When You Give a Husband Technology...

When you give a husband technology, then he'll want more and more, better and better...

Right before the fire (literally, less than an hour before) we purchased a new TV (peace out Smithsonian. Hope you enjoy the museum life!). Now that we're in the new apartment, and the new smart TV is set up, Adam decided we needed a Blue-Ray player ("Amber, you know what would go great with this new TV...). We are now the proud owners of a Blue-Ray player and have experienced the sheer beauty of crisp, high definition movie. Our lives are forever changed. Please, come and stop by to enjoy with us!

We also emptied our TV savings jar. We had been putting all our spare change in a jar and ended up not using a penny from it! Instead, we treated ourselves to a game of The Price is Right, guessing how much was in the jar, bringing it to the local grocery store with a Coin Star in it, and using our savings for dinner that night. I guessed $8, Adam guessed $10. In the end, Adam was the closest without going over. We had saved $10.91! And that was after the $.10 for every dollar Coin Star took AND taking all the quarters for laundry! We rocked that one! We went around the grocery store, picked what we wanted for dinner under $5 and checked out. Adam grabbed a couple candy bars for after dinner and we were $.3 under cash ticket! We truly rocked it last night. The cashier and bagger thought Adam was crazy... With how excited he was, you would have thought he won the lottery! All in all, it was a fantastic win for us.

Great day, budget Starbursts, Lion King on Blue Ray and a good night.

An Unusual Christmas Miracle

If you're wondering why you haven't seen your Christmas card from us yet, we have a good explanation why.

This past Saturday the apartment below us was caught on fire by the 17 year old living there. The Fire Investigator released the cause of the fire as 'a juvenile playing with fire.' All we know is Amber felt and heard thuds in the bathroom while giving Addi a bath, Adam answered the door to the teen a few minutes later who said 'if you hear anything, don't worry' and ten minutes later we smell fire. Amber grabbed Addi, ran outside and called 911, Adam tried to help the kid put the fire out, but it was no use.

The fire fighters put the fire out before it got in our apartment. Our neighbors, on the other hand, lost everything. We have smoke damage to everything, but nothing some Febreeze, dryer sheets and elbow grease couldn't get out. We did lose pillows, but that's really about it. We have been extremely blessed!

We moved into the new apartment Christmas Eve with the help of many friends. Amber's family came out Christmas Eve and Christmas day to help clean, move and enjoy the holiday as well.

We have many people to thank for helping take care of us and offering their help through the Holiday weekend, and especially for helping on Christmas Eve. The Vorwaller's were kind enough to let us stay in their home while we waited for a new apartment to move in to. David & Rose Forsyth picked us up and helped us right after it all happened, and also helped with moving everything to the new place. Kimberley & Jeff Campbell helped us move and clean everything before it came in the new place and also watched Addi all day Wednesday and Thursday so we could get some uninterrupted work done (Addi had a blast playing with Avery!)

This will probably go down as the most unusual Christmas of all times for the Stocksdale family, but we'll never forget the help of friends and family, and all the help that was offered. This has definitely been an unusual Christmas miracle.

Pictures to come.