Why We're Not Going to the Grand Canyon

A couple months ago, Grig decided he needed a vacation. I agree. He's been working really hard, and has been in near-constant pain for the last couple of months.

We decided that we would take our vacation after he finishes his class. We didn't have enough money this year to go back to Virginia, so we decided that we were going to go to the Grand Canyon. We picked our week, but everytime we went to make reservations (we were just going to camp there for $18 a day), we hesitated and decided not too. Soon we found that there are campsites that don't allow reservations, and we decided to try our luck with those. They are first come, first serve, and we felt good about gambling on getting a spot.

http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2009/11/grand-canyon.html

We had a bit in savings, and so we weren't too worried about paying for our trip to Arizona, especially since there is an extra payday in May for us.

However, the more I thought about it, the more the Grand Canyon began to feel wrong. Grig and I talked about it, and we decided that we probably should just stay close to home and go camping nearby. It would be a lot cheaper, we could bring the dogs, and if something was forgotten or something went wrong, we could just go home.

Once we had decided that, I began to feel a lot better.

And that's when things started to go wrong.

First, we found out that the L5 vertebrae in Grig's back is out of alignment. It has a really technical name, but essentially it means that he is in pain all the time and his only options are stretches or surgery. We're hoping he can build the strength back up without fusing his vertebrae together, but we'll see what the Lord has planned. Anyway, so that took some of our savings.

Then, a few days after that discovery, the battery light came on in the car. Our registration was expiring anyway, so when we took the car in for a safety inspection, we had them check that as well. It turns out that our alternator was dying. We ended up having to buy a new one, and then register that car for another $60+.

There went our entire savings. Then, we found out that Grig doesn't have work next week. Sometimes Grig's employer is very frustrating. They will just tell all their employees not to come in and they won't pay them for the time off. It can make things pretty scary.

Now, the extra paycheck in May is just going to be a regular paycheck to make up for the 1/2 of a paycheck in June.

This blog isn't written to complain, but rather to explain our situation.

We'd decided before all these bad things happened that we should stay closer to home, and now we know why.

I am so grateful that we were listening to the Spirit. I'm so glad we didn't make reservations at the Grand Canyon. If we had, we wouldn't have money to pay for our bills, and we would have been in trouble. We'll have more opportunities to go there, but for now, we can enjoy this wonderful home that we've been blessed with.

We can be grateful that my husband has a job, and is still capable of working and going to school.

We can be grateful that we have sufficient money to pay our bills and buy groceries. We can be grateful that my sister-in-law lives with us and helps out as much as she can.

We have so many blessings that every time I start to worry about money, I feel a little guilty. I KNOW the Lord will provide, but sometimes I can't help but stress. I don't like living paycheck to paycheck. It is stressful, but it also makes me much more aware of the blessings that the Lord gives us.

Though I am a bit disappointed, I am grateful that we're not going to the Grand Canyon this year. If we had to have car problems again, we do have money right now to take care of them, and that is also a blessing.

So, yeah, our vacation isn't going to be what we planned, but we're still going to have fun anyway. As long as I'm with Grig and Kevin, we can pretty much do anything and have a good time.

Kevin's face doesn't look like he's having a good time :)

Two Dead Mice and Other Miracles

I haven't been very good about blogging lately.

I'm working on it.

We've had some pretty awesomely miraculous things going.

For example, we had a laboratory bill that occurred in July. We haven't been able to pay it until now, due to our rather tight budget. However, we had spoken to the people there, and they had assured us that there would be no late fees.

Even though we have had enough the last couple of weeks, we were going to save up our money and pay off the debt to the laboratory after our taxes came back. It seemed like a good plan, and we both felt good about it.

However, two weeks ago, I started getting a really strong impression that we needed to pay that bill immediately. I looked into our finances, saw that we would have enough to pay the bill out of our savings. I spoke to Grig, and we decided to use that money to pay off the bill. On December 12, I paid the bill online, and our final debt was closed. That was quite a relief for a number of reasons, but I didn't understand the full repercussions until today.

Tonight, as I collected the mail, I noticed a letter from the laboratory place. Thinking it was a receipt for our payment, I opened it up to be greeted by the following words:

*Your account is past due.

*At this time your account has not been placed with a Third Party Collection Agency. 

*Failure to pay the past due amount will result in referral to a Third Party Collection Agency and potentially affect your credit score. 

I quickly went online to check our balance and was relieved to find that it was now zeroed out. I then looked at the date on the past due invoice. The date on the invoice was December 11. So, the day after they sent out the past due invoice, we paid off the full amount.

That is not a coincidence. That is a miracle. At this time, when we are trying to pay for a new home, any impact on Grig's credit score may have been massive. I am so grateful that I followed the prompting to pay off that debt.

We couldn't have paid it any sooner than we did, but the timing was perfect. If it had been any later, it may have really negatively affected us.

I am a very grateful soul tonight.

Here is another story for you:

We've been seeing signs of mice in our laundry room. I first noticed it when I saw that the corner of the puppy food bag had been nibbled through.

After that we started seeing some droppings on the floor. Luckily, it appeared that they only were living in the laundry room, but then, we saw a baby mouse with his eyes barely opened in the kitchen. As soon as we could, we bought mouse traps.

They were just the old wooden kind, but I took a piece of dog food, surrounded it with peanut butter, and used the peanut butter to place it in the trap. Grig then placed the trap against the wall.

This happened at about 8:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. We then went about our activities.

At about 2:00 a.m. (yes, we were up late, but Saturday nights are Grig's only night off, so we sometimes don't got to bed at 8:00 p.m. like normal), I decided to go and check the trap.

To my surprise, not only was it sprung, but two mice had been caught and killed by the little wooden trap!

I didn't take a picture, but if you want to see approximately what it looked like, here is a link to a picture. https://retirenicaragua.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/img_0472.jpg

The picture really was almost exactly what happened to our mice. One had been caught by the neck, and the other had been caught on its face. Evidently we're not the only ones it has happened too.

Grig came out and dumped the mice, cleaned up the trap a bit, reset it, and put it back in the same spot.

The next morning, I heard it snap again, and came it to see that it had caught another mouse. It was in its final death throes, so I left it alone until it finished dying. Grig was nice enough to dump that one two.

So, with one trap, we killed three mice in less than 24 hours. The trap has remained in the laundry room ever since, but we haven't caught anything else, or seen any new signs. Hopefully that's all of them.

As far as the home search is going, we have one home that we are looking at pretty seriously, but we're not sure yet. We're going to look at it again on Monday. I really like it. I hope it pans out!

I hope to put up the fourth episode of Dragon and the Wolf soon. The animation has been done for months, but it has been difficult to find time for Grig to voice-act. Hopefully I can have it done before Christmas.