Ten on Tuesday

There have been a few household dealios around here lately...dealios that have made me say "adulting sucks." But. Enough time has passed now that I'm looking on the bright side. I'm like that...ever the optimist. Yay! So, here are ten things that are making happy today:

1. Customer service. We use our blender every single day, for morning smoothies. So, when ours died a few weeks ago, it was rather inconvenient. But. Blendtec was fabulous. After listening to the malfunctioning blender over the phone, their service representative diagnosed stripped gears in the bottom of our jar and shipped us a new (improved) one, free of charge! It took a bit to get here, but now it's better than new. Hooray!

2. Fewer loads of laundry. Our dryer died not long ago. Last Thursday, the dryer repairman, unfortunately, declared the motor dead and the cost of fixing it to be roughly equal to buying a new (lower quality) dryer that wouldn't fit our space/needs as well. Lovely. After spending that afternoon shopping around at four different places, we ended up buying a new washer and dryer set. It was definitely more than we wanted to spend. :( But, with the store credit reward deal we found and the Fort Collins Utilities rebate, it seemed the best option...particularly considering that our washer/dryer set is already 12 years old. (We worried that, if we just replaced the dryer, the washer would inevitably go out shortly and then we'd end up paying installation and such twice, along with it being easier to rearrange the laundry room all at once. And you only get the rebate with the set.) Bleh. But, we're feeling so fortunate that we're in a position that we can still swing this thanks to our home equity. :P And, the new set (which was installed on Saturday) works well and holds bigger loads...meaning fewer loads altogether. Whew.

3. Temporary fixes. Adding to the list of things not working, our oven element is on its last legs. Of course. (It makes perfect sense, actually, since the range is the only appliance in the kitchen that hasn't been updated since we moved in here 12 years ago.) Fortunately, though, Nathan is handy and discovered that we could simply replace the dying part(s) to extend the life of the oven for awhile longer for considerably less than the cost of replacing the whole thing. Yay! (Keep your fingers crossed for us, okay? We now have all the parts but Nathan hasn't yet attempted the replacing of them.)

4. Fall weather. I'm wearing leggings today! After what feels like a rather long summer (weather-wise), I'm loving the crispness in the air today!

5. Forgotten treasure. In my closet purging of late, I discovered that I have quite a few necklaces...most of which I love and which carry sentimental value. But, I don't wear them very often for miscellaneous reasons. So. For the past two+ weeks, I've been challenging myself to wear a different necklace every day. I'm not allowed to repeat a necklace until I've worn them all. :) It's been really fun and makes me smile.

6. Mini me. A little over a week ago, Micah deliberately dressed just like Noah...and declared himself to be a mini-Noah. :) He was so proud of himself. Noah was less entertained at having his very own mini-me, lol. 

7. NFL GamePass. For a few years now, I've been getting NFL GamePass since we don't have a television cable or satellite provider/subscription. With it, I can watch the games (either the full game or the condensed versions) after they've completed. It takes away some of the suspense (since often I end up finding out the results ahead of time) but works for me. This year, they've improved on the program...making it so much easier for me to watch on our tv (instead of my much smaller laptop screen) via Apple TV and airing the games sooner after the end of the games. It's been lovely.

8. Brotherly love. Micah just loves his brothers, and that makes me happy. You can see it in how he copied Noah (see above) and in how he enjoys swimming with Asher:

(Yes, we've been making it to the pool once a week for these two to swim laps. Micah's been working on his endurance and strokes (and doing great!), and Asher just likes to be in the water. (He swims laps, too, but isn't really working on specific skills or anything right now.))
 
9. Christmas is coming. Only 81 more days until Christmas! Though I don't relish the expense of it all, I LOVE buying gifts for people. :) I'm already making my lists and coming up with awesome ideas...

10. Off week. Finally, what's making me happy today is the fact that this is our first homeschooling "off" week of the school year. (We do six weeks on, one week off, roughly.) I'll have more to say about how our first session went and all that...but, for now, I'm savoring the week off and using it for catching up and preparation. Yay!