Our Cars & Kitchen

I have forgotten to inform those who read my blog who I do not keep in frequent contact with that... Our cars are repaired!!

We took my alternator to Autozone TWICE to see if it was working. Both times we were informed that the alternator was fine and that something else was wrong with my car. Well, after Carlos spoke again with our mechanic friend he decided to go ahead and just try replacing the alternator. The issues with the car have now disappeared! It's nice to be able to drive my own car again.

The turning signals on the other car have also been repaired. It turns out that the issue there was also something that Carlos had previously checked, and it was an easy fix!

The electricity in our kitchen has no longer been giving us issues (knock on wood), and our refrigerator is working like a dream again (knock on wood).

So... Yea! :)

Thanksgiving 2010

Carlos and I joined my parents at my sister's house for Thanksgiving this year. We all did our part in preparing the meal.





Most of what we had to eat were traditional items (turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc). We had some delicious kabobs for an appetizer that consisted of various veggies, cheese tortellinis, olives, and summer sausage. We also enjoyed some pistachio wine with our meal.

We had a little mishap... My mom got a pretty deep cut on her finger. Luckily we had plenty of gauze, medical tape, and bandages.

Between feedings we kept busy with movies, a football game, shopping, and playing wii. It was a nice break from the everyday grind.

Halloween 2010

My sister and I co-hosted a Halloween party this year. Carlos and I dressed up as "that couple" which also involved a lot of improv acting.



My sister and her boyfriend dressed up as characters from a video game. She was a zombie and he was the zombie killer.



We had a really good time decorating and preparing food & drinks.

A Realization

So I am realizing that I really need more time to myself. I very rarely have any alone time. I don't feel like my time is my own. When I am at work it is my employer's time. When I am home, it's time to be with the husband.

The other day Carlos and I were sitting on the couch together trying to decide what we wanted to do in that moment. I decided that I wanted to play a game on my computer. He stated, "Well, since we're here together I was really hoping that we could do something together." What was my response? "Umm... we're always here together."

I'm rarely home when he's not home. He spends all day in the house while I am at work, and likes spending time with me when I get home. I appreciate that, but at the same time...It would be nice if I felt more free to do whatever I want to do. I feel pressured to either cook dinner, clean, go grocery shopping, etc., or to be spending time with Carlos.

My alone time is my recovery time, my time to process and de-stress. So... what am I going to do about it? Well I am not going to do nothing about it. I think I'll start out by discussing with Carlos some sort of plan to allow me to have more self time.

I know a lot of people never have time to themselves, particularly parents, but this is something I need right now. It's not that I need to be alone in the house, it's that I need to feel free take part in activities that involve only me (other than housework, etc).

What's new? Not much.

So what's new...?

Well relating to my previous blog, our cars are still pretty much in the same condition. However, Carlos did fix the locks on his car. Our kitchen electricity is still working most of the time, and our refrigerator has also been working well.

So far no luck at all on the job hunt for Carlos. I do think that I am becoming more patient in that area though.

Last month Carlos' dad got married! Carlos and I provided the music for the ceremony. It was a very nice, small, and simple ceremony. Perfect for them!



The above photo shows Carlos' Dad and new stepmom (Ricardo & Christy), they are the ones holding hands in the front row. The other people are their children (and children-in-law) and parents.

This coming weekend my sister and I are throwing a Halloween party at my house. I am hoping to take plenty of photos to share!

Developments

So... Here's where we're at with the car & refrigerator situation. No luck on my car, but we will work some more on that on Friday. No luck on Carlos' car, but now it has decided that whenever you turn the car off three of the doors unlock (and have to be relocked manually). The refrigerator is working again, but we have to have it plugged into an extension cord because the electricity on half of our kitchen is not working (maybe the refrigerator malfunction & electricity shortage are tied together...). Our garbage disposal is not working due to the electricity problem, and anything that we'd like to use that is on that side of the kitchen either needs to be plugged into an extension cord, or transported to the other side of the kitchen.

So... on a lighter note.. please watch the following video:

Broken Items

So this past week has been a week of misfortune.

My car has been having troubles and hasn't been running for at least a couple of weeks now. Carlos and I are in the process of trying to figure out what's wrong with it. So... We have been carpooling in his car. Now the steering wheel in his car decided to fall off yesterday. After he re-afixed the steering wheel the turning signals decided that they didn't want to work anymore. So that's our car situation.

We bought a brand new refrigerator a year ago because the freezer in our old refrigerator stopped working. Well, after a few months with our brand new refrigerator, it stopped freezing things as well. Instead of providing us with a replacement, the company insisted on having it repaired, but they needed to take it to their "shop" to repair it. After a couple of weeks or so we finally got our refrigerator back in working order. Now, as of this week, the freezer stopped working once more! Ugh! It is especially frustrating because our 1-year warranty has run out, and we are thinking that they will no longer repair it for free (even though this problem first began only after a couple of months or so after the purchase).
Each time our freezer has quit working we had been storing food in our friend's freezer (who is also our neighbor). However, he is now preparing to move to the UAE. So... hopefully this freezer issue can be resolved quickly and without too much loss of food.

For now... we'll just be cruising around in a car with a loose steering wheel and no turning signals.