It Pours

On Tuesday we hit the 28 week mark, which is a huge milestone in our march towards having our three boys. Dr. Handcock was very excited and very pleased. I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but each day that they remain inside their mother is three days that they won't have to spend in the NICU. NICU stands for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In other words, each day that we make it is a huge victory.

For Carrie each day is a battle in what seems to be an endless war. Sleep has become almost impossible. She chokes and coughs in her sleep. The acid reflux is very bad, and nothing seems to help. Medicines are useless. Tums are eaten like candy and have little to no effect. Carrie only has acid reflux when she is sitting, standing, or lying down. Lying down is the worst. Her belly grows larger everyday. When we go to the Doctor's office, people look at us and wonder if she is just going to lay down on the ground and go into labor. I wonder myself. I can't believe how tough she is. Besides being extremely agitated she rarely complains. It's all part of the deal. Dr. Handcock thinks that the boys each weigh around three and a half pounds. That means that Carrie is carrying around over ten pounds of baby.

The other night Carrie was coughing and choking. I woke up and then fell back asleep and had a dream that she was coughing and choking. I woke up and started freaking out and asking her if she was okay. She was awake and it scared her to death. It scared the dog too.

Last night we watched a TV show about a couple that had triplets. Theirs were born and they didn't weigh three pounds. Ours are already bigger than that, so it made us feel better. On Tuesday June 1st, we go see the high risk Doctor to have him do exact measurements of the boys and tell us exactly how big they are.

On Tuesday June 1st Carrie and I will have been married for one year.

What a difference a year makes.

In other news, things seem to fall apart all at once. We have a 2002 Mitsubishi Diamante that Carrie hates with every fabric of her being. In my opinion the car is a pretty good vehicle. It still does 32 MPG on the highway, uses no oil, and the AC blows cold. The problem is that the rear windows leak air very badly. When you are driving down the highway it sounds like you are in the middle of a tornado or some extreme wind tunnel. This is a design flaw that I'm sure they have corrected. However, on our car it just sucks. As I have mentioned before, this car will not hold three car seats. So, we have been trying to sell it. The other day when we were coming home from the Doctor's office, the "check engine" light came on.

At that moment I knew two things.

1. It wasn't a big deal. The car was running fine, and I figured it was an emissions thing like an Oxygen Sensor. In the end it would just be a pain.

2. Someone would call and want to look at the vehicle right away.

After I took Carrie home, I took the car to Slim and he put his diagnostics machine on it. The error code said Oxygen Sensor. I knew it! Simple fix. I planned to stop by Auto Zone on my way home and get the part. That's when it happened.

Phone Message: Hey, I was wondering if you still have your car for sale. I saw it on Craig's List. My husband and I would like to come look at it right away.

I call back and of course they were in a hurry and wanted to come over immediately.

I rushed to Auto Zone. I told the Manager what error code I was getting. I figured I could get the part, fix the car, and sell it to this person who was very excited about the Diamante.

Auto Zone Guy: There are four oxygen sensors on that. I have it narrowed down to two. I can't tell which one it is. We have a glitch in our system and it's very confusing.

Mike: What are my options?

Auto Zone Guy: Well, this one here by the radiator is $213.00. This one over here is $57.00. I can't tell you which one it is. We can't be sure. Are you in a hurry?

Am I in a hurry?

Mike: Oh, I think I know which one it is. If you had lived my life, you would know too. I can almost guarantee you that it's the $213.00 part.

Auto Zone Guy: Do you want it?

At this point, my phone rings. It's Carrie.

Carrie: I don't think the AC is working here at the house.

Of course it's not working. That makes total sense. That's really what we need right now at this moment. We need to pay for a bunch of costly repairs or put in a whole new unit. I hope we get to spend around $9,000. That's a good round number that will probably cause a fatal heart attack.

Carrie: It's been stuck on 81 for quite a while.

Mike: It's probably just the filter. I'll get some and come home.

See, I live in fantasy land. A simple ten dollar filter will fix the AC at the house. I knew better.

Hold on. I'm still standing at Auto Zone.

Auto Zone Guy: You could just replace the $57.00 part and it could be fine.

Mike: Yes, and Ed McMahon might come back to life and come walking through that door with a giant check with my name on it. I'm going to go online and figure out which one it is and I'll be back.

I call the potential buyer of the car and tell them that tonight is just no good for me. I won't be able to show them the car until tomorrow.

I then drive to the hot house to survey the damage there.

Believe it or not, the new filter did not fix the problem. It's getting hot. Fortunately, we have the extra AC unit that I put in the back bedroom. I make some calls and get an AC guy to agree to come out the following morning. Carrie is a real storm trooper through all of this. We made it through the night and the next morning a very nice guy came and fixed the AC.

Cost: $355.06

We got off VERY easy on that one. I was amazed. I was expecting to be told that we needed a brand new unit that would cost so much we would have to put one of the boys up on EBAY to pay for it.

The car story is even better. I figured out that it was the Oxygen Sensor nearest the radiator which you guessed it, cost $213.00. I knew it! I popped the hood and wiggled the wires connecting the oxygen sensor, just to make sure I could recognize it at Auto Zone. I then went to start up the car, and NO CHECK ENGINE LIGHT.

The car had fixed itself. Well, maybe not quite. I think there was a short in the wire on the oxygen sensor, and when I messed with it, it came back online. I figured I would call the buyer and have them come look at it. If the check engine light came on after they bought it, I would just buy them the part. It turns out that they REALLY wanted to buy a car the night before and did so. No big deal. Someone will buy it. The car would be great for someone's teenager who needs to drive to and from school. No big deal.

Our luck continues to hold. The babies remain inside their mother with no real sign of coming anytime soon. The AC is fixed. The car is cleaned up and running good. I wish I could do something, anything to make Carrie more comfortable. At this moment she is in bed after sleeping very little last night. Hopefully we have eight more weeks before they are born. It seems like a long time on one hand and a very short time on the other. It seems like a long time for her to be so miserable. What makes it seem like a very short time is because I STILL need a job. A job with benefits. I don't care what it is.

Stay Tuned.

On a very happy note: We would also like to congratulate our friends Robin and Joel on the birth of their daughter.