New Tread on Me

My RAV4 had been making this thumpa-thumpa-thumpa noise and, with each thumpa, I felt it. Road noise was pretty loud and I had to destroy what little hearing I had left to turn up the radio to hear it over the road noise. Had new tires put on yesterday, all around, and oooooohhhh what a smoooooooth ride! I'm a person of very simple pleasures and I couldn't help but call Lisa TWICE on the 10 minute ride from the dealership to the Home Depot and just say "YAYYY!" Of course, she laughed and called me a dork.

We went to the Home Depot and spent nearly $150 on mouldings to finish off the entryway, living room/dining "L" and kitchen that we've rennovated so far. After we got home and I was doing the books for our business, I felt Lisa come up behind my chair and heard her whisper "Did you still want to crawl into the cabinets with me at the Home Depot?"

Clearly I'm getting old because my first response was "No, I'd have needed EMT's to get me out of them!"

I got a picture message from Michelle yesterday that she sent via her phone. This is Cherlyn yesterday, not quite two weeks after her accident. She's looking amazingly good already! It's so nice to see her little eyes full of that sparkle and good humor. She's got quite an intelligent wit for a 5 year old, and those eyes are always so expressive. She's an amazing little girl.

Lisa has been doing some networking and has found some companies with some excellent home products that we are interested in carrying. One such product is a three-sensor alarm system that is hooked up to the sump pump and an electrical source (outlet). If the sump pump overflows, the heat goes out and/or a freezing temperatures is sensed, or if the power goes out, it sounds an alarm AND will automatically call up to three phone numbers that you program into it. Around here, that's huge because power goes out a lot during the cold weather and, since we constantly have snow thawing, losing the sump pump can be a huge economic disaster (especially since outside water isn't covered on our homeowner's insurance). So, if we're at work and the power goes out and the sump pump crock begins to overflow, we'd get a phone call from the system telling us that there's a problem at the house. I think it's a good idea!


Lisa had become so disenchanted with her job that she's thinking about asking my foster sister if her husband needs another hand on his dairy farm. Lisa was raised on a dairy farm and doesn't mind the work at all. Between you and me (a city girl through and through), I couldn't stand her coming home reeking of cow shit every day like Jim does. But, I've also always encouraged her to do what makes her happy, not what makes good money. To me, there's a profound difference between the two. No amount of money earned is worth being unhappy at your job because, whether you believe it or not, it spills over into the home. I'll support whatever she decides.

In the meantime, the web store host, who brags that they're never down, is down today and, as such, we can do no business in our store.

Wouldn't it just fiture...