing swords with the other wiper and acting really strange. It died a slow flopping death there on the windshield. I should have hummed taps or something. I had to drive around the rest of the route with one wiper. Thankfully, I was driving from the passenger's seat and the wiper on that side worked fine. It was a little strange only having one, but I kept going and made it through. God fixed the rain while I was on the route and I drove home not needing a wiper.

Yesterday I started having vibrations and the brake light started showing. Poor thing. My car had forgotten what it was like to be on a mail route. Time for an overhaul. It's in the shop and they have a list of things to fix. They gave me a loaner to use on the route until then.

Today is the last day of school for the kids before Easter break. They are excited. I just wish the weather would straighten up. I have hopes of going back out for wood a couple of times this next week. My goal is to have all of our wood done by the end of May for the most part. That way it can dry all summer baking in the sun. With two fireplaces and hopefully a wood stove next year you can go through lots of wood. We are allowed by the state forest to get 10 cord, which would be a pile 40 feet wide X 4 feet tall and 80 feet long.( or would it be 40X40X80? My brain is fried) Pretty big, either way.

Well, I need to get going.. housework calls before work. Will and I are also working on a list of things that need to get done around the house and each is marked with supplies needed to complete it and whether or not we have the supplies. We are trying to have a system. The "Honey Do This" jar theory will not work, because we don't have a jar big enough. I hope to have it done all the way soon, so that we can start in earnest on it as soon as the weather turns (we still have snow on the ground and flakes falling daily).

March came in like a lion and went out like a lion. There's something wrong with that. Maybe that will mean that April is going to be a great month????? Hey, I can hope can't I??

Have a great day!
dea