January: An INTERESTING Start to 2010...

Well, 2010 came, and with it came many surprises. And by surprises I mean trials. I had a feeling they were on the way because life had been pretty peachy for a while, and sure enough! They came a'knockin' on my door. Hence the lack of blog posting for the last month.

Trial #1: A very sick hubby. Trevor started feeling sick (again) on January 1st. Long story short, he's had intestinal issues for a while, starting before our cruise to Mexico last July. After the cruise, he had a rough couple of weeks but some anti-bacterial drugs helped out until he felt generally better. Then, since August, he's felt generally fine, but just not completely back to his normal, regular self. Then, on the 1st, for some unexplained reason, the terrible symptoms came back with a vengeance! The antibiotics made him MUCH worse. He was so sick for about 3 weeks that I couldn't stand it anymore. We had to put him on a temporary no-milk, no-gluten diet until he could feel good enough to function. He's now currently feeling much better and can eat normal foods, but it's just a matter of time until this happens again. Test results from his samples showed nothing, so now we're waiting to get a colonoscopy that will hopefully shed light on what is plaguing this poor man. Anyway, needless to say, I played nurse for most of January, and there were much prayer and fasting in Trevor's behalf. Still a waiting game now...

Trial #2: One of the six apartments that I manage had a flooding incident, caused by this tiny little nut:This nut attaches the water supply line to the base of the toilet. Apparently it got old and tired, and decided to split apart in the middle of the night and start spraying large amounts of water into one of the two upstairs bathrooms, most likely for hours before one tenant woke up at about 4:30am and heard the noise and was able to shut the water off.

So, when I got the 4:30am phone call, you can imagine that I really had NO idea what to do, especially when she explained that the water was POURING down through the ceiling into their living room, and there was now a hole in the ceiling (onto the brand new sofa, too!!):So, that's about the time in my life when I learned about "restoration" companies, and gained a huge appreciation for the 24-hours-a-day ones! They were able to get over to the unit by 6:15am to start the cleanup process. Here they are, working on ripping up the sopping wet carpet padding:
A few hours later, still working on things, slowly discovering that they'll have to keep ripping out any drywall that was no longer dry. We were all pretty shocked at how much had to come down, and at the fact that puddles of water kept falling out of the ceiling as they ripped out more and more of the ceiling. That water got EVERYWHERE!
What it looked like, 7 hours later:
Well, the good news is, it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since the initial phone call, and we're just a few steps away from having everything back together! The living room carpet padding needs to be re-installed and they are bringing in brand new carpet for replacement! Here is a picture I took about a week ago when they were finishing up the mud for the drywall:They have since textured and painted everything! Hooray! This journey is almost wrapped up!

Trial #3: My laptop finally died. It has made its way to laptop heaven where it can rest from daily usage forever. I turned it on one day at work and all I got was a black screen with a white cursor. Not even "safe mode" could bring me to my desktop. I took my Dell to the GeekSquad at Best Buy and they said this was caused by either a "bad hard drive" or a "bad operating system". Okay... so what you're saying is... it's basically not ever going to be of use again. Sweet. How much is this going to cost?, I think to myself. Well, not TOO bad, considering I had to purchase an external hard-drive and then have them transfer every document and program on my computer to this device the size of a regular iPod. At least I have all my stuff. Even if it's just sitting there, in a device in a box in the corner, collecting dust. I still have the insides of my Dell!

Trial #4: I was called to be Ward Music Chairperson and Choir Director of my ward. Okay okay so this isn't REALLY a trial because I really do enjoy directing choir and spreading my love of Christ through the medium of music. The trial part came when I was informed that one week from being called to this calling, we were having Ward Conference, and the Stake Presidency wanted for the choir to sing. Ok. 1 Week! I can do this! And... I did. AND... It was probably the best choir number ever performed by a choir that I was conducting. We sang "How Great Thou Art" and I really believe that every person in that room could feel the Spirit. So, Trial #4 becomes a blessing! :)

Trial #5: Struggling with work. Needless to say, from all the stress of everything else going on in my life (even with my extreme yoga skills that help me cope with stress better), I began to struggle at work and had a hard time completing a project I was given. I essentially felt like a failure, and yet couldn't lead myself to become a success. This is not who I am! So, I'm working now to turn myself around and go forward on the right foot. February is going to be a good month! :)

Trial #6: In the course of trying to fix Trial #1, I have found out that my new health insurance is not as awesome as I thought. Apparently, when I asked my insurance company if the IHC hospitals and facilities in the Utah Valley Area accepted my new insurance, I was told that they did! This was when we were signing up for the insurance. Little do I know that, SURE, they "accept" our insurance, but they are all considered "out-of-network", therefore changing our coverage and discounts if we choose to go there. At least there's one in-network hospital in Orem that we can go to, but SERIOUSLY!?!? ... I wish I had known this before I signed up. Because I wouldn't have. Blah. Oh well, we'll make it work. Guess if I ever have a baby in Utah I'll be having it at Timpanogos Hospital because I don't really have another choice.

Trial #7: In the midst of my main apartment flooding issue, I also had to deal with these other apartment issues that popped up in January: wet spot on carpet in another unit, lower heating coil in oven burst and had to be replaced (I did this MYSELF, mind you!!), and a toilet that overflowed with really really nasty smelly stuff (aka poop). Loooovely.

Okay, so this is a long post, and enough about trials!! Now, I want to talk about the Blessings that came to visit me in January:

#1 - My love and concern for my husband's well-being grew, A LOT.
#2 - I learned a whole bunch about fixing damaged walls in homes. I also learned how to install a heating element in an oven. I learned to make sure to unplug the oven before you do so, or you could get an electric shock that's worse than a car crash (don't worry, I didn't learn this from experience, whew)
#3 - I re-learned my love for music, and was able to experience a wonderful performance by my choir.
#4 - I now spend less time on the computer when I'm at home! Yay!
#5 - I got to go shopping for the ENTIRE day with my best friend Chris last Saturday. It was very therapeutic, and seriously wonderful!
#6 - At least I have health insurance, and we can afford it.
#7 - I've been able to re-evaluate my life and decide who I want to be and what I want to do moving forward.
#8 - Trevor did laundry for me TWICE in the last month! I love that man! :)
#9 - Most of these trials have been (or will be, very soon) completely resolved!!!
#10 - I've drawn nearer to my Heavenly Father through prayer and scripture study.

I definitely believe that trials are hard, but they bring blessings. Good night! :)