Wednesday, February 17, 2010

back in washington

I'm mooching off the neighbor's internet right now. :) I've been doing a lot of internet mooching lately, mostly at a coffee shop a couple blocks away called The Coffee Cabin. We don't have internet at our place yet, since we are trying to keep our bills down a little bit until I get a job. Sometimes it works to get on to the neighbor's internet at home, but only rarely (like right now!). So, I've been going to the Coffee Cabin a lot, and doing my job searches...applying everywhere I can. Hopefully it will pay off soon! Paul is working with my dad in his insurance business in Leavenworth, and they are enjoying working together a lot.

We are living in a duplex, which is actually a four-plex, in Wenatchee, WA--which is about a half hour from where our parents live, in Leavenworth. Our next door neighbor's name is Terry and he goes to our church, Calvary Chapel. Then there are two people that live on the lower level. One is a traveling nurse who is only here once in a while, and the other I haven't met yet. We got a whole bunch of furniture for free, mostly from Paul's parents, that they just have had in storage, so it already feels like home!

I guess I should tell you what happened on the drive here. Everything was going great...we stayed with a friend in South Dakota, and then made it to Helena, Montana the next day with great weather. We stayed a full day in Helena with Paul's cousins and aunt, and that was really fun. Then, we left early in the morning the next day to drive home. We were about an hour and a half from Helena, and we hit a frozen dead deer. Paul was passing a semi-truck, and getting back to the lane, and by the time we saw it, it was too late (unless we wanted to risk getting in a wreck with a semi--no thank you). So we hit the dead deer, and then right after that our car started sounding really really bad. It was like there was a flat tire, and the engine was grinding up like the sound of a blender. And the car wouldn't run more than 5 mph. So we pulled over to the shoulder of the hwy. At this point, I thought it was just a flat tire. So we got out of the car, but everything looked perfectly fine. So we tried to drive it again, and at least make it to the next exit which was a mile away.

We tried to just coast down the hill, but it sounded like Paul was flooring it. I was afraid the car was going to explode, so we pulled over. (This is becoming a really long story--sorry!) We called a tow-truck from the town ahead--Drummond--and he towed us back to Helena. Now, I have to tell you about our tow truck man. He was a husky man that I didn't think would be very talkative, but I was very wrong. He told us all about all the accidents he'd seen on the highway, and all the people that "didn't walk away." He told us about his various jobs, since Drummond is such a small town. He is a tow trucker, a firefighter, a mechanic, and an EMT all at once. And he told us about this amazing soup he gets at the only resturant around...and he really loved this soup. It was a cream of broccoli, and he went on and on about how creamy it was, how he can never make anything like it at home, and about the lady from Pennsylvania that cooks it and loves to cook...and how he never orders anything else there except for this cream of broccoli soup!

Anyway, we were thoroughly entertained by him, and then we arrived in Helena, ended up renting a car the next day, and coming home. The car was later fixed (the only thing wrong with it was that something had been bent out of place), and Paul's aunt drove it here about a week ago, since her boyfriend lives around here. Anyway, that's what happened on our trip, if you were wondering.

It is nice to be back in Washington, and we are having wonderful weather right now. No snow, no coats--I only need a light sweater or sweatshirt, but today, even that was too hot! I hope it stays like this. I probably could say more, but this post is getting much too long, and I don't want to lose my internet connection before I finish this!

Love to all.