So, I know it has been too long, sorry for the hiatus. I need to finish telling you about the car situation. The weekend we were going camping (Memorial Weekend), after I had loaded the back of the van perfectly, we left bright and early Saturday morning and wouldn't you know it, just a few blocks after filling the van up with gas, all four brake light warning indicators thingies on the dashboard light up. After my last experience with the brakes going out in the FJ, I was not taking any chances. We turned around, threw everything in the back of the truck hastily, and then filled the truck up with gas and finally headed out. On Tuesday morning after Memorial Day, we took the van to a Chrysler dealership to get serviced because after all, I had bought a WARRANTY! So, they fix several problems on the van because each time we take it in, the deductible is the same no matter how many things they fix according to my WARRANTY PAPERWORK I had from my signing day at the dealership. So, they call on Friday that everything is fixed and it is going to be $800 ish because we don't have a warranty. I bring my paperwork and show them, so more investigation is needed. We call the dealership and leave messages, talk to the wrong people, and wait. We wait, wait, wait for a week and a half. I felt like they were holding my van hostage. The dealership "forgot" to file the proper paperwork for my warranty, so indeed I did not have one, even though I really did pay for one. Okay, so now they were going to file the papers and we would have the warranty and then we could finally go pick up the van. I WISH! The warranty place confirmed that the dealership did file the paperwork, but had not sent the money and it usually takes 60-90 days for the dealership to send in the $$$ because they send in a bunch of them at once, so we would have to wait that long for them to pay. And, this warranty was different, so we would always have to pay up front and be reimbursed (only $200 out of the $800 was going to be reimbursed). ENOUGH ALREADY, we cancelled the warranty, the dealership came down $100 on our repairs and we finally rescued the van after a few weeks!
But, in all the this, the nicest thing happened to us. A wonderful lady and friend I work with loaned us her extra car. Let me tell you how sweet she and her husband are. I was at work with her and her husband drove the car to our job. They live in Brookshire, which is about an hour away. I had never even met this wonderful man and it touched my heart that someone would go that far out of the way for me. It was such a blessing to be able to continue my normal routine with Thomas and work. Thank you so much Cindy!
Now, on to the old thing I found. I found my BUCKET LIST from before I was even married. I wish I had dated it, but I know it was before I married Paul. Here is the list:
1. Kiss my love on top of the Empire State Building
2. Do travel nursing for one year.
3. Go back to Africa for medical missions
4. Go to Hawaii.
5. Swim with the sharks
6. Sky Dive
7. Learn to ski
8. Adopt a family of orphans
9. Provide Christmas for a needy family
10. Stop caring what other people think especially strangers
11. Pay for Karina's college
12. Pay for Timmy's college
13. Complete a triathlon post transplant
14. Ride a horse bareback
15. Go to Australia
16. Keep in touch with old friends (Thank you Facebook)
17. Save someone's life
18. Lasik eye surgery
19. Get a tattoo
20. Start a research organization for Autoimmune Hepatitis
21. Thank Jesus daily for giving me another day
22. Go to Paris
23. Go back to Honduras
24. Catch a shark deep sea fishing
25. Go to a World Series Game.
Those were the things I wanted to do, only a few have changed. I can no longer get a tattoo, it is part of my post-transplant rules, they also strongly discourage out of country traveling, but for the most part, I would still love to do these things. I would add to the list: Meet my donor's family, be a Christ-like role model to my children, and to be a blessing to all the people I meet. Life is good, no, life is great! I hope to be back soon blogging more often!
I go weekly or sometimes every two weeks for labs. Everything is looking great so far and I feel fabulous.
