Sometimes it Rains....

Life goes on in what seems like an ordinairy fashion and then... all of a sudden, a streak of bad luck hits. Maybe bad luck isn't exactly the right phrase, but a series of disasters strike. It's like quicksand, first one thing goes wrong, then another and then another, until, before you know it, you are in over your head.
I hate the quicksand moments but I had my most recent turn with it last week. It was a seemingly great week. My mom was coming to visit, I wasn't going to have to deal with the last crappy part of this deployment alone. I'm gearing up for my vacation and BAM! Disaster.
I was at a meeting last week and on the drive home my check engine light goes on. Well, that's the night I am supposed to get my mom. So I tinker with my husbands' car and get it working. Then I make an appointment for my car at the dealership. $200 dollars later, my o2 sensor and EGR valvue were fixed. Yuck.
No biggie though, right? Well, that night, I wake to what sounds like a jet engine landing in my basement. The fan on my vent for our heater, which we have been nursing for some time, finally decided to make it's last stand. Nice. So I call to have the guys come out and fix it, only to deal with little miss "I have a bad attitude" on the phone. Trust me, not what I needed. Actually, who the hell needs to deal with some woman being bitchy on the telephone?? DOesn't she get that if I'm calling for an emergency repair on my heater that my life is already bad enough??
Someone needs to buy her a clue. Long story short, my fan got fix, disaster averted -mostly. $1000 later, my week is finally over. Anyone know a good rock that I could hide under for the next six weeks or so??

Why I Need SO Much More Than Calgon

Honestly, with my children lately it seems like I could use a years' supply of Calgon. What is it about the holidays that bring out the best and worst in all our children?

My daughters are both such beautiful people - inside and outside. Usually they are so loving with one another, but the excitement of the holidays brings out the worst in everyone and sadly, my children are no exception. They seem to bicker over every little thing, yell at one another and speak harshly. I look at them and wonder where my sweet little girls have gone.

Sometimes I feel like I could be yelling at concert level decibels and still not be heard. I hate yelling. I have tried speaking in a more quiet manner, using consequences etc.... but right now none of it seems to work. I guess just in all honestly nothing in my life seems to be working.

The good news is at least the furnance is fixed. The guy from the oil company thinks ( or I should say thought) that I'm an oversensitize fruit ... but hey. He came out to fix the furnace. I was explaining to him the noise that it was making. SO he calmly turns on the burner and says, " Is that it? Is that the noise that it is making?" HELLO?? No, that's not the noise it's making, I GET that furnaces make a noise when they start up, I may be female but I'm not a complete idiot when it comes to machinery. I wanted to hit him over the head with my screwdrivers and yell, " I fixed my refrigerator you know..."

Anyhow, as if on cue, the furnace starting making the noise that I was actually talking about. He rolls his eyes and says, " Oh yeah, that's not normal." Guess what? A piece of carbon had made it's way onto the nozzle so that the oil wasn't lighting right away. Guess I'm not such an oversensitized fruit after all. Ok, so maybe I am, but I certainly felt vindicated where the repairman was concerned.

Now if only my children were so easy to fix. I'm off to shovel the driveway. AGAIN. CALGON, can you just send a delivery truck? You know the equivalent of an oil tanker to my house? I'll be outside shoveling.....

Will it Really Help?

Whenever my husband leaves, I am filled with anxiety. I stress about my children, my husband's safety, money, the smells of my car, the noises that any normal house makes and every other little thing under the sun. I hate having all these worries and the feeling that they never go away.
Yesterday my garage door opener went on the blink. Apparently when installed it was never lined up properly and now, fixing it, is going to take my step dad and I several hours later today. Why can't shit just work properly? I mean, is that really so much to ask??
I'm tired of being grateful that I am good with a screwdriver. I'd rather just not have these things go wrong in the first place. Sure it will get fixed, but in the meanwhile, it is just going to give me something else to worry about. Now my heat makes a terrible noise every time one of the zones goes on and I hate that. I worry that the machine isn't working right - why do I always feel like I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop? I hate feeling like chicken little and that the sky is falling. It's a terrible way to live your life.
A friend of mine suggested keeping an anxiety journal, you know writing down all the things that I am worried about. I somehow suspect that it would get awfully long very quickly. I will try anything if it would mean being about to put some of these worries to rest, but I wonder if it will help?

I Can Do Alot With A Screwdriver... but Even I Have My Limits

I'm a Navy wife - hence the title of the blog. I'm Snowflake and my husband is currently submerged. Well, Murphy's law has once again proved to be true in the case of this Navy wife. Our version of Murphy's is " Whatever can go wrong, WILL, while they are deployed." Seriously though, this underway hasn't been as chaotic as some.

Even so, in only one weeks time I have had to take apart and rebuild my vacuum cleaner, change the belt ( no biggie...), fix my thermostat on my air conditioning ( which sadly in September I still need...) change the filter on the a/c, fix the breaker for my washer and dryer and now the spare refrigerator that I keep in my basement has decided to go on the fritz too.

The refrigerator always has been a piece of shit since the day we bought it. It looks nice and it certainly wasn't cheap (are they ever?) but we've had our problems since day one. So, the other day, I notice that it is frosting up. It shouldn't be. So I turn down the settings ( or rather up, depending on how you are looking at it) check to make sure that the intact isn't blocked adn I defrost the thing.

It continues to build up frost. So, a day or so ago, I moved my food. Good thing because today the machine is making a noise like a car that just won't turn over. I have unplugged it and I am attempting to defrost the thing... and as good as I am with a screwdriver, even I have my limitations. This is why I married an engineer! To bad he's under the damn Atlantic!