Gone are the days...

Well the brakes in the suburban are Crunchy! (for lack of a better word)

The grinding is from the ZERO brake pads I have left cutting into the rotors. So sufficed to say we are not going to church today.

Gone are the days where we could just get up early and make a zillion phone calls and work out how our family could hitch a ride to church when something car wise came up. It's not because we don't care, it's because we are a family of 6 people now. Tres & I are up all night over every peep Kaden makes lately because he's been getting stuffed up at night and finds it hard to breathe unless we give him a quick "nose squeegee". We is tired...

Not that I could drive anyways...

because I can not find my keys. My key strap was "In loving memory of Officer Daniel Middleton". Losing that makes me extra bummed.

~Then~

While we are on this whining bit, I might as well mention that our washing machine took a royal dump the other day leaking water everywhere. I flipped the machine it over and called up Tres to tell him it looked to be coming out of the water pump.

Not good.

But,

Before I started pulling out the Sears catalog, Kristina offered us Daniel's washer because they are moving and no one was using it. I feel a bit weird like I'm taking an heir loom from her or something but he's gone now and it is just a washing machine. Strange how something mundane as an appliance can suddenly take on meaning. What if it eventually breaks down a few years from now too? How will I feel? How will Kristina's family feel? At the end of the day it's just a simple washer that works and better to use it than to send it off to a land fill.

Daniel made me laugh, drove me crazy, pulled pranks on us, was our best friend when we had food and even took me on a few dates. He always told you exactly what he thought and harassed you if you did something he felt was wrong. You always knew exactly where you stood with him.

Somehow on Nov 22nd 2004, his sister Kristina's birthday, his police cruiser went of the edge of a ravine and ejected him. The coroner believed he suffered a blood clot to his heart. I miss him! But the gift he gave me was a renewed vigor to seize the day (and maybe stop all my whining..... maybe...)