Roller coaster life...

I know I need to spend more time on this post, but it's been one of those weeks, you know? As we pulled out of the drive for church this morning, Bob said, "It sure has been a long week since the tires were slashed." Indeed.

Week kick off: Tires slashed on Bob's truck, all four. Bob, ever the optimist, was glad the vandals did it on a Sunday when he didn't have to go to work. We also paid the truck off the same day we got it new tires and a detail job. So, in a way, it was like getting a new truck. And it needed new tires on the front anyhow. All's well that ends well, right? I'm thinking of putting a security camera in...

Bob gets fired: On Wednesday, after 10 years on the air at KNRS in Salt Lake City, Bob was fired. They said bad ratings. He was number one or two for years until this new People Meter ratings technology came out at the end of last year. To get ready for this, Bob's station manager switched the station from and AM dial to an FM dial losing 1/4 of the station listeners two months before the new technology came out. Talk Radio everywhere they rolled it out took a ratings dive since it doesn't measure Internet listening, etc. Everything I'd read and heard was that people were cautioning making program changes until the kinks were ironed out of the technology. Be that as it may, Bob's bonehead boss kept his job and Bob and Lee, who produced Bob's show, were fired. Oh, and it's an election year: Bob only gets picketed or fired in election years. Look it up. That day, he happened to record a promo for the next day's show which would feature a certain Senate candidate and its link to a nuclear energy company, a company which happened to be the radio group's largest sponsor. The promo never ran. Bob was fired that evening. With six weeks left on his contract. With no warning. Politics suck. But, I guess that's the game, and we're just praying really hard that something good comes of it.

Plumbing: It's been broken forever. I've had three different plumbers look at or fix the existing problems and they told me some of the issues would cost hundreds of dollars to fix. So, I saved up. Ready, I decided to try a new plumber, a local guy with an ad in our local shopper. He came and looked at everything and said he could keep the bill around $150. I almost fired him for giving me too low a quote. But, he came and did the work in less than an hour and charged me...wait for it...$55. Seriously, either all the other guys were rip off artist or my new friend Hans doesn't know how to rip people off for plumbing work. All I know is I'm having him back. For the first time in two years, I have no leaks or clogs to contend with. That is worth smiling over in an otherwise dismal week.

To celebrate our new destitute status, we took our kids to a farewell Chinese buffet dinner and a movie. I LOVED Toy Story 3. Just a great, great family movie. And then we went the next day and picked strawberries. The kids better hope that holds them, because we are about to see just how thrifty and frugal Mom can get with less than half an income.

Unless something works out. Which we hope it will. Accepting prayers at any rate. I have pictures, but I'm too tired to post them. :)