First up is my "gift". About 6 weeks ago our dryer completely died. Now, for about 2 years it has been slowly dying but it just kept ticking. Sometime this summer I realized that it wasn't shutting off on its own when it ran for over three hours before I went to get the clothes out of the dryer. Not a big deal since I could just sent a timer to remind me to go get clothes out. Than it developed a squeal . . which became a screech . . .and then a dying cat sound ;-) Eventually, it stopped and that was the end. Since that point in October when it died, this has been my dryer . . .
My sad dryer :-(
It made me very thankful for a great washer that spun the clothes out very well. Hanging them to dry wasn't a huge issue except that our clothes have been crunchy, crinkly and wrinkly! You might wonder why I didn't send out a plea for a dryer when mine died. Well, here's why. 1) We've had two dryers since we moved into this house 11 years ago and, between the two, they equaled about 30 years of age. 2) I didn't want someone's hand me down because they got a new dryer - I wanted a new dryer. Nothing fancy, just new. The Lord worked it all out and on "Black Friday" we went into Menards and found a great deal - an even better deal than we planned to buy when we had looked at them the week before. My dryer is not fancy by any means but it's bigger and better than what I had AND it makes our clothes fluffy and soft once again :-)
My nice, new, shiny dryer!
Second up is Darryl's "gift". Over a year ago, our second car died. Like the dryer, it had died a slow death over a period of about 4 months. We knew it was going and then, well, it died. Buying a second car was not an option until we paid our truck off and then we wanted to wait until Darryl went back to work after surgery before we even considered the option. About 3 weeks ago, he did some leg work on the front end so we knew what we could purchase and then, he started looking. He knew what he wanted and we both agreed that he couldn't "settle" because his last two cars were just that - "settling" for something because we needed a second vehicle "now." Well, here's his new "baby"
The car is a nice dark blue :-)
It's a 2005 Buick Lasabre with about 111,000 miles on it. It's "loaded" (well, for 2005!) with Leather seats, heated seats, climate control, and more. He's exactly what he was looking for and will comfortable fit the whole family so we can easily use it to help save on gas mileage as well as just to keep the miles down on the truck. I love the fact that I have a vehicle in the driveway again all day - I may not go anywhere but I could if I wanted to :-)
