Freaking out just a little

I thought this was over. I thought that last year was the year that we “hemorrhaged” money. I see now that I was delusional. Hemorrhaging money is a multi-year process for us. It would be too simple to have one bad year.

Let’s backtrack. Last year was expensive. In the spring I got a letter that we owed $1800 in taxes that we had been overpaid to us in our 2004 refund. (Oops, my bad. I wondered why we got such a big refund!) Spring in to Summer our dogs both got sick. Hannah, the husky, cut her foot to the tune of a $600 ER visit, plus a couple hundred in “re-bandaging” fees every time she chewed through the bandages to the stitches. Bo, the boxer, developed two mast cell tumors. About $2900 later he was fine – and they did a really good job. (The dogs are not something I am sad about spending our money on – as they are such sweeties and such an important part of our family.) Between the dogs illnesses we had the AC recharged in the minivan ($400). We had to have our house painted ($3200) but before we had the house painted we needed to have the attached shed repaired because it was rotting and pulling away from the house ($1400). After tires for Jim’s car and a trip to Washington / Oregon for a wedding and vacation ($??? Didn’t keep track, but about $1500), it was time for dental surgery for Annie (roughly $3200 total). That takes us to roughly mid October. We’ll stop before the Christmas outpouring gets added in.

Oh, and our home’s AC went out in September. (We’ll discuss this a little further later.)

Shoot forward to 2007. I’m breathing a sigh of relief, because while we do have to replace our furnace and AC (furnace has to be replaced because it works sporadically at best – we live in Colorado so that’s not really acceptable, and because it’s not big enough to support an AC that is big enough to cool our house properly), we’ve known it was going to happen for a while now. Estimate: $5000+. DH has convinced me that we really do need to buy another car. ($10,000 - $15,000… but will probably have a three-year loan – so not totally scary) BFF in TX is getting married. (Driving to TX, hotel, meals, dress and alterations, gift… lets say $1000) Today we received the stunning news that the minivan needs massive repairs (because of the storm and “Lake Lisbon” I incurred a ton of damage to the front end of my car) - $1700 to make it “safe” to drive. We’ll need another $1100 to fix the AC, which has now been traced to the compressor. DH is not taking this laying down; he’s determined to find a cheaper way to get the AC fixed.

It’s only April.

Pray for us.

I’m thinking of buying “The Secret” to see if I can stick a finger in the proverbial dike.

I’m serious.