Adventures of Homeownership: the first snow

 A little back story...when we bought our house the inspector had told us that we had a really nice unit. Looking at it, you can see it's not your average heating and air system...but we didn't really know much about it all. We just trusted him, we're glad it worked, and we're happy to be buying a home. Fast forward 9 months and we now know exactly what he meant.

This past week was our first snow storm. That being said, we had yet to test the heating unit to below freezing temperatures until then. We keep our house set at 69 when the heat is on...but the first night of snow it was only 66 degrees in our house. I didn't think much of it. We slept fine no biggie. Then Friday it was 61 degrees at bedtime. At that time I just thought it was our unit not keeping up with the freezing temperatures. I know, I know....that's not good reasoning considering we knew we had a good unit. But it's my first home! There are some things that repeated apartment life trained my brain to believe....that is one of them. I thought this was "normal". So we added blankets and were fine.

Saturday morning it was 59...FIFTY NINE! And after a few hours of being awake it was 56....this is when we realized something was wrong. I tried restarting the thermostat...pulled out the binder of manuals the previous owner had left us (every manual for everything she left in the home) and tried to figure out error codes....nothing helped. In fact, the unit would kick on and blow cold air. NOT GOOD! I tried calling American Standard....figuring they would help us troubleshoot since that was the manufacturer. They were closed. So we decided we had to call a repair man. After getting suggestions from friends and family, we decided to call a dealer that the manufacturer "suggested". We searched the website for the nearest dealer and called the first on the list: Shockley's Central Heating. 

They came out within a few hours, were very polite and proceeded to tell us that we don't have a really nice unit...we have one of the nicest you can get. He said that the filter alone would be $1200. That it's a tested filtration system, with results showing it can eliminate the flu virus from the air. He asked if we put the system in and when we told him it came with the house, he said we really lucked out and bought from the right lady. The bad news was, he thought it was the motor. And they couldn't get the part until Monday. 

What to do....what to do....we weren't sure. We had countless friends and family offer us their homes. It was quite humbling really and made me feel really loved and supported. In the end we decided to tough it out and stay in our house. I'm thankful for that decision now (though I'm pretty sure a sleepover with the Markmiller family would have been amazing). We moved our bed into the living room by the fire and my AMAZING in-laws not only brought space heaters once, but twice (after going to three stores to find two more). So we lit the fire, turned on the space heaters throughout the house and layered every blanket we had on the bed. 

It really wasn't ever too cold. It stayed around 57 which was bearable with the heaters...and let's face it...having your bed in the living room is actually pretty fun! Monday came around and Shockley's came back out...with our new motor. It was quickly installed and he knocked on the garage door with that look that just says "I've got bad news". It wasn't the motor...in fact it's the board that's bad. And apparently, this is such a rare thing (because the system is so nice) that they don't even keep the boards in stock! So we had to have it shipped from Texas .... praying the weather didn't delay it. 

It did. But only 1 day! Today we had the new board put in, the heat came on, and it was awesome! What's more awesome, is that because the previous owner left all her paperwork I had the warranty registration which meant that the entire system is under warranty! That meant all we had to pay was $164 for labor/service. INCREDIBLE! And as I signed the work order it stopped....seriously?! The repairman quickly discovered it was our pre-filter and showed me how to clean that to prevent this from happening again...I guess when the unit can't "breathe" it shuts off when it gets too hot! Once he put it all back together it worked great and we are back to 69 degrees! 

So all in all it took 1 week to get heat back, but it was kind of fun! And I've learned a few things from it: 

1. Shockley's is awesome and I am glad to have a heat and air "guy" that I trust and don't feel creeped out by. I highly recommend them...just a dad and his sons repairing your units! I like it.

2. We have the greatest friends and family who constantly checked on us, offered us a place to stay, and kept us warm!

3. The woman who sold us our house is a saint...she poured so much money into making sure the house was energy efficient...including our fancy schmancy heat and air. We could not feel more grateful for everything she did in our home. (The fact that we never went below 54 without heaters made me feel awesome about our home!)

4. My work is awesome because I was able to leave every time I needed to meet Shockley's. Not to mention they're just great in general and I love my job.

5. The OKC Thunder beat the Grizzlies and Kelly Clarkson is singing Christmas music...and we have heat. That's a great night!

6. I'm reminded this holiday season how often we take things for granted. Family. Friends. Jobs. Money. HEAT....

7. I am a beyond blessed woman who is so very thankful for all she has in life.

And peanut will be a little sad that the bed is going back where it belongs 

Adventures in emeals pt 1.

Well, we have tried emeals a few times before and while we really liked the idea of it (someone else planning your dinners, saving money, and having a grocery list made for you) we found that we really were left wanting more in the taste factors. However, this time around we have yet to be unsatisfied! 

Jer has discovered that processed tomatoes of any kind seem to really upset his stomach. So we went with the clean eating meal plan to try to avoid that... not to mention it can't hurt to eat healthier in general right? We committed to a three month plan (that gives you weekly dinners) and found a coupon code online (they are out there...www.retailmenot.com....don't pay full price). Also, we do the family plan so that we have leftovers for lunch etc. usually we have more than we need but id rather cook once and be done than add the lunch plan to our account and be cooking twice. :-)

Grocery shopping was a little bit of an undertaking just because I either couldn't find what I needed or we were going to make a substitution and I was figuring that out in my brain. I use the app so that makes grocery shopping fairly painless, AND I don't have to write on my paper copies. I do however write on the copies notes of what we liked or didn't, or any change we made.

The first meal was chicken corn chowder with a strawberry spinach salad. 

It was DELICIOUS. The salad called for goat cheese, but no way. I'm all for trying some new things but not that, not yet. We used feta, and it was awesome. The chowder I felt was a little thin but really really good! If you're dairy sensitive it may give you some pretty hearty gas though, just FYI. 

The second meal was coffee marinated chicken with blueberry sauce and lemony garlic peas. 

While it wasn't my favorite sauce I still liked it. The chicken was really good! I also really enjoyed the peas. Jer didn't care for either item but managed to eat it anyway. So it couldn't be TOO bad right? We were supposed to use snow peas....but I not only had never heard of them but couldn't find them either. So regular peas worked just fine! The sauce was probably a little thicker than it should have been, but all in all still a successful meal. 

The third meal was supposed to be horseradish-dill salmon with wild rice and asparagus. I don't have a picture of this one because we were so hungry by the time it was ready (and it was so good) I forgot to take a picture of it! We couldn't find salmon, so we bought cod. However, it had a puncture in the bag and just to be safe we threw it out and substituted chicken. Yum. Yum. YUM! I don't care much for fish anyway, so I was glad to know chicken was just as yummy. They said to grill it...but I pretty much use my George Foreman grill for anything that I can (some you can't...later in the week). Also, the asparagus would have been better in the rice if it were chopped a little smaller. We didn't like the big pieces. 

Fourth meal: Mushroom and Onion Quiche in a Potato Crust with Summer Fruit Salad

This made a perfect Saturday brunch! It was supposed to be asparagus not onion, but ours had gone bad before time to use it. I personally think the onion was probably better! I had forgotten to put cheese in so I had to pour out the egg, spoon the veggie mix back into the pan, put cheese in and then report egg....I was worried. However, it was amazing! Jer said possibly his favorite meal yet...EVER in emeals. I also added apples that we needed to eat to the salad. I think next time I would keep the apples and not out peaches and maybe add another kiwi! Who knew I liked kiwi!? It made SO much. But it's perfect for parfait breakfast as left overs. I'm a huge fan of this. This meal made me want to play and create my own dishes now, starting with potato cakes. 

And then today's meal.....Flank Steak with a Corn Salad and Grilled Zucchini 

Oh. My. Word. 

This one we did on the actual grill because you grilled bell peppers and corn for your salad. We did those separately and then out the steak and zucchini on. That corn salad was so awesome! It was so fresh on the steak. Delicious. The zucchini was good too. Next time I think I will slice the zucchini a little thinner instead of just in half. But it was great too! Jer LOVED this one. He can't wait to take it to work and show it off tomorrow. 

We did skip two meals this week...I will say we will probably always skip one. Cooking every night like this is tedious and tiring at times and sometimes you just want to come home and sit on the couch. So we get a "quick meal" when we grocery shop for those nights that cooking from scratch sounds too much to bear haha. Also, the app lets you skip meals and it adjusts your shopping list FOR YOU. it's genius. I love it.

So there you go. I highly suggest emeals clean eating program. We are excited about this week's meals...pulled pork nachos here we come! For more info or to sign up yourself go to: http://emeals.com/account/go.php?r=243091&i=b11

Oh and we also baked a Dark Rum Bundt Cake that was amazing and made me want to bake Bundt cakes monthly. 

It stuck to the pan on one side...but for our first try it was a win!

Testing 1,2,3

This is my life right now. 

Though I am getting better at getting up earlier. 

And by earlier I mean on time. 

And by on time, I mean 15 to 30 minutes later than my first alarm :-) 

But hey, it's a work in progress right?

***this blog is mainly to test how easy/hard it is to blog from my ipad***