Really?? Seriously? Are you Kidding Me??

I try not to post about negative things but I'm also not one to hold back. I try to say things how they are, deal with it, and move on. Since this blog serves as my journal, I have to also be real about the bad stoke of luck we're having and not just how cute my boys are. So here it goes...

Last month after the really bad rains that hit, we noticed a small minor sink hole on the side of our house. We had the builder come out and fix it the next day and everything was fine. That night we discovered a pretty major sink hole in the front corner of our house. It's been a lot of drama. After ripping out our new pavers and pulling up our perfect grass, we've determined that it's about 10' x 10' spanning from our pavers, grass, house and driveway. Unfortunately a sink hole of that size and in that location isn't so easy to fix. We've had several people from Fulton Homes out, including the general rep, two different cement guys, and today we had an engineer. Frankly I haven't been happy with any of them. They don't know what caused it (heaven forbid they admit that they made a mistake and didn't properly compact the soil in the front of the lot) and they don't seem to care about making sure it doesn't happen again. They're going to fix it once they all decide the best (and I'm sure the cheapest) way to fix it. It's just frustrating to have spent a lot of time and money on yard and then just a few months later have it torn apart. More to come on that later.

Last night we loaded the boys up in the truck ready to head out to run errands and grab dinner before a meeting I had. We were all strapped in when Ricky started the truck. As he turned the key we heard...click, click, click, click. The truck wouldn't start. Are you kidding me!?!? Really??So much for going out. Oh ya, I should mention that the truck was in the driveway blocking the honda that was in the garage - and - our truck can't be put into neutral when the engine isn't on. So much for trying to push it anywhere. Luckily our neighbor across the street (who works on his cars everyday) came over and helped Ricky analyze the situation. Dead battery. They pulled the battery out of the truck and our neighbor put his honda battery in our truck just to get it started...then he took it out. I had no idea that a car can run without the battery. It was good enough to move the truck to the street so that we could go get a new battery. Of course by the time this was all over, it was too dark for Ricky to put in the battery so he fixed it this morning. Crisis complete.

We're new to the world of PPO medical insurance. We used to have Kaiser (HMO) in California and we loved it. Loved our doctors, loved the simplicity of their system, great customer service...just loved them. So now we have Aetna. Hate them. Hate everything about them. It's one problem after the next. Last month Ricky went to the doctor because he's been having some stomach issues and decided that maybe it was something that he's allergic to that is causing his problems. The doctor tells him that it's possible but she's going to run some quick in office blood tests to find out. She didn't tell him which ones or how many she was running. The doctor's office called Rick about 10 days later and say everything was negative. It was a ten second call. Fast forward to last week. I open mail from Sonora Lab - Are you kidding me??!?! A bill for $1300+ for blood work. Ricky was so mad. There had been no discussion of what insurance would cover (or not cover) or that they were even sending the blood out. He then felt bad that he had even gone in and asked about it in the first place. I couldn't believe it. Medical Insurance is the biggest scam EVER!!

This last week we've had some other minor issues including both listening units on our new baby monitors going bad. Lincoln got a violation warning at the gym for hitting the other kids. Seriously?? I was pretty irritated with the ladies at the gym. On our CA trip our portable DVD player broke. We had to go get a new one because there was no way that I was going to make that drive home with a two year old and not have a DVD player. I think there were a few other things too but luckily they don't come to mind right now.

The good news in all of this is that these are all things that can be fixed. We actually are blessed in a lot of ways. For the most part we are all healthy & happy, I have a job and we have a beautiful home (if it doesn't fall in the sink hole...just kidding) we have good friends & neighbors so life really is good. I guess these things that come up, while stressful and costly, are a part of life. Everyone says you have to have experience tough times to really appreciate the good times. I would have to agree. Lucky for us there are more good times then there are tough times.

We first noticed our grass was sunken in. I stepped on the pavers and they were really loose. Ricky stepped on them and one fell right through.

After we pulled up the pavers and realized that there was a bigger issue.

Unfortunately the pictures don't do justice.

Now this is a picture of the good times! Seriously...this boy is pretty dang funny. As I sat on the couch, Lincoln came running in to show me that he turned himself into Mr. Potato Head. He came up with this all on his own. I love that he even has the arms.