Fiderajer

... we interrupt this broadcast to update you on the continuing saga of the refrigerator, which is "continuing", despite the fact that you may have known nothing about it.

Last Monday, Memorial Day, our refrigerator went out. Not like on a date or anything (there's a joke here somewhere about where those little refrigerators come from... "When a mommy refrigerator and a daddy refrigerator really love each other..."). No, it "went out" as in "quit working". This is on the day after I'd been up all night with the dreaded Stomach Flu, which chose to manifest itself in a revisitation of anything and everything I'd eaten since about the eighth grade.

This is also on a holiday when everyone, including the appliance repair people, took a day off. (Good for them. I'm sure they needed a break from all those people hounding them about broken appliances... except, of course, how dare they choose a national holiday that would fall on the same day my refrigerator quit?!?) I called and left an appropriately desparate message for them to please call me back ASAP on Tuesday morning.

So, what with me being sick and completely unable to even think of venturing into the kitchen, my dad came over to help Knight take all the food out of the fridge. Dad took it all back to their house and stuffed it in their refrigerator and freezer. Yay for Dads!

I had to go to work the next morning to finish a few things and check out for the summer. Knight started his new job that day, too. I finished up about 11:30 that morning, and met the refrigerator repairman back at our house at 1:00.

After about half an hour, he determined that the circuit-board-something-or-other needed to be replaced. Did they have the part? No, ma'am. They'd have to order it and it would be in by Friday. Fantastic. Four days without a fridge.

I managed to keep busy for the next few days, and Friday rolled around. The nice lady at the repair shop called to say that they had the part and would I be around on Saturday? Yes, we're having a yard sale, but he can come fix the fridge. Please come fix the fridge.

Now, have you ever had a yard sale? If you have, then you probably know that your whole house looks like a tornado ripped through it because you've been digging around, gathering things to sell. Combine that with a few breakfast taco wrappers and a plate of unfinished pancakes from Whataburger, a yard sale in full swing, and two toddlers running around... and you have a fairly clear picture of our house at 10:00 that Saturday when he came back to install the thingamajig.

About two hours later, we had a hallelujah moment because the ice maker dumped the first batch of ice. I'll never take ice water for granted again.

My sister in law Deanna had come up to hang out and help with the yard sale. After the yard sale finished and I made a trip to Goodwill with the leftovers, she went with me to gather up my food from Mom's house and hit the grocery store. We grilled burgers for dinner, and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning - the first full day with a working fridge.

Fast forward five days to last night. I was feeling sick with this head cold, and a bit stressed, so what's the cure? Why, ice cream, of course!! As I scooped, I noticed that it was a bit soft. Posessing scientific observation and reasoning skills, I deduced that the freezer was going out again. Sure enough, when I opened it and looked, the back was covered in frost. Again.

Called and left another message. She called back. Is your freezer freezing over again? Yes. I can send him back out at noon. Will you be there? Yes, thanks.

He should be here in about an hour. Wish us luck!

... we now return you to your original broadcast...

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Can you say Crazy Cycle?

I haven't really posted anything of significance lately because this week has been really rough. The title is in reference to our Love and Respect study. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. I swear the author has a window into our lives.

If you don't want to read an emotional diarrhea of the keyboard, you can just quit right here. If you're a glutton for punishment, keep going, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Knight lost his job a couple of weeks ago, but found a contract to carry us through the month while he looked for a job. He was hired in a new job on Tuesday, selling residential and business security and monitoring systems. He was really excited about it because he's been ready to get out of the IT field for awhile. The new boss guaranteed him $2500 for the first month, with great benefits after 60 days. The pay would be straight commission. We had a bit of a discussion about that -- I'm nervous about it.

I had to have a little come-to-Jesus about the straight commission thing. God reminded me that Knight is the leader of our home, and that I am to be supportive of him. So, I agreed with God, and told Him that I was trusting in His ability to provide for our family. If this was where Knight felt God to be leading him to support us, then so be it -- I would be supportive of him.

Knight went in and did the paperwork to get hired, then went to a meeting/seminar thing on wireless options with another person from the company. Then on Friday afternoon, the guy called him and told him that he couldn't hire him because corporate didn't want to hire anyone for this office. We decided that God had firmly closed that door as a protective measure -- at that point, the only way that Knight wasn't going to be in that job was for God to do something like that.

In the meantime, though (I think at that seminar), Knight had met someone else from another company that does the same thing, who told him that if things didn't work out for the first company, to give him a call. Knight did that, and will start on Monday. There isn't a guaranteed salary for the first month, and no benefits. Knight has said he will continue to look for more stable income, but he's really excited about giving this a try.

I'm even more nervous about this position because of the lack of guaranteed income. God's still working on me about it. I really do trust God to take care of us, but I'm not at all sure that this job is the right one. I worry that Knight panicked and jumped at this opportunity because he felt that he didn't have any other options -- he's driven by the need to provide for his family, which doesn't lend itself to patiently asking for direction. I don't know if he's prayed about this or not. It's a touchy subject.

In the middle of all this, Knight had gone on Wednesday to pick up the first of his two weeks' severence pay from his old boss. The guy tried to give Knight an $88 check, and gave him the run-around about how he didn't really mean two full weeks' pay (which would be more like $1000). We're in the process of getting ready to take him to small claims court if he doesn't make restitution.

Knight's really, really angry about it, and rightfully so. Every time I bring up making any kind of documentation (sending his old boss a letter, or just writing down the conversations) to prepare for taking the issue to small claims, it starts a mini-battle. I'm a detail-oriented person, and Knight is not. He just wants to stomp to the courthouse and file a suit, thinking that the judge will hand him two weeks' pay because he says that the old boss said he would. The judge may very well do that, but I believe that it would behoove us to prepare a little more. (Edited to add: We've finished the letter as of Sunday evening, and Knight will mail it return receipt tomorrow.)

In the midst of all THAT (I told you it's been crazy), I had an issue at school. I caught our one and only qualifier for the state golf tournament cheating on a Chemistry test. He's a junior, and the juniors are going on their mission trip this week. They are scheduled to leave Tuesday morning, but this student qualified for the state tournament, which is held Monday and Tuesday in San Antonio. So, his flight was rescheduled so that he could fly out Wednesday morning and hook up with his class in D.C. On top of that, there were several people in the athletic booster club who paid for his hotel, travel, etc., for the tournament out of their own pockets.

Our school has a very strict policy that an athelete who cheats does not get to participate in the next event (basketball game, football game, whatever). This kid cost himself the state golf tournament. It breaks my heart for him. He's really a good kid -- I believe that he made one bad choice that cost him BIG. However, it's better that it cost him this than expulsion from college somewhere. I pray that he's learned his lesson.

That's it for now. I really try not to be so negative on this blog, but I really needed to dump all of this... and I think I feel better now.

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