I knew it would be expensive to move but this is a bit much...

When we moved we understood that we were moving to a more expensive area. We are paying far more for rent then we did for our house payment. Groceries cost more. Gas is not too different. But, these extraneous expenses of life are getting out of control.

The week that we moved the back windshield of the Pathfinder shattered. Not sure why. Someone suggested it was the very hot glass coming into contact with my cool 98.6 degree hand that caused it to burst and send shards of glass all around me. Whatever it was cost me a CHA-CHING- $500 deductible.

Then the car was stolen. As noted, it was recovered and is now in the shop; CHA-CHING- $500 deductible. As it turns out personal property is not covered under the auto insurance and CDs are not covered by the renters policy. Our deductible for the other items is, wait, can you guess... Yep $500. The camp chairs, tool kit and other misc items aren't worth even placing a claim on that but it will all be costly to replace (CHA-CHING).

Which leads us to tonight. My lovely children played outside for HOURS. They went outside at 11:30 am, came in for a 15 minute lunch break and headed back out until they were marched inside at 7pm. They had a grand time. One of the many games they played was to make a mine field of the patio using 1 inch diameter rocks from the side yard. It was covered. I said as long as they had it cleaned up by tomorrow I was fine with their game. However, if I had to clean up the rocks I would charge them for my time by taking back the $2 each I had paid them yesterday for picking up crab apples. They agreed.

Around 6:45pm they were tired of picking the rocks and decided instead to start throwing them. I had my first hint of their new activity when I heard a thud on the side of the house. I went to the slider and looked out just in time to see Youngest let loose a rock that hit right on target. Right smack in the middle of the sliding glass door. CRACK went the glass as two separate, lovely spider webs about 3.5 inches in diameter appeared before my very eyes. ZOOM went Youngest as he bolted screaming around the side of the house (apparently he noticed the look on my face).

I have no idea how much this will cost. Looking at how old this slider is (and how non-standard everything in the house is) we may have to replace the entire set. Oh my. What do you do with that? CHA-CHING!