I don’t even really know where to start. This weekend had so many ups and downs, I feel emotionally drained.

On Friday my mom took my two youngest kids home with her. On Saturday, my two older kids each went to slumber parties. My husband and I were alone! Woo hoo! We decided to fire up the boat.

Everything was going great. We had an easy launch and the docks weren’t crowded although the water was a little choppy. By the time we launched it was early afternoon. For the first time my husband and I were alone on the boat. We had a great time. Also for the first time ever, HE was the designated driver. I was drinking Miller Lite!

Our boat was acting a little funny. It sounded like it was trying to die but we just thought it was bad gasoline from being winterized.

We had a plan to boat across the lake and meet my mom in her town at the county park where we’d pick up the kids. We made it over to the other side of the lake and picked the kids up. Then we were heading back towards “our” side of the lake where the water is less choppy so we could let the kids swim. Our boat ended up dying. My husband raised the hatch to look at the engine and saw that we were taking on water and lots of it. We bailed about 30+ buckets of water out of the engine compartment. The water was really hot. Luckily our boat’s engine died right next to another boat and they saw that we were in distress so they circled around us as my husband and I bailed water.

The people in the other boat called the Sheriff for help and the Sheriff’s dispatcher said the Sheriff’s boat would be there in about an hour. That’s not exactly the fast response we were hoping for.

As we’re bailing water my husband kept asking why we were taking on so much water. He knew he’d put the drain plug back in and then it hit him. He’d forgotten to put the two engine plugs back in. I don’t recall exactly what they are called but I know the engine cools itself with lake water. He located the plugs and put them back in so we were no longer taking on water.

Our new boating friends towed us to a marina and put our boat in a slip. Then I called our oldest daughter and she came and picked up my husband and took him to where our truck and boat trailer were parked about 35 miles away. My husband stopped and bought some starting fluid but even that could not get our boat’s engine going so we left the boat in the slip and went home.

The marina where we left our boat is a famous concert venue and we really lucked out in that there wasn’t a concert going on or who knows what would have happened with our boat. Our new boat friends warned us stuff will get stolen and vandalism is also possible. Fabulous, we had no choice but to leave the boat and take the risk. We left the engine compartment open hoping the engine would dry out.

In retrospect we should have known something wasn’t right when we first launched. We could see the bilge pump was pumping out a lot of water and the engine wasn’t running quite right. We also had a hard time getting up on plane.

The next morning my husband was on edge, everything pissed him off. I was afraid to say anything or even look at him for fear of setting him off. Our oldest called wanting the $20 gas money we’d promised her and when I told my husband the phone was for him, he went off on a tyrant. Then of course, everything went wrong, we switched tow vehicles, got about 10 miles away from town when my husband realized he’d forgotten his wallet, resulting in yet another bitch fit.

We stopped by Walmart for some jumper cables, a new boat battery, and some ice. In all the stress, we forgot to buy the ice. My husband felt that was worthy of yet another bitch fit. By this time the kids and I weren’t even talking to him or making any eye contact.

So we finally got to the marina. My husband asked me what I thought he should carry first to the boat and I told him, “nothing”. My thinking here was “let’s be positive and expect the best”. We went down to the boat, nothing appeared to be messed with, I don’t think anyone even went on board. The kids and I stayed on the dock. We crossed everything and I mean everything, my husband turned the ignition key and the boat fired right up! Hooray!

After that my husband only had one more bitch fit getting the boat out of the water and that was because HE didn’t tell me what he was doing and because HE didn’t put the boat close enough to the dock so I could grab the dock and there weren’t any cleats for me to rope. It really wasn’t a big deal though, we didn’t even have to put the boat in reverse. My 12 year old daughter just hoped out of the boat with a rope.

On the drive home, I felt like I was going to have a heat stroke and I was mad as hell. My husband made all kinds of excuses for his behavior. He was stressed, he was worried the boat’s engine was ruined, he was worried the boat had sank during the night and pulled the old rickety dock down with it, he was worried about putting a dead boat on the trailer, he has job stress, he should have been at work, blah, blah, blah…. Like I wasn’t stressed too? My thinking is why worry about “what if this or what if that”, deal with facts.

He felt bad, I felt mad. I felt like all he did all day long was try and make me feel stupid for not being able to read his freaking mind. After a whole lot sucking up to me all yesterday afternoon and this morning, I’m almost over it. I told him that if the kids and I are afraid to talk or make eye contact then there’s a HUGE problem. He agrees and says he’s working on it.

The good news is my husband thinks he’s finally came up with a name for our boat. Rug Burn.  LOL

We had a great time on our trip. My kids got in a lot of swimming and thought it was one of their best vacations ever and best of all it was FREE!

Even though we had a great time it feels so wonderful to be back home. Like they say, “There’s no place like home”.

I did some shopping while we were gone. I know I’m trying to pay down my debt but my three youngest kids had outgrown all their summer clothes from last year. We ended up going to a Walmart Super Center where I bought my girls a bunch of summer tops but I couldn’t find any denim shorts there. I also bought my son a bunch of outfits, shirts and shorts. I ended up spending about $200. Next we went to Factory 2U and I spent less than $60 on 9 pairs of denim shorts - ironically there were all Walmart’s Faded Glory brand, they must have been last years? I feel like I really got some great deals. I paid for these purchases with CASH and now my kids should be set for the summer.

I ended up getting another load of stuff yesterday from our storage unit. I’m probably two truck loads away from having it completely cleaned out. I’m getting excited by the progress I’ve made even if it has been slow.

Now I’m up to EIGHT books sold on half.com. They have deposited $40.07 into my checking account and I have another payment of $27.11 pending. I think that’s a pretty good payout for very little work with books I had just cluttering up my house.