I keep telling myself to take a photo of the 2 trees and post it for you to see... oh well, I still haven't done it. LOL.
Well, I am pleased to state that the last present I ordered for Brent came in today. It is way better than I anticipated!! Also, we both opened a present last night. :-) Brent is like a little kid in that he HATES waiting for Christmas... so we've opened 2 presents each already lol. This year Brent and I are celebrating a "couples Christmas" on Christmas Eve (since Steve and Brent's sisters and brother are celebrating with us on the 28th instead of the 24th this year). So, as a result, I haven't been so dead-set on opening them all on Christmas morning. That and the HUGE pile of things for the kids has me pretty excited and I just want to focus on them on Christmas morning... I guess this is part of being a grown up :-)
Today has been somewhat stressful. The brakes on the Suzuki quit altogether. We knew we needed new pads in them, and probably new rotors... that was a few weeks ago... and I bought the parts but we just haven't had time to put them in.... and last night the Suzuki decided it was tired of stopping and the brakes went... and so we had to replace the calipers which are $200.... so in all, Midas charged me $350 because I had the other parts we needed already. That's an expensive brake job!
And, I just got off the phone with Lynn who has my other car.... the station wagon's headgasket is blown, they think. I am somewhat frusterated because we took it in for overheating 2x now... they replaced the radiator, and then the fuel pump... and now they say its the engine. Well, headgaskets don't blow unless it was overheating and I'm irritated becasue we've had it in several times and now it's gonna be ALOT ($600) to fix it and idk why it was an issue in the first place. Then I remind myself that we only paid $800 for it in the first place, plus $100 for the radiator work and $175 for the fuel pump so if I net out at $1700 for this car I won't be doing poorly, since it will have a new engine and a fairly new transmission (rebuilt in '05 and the guy hardly drove the car).
Beside car troubles we also had a water pipe bust. Our water company did work on the neighborhood well pump a few days ago when it was 19 degrees... and when you turn off the water, it freezes in the pipes... and when it warms back up (2 days later) it busts. *sigh* Well we now have everything under the house insulated and we're buying some plywood to block off the gaps in the underpinning (thanks neighborhood doggies!). I feel like a redneck putting plywood under my house but let's face it : it is a trailer. I live in NW GA where the animals roam free and my german shepard was killed by a coyote. I might be a redneck *eesh*
Hopefully I will get to clean some tonight and tomorrow before Alina's party on Sunday. The water going again will help immensly. I was helpless in the kitchen with no water, and the bathrooms are icky (since we had to use the toilet but could not flush). But I can get that cleaned up rather quickly. I just have to will myself into moving around the house in the cold. Maybe it won't be so cold tonight... its only supposed to get down to 30 degrees so maybe I'll convince myself not to crawl in that cozy bed before I get a bunch done....
Brent got time off approved in conjunction with mine for New Years in Florida! I am so glad because we were waiting to see if he got approved and we (once again) have been allowed to take that VERY popular holiday off. I am thrilled :-) I didn't think he was gonna get to come this year.
Holiday shopping is complete for my side of the family with the exception of my Dad (who I am in the process of completion) and Brent's Mom - whom we have one or two little things for already. I am glad to be through with all that before these car repairs hit.
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