7 Blessings

After feeling so awful yesterday, I need to recount a few blessings to remind myself how good life really is:

We have a dishwasher again! While we were in St Paul for Zeke's surgery, my dad discovered that our dishwasher was leaking. When he investigated, he found that the pump was cracked. It was going to cost almost as much to replace the pump as it would to get a new dishwasher. We spent a few weeks doing dishes entirely by hand and then we borrowed my sister's countertop dishwasher that connects to the faucet. It's the size of a microwave. It was better than nothing but I could only wash a couple of bowls, bottles and silverware in each load. While it was running, I didn't have use of the sink to wash any other dishes. Yesterday our new dishwasher was delivered! I think I can keep up again.
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We have running water again! Because Lowes was supposed to deliver the new dishwasher yesterday afternoon, our friend Al came and unhooked our old one for us. There wasn't a shut-off valve on the pipe near the dishwasher, so he had to shut off the water to the entire house. We didn't think it would be a big deal since he disconnected it around 1pm and the new dishwasher was scheduled to be delivered in the afternoon. By 5pm, we were getting concerned. Taylor and I needed a drink and the baby needed a bottle. I should have filled pitchers before we shut off the water but I was feeling so awful that I just crawled into bed when we got home from the doctor's office.  Anyway, the dishwasher came around 6pm and Al had it hooked up and the water back on by 8pm. We fed him supper in appreciation of all his hard work.
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Taylor's medication hardly cost me anything! I knew I might not have enough money with me when the pharmacy couldn't find Taylor's prescription and then the pharmacist told them it was on the bottom shelf because the bag was so big. But the doctor had given me a card to get up to $50 off of our co-pay on her breathing medication. When they rang up the final bill, it was only $17 total.
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The electrical work is done in the "new closet"! We are in the process of building a wall in our storage room. The room is the size of a bedroom but because it doesn't have a window, couldn't be considered a bedroom. Plus, the only access to it was through the storage room. We knocked a hole through the closet in Riley's room and built a wall in the storage room to make a very large closet/storage room. Steve's mom will have one half and our stuff will be in the other half. Our friend Allen (a different one that the one that did our dishwasher) came over last night and did all the electrical work for us. He hooked up a light in the ceiling and put two outlets on the new wall. He was amazing!
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I have a Clean kitchen and a better room plan! My friend Sandy came over with her husband last night and while he was looking to see what we needed downstairs, she cleaned up my kitchen and then helped me figure out a better room plan so that Steve and I could keep our bedroom upstairs. I had been feeling a little (ok, a lot) sad that we were giving up our bedroom. I was willing to do it and didn't want to complain about it because I wouldn't change our family for anything. It's just that my bedroom is my sanctuary from the chaos around me and to give that up was like giving up the last bit of myself that existed. It's the place I can retreat too when life gets a bit too overwhelming. But in a few weeks, Zeke's bed will be moving from the dining room back into his bedroom with Anthony. The baby needs to move from the pack-n-play bed to the regular crib and my mother-in-law needs her own space. Now it looks like we can loft Taylor's bed to make room for her and the baby's dressers and the crib. If that's possible, Steve & I can keep our room!
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I'm feeling much better today than yesterday! I could barely move yesterday. My entire body ached, my throat was sore, my nose was stuffed up, I kept coughing, I had a terrible headache and it took a lot of extra effort to breathe. All I wanted to do was to lay down and sleep. But the baby, sick kid and kid in a wheelchair had other plans :) This morning, my headache is gone and I don't feel so achy. Which is a good thing because I have to go to Sioux Falls today for the baby's helmet check.
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My mom made it safely to Atlanta! My mom is attending a children's conference in Atlanta and made it there with no major problems, at least none she's told us about. I love texting because she could just shoot us quick texts with updates so we knew where she was and how the trip was going. They flew in and rented a van. She's the designated driver of the van load of people. Not because everyone else is drinking but because she is the only one listed on the van's insurance. Drive safely mom!
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