MamaArcher's Blog

What Next?

You know, I should know by now never to mutter the words, “What’s next?”  When, oh when, will I learn that lesson?  I want to forewarn you that this post may seem like one big, huge complaint but honestly it is not.  In fact, I am finding this rather comical at the moment.

You know they say big surprises come in threes when your hubby deploys.  We have passed that mark a while ago.  Hubby asked me in an email the other night if I was keeping a count.  Well, I really wasn’t, I was just remembering everything that had happened over the past two months that he has been gone.  But, I think I may just keep a count because I am beginning to think it may be a good thing to remember all that God has allowed to be thrown our way and what he has brought us through.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…

Let me share with you a bit of our surprises.  One of which was an AWESOME surprise, the others, well, not so much.

Here we go…..

This deployment started off with rush.  His date was bumped up.  I posted that story HERE.

Two days after hubby left we found out that we are expecting baby number ten. I blogged about that HERE.  This is the AWESOME surprise!  Now on to the rest…

I also found out that I had actually broken my thumb not only damaged the ligaments.

When hubby’s pre-deployment training was over there was a little bit of a stress in actually getting him to where he needed to be.  There was an uprising in a country he was to fly through and things had to be rerouted.  It took him a week, maybe longer to actually hop around and get to where he needed to be.  That was a little stressful for me. After all, the clock doesn’t start counting down until he gets there.

A few weeks after hubby left we had a bum tire on the jeep.  It had been giving us some problems for a while but it was to the point where I would air it up and by the next morning I was praying to make it to the air pump!  We needed all new tires anyway so that is what we did.  Cha ching…..

Time came around for us to switch the studded tires off the van and when I took it in to have that done they told me my brakes were almost gone.  So I paid for a brake job too.  Cha ching….again.

Now the service light for the jeep is on.  It needs the regularly scheduled maintenance for 50,000 miles.  I am afraid to check and see what that bill is going to look like. Cha ching….again AND again.

An outlet in the kitchen just quit working.  So the under the counter lights are useless and I had to move the microwave.  Easy enough I guess but now I have a hard time finding a place to use my chopping block when making salads and the like.

Then there is the whole situation with the post office.  Misdelivery of package slip and when we went to check on it (we had been tracking the package) they had actually given the package out to someone else!  Apparently, they didn’t check ID and verify that the person they gave it to was who the package was supposed to go to.  Basically, they will do NOTHING and my daughter is out over $100. Postal workers tend to run and hide when I walk in now! Mwahahaha!

Moving on…..

Since we have had several added expenses lately.  Aside from the ones I just told you about, I am trying to pay for camp and plane tickets to get there as well as the $100 a month bill for hubby’s internet service in Afghanistan.  At least, hubby gets separation and hazard pay to help out.  So you know what, it is just the perfect time for my vacuum cleaner to break.  I really have not had to money and honestly I haven’t had the energy to go and buy a new one yet.  After three weeks without vacuuming I decided to borrow the neighbor’s vacuum.  After all, if I hadn’t the loose hair on the floor would have formed into another dog.  And two dogs is enough around here.  I plan on buying a new vacuum this weekend.  cha ching….

Ah, and then yesterday….  My older girls were outside playing frisbee.  Do you see where I am going from here??  Yep, we have a broken window!  It was purely an accident.  After all, when a left hander decides to try and throw right handed and the frisbee hits the deck railing who would think it would bounce and hit and shatter a window?  After, the fear and shock of the sound of shattering glass and a bit of, “How am I going to pay for this?” wore off; all I can do now is laugh.  I emailed hubby and he said his first reaction was to laugh too!  cha cha chingaling….

As I sat last night thinking of writing this post, I decided I would entitle it, “What Next?”  After all, that question has been going through my mind for a while now.  But as I sat down to pay the bills this morning, that question was answered.

I usually just pay our mortgage payment and rarely open the bill, after all, it is a set amount.  But thankfully, today I did open it.  I noticed our mortgage payment went up a pretty decent amount.  Wondering what in the world was going on, I called the bank.  Apparently, our home owner’s insurance went up.  The lady on the phone even suggested that it was a considerable amount and suggested we look for a new insurer!  She asked if we had filed a claim recently.  Well, we had…you can read about the rain in the bedroom HERE. She said that was most likely the reason for the increase.  Of course, we were never notified and no one even alluded to the fact that our insurance would go up if we had filed the claim. cha cha chingaling aling….

So, now I have a higher mortgage payment, just what we needed.  But you know, none of this is a surprise to God and he is providing for us in ways that I could not even imagine.  We are blessed and I have not lost sight of that fact.  But, I don’t think I will be asking the question, “What next?” for a long, long time.  I think I have learned my lesson in that regard.  I have also learned to laugh and take life as it comes and not to get too overly stressed. Well, at least for the moment.