Blessings

Our family has had a few blessings this week that I wanted to share. God is always so good. He's good even when we don't get extra blessings, but I want to be sure and give him credit when the blessings flow!!!

Mr. William: Our upstairs tub started leaking a few months ago. The faucet in the tub just wouldn't turn off. It started out as a small leak and ended up as $100 extra on our water bill! YIKES! We didn't have a "go to" plumber so Eric just called our local Lowe's to get a recommendation. The guy in the plumbing department gave us the number to a plumber, which we called blindly and asked to come fix our leak. Our faucet handles also had issues, so we asked him to change the handles as well. Mr. William walks in with a bald head and a huge red handlebar mustache, overalls, and his bag of tools. My children were instantly likely Mr. William! William fixed our leak, but I had purchased the wrong kind of handles for the tub. He assured me that it was VERY easy--anybody could do it. If I couldn't do it, he would come back and put them on free of charge.

Well, it wasn't as easy as William had remembered. We went to Lowe's, and they told us we needed to buy these special tools so we could remove the fixture going into the wall, so we could bring them back and they could sell us the right size handles. So we bought the tools and came home. And procrastinated. Three weeks. Then we took the fixture to Lowe's to have it sized and buy the handles. Nope. Not that easy. They didn't have that size. 1962 fixtures are out of stock I guess. So we buy these universal handles that go on with a vice grip.

We come home and I get to work on the project (since Eric can't see well enough for these types of things). The thing is, because these aren't sized to our specific tub fixtures, the nice pretty chrome fittings that go over the rods that stick out of the tub wall are too long. I don't care. I just want a working tub. I got the hot water on. Yes! I got the shower handle on. YES! Then comes the cold water. It won't tighten up right. Then when we think it's tight enough we tried it. Turned the water back on in the house. The stupid thing starts leaking again and won't turn all the way off! Oh--and someone I have managed to make it turn the wrong direction--off is on and on is off. Crud.

Eric calls Mr. William and tells him we have a problem. It's leaking again and I couldn't get the knob on. It's been three weeks. We have no idea if William is going to charge us, but it has to be fixed. Budget smudget! Mr. Williams walks in with a super nice smile and gets to work this morning. He worked for an hour and a half. He fixed the leak and put the last knob on. He also cut our chrome fittings so the tub fixtures actually LOOK nice in addition to working! But the best part? Mr. William didn't charge a dime. He smiled, tipped his hat, and told us to have a wonderful day. Angel in disguise? I think so!

Wonder Grandparents: My parents are bringing our kids to their house in Wichita this weekend so that Eric and I can have a weekend to ourselves!!! What a blessing! Eric and I get very little alone time--either individually or as a couple--because of our driving situation. We all go everywhere together all the time. It honestly hardly ever occurs to me to go somewhere without the rest of the family even if I could. The timing is GREAT for this alone time! Just before Kendi comes home and hopefully just before Eric's kidney transplant. The budget won't allow us to be extravagant but that's hardly the point. We can probably splurge for a movie and dinner out. But we can DEFINITELY sleep in, sit in the quiet for hours, and talk! LOL! Thanks mom and Dennis!!!!

Anita