Surprises Are Awesome

"It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop." -Confucius

Those are words I need to repeat over and over these days. Life is a whirlwind as we count down to the big day, and of course, the weather is turning, which adds another level of urgency to our house projects. Another quick post today- just to keep everyone updated!

This past weekend held a couple of wonderful surprises. First, a surprise bridal shower! If not for a little toddler explaining to me that "the bridal shower is supposed to be a secret", I would have been completely bowled over--but even knowing it was going to happen didn't prepare me for the event. I wasn't expecting the sheer number of ladies that came together to celebrate with me. I am truly humbled,  and over-whelmed with gratitude, warmth, and love. I have a wonderful family, and soon I will be joining one just as lovely. Judy, Beth, and Julia- thank you so much for all the work you put in! It was evident that this day was thought over time and again. There were so many little details that truly made it a day unique to me- including cute little quiz poems and a gluten free cake! YUM! To everyone who came- THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The support and love I felt in that room was amazing. I will cherish that day forever. :)

SO many ladies! :) Thank you!!

The second surprise was actually getting some work done on the solar panels. HA! On Saturday, about mid-morning I said, "I'd be happy if we just got the grass cut back and one row of panels taken off the racking." Setting us up for a small, non-intimidating goal seems to be the key to our success lately. After we ran a few errands in town, and grabbed a few supplies- including the large guage wire and conduit we need for our solar, then we came back and got started.

Don't let it fool you- that thing is evil.

Dan whacked back all the grass growing in front of our first row, and then also cleared a path for where our conduit will be put in the ground. Meanwhile, I faced one of my fears and did some poison ivy clean up. Nightmarish visions of me covered in blisters coming down the aisle kept my eyes sharp. I wore latex gloves over work gloves and had long pants and sleeves to help too. I plucked quite a pile and managed to clear out most of the ivy that had grown into the space of our panels. There is still some under the row we need to continue working on, but I wasn't about to work in an area that required crawling. NO THANK YOU. I will wait until the panels are out of my way!

 We then removed the first set of panels. It went pretty quick, so we decided to make the cuts we needed to the racking. We made our marks on each side of each post, double checking to make sure they lined up on either side, and then Dan carefully cut the lines using a skill saw. 

On Sunday, after my wonderful shower, I was feeling pretty amped and decided I wanted to keep going with what we started Saturday. I quickly changed into pants and headed back out. We cut the pieces we needed to mount on the new angle, and then replaced the lengthwise boards that were there to begin with. After securing all that, we put our panels back up. It felt SO GOOD to see one row finally fixed. We decided to take the panels off the second row too.

Dan took the length wise boards off and now, we just need to mark and cut the posts and both sets will have the right angle! Woohoo! Also- as for the solar parts saga, I got sick of waiting for someone else to do their job basically, so I called the corporate headquarters of the company that made specific said part. It was a breath of fresh air to hear someone say, "Oh, I'm sorry that this happened! It should not have taken so long for that. What is your address, I will mail it out today." They didn't ask for any proof of purchase, any account number, they just HELPED ME. That part arrived today and now we can put the whole thing together.

One of Dan's friends has a brother who is an electrical engineer, and the two might be coming over to help us next weekend! I was beginning to think that sun power wasn't going to happen until after the wedding, but now it's looking like there might be a shot!! WOOO!

Thanks for reading!
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That angle looks better!

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YAY!!!