Crazy Week

So this week has been another week with lots of great growing experiences. So as I relate each "growing experience," I will also include the great blessings that have come with them.

On Wednesday, I decided to tackle filing our taxes. I was pleasantly surprised with how much the government is going to pay us this year. One hour after reveling in how much our tax return will help our depleted savings account, our washer started to make a funny noise.

I had 2 loads of laundry washed and the 3rd (out of 4 loads) was in the washer. All of a sudden, our washer started making a strange noise and it no longer started draining the water out. Since we don't know anyone in the area who is handy with washers, we set up an appointment for Friday to have a professional come and look at our washer.

But as I was stressing about how I was going to get the rest of our clothes cleaned, I thought about my good friend Aubrey. She was going to come to my house that night to get some sewing done. I called her and she graciously let me come to her house instead and bring my last 2 loads of laundry with me. I was so grateful for her willingness to open her small apartment to Clara and I just so that I could use her laundry facilities!

On Thursday, Jeremy found out that he didn't even get a 2nd interview at the job he so desperately wanted. This was a big blow to us, especially since Jeremy was really excited about this opportunity and we thought his interview went really well. Since we knew it would be a big let down if we didn't get that job, we planned to go to Nickel City (a cheap arcade) if he didn't get it. That way he could still have something to look forward to if he didn't get the job. So on Thursday we also found out that we would get to have a wonderful night out as a family at Nickel City!

Friday morning the washer repair man was prompt, which was amazing. He was here a total of 15 minutes, and pulled a sock out of our pump. Apparently I was able to do something that is extremely hard to do: get a sock between the drum and the outside of the washer. There is only a very slight opening at the top of the drum. They have engineered it to make it nearly impossible to get laundry in that opening, but somehow I did it. One of Clara's socks went through that opening and into our pump, clogging it. That sock was in the first load. So it only took one load (the 2nd one) to get it clogged! However, I was able to watch the repair man fix our washer, so I now feel confident to be able to fix minor problems with our washer, if they should happen again. I was amazed at how damaged that little sock was, so I took a picture of the "matching" pair of socks.Clara didn't wake up until 11 Saturday morning, so I figured she wouldn't need a nap. That was a mistake. Turns out that she fell asleep on my lap at a friends house in the early evening. We were planning on going to Nickel City as a family because I knew that Clara would love getting to push all the buttons on the games. However, since we had to wake Clara up to take her home, she was extremely cranky the next 2 hours. She wouldn't leave my lap. I knew there was no way we could take her with us, and she desperately needed to go to bed. I tried calling a few different neighbors to see if they could listen to a monitor while she slept, but no one answered. I then called my wonderfully amazing friend Aubrey again. Her and Aaron willingly came over on such a short notice to watch Clara for us! I was in tears by the time they got here. I was so thankful that they came so quickly. Thanks again Aubs and Aaron for always being there for us!

Jeremy and I had a blast at the Nickel City. We were there for a little over 2 hours! I can't believe I lasted that long. The only other time we've gone to Nickel City, I was ready to go after 20 minutes and Jeremy was just getting started. But I found the game Dr. Mario and that kept me busy for quite a while. I even ended up getting the high score! That is something I've NEVER done before!

Our computer also quit working on Saturday. Luckily, Jeremy's cousin is great with computers. He also knows our computer well because we just bought a brand new hard drive 3 1/2 months ago. So we were able to drop off our computer on Sunday and we found out today that our brand new hard drive crashed! The 30 day warranty has expired, but we were still able to get a new hard drive for just the cost of mailing the crashed one back to Western Digital. It will take over a week to get our computer up and running again, but Jeremy's cousin is lending us an old computer so that we can at least have Internet for this week!

I also took our car into the shop today. We've been hearing a clicking noise every time we've made a left turn. So we spent quite a chunk of money at the repair shop today getting a new CV joint! But, like I said at the beginning of this post, we will be getting a large enough tax return that all of these new expenses will be covered!

Clara has had some pretty cute moments this week that I want to record. I was driving to the store and Clara was chattering away to herself. At one point I started listening to her. She said, "Me sing? Ok." She then started singing lots of nonsense words at the top of her lungs. After a little while, I heard her say, "No more singing." A few minutes later, she again said, "Me sing? Ok." And started singing her nonsense words again. It made me laugh so hard. I'm glad I had such good entertainment in the car with me!

Clara is also obsessed with watching TV. She would watch TV all day long if I let her. The times I do let her watch something, she always gets so comfortable. I have way too many pictures of her in front of the TV, because I love her poses. So here is just one of the many....