The good, bad and not so ugly

I won an award!! It's an alley garden award. I haven't won anything in so long, I can't even remember the last time (my husband did win a book at the home school conference). Back when I was working, I got performance awards, but moms don't usually get recognized for that type of thing, although they do get other awards and rewards.

I get a little flag to place in my garden and the neighborhood creates a list of gardens that won awards for the upcoming garden tour.

Odd thing is, my garden is far from complete. The wall surrounding it is made out of stones we have lugged back from the cabin, gradually, over the summer, and isn't quite finished yet. I don't have all the plants I want in my garden in there, since the wall isn't done. Plus, the yard just beyond the garden is overgrown with weeds for a few feet until it gets past the garage and then my backyard garden takes over. Still, I think the committee wanted to encourage people to clean up the alley and, although I'm not done, they awarded my efforts thus far. It's another Sally Field moment!!

Butchart Gardens, Victoria, British Columbia
(No, I don't have any pictures, at least not at the moment. It's really nothing fancy, especially compared to my neighbor's. Hers is awesome. Maybe I'll take a picture of hers and post it instead!)

I mentioned a few posts ago that our washer broke. I didn't think it was a belt because it worked intermittently. Not good. Sweet hubby looked at it and concluded that it was either the controller or the motor. Neither was music to my ears, but I was hoping it was the controller. Hubby did some tests and found the controller was the culprit. $125 and an evening installing the new part and we are back in business.

Those are the good and not so ugly things.

The bad is our car had some serious problems (both struts and some bushings on the lower arm) and it is going to cost us around $1200. Ouch. Big ouch. With me not working, we are pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. That's not so bad, except when things go wrong, which they seem to more often then you would expect, they really throw you for a loop.

The car will be done today, so I wasn't without it for more than a couple days. I plan to take the kids to the cabin myself in a few days so hubby can try to get some work done on the house, so we really need the car to be in good shape.