Ladybug Farms: It's Open! They're Clean!

When I first noticed the construction sign that said the bridge on the main road I take into town was going to be closed, I figured it'd be for a few days at most. Wrong! It has been three months! Three months of having to stop and think...how am I going to get to where I need to go...every single time I get into my car. Three months of having to take a detour that adds 6-8 minutes to my commute every time I want to go to the west side of town. Three months of my Hubby's work commute taking 20 minutes instead of 5 due to the detour, excess traffic, large semis, and short light cycles.

I have been stalking the road commission facebook page looking for news on when the bridge might open. It was supposed to open November 2, but that was pushed back to the 15th. Yesterday Hubby drove to the bridge at noon. Still closed. My mom checked around 2pm. Still closed. I get a call from my mother-in-law around 3pm and the bridge is OPEN!!!

Driving on the bridge for the first time in 3 months--a beautiful moment

And I got to drive over it for the first time this morning. I even stopped and got out to take a picture of this momentous occasion just to post on my blog. Yes, I am that excited. This is one "new experience" that I am very happy about.

And on a less silly note...

Old, useless dishwasher

Last Friday something happened that was beyond awesome in my house. My new dishwasher was installed! Woohoo!!!! My friend over at Jenny Sue Got Married wrote a blog about her dishwasher that made me laugh and say "Amen!" as I knew exactly what she was talking about. My dishwasher was more of a dishwasherNOT. I had to load everything just right to try to get the dishes clean. Even then, I would go to empty the washer and half the dishes would still have crusties on them. Every time company came over I had to inspect every dish that I set on the table to make sure they were "company" clean.

Bottom rack taken up by the sprayer
and missing silverware basket

I've been talking about getting a new one for over a year. I looked through the sale ads every week and ogled the dishwashers, coming just short of breaking the Tenth Commandment--Thou shalt not covet. And then finally last week I noted in the sale ad that Best Buy was running a sale in conjunction with a deal where they'd deliver and install the new washer for only $19.99 and haul away the old one. Hot dog! I was all about that since I knew getting Hubby to install it would not be happening anytime this century. He did that once in our old house and swore he'd never do it again.

Let's be honest. I will never like doing dishes, but it is so much nicer now that the dishes actually get clean after the wash cycle is finished. I don't have to load everything just right and they still come out clean. It's wonderful! It makes the chore of doing dishes so much less depressing.

Switching to stainless one appliance at a time

Notice the lack of sprayer in the middle of the rack?

I also had a new experience this week, one that I never thought I'd be adding to my list. I had my first EKG and am in the middle of my first Holter Monitor test. Hopefully they will be my last. It's pretty cool running around with wires and electrodes strapped to my chest. But if it will prove definitively that I do not have a serious heart problem, then I'm okay with that.

This is week 12 in the series of 52 Weeks of New