It's April! Which means my family's spring birthday marathon is underway. Perry's birthday was up first. Perry hates cake (weird, I know), but because cakes and birthdays are so interconnected in my mind (and I love cake), I've made him a cake every year. This year I figured since he wasn't going to eat the cake, he should at least get some enjoyment out of looking at it, so I made him a BMO cake.
Perry decided to not renew his teaching contract at his current school, so he's started applying and interviewing around the district. I know we can live off of one income (I did it for five years before we met), but the whole dual income thing sure is nice (I can actually save money!), so here's hoping he gets a new, better job easily.
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I feel like the past few months there hasn't been a lot going on in my life and then about three weeks ago it seemed like a whole lot of things started happening. This week off work, I've had to wake up at 8 a.m. everyday just to get everything on my list done and I still feel a bit overwhelmed. Keep in mind that most of my days off, I wake up at 10, so 8 is a big deal for me. Oh, and it seems like everything has been breaking.
The dryer vent under my house became disconnected. I haven't been underneath my house in four years. It's a dark, scary place. To fix it, I had to belly crawl through spider webs and snake skeletons (okay, only one snake skeleton but come on) for an hour. If you want a good work out, try belly crawling for an hour. Arms, legs, and abs. I am very sore right now. Can you believe Perry refused to do it? Something about a promise he made to his younger self when he had to crawl under his parent's house every summer to re-level their house. I can understand why, but I still insist the next time something underneath the house breaks, it's his turn.
My washing machine broke. I wasn't particularly sad or surprised when it happened. It was 10 years old and super duper small, since I got it when I was living in an apartment and it had to fit in a very narrow closet. I've kind of been looking forward to it kicking the bucket so I could buy a full sized washer and dry set, and I had some money set aside just for that purpose. We had it delivered and the old ones hauled away. Here's a tip when installing a new dryer: it doesn't come with an electrical cord. I had to make two trips to Lowe's in a 30 minute span. Once for the electrical cord, and again when we found out our old water hoses weren't compatible with the new washer.
It was about three days later that I noticed the steering wheel on my car was shaking whenever I braked at high speeds. I though it was my rotors, turns out my outer tie rod was loose. They replaced it for $160 and then I had to get an alignment for about $90.
About a week after that I noticed a squeaking sound coming from underneath my hood whenever my car was cold and a clicking noise coming from underneath my dash whenever the AC kicked on. The squeaking sound: I don't know what it is, but it comes and goes. However, I know that AC clicking sound well: my temperature blend door actuator is starting to fail. It did it about four years ago. Here's the thing: I only plan on having this car another 6 months. I really don't want to have to start making a bunch of repairs on it. I may try just waiting and seeing if I can get by.
Reggie broke too. Kind of. Reggie has never destroyed anything in the house. We always just assumed he naps all day when we're not home, because that's what he does when we are home. However, I came home last week and he had chewed up the bottom four slats on our blinds and ripped the curtains. I thought he had been temporarily possessed and cleaned up the mess. Then, he did the same thing the next day. So now we've started opening the blinds and curtains for him whenever we leave, so he can see whatever is out the window that turns him into a maniac. Oh, and just so you know, Reggie is now back on all the couches full time. Because I'm weak willed.
