Keeping my head above water....

You ever have one of those weeks that no matter how hard you try, nothing goes right.  Well, I've had two of them in a row.  I am a very positive thinking person, I try never to allow things to effect me in a negative way. It was a little hard the last two weeks.  Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, the temperatures have been in the mid to upper 90's, with feel like temperatures around 105 - that's hot, and to make it worse we have had no rain in almost 2 months, except for one small cloud burst.  Here's where it starts...our air conditioner wasn't cooling our home.  We have vaulted and cathedral ceilings, so we thought it was just the extreme heat with no rain and it was working too hard to cool.   Our normal maintenance man was on vacation for 3 weeks, so we have two window air conditioners stored in the garage in case of a hurricane, we can at least hook them up to the generator.  Now, it's getting really hot, so my sweet husband put one in the kitchen window and one in my "Relax Room"...that helped, both placed in windows in the back of the house, not a pretty sight, but in this heat, I didn't care.  I finally decided to call some else out that works with our normal maintenance man...he came out on Friday, and I knew he was going to say you need a whole new unit, but ours is under 6 years old.  To my complete joy, it only needed a good cleaning, and now it works beautifully....my home is iced cold again.  OK...one problem solved. 

Onto the next, my dryer began making this horrible sound about two weeks ago, we ordered a new one and of course my old one wasn't a pedestal dryer, so that's what we ordered...it came a few days later than we planned, but it works so nice, no more bending over to get out my laundry.  I was hoping the older dryer would go so I could get the new pedestal model...couldn't see buying a new one if the other worked...so that ended all good as well - don't tell my husband, but I actually love doing the laundry again...

Alright, all problems solved now, right...NO!!!  I get a text message from my cousin in Texas stating that her Dad, my only Uncle still with us, who is 87 and suffering from Alzheimer's, was rushed to the hospital from his Assisted Living Facility, he stopped breathing and had no pulse.  This is also the Uncle that lived right next door to me when I was a little girl living with my wonderful Grandparents, he was, besides my Grand-father, the only Father figure I had, and he is actually the one who kept in touch with my Father, and got us together when I was 16.  So, needless to say, I was beside myself.  Well, as always, God is right there holding us up when we are in need.  My Uncle is fine, he actually had choked during dinner, and had they not be ready for him to go back to his room, they would never have called 911.  He was in ICU, but is now out.  I am so happy and grateful.

Next, my daughter and husband were in a charity golf tournament at Innisbrook Resort on Saturday, she, being a typical young woman, didn't like any of her other golf clothes so she left work to go to the golf store to buy something new during her lunch hour.  Pulling out of the parking garage, the gate slammed down on top of her car.  She drives a white Hummer (H3), luckily it hit the top of the vehicle on the black rubber things on top, don't have a clue as to what they are called.  She was in tears thinking it had dented the top...she got to the golf store and looked, thank God, no damage, just a little yellow paint from the gate, a nice washing, the problem gone.  But....leaving the Resort yesterday, she was coming down a hill, now we don't have too many hills here in Florida, but there at the bottom of the hill was a police car, yep...she got pulled over!!!  The police officer came over to her and asked if she knew why he pulled her over and she admitted, she didn't slow down enough going down hill, but she was only going 8 miles an hour over the speed limit.  He was so kind and looked up her drivers license and said "you've never had a ticket of any kind", she said no, and he said "well, we're going to keep it that way"...He actually told her, you're lucky it was me and not the State Patrol that was 2 blocks away, you would have been ticketed.  He walked away, and she began to cry, so my husband drove the rest of the way home.  A good lesson she learned though.

So today, after almost two months of no rain, we are having one storm after another coming in off the Gulf...my lawn and tropicals are so happy...it's amazing how fast everything can get so green, but it does.   I guess the reason for this post is that in life, nothing is promised, and no matter what you do to advert problems, they happen to all of us, but with my faith in God and my family, I have learned not to get panic, stay calm, keep the faith and know that it will all work itself out.  As with many people, after you've come through difficult situations, you can look back and laugh at yourself, and honestly know just how strong you are.

Here is to a wonderful summer, stress free for everyone, and nothing but good thoughts, wishes and a fun-filled summer 2011.  And, to never forget how blessed we are truly are!!!