My first blog...Journey 2008

Well, this is my very first blog. I love the theme "Joy in the Journey", so I thought I would title my blog "Jen's Journey" as it will be an accounting of my journey through life, including the happenings, joys, and anything else I would like to share. :)

It's almost the end of 2008...it flew by! I wanted to document some of the triumphs and trials of 2008. It was a busy year! One of the highlights was Shaun and I bought our first home!!! 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and my favorite feature, an atrium! It needs some work, but it's good for a start. That's when some of the trials came into play. I like to call it "Adventures in Homeownership!" Let's see if I can remember them all...the first couple of weeks of living here the plumbing all backed up...the showers AND toilets...no water going anywhere. SO, we had a plumber come out to roto-rooter the pipes. That was adventure #1 (imagine sewage & toilet paper washed up on the lawn from the overflown sewage pipe...yummy!)

Adventure #2: One of the garage door hinges/springs snapped/broke, leaving a crooked/wanged garage door and Shaun's car stuck inside! So, he was unable to get to work that day. Thank goodness for the Horton brothers who came to the rescue and with their super strength held up the door so Shaun could get his car out! (thanks guys!!!) $1000 later we had a nice new functional garage door, which of course was not covered under the home warranty as it was not the actual garage door opener that was broken, just a hinge/spring. Go figure!

Adventure #3: The oven does not work! This is a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and the plan was to have all of Shaun's family come to our house this year for our first Thanksgiving. The good thing is Sears had a great deal on a nice range, so we purchased it, but the delivery was cancelled by them 3 times (first was due to the fires, 2nd was due to an employee having a fridge fall on him, I don't remember the third...). It finally arrived less than a week before Thanksgiving! Whew, perfect timing.

Adventure #4: (at this point I almost started loosing count/track)...oh yeah, the sewage had backed up again after only a couple months since the initial roto-rooter. So, we had a different company come out, and discovered a meshed entangled network of roots at about 35 ft. out. So, we paid for a turbo blast to blast out the roots and some chemicals to prevent the roots from growing back, and then discovered there was a small crack in the pipes at 35 ft. out. SO, time to contact the HOA to see what they will cover. *sigh*

I think that may have been it so far for our Adventures in Homeownership (knock on wood)...hopefully not many more to come.

As for triumphs, as already mentioned we purchased our first home, I got to start working from home (woo-hoo!!! LOVE it!!!), we had our first Thanksgiving at our home, which went very well thanks to lots of help from my mother in-law and aunt. Considering it's almost 2009 I will write more next year! Let the journey begin! :)