Today was "the day"...Amanda went back to the dentist to get her teeth cleaned and to look at the chipped molar. The good news is she was a big girl and got the teeth cleaned without a problem this time. The bad news, and it was BAD, is that she has two cavities (despite brushing twice a day) and one will require a crown. The total damage could come to over $700, and that is on top of the $160 today. I'm sure we'll manage, but we are praying for a financial miracle to take care of all of this unexpected expense. But things got better from there.
This afternoon Stan (a fellow associate pastor at the church) and I started working on the bus. The fan switch went out on the air which makes it nice and toasty picking up kids in 100 degree weather. Trying to save the church money, Stan and I attacked the problem with great bravado. Last week we took the air conditioner/heater panel out and found some burned up wires and a melted plug on the fan control switch. Just $35 later we thought we had the parts to fix the problem. Today, we took the old parts off and put on the new. We held our breath, cranked up the bus and then Stan had to slap me and tell me to start breathing again 'cause I was still holding my breath waiting for the air to come on...no air. Oh, I forgot to mention that before our "repair job" the air would come on, but you could not turn the blower up or down. Now, no air came on at all. Being the natural mechanics that we are and looking at all the unplugged stuff still in the little hole where the control panel came from we asked, "I wonder what all of these go to?" After twisting the AC control panel this way and that, we found someplace to plug something in and decided to look for a plug that might fit it. Sure enough, one of those "I-wonder-what-this-is-for" thingamajiggies fit, so we plugged that in. We held our breath again (actually, I kept breathing because I didn't want Stan to have to slap me again), cranked the engine and wa-la...the air came on! We now know the answer to the age old question, "How many associate pastors does it take to rewire an AC fan switch". The answer is two! So we figure we saved the church around $200 and we were quite proud of ourselves.
A few hours later, it was time to trade in my bus mechanic hat and come home. After a yummy spaghetti meal (Brooke makes GREAT spaghetti), Brooke left for ladies' Bible study while Amanda and I hit the books. Since we had a long weekend and since we try to avoid homework on Wednesday nights, we had a LOT of math and reading to do tonight. I got a short video clip of her reading...still seems like she progresses every day. After that, Amanda wanted to go outside and play with the water hose while I ran over to the church and got a book I want to start reading tonight. When I came back through the yard, Amanda wanted me to play with her. How can you play with a child who has a garden hose without getting wet? I, for one, do NOT like the cold, and when you get sprayed with a water hose you definitely get cold. For 20 minutes or so, we took turns chasing each other with the water hose until we were both thoroughly soaked and cold. Amanda came in, got a bath and headed to bed. We talked about the fun we had today, what a big girl she was at the dentist and then we prayed together before she fell asleep.
Brooke got home from Bible study just a few minutes ago. She asked if Amanda was outside tonight and I said "yes". She said everybody at Bible study heard her screaming and having a good time during our water fight!
So now, Brooke is sitting in "the reading chair" reading her book. I'm gonna finish posting this and read a bit myself.
- Rob
1 comment:
Yep I heard her screaming too! At least you were playing with her which is more than what most dads do!
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