my lucky day..!

Today, I get to meet with the claims adjuster. He is supposed to be here this very minute. So here I sit. And after he leaves, I get to bring Mirielle to drop her car off to get inspected (she is leaving tomorrow for Connecticut, rats!), then pick up a few girls from school, make a stop at Motor Vehicles so Joseph can get his permit, then take the girls to the dentist! Then, I get to get the oil changed on the big van. It was due in June. Oops. Paul keeps asking me when I am going to get it changed, and last night he handed me a coupon for the Valvoline place. Sorry, dear, but if I am getting my oil changed, at least I will go to WalMart where I can look around at good stuff while I wait.

Dentist and Motor Vehicles in the same day. Ouch. The good part is that Aaron and Mali have a half day of school today, so they can watch Camille and Charlotte Claire. I do love my little girls, and they are great fun on an adventure. But those places and little girls....hmm. Especially the dentist office. I have mentioned this before, but there is a nice cold water dispenser in the waiting room, which makes kids thirsty. Two year olds and three year olds are extra thirsty. And water in waiting rooms has extra gravity, and on the nice hardwood floor. It is not relaxing. And it has nothing to do with me wanting to read the People magazines, unless there are pictures of Jon and Kate.

I was starting to grumble last night, when I realized the line-up of my day. It seems like I don't live MY life, I just live the life that fits in with everyone else. Then I realized that Paul gets up day in and day out and goes to work. And he comes home happy, day in, day out. He doesn't really love work, he doesn't hate it, but he would much rather be home. But that is how his life is, so he does it and makes the most of it. And don't tell anyone, but being a stay-at-home mom, or as we called in the early days, a housewife, is the best kept secret of all time. It is wonderful. Those cold snowy mornings when the others have to get dressed and go out and face the day, I get to stay in here.....except for appointments and grocery shopping. And grocery shopping is my favorite hobby, especially when the cashier has to call over the manager because "this lady saved too much"....

The suspense is killing me, Ryan-the-adjuster isn't here yet. I am so curious as to what he is going to say about all the clothes. Does anyone else in the world have approximately 420 items hanging all nicely in their laundry room?

Okay, I am back after a break, which consisted of watching Ryan-the-adjuster taking pictures of my laundry room, the floor, the walls, the shelves and racks of clothes. ouch. Anyway, he will work up an estimate for the floor, (damaged), the sheetrock replacement, insulation, the dryer, ect. We will get a check for that in a few days. The clothes: they don't replace them unless they try to clean them first. So they will, if we decide to do it, send a company out to take out all the clothes, bring them to a laundry-mat, and or drycleaner, and bring them all back clean and tidy. And, they will clean all the surfaces of this floor of the house, clean the furniture, and wipe down everything. This cleaning will be covered 100%. After they do this, if there is still a smell to any of the clothes, then they will cover for replacement. And the clothes that are burnt and obviously damaged, they will cover. The shelf of jeans is right over the top of the dryer, so they are toasted.

Mirielle took some things to the laundry mat today, her clothes from her room, and a sweatshirt from the laundry room. The sweatshirt still smelled like smoke even after she washed it and used fabric softener. But the guy was adament that this is how they do it, they try to wash before they replace unless it is really obviously damaged. So I guess we'll play their game.

So now I have to get ready to go on my adventures, being thankful every step of the way.....