Friday, November 5, 2010

Processing and Calculating The Week.

The past few days have felt like a strange twilight zone where everything comes in extreme highs and lows in an odd string of events. I think if I made a super-geeky-yes-I’m-an-Accountant-what-of-it-balance-sheet for the week, it would be on the plus side, but I’m not sure until I process it all…

Monday: I got this unbelievable urge to clean up Ali’s living room toy corner (a tinge of nesting maybe??). She’s quite the little hoarder, and has mixed up every possible combination of toys into a jumbled, unplayable mess, so she’s been actually playing with all of like 5% of the monstrous mess that is her corner.

And although I’m all about getting a kid to help with their junk issues, a total toy overhaul is just not one of those things that you want to do WITH your kid, because then she rediscovers every toy and can’t stand to part with a single one.

So Chris, after realizing how much it was under my skin to get done, suggested that we do it together the next night during election returns – perfect combination.

Tuesday Night: Wow, did the organization process become a mess:

IMG_1452
(And that was just half of it, since I don’t have a wide-screen camera lens and all.)

But, besides the extreme therapeutic satisfaction that came from getting everything in a properly organized and sorted through manner, I got an extra reward.

I found this at the very bottom of her toy box:IMG_1454
My heart has been painfully distressed for about three months, ever since it went missing. It was a very special, romantic gift from Chris, and I had laid it on the counter one day after Church. It disappeared. We rooted through the garbage – no luck. I grilled Ali, and at first she said she hadn’t seen it, but then when I showed her the matching earrings, she confessed.

“I took it. I broke it. But I don’t know what I did with it.”

I bribed her with all sorts of wonderful promises if she could find it, but no luck – she just didn’t remember.

I searched high and low through all of her things, but apparently my search never made it to the bottom of the bottomless pit that was her toy box.

Ah, the reward of finding it – and it wasn’t even broken!! I was ecstatic the rest of the night.

Wednesday Morning: Chris discovers a water leak. The dressing room floor is wet, and the living room ceiling has a slowly growing water stain.

Nothing distresses my husband more than a water leak. Nothing.

(Except maybe squirrels.)

I promise to schedule a time for a plumber to come out when I’ll be at home, and we both dread the possible end result.

Then I head to my doctor’s appointment. Wearing a sleeveless dress, thanks to my last horrifically traumatic weigh-in.

But it paid off – my weigh-in was completely redeemed, and so I rewarded myself with a Reese’s Cup.

And then – as if the visit couldn’t get any better after being four pounds less than that obviously erroneous former weigh-in, the doctor confirmed that Noah had, indeed, finally flipped – no more breech!!

Who gives a rip about plumbing problems?

Oh yeah – me. And Chris.

Before I left the hospital, I went ahead and filled out my pre-admission paperwork – and signed so many papers that I think I might have refinanced our house at the same time. But my favorite blank to fill in was under “Section II: Spouse Information” – question five asked “Relationship to Patient.”

Seriously?

Like, other than “Spouse”?

I know it’s Alabama, but still…

Back home. Back to the Plumbing Fiasco.

To find the leak, Plumber had to cut a hole into our Living Room Ceiling – nothing could be more horrific.RoofHole
And as if that wasn’t traumatic enough, the cutting of that diagnostic hole cost us $474 more – before the leak was ever touched.

Two seconds after cutting the sad, sad hole, he said “Yup, there’s a leak. I’ll now have to cut a hole in your bathroom cabinet.”IMG_1458
Chris and I sat in dread as the number of holes in our house and the dollar signs rose.

I couldn’t stand it any longer. I told Chris that I believed that this plus all the repairs afterward would, for the first time ever, get us over our homeowner’s insurance deductible and that we should, most definitely, start a claim. And so, to prevent further psychological trauma, I left the scene of the crime and began the conversation with State Farm.

Thursday: Leak now fixed, damage all known, so now it was time to finish our claim and get State Farm to send us a check.

I ADORE State Farm.

Instead of adding “Carpet Cleaning” into our settlement for our now-stained dressing room carpet, they figured in “New Carpet for the whole dressing area”.

Instead of adding “Fix hole in vanity” into our settlement, they figured in “Replace entire 6.5 foot, two sink vanity”.

They asked questions such as, “How much time did you spend sopping and mopping? We will pay you for your time because we would have paid someone to come out and do it for you.”

And so, after all of the claim dust settled, and even after our deductible, thanks to the wonderful, lovely, adorableness of State Farm, instead of the dreadful dollar amounts Chris and I were discussing the night before, we are now looking like we’ll come out ahead, even after all the repairs are finished.

And, in even more amazing fashion, I filed the claim yesterday morning, and got the check in the mail TODAY.

Thank you, State Farm. I dearly, dearly adore you.

So, to sum up,

  • Ali has a nicely organized toy corner (for at least the week)
  • Found my precious necklace
  • Noah finally flipped
  • My weight was redeemed
  • Plumbing fiasco scared the wits out of us, but then
  • Plumbing fiasco turned into a net credit, rather than a huge out-of-pocket expense
  • I love State Farm.

Yes, this week’s balance sheet turned out pretty good.

6 comments:

MamaHen said...

We love State Farm too. When the lightening hit the house this summer we had to pay the deductible, but they paid for things I never even knew to ask for. They paid for our hotel room, the kid's electronics that fried. And it only took them two weeks to get the check to us.

So happy about Noah turning. Now that is good news.

And your necklace is so pretty.

Jill said...

AWESOME!!!

This Is The Day said...

Glad your week turned out on the positive side. :)

We have State Farm to but thankfully have never had to file a claim...sounds like it wasn't bad though!

Love your necklace! That is so pretty.

Christen said...

Wow that is a crazy week!
That's great that State Farm paid for all that!

Stephy_B said...

I'm so happy for you about your necklace! That part made me feel sick to my stomach for you. I had a similar feeling the other day when I decided to wear my wedding band & engagement ring on my necklace (thank you pregnancy swelling) and upon walking into the grocery store, saw the empty chain hanging unlatched down the front of my shirt... I frantically ran and searched the parking lot and found them both- unharmed right beside my vehicle door... WHEW! Yay for all your other good things too!

Stephanie said...

ooooh....when we had the first leak (my fault) Brett repaired it himself (cutting living room wall, repairing pipe, patching wall, painting)...when we had the bathroom leak that was damaging the ceiling in the dinig room (not my fault) Brett repaired it himself (cut hole in ceiling...nope, leak not there...cut hole in ceiling...nope, leak not there...cut hole in ceiling...there it is! repair pipe, patch ceiling, patch ceiling, patch ceiling...paint)