I have never been so happy to see Saturday arrive! Wow, this has been a week of just unpredictability and craziness!! This craziness always seems to happen when Kevin is out of town. There were several times when the tears came rolling down my face and other times I just had to laugh it off because ...really could one more thing happen?
Well I will start this out by saying that Kevin is gone at Camp Ripley for 2 weeks. Not a big deal. I can handle that...afterall our entire dating was long distance sometimes without seeing each other for 3-4 months. Being pregnant and alone, opens up a whole other can of worms and by worms, I mean super, crazy, hormonal emotions.
Okay...so last week, a few days before Kevin left he was driving my car back to work and it overheated. He was able to make it to the parking lot before it just died. My 12 year old car had just had it. This would be the 3rd or 4th time that there has been some sort of coolant leak causing my car to overheat within the last 3 years. The first 1 or 2 times it was the water pump. That was replaced and all seemed well, then it happened again and they said it was the intake manifold gaskets. That too was replaced (Thankfully by my father who can do it much cheaper than the mechanic) ...and now we aren't really sure what is wrong. We have had suggestions that it may be the thermostat. If so, that would be a fairly cheap fix. At this point, we don't want to put anymore extreme amounts of money into this car. We are just praying that when it is seen at the mechanic that they either find it to be an easy/cheap fix or that we are able to find a nice, used and RELIABLE vehicle that we can afford before this baby is born.
So now, I am driving Kevin's Nissan Xterra...well normally I drive it anyway because mine wasn't always the most reliable for 40 miles round trip a day to work and back. On Tuesday night, on my way home from work as I was driving and singing very loudly to some sappy country song, a rock flew up and hit my windshield! There has been a lot of construction work, and I am just assuming that it was kicked up from a car traveling in front of me. I didn't see anything on the windshield, so I didn't think anything more of it. Until I was heading off to my Dr.'s appt. the next morning, I glanced over to turn on the GPS and low and behold there was a nice crack that traveled up a few inches and then straight across the windshield! That was not the way I wanted to start my morning! I again was instantly upset and feeling terrible that this happened to Kevin's vehicle, of all times, when I am driving it and he is out of town. I didn't want to tell him, for fear of him being upset, but I sucked it up and called anyway. I took a deep breath and told him the good news of my dr.'s appt. and asked if he was ready for the bad news (or what I thought was bad news at that time). He said "uh..sure. is it your car?"..and I said "well, not exactly...it's your car!" .. Kevin- "My car? What happened??", Kristen- (at this point the tears are rolling..." well a rock hit your windshield and it's cracked now, I'm so sorry, please don't be mad".. Kevin- "That's it??, oh that's nothing. That can be replaced, the insurance will cover it"
--What a great calm, loving husband I have! He could have easily portrayed that he was annoyed or mad that this happened but instead just calmly let it roll off his back. I look up to him in so many ways, he is truly an amazing man. So anyway, the windshield is still cracked, I will get around to fixing that eventually!!
Later on that afternoon I recieved a text that a family acquaintance from Illinois had passed away of a massive heart attack leaving behind a wife and 3 young boys. A few minutes after that I received a call that Kevin's grandpa was in the hospital for chest pains. They have since taken Ferd to Fargo, ND and performed multiple bypasses. I received an update late last night that the surgery went well and he will be critical for the next 48 hours. He and Ruth will need our continued prayers and support.
Rewind to Thursday evening, I picked up Ruth from the hospital and brought her home so we could get ready for a potluck at church. I went to the freezer to get out the pre-portioned cookie dough I had made 4 days earlier. When I opened up the big deep freezer that we have, it instantly stunk and a big pile of blood and goop fell at my feet. It was so disgusting. Sometime in the last 4 days the freezer had broke! Everything was ruined!!! My eyes started to well up with tears, I had to just step back ..well one to catch my breath because it smelled so bad, and the other to think.."where do I start?" I ended up throwing away almost 3 garbage bags full of beef, chicken, pizza, frozen meals, cheese, ice cream... and the big goopy stuff that fell at my feet. That was my frozen bread dough that had risen so much that it exploded out of the bag and ALL over the inside of the freezer. OH man was it stinky. I cleaned up what I could without gagging, and sat on the couch and called Kevin. Again, he was so calming and reassuring. He sure knows how to bring things into perspective. It's amazing how God pairs us with a mate that can balance out and help us with things that we struggle with. Kevin reminded me, that it was just food and it too can be replaced and that God will provide for us! So I grabbed my bag of chips and salsa and headed off to the church potluck. It wasn't my homemade chocolate chip cookies, but it was just fine.
And now the story that topped off my week, but all I could do was laugh!!
Well, I must have ate really well at the potluck because later that night after going to the bathroom, I clogged up the toilet!!!! We've all done it before. But have you ever clogged the toilet and then realized you don't own a plunger! It was too late to borrow one from any of the family. I thought I would just let the water go down and try and flush again. That didn't work, I tried that 3 times. I had clogged it good! All I could do was laugh. This time the tears were from laughter, I just couldn't quit laughing. I had Kevin laughing on the phone because I could barely talk I was laughing so hard. That laughter is just what I needed.
There is a country song that Kevin reminded me of that really just helped me step back from the little pity party I was having and deal with life!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFVo02K_CAc ...what a great song to put things in perspective.
"Sounds like life to me, it aint no fantasy
It just a common case of everyday reality
Man, I know its tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk youre caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me"
So after this smack in the head and I really sat down and thought about all of the blessings I have, it made the rest of all of the above mess seem like nothing!
Kevin and I both have amazing family members who have done so much for us, we have steady jobs, health care, a HEALTHY baby on the way in a few weeks, and a Father who will not put us through anything that we cannot handle and will always be there for us no matter how distraught or alone we feel. Now that is LIFE to ME!!! I wouldn't have it any other way.
35 weeks
UPDATE: This just in..literally!!! Our freezer is WORKING!!! My guess is that it shorted out in the thunderstorm we had earlier this week. WAAAAAAAHOOOOOO!!! And I am now the proud owner of my very own plunger and it works quite well. Thank you :)
