Small miracles

After what seemed like a plague of bad fortune, it seems Heavenly Father has finally decided we had had enough and he has poured down some blessings on us.

First, we're pretty healthy (well, until Kiersa came down sick yesterday, but it isn't too serious)

Second, after a year and a half of keeping my eyes out for a bargain on some kind of ground-cover for the kids' play area in the yard, we stumbled upon 5 trailer loads of rubber mulch from an old playground. They gave it to us for free!!! We just had to scoop it and transport it. Now the swingset and trampoline have soft, rubber mulch under them. I guess it's recycled tires or something, but it's really clean and soft. Kiersa fell off the swing and didn't even cry.

Third, the same day that we got all the free rubber mulch, I found out from the hospital that they were going to clear our bills to them. My cousin, Angi, told me that most hospitals have programs where they will pay part or all of your debt to them if you apply, so I called up the hospital, filled out the application, wrote a letter of explanation, then waited. They decided to pay for 100% of our bill, aside from a $375 copay that will be $20/month payments with no interest. I couldn't believe it! It was something close to $7,000 that we owed them (after the insurance companies had paid), and now the bill is $375. Talk about a load off our backs!! I never even knew these kind of programs existed! Thanks, Ang!

Fourth, business is picking up now. The weather is nice and people are relaxing a little bit about the economy, so that's helping our business. Now we have to play catch up for all the slow months and Hyrum is swamped waaaay over his head with far more than one designer can do. If you know of any trained kitchen designers, send them our way!

It feels so good to be able to breathe a little, though we do have the stress of a desperate need for a trained designer.

My yard is coming along. Sorry I can't post pictures. My garden is getting big and beautiful, and the landscaping is taking shape. I can't go to a gym, so I get up at 6 each morning and work in the yard until around 7:30. I can't tell you how great a shovel is for getting a person in shape. It's my new best friend it seems. Between shoveling tons of dirt to new areas in the yard, building recycled concrete walls, moving mountains of rubber mulch (that is recycled from a playground, and made of recycled rubber), making recycled concrete pathways and recycled brick pathways and grass edging, I've lost 10 pounds and I'm finally starting to get toned, AND...I'm doing something good for the environment by using all these recycled materials. Can you tell I'm from Oregon? Actually, the truth is, I have zero yard budget, and walking wasn't getting me anywhere in the weight loss department, so I decided to work on my yard each morning, and I could only work with materials that I already had lying around...plants I brought from my Coquille house when I moved and ferns from the shop, the concrete from the sidewalks and driveway that we tore up around the house, dirt from the excavation of the crawlspace, and brick from my fireplace that we tore apart (though we left the chimney intact).

I'm so glad summer is here, and I'm loving the yardwork, though my carpal tunnel is REALLY mad at me and is screaming at me to stop, though I won't since it's my only workout in a day. I think once my yard is done, I'll have to volunteer my shoveling abilities around the neighborhood or something in order to continue my workout. And though it's difficult to drag myself out of bed each morning, I LOVE the calm, quiet, windless morning hours. They feel almost magical.

The only problem is, I have an audience each morning, and it makes me a little self-conscious to be watched. If you remember me mentioning the nosey neighbors we have across the street that would watch the front of our house like a hawk while they sat on their front porch to smoke...well, they moved, but only 2 houses down. Now they can watch my front yard AND back yard, until I get a fence. Too bad I don't have enough wood lying around to build one. Anyway, they get up early to have their smoke breaks, so they sit out front and watch me work in the yard. They comment to me every now and then about how I'm out so early and how their amazed I'm doing all this on my own, but mostly they just stare. I feel like a one-man circus since I seem to give them so much entertainment. Thankfully, they don't stay out the whole time. Oh, I wore out my poor, trusty, mega-sized wheelbarrow, so now it only has one handle. Maybe they just like watching me maneuver a one-handled, two-wheeled wheelbarrow around my yard. I guess that would be kind of entertaining to watch.

Anyway, hopefully pictures will be up and running again soon.