Another Day in Paradise

There's a country song that describes elements of a day in the life of a family: kids screaming, phone ringing, dog barking, overdue bills, sour milk and broken appliances, to name a few. The singer says, though, " Well, it's ok. It's so nice. It's just another day in paradise. Well, there's no place that I'd rather be. Well, it's two hearts and one dream. I wouldn't trade it for anything. And I ask the Lord every night for just another day in paradise." This has become Jesse's catchphrase when he's had just a normal day with nothing out of the ordinary, which is where the title of our website came from.

At first I was about to sum our week up that way, to say it's been just an ordinary week with nothing unusual or exciting. To say that, though, would actually be incorrect. As I re-thought the events of the week, I was struck by how out of the ordinary it truly was.

To start with, last weekend my brother came home from college for the first time in a month. We joined him, my mom, and some friends for dinner Friday night at Red Robin, one of my favorite restaurants. Afterwards, everyone parted ways, and David and Jesse went to a movie while I went home. As I sat there that night, on this very computer, a lyric in a song I was listening to stuck out to me, and a whole series of thoughts began to go through my head as I contemplated the line of the song. I began to write out my thoughts and ended up with a poem that kinda expressed the cry of my heart for God. On Sunday, at church I was able to share what I had written leaving much of the congregation (and myself) in tears. In fact, my mom even took it to work and began to pass out copies to her coworkers and quite a few people asked me for copies. It was awesome that God moved so mightily from something I had written. That afternoon, about 25 of my family members gathered together at my aunt's house for an end of summer BBQ. We celebrated one of my cousin's birthday and spent the afternoon eating lots of food and playing "telepictionary". By early evening, though, Jesse and I realized we needed to go home to partake in the daily grind that we call "laundry" for we were running out of clothes to wear in the upcoming week.

While the next 3 days were fairly uneventful as far as our jobs or school go, we spent those days in a pregnancy scare, wondering if I was pregnant or not. That amounted to quite the emotional roller-coaster, especially for me. I'm nearly 23 and have always just wanted to be a wife and a mom. But as thrilled as I would be to find out that we were going to have a baby, it's intimidating to think of it happening so early in our marriage. We'll be parents the rest of our lives and only newlyweds for a short amount of time. I also know that while I'm older, Jesse isn't quite 21 yet and has expressed not feeling quite ready to be a dad yet. So, thinking that I may be pregnant now triggered dreaming of the excitement of a baby, but wondering about every aspect of how this would change our lives including: where we'd live, if we could afford a 2 bedroom house, if I could get away without me working, what we'd name the baby, how my body would change, how I would tell certain people, etc. After 2 sleepless nights and 3 negative pregnancy tests later, we discovered by Wednesday that I was, in fact, not pregnant. Jesse was really great the whole way through it. He didn't freak out at all about the possibility of being a dad so soon and comforted me through the difficult emotions.

Thursday, we took time out to relax at home from the exhausting week we'd already faced. We spent the evening at home. Jesse cooked dinner and we hung out watching our favorite reality shows.

And then, just when the week comes to an end and you think you can breathe, a million things happen at once. Fortunately, our's were mostly good.

For one, Jesse and I both got paid. We always love our paydays!!! In addition to that, though, because of a fall training I had to go through, my paycheck was about twice what it normally is, which is super!!! On top of that, I found out a few weeks ago that I was given an additional grant in my financial aid at school. Well, this extra grant meant that when we were going to owe money to my school, we were now going to be refunded money since the aid surpassed what my tuition would cost. I didn't think I would receive this money until December at the end of the term, but found out yesterday that I could pick up my check that very day in the school office. So on top of our paychecks, I received an extra check for over $1300, which is even $400 more than I expected it to be! With all of that, we went out and bought a new TV, much better than the 12 in. one we've been using, and Jesse got a new video game he was wanting, and I got to go shopping and buy new clothes. We ended the night by having my aunt, who's a nurse, remove Jesse's stitches. While his cut is all healed up, it appears that he has a bit of an infection. So we just have to keep watching it and make sure it doesn't get any worse.

The only downside to the day was that we finally received the hospital bill that we've been dreading for Jesse's stitches. The local anesthetic was roughly $30, the X-Ray was near $150, the emergency room was about $640 and the doctor's services were about $680. The total bill was upwards of $1550. They took off $200 since we don't have insurance and then another $100 because we paid that in the ER. So we're down to about $1250. We have to make a payment within 20 days, but otherwise there's no minimum payment that has to be made and they'll simply keep sending us bills until it's all paid. So while it's another expense, at least it's not a high-pressure expense with a due date on it or any interest accrued.

Today, Jesse and I spent most of the day apart. He invited several guys over to watch the Oregon Ducks lose on our new TV while I went shopping with my cousin. Afterwards, he stayed home to play his video game while I went over to my mom's to scrapbook with her. Jesse joined us later and my mom made us dinner, then Jesse came back home while I stayed there a few more hours.

I'm not really sure what our plans are for tomorrow or what exciting things will happen this next week. As for now, though, I'm going to spend some time with my husband as we end another day in paradise.