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.