When it rains.....

This post it not to get sympathy or to be a Debbie-Downer but we have had a string of bad luck at our house the past month and I just want to write it down so that I can remind myself that bad things can happen, when you least expect or want them to. To start things off two days before Christmas we were headed down to Salt Lake to go through a session at the temple and see the lights on Temple Square with our good friends Erin and Scott Douglass. We had just got out of Sardine Canyon when all of the sudden the thermostat in the Subaru went through the roof and was suddenly HOT HOT HOT! So we went really slow (about 50 MPH) on the freeway to Ogden where we met the Douslass's at their house. They drove the rest of the way to SLC. After the session we headed to the Blue Iguana. Brett and I shared a MASSIVE burrito that was super tasty. Brett had to visit the restroom for quite some time after he had finished. Poor guy that had to use it after him... and when we were in Temple Square, I got really hot from walking outside in the freezing cold and then into a super warm building and then back out into the cold friged air and after a few times of that we walked into a building and I threw up. Talk about bad luck in SLC.... I felt just fine after I threw up but man that burrito didn't taste so good coming back up.
On the way home, the car situation did not improve and it took us about 2, 2 1/2 hours to get back home to Logan. Come to find out - we blew a head gasket, which is about a $1,500 fix on a car that is not even worth that much. So the car search began.... Oh how I once upon a time thought that I loved car shopping.
I thought car shopping would be fun. I know what cars I like and what cars I don't. But wait - I don't have all the money in the world? When did that happen? Then we had to decide what type of vehicle would be the best for us right now and in the near future. We thought we had our criteria all sorta out and we got serious about buying two different Santa Fe's but neither one felt like we should buy it so we walked away from both. In the meantime we were driving my green car that I have had since before time began and borrowing my little brother's truck (aka Peppy), because he's on a mission and isn't using it at the moment.
Suddenly, our green car (the one that has been around since the beginning of time) started acting really funny. Brett changed the thermostat and played with the antifreeze and different fluids. It would run fine on one trip to town and on the way home it would be acting silly again. So we finally decided to have it looked at a little more seriously and sure enough, yep, you guessed... the head gasket is bad on the green car too. I'm not sure how we managed to lose two cars in less than a month's period of time to the SAME diagnosis.... So now we've had to completely re-think what we are going to do for a car situation. So it's back to the drawing board for what kind of car is really going to be the best for us right now. Luckily, we are not having to only use one car. My parents have 4 vehicles and only two drivers so we've had to play musical cars a few days but for the most part we've been able to manage so far.
To add to the stroke of misfortune at our house, I opened our laptop the other day and there was a load snapping sound. As I looked around I discovered the hinge on our laptop completely snapped. GREAT! Just one more thing to add to the list of things that we can't really afford to purchase right now. We are trying to nurse the computer back to life and hopefully the green car too. But so far things aren't looking so great for either right now. Poor lappy toppy... I just need it to last until the end of April, that's all I ask. Pray for lappy toppy.
A HUGE plus did happen though. Brett got word from Scared Heart University in Connecticut that they want him for an interview. YIPEE! Minus the fact that it is a really really really long ways from home, we couldn't be happier. Now it's just a waiting game to see if they like him enough to extended the offer to him to attend the school.
If there is one thing that I have learned from all of this it would be: We are poorer-than-dirt college students who currently don't really own anything (anything that works at the moment) but we are surrounded by good people and great family who love us very much and are so willing to help us. *Brace yourselves for this next part 'cause it's cheezy* but we are very grateful to still have each other. Everything else just adds lots of stress that really is not even really worth worrying about. And as of right now "us" is all that's important - everything else is just stuff and will work itself out eventually.