Not again.

Another day, another broken household appliance. This time, it's the dryer. I worked on laundry all day Sunday and was down to the last two loads I was going to do that day, when I found the second to last load wasn't dry when the dryer had shut off. This isn't completely abnormal, especially for a load of towels, we have to run the load a bit longer than the original time. After the second time, the towels weren't damp, they were still pretty wet. It seems I had been giving my towels a ride in the merry-go-round, but without heat, they aren't going to make it to the dry stage. I knew this day was coming. The dryer had been making sounds like it was ready to die for months now, but you pray it will hold on until you might actually have the money to buy a new one, like 2015. No such luck. I tried to find the least expensive dryer, with the largest tub and best reviews. I wanted to spend $20 and have the thing last for 10 years, I'm knew that wasn't going to happen. I will be starting the "Buy Mark a new household appliance fund," if you want to contribute. I picked up my selection last night and installed it. We ran one load of towels and it dried them in one shot, good news. This year, we have purchased a new air conditioner for the house, a new dishwasher and now, a dryer. I'm knocking on wood right now, because we are the only house on our street with its original water heater, so it's only a matter of time.

We spent last Friday and Saturday in Mt. Pleasant visiting Marcy's family. Along with catching up and messing up Grandma's house, we got to visit a horse ranch that the family knows the owners. There were hundreds of horses there, it was pretty impressive. We toured a few of the barns that held some of the studs and new baby horses. The boys like petting the horses and we learned a little about the horse business, very little, but what do you expect for a couple of hours. One of the horses we were told was a bit rambunctious, so we were advised to stand back while the guy put him back in his stall. As soon as he did, all hell broke loose and this horse started kicking the wall and appeared to be trying to climb over the wall into the next stall. I've never seen a horse act like that, in all of my 3 trips to a horse barn, so take that for what it's worth. This horse was nuts, and the guy just laughed and said he always did that. Might want to check into some horsey Prozac. The day ended with tractor rides with uncle Rob, the boys loved that. They got to drive with Rob on the back, hard to get the grin off their faces after that. The weather was fantastic, in the upper 50's, so the outdoor activities were even better.

We got the tree up and I finished the outdoor inflatables yesterday, I think we are ready for Christmas. We are all done shopping for the boys, and I think Marcy and I got a dryer for Christmas, so a few more things for others and we are done. This has been a challenging year financially, so lets hope that 2010 is better. Lets try no major appliance, or vehicle, bills. No collapsing of the roof or flooding of the basement. No medical issues and no job loss. As long as all of this stays away, maybe we can save up and buy a new can opener in 2010, that broke this year to:)