Why Is My Life A Mess Right Now? (Feat. Pot Roast & Apple Crisps Recipe)

Y’all this week has been nothing short of a mess.

Before we talk about the mess take a look at what I made last night to cheer us up. We both love a good hearty meal followed by a sweet dessert!

On Monday, we woke up all bright-eyed and bushy tailed that it was our anniversary and that we had a fun day ahead of us. Then the universe said NOPE! Welcome to Year 2 of marriage- your new home is severely damaged from Hurricane Florence.

Let me back up – The day that Hurricane Florence hit was the day that we were supposed to close on our home, so obviously we did not close. We were living in a rental home that had new tenants coming in, so we had to move out. Luckily (for us and for the sellers) the sellers allowed us to move into the home we’re buying, and rent it until we can close.

Flo was a mean lady to this area. She destroyed our town, but to our knowledge our home was fine, minus the tree down on the detached garage. NBD right? Wrong.

Back to this Monday: We arrive home from the gym and there’s a man on our roof with an oh shit face. He comes up to us and tells us he’s the insurance adjuster and he’s here to look over the house and the damages. Then he dropped an anvil on us.

“All of the drywall on the exterior walls of the home are wet and will bubble up and peel soon. They’re also full of mold.” I cannot tell a lie – I laughed at the man when he said that.

But forreal

Uhmmm what?

Someone please enlighten me. How are the walls on the inside of my home wet, but the roof is fine? Sideways rain? At least this answered the question as to why I’ve been so congested since we moved in.

He put this thing on the wall and said, “green is good, yellow is meh, red is bad, beeping is worse than red.” Take a look at this video and have yourself a good laugh at our life.

This whole situation opened up a huge can of worms. When will we close? How long will it take for them to fix this? Literally all of our walls are on the exterior of the home, so does that mean everything has to be replaced? Can we still live here or am I going to die from mold? Honestly I’m probably going to die from mold. It was built in the 70s, so do we need to worry about asbestos if we can live here while they fix the walls? When are the walls getting fixed? WAIT hold the phone! Does this mean the possibility of a new bathroom and/or kitchen? What did we get ourselves into?

I need a massage.

So that’s the first mess we’ve been dealing with. Here’s the second.

Yesterday (Tuesday), I left for work and my car made a weird noise starting, but it started, so I didn’t think anything of it. I stopped at the gas station, fueled up, got back in the car and went to turn it on and erkkkekkk gerrr gerr gerrr (that’s my sophisticated upset car sound). I scanned the perimeter to see if there was a man that looked knowledgeable of cars and parked next to me was a guy in an old, but well maintained, Volkswagen Beetle.

I walked over to him and like an idiot I said, “Hi. Do you know cars?” What a line.

His response was, “Well I would hope so,” in a this-girl-is-an-idiot-but-I’ll-help-her fashion. He was nice. I didn’t get his name so I’m calling him Bob. Bob came over to my car and used all these car words and told me my battery was working, so a jump wouldn’t help me. He said he thought it was the starter- again, I don’t know cars- and he apologized and left.

I’m left standing there like what’s next? My husband was virtually useless because he was at work, and in all honesty I need to learn how to navigate some things without him because he will be deployed one day. So I called my dad and the insurance people for a tow truck.

A tow truck arrives and I walk out of the gas station and say, “Are you my rescuer?” “Uhhhhh no?”

……..it was just a random guy gassing up his tow truck.

UGH WHY AM I SO AWKWARD

-_________-

At least the guy was nice and asked if I had tried jumping it. I explained why I hadn’t and he said to try for the hell of it. He hooked me up and I turned the key. Tell me why my car started. No thanks to Bob who “knew cars”.

I drove to some car place my husband told me to go to and they greeted me with the news that my battery was dead, my alternator is broken (?), and my tires are past the point of needing to be replaced. Sick.

At this point all of the things happening lately- the hurricane, the tree down, the moldy walls, Mahi getting really sick, my husband’s truck breaking last week, my car breaking this week, etc. – are just that, they’re things happening. It’s life. It’s really less than ideal that it’s happening now since I have yet to find a nursing job, but there’s a reason I haven’t found one yet- probably because someone needs to be home to deal with this hot mess, and because I wouldn’t have a car anyway.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned through all of this is to laugh through it. It’s hilarious because something like this would happen to us. My husband has been a little stressed about it, but as his wife it’s my job to help keep him calm and help him see the humor in it all.

That’s all we can do right? Everything will get fixed and sorted out, and through it we have to remain a team. And until it does get sorted out I’m going to keep winging it and hoping that I don’t die from mold poisoning.

Stay tuned.

-D

I’ve decided that every now and then I’ll include a recipe I tried/made up. Below is a Crockpot Pot Roast and some Apple Crisps.

Pot Roast Recipe

1 box of beef broth (32 oz)
Baby carrots
22 oz can of cream of mushroom
Green beans
Red potatoes
Mushrooms
Onion
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Pot roast – I have no idea what I bought, I just bought something that said “pot roast” on it duh.
This is the recipe I based mine off of in case you need better guidance than I give you – let’s be honest I just make up what I cook

First, I chopped up the onions and potatoes, and cut the ends off of the green beans. Then, I put the veggies in the pot with around a Tbsp? of garlic. Use your judgement – we like garlic, so I always put a good amount in.

Here’s where I messed up (shocking):

Don’t make the mistake that I made! Mix the broth and the cream of mushroom together first THEN put it in the pot. I’m sure if you didn’t want the cream of mushroom in it, you could leave it out to have a more healthy version. I personally liked the creamy flavor it added. I’m going to try just broth next time and see what I like better.

After all the veggies and broth mix are in the pot I added some S&P and put the meat in. I then left it on high for 5 hours. When I got home from work I decided I wanted some rice on the side and it added a nice touch.

Apple Crisp Thing

I got this recipe from Delish

Regular Gala apples
Butter
Sugar
Cinnamon
Vanilla Ice Cream
Caramel
Oats

Oven at 350 degrees.

Cut the apples in half, de-core them, and then slice them ONLY 3/4 of the way!

My advice for this one is to not slice the apples too thin. It was so hard to get the second round of sugar and cinnamon because I had sliced it too thin. It still worked though because either way you’re dousing the apple in butter and sugar and that’s good on it’s own.

Once sliced melt butter and paint onto apples. Sprinkle sugar. Bake 20 minutes. Remove and mix melted butter with cinnamon and sugar and paint it on the apples. Sprinkle oats on top. Bake 10 more minutes.

Once done scoop ice cream on top and drizzle caramel on top and enjoy! UGH life changing!