Two words: No AC. That pretty well describes our summer this year. I feel like Josh deserves a medal for listening to (and being patient with) all my complaining. But it certainly has been a “character-building” summer, in many ways. We keep lots of fans blowing, open the windows as soon as it gets dark out, and close them as late in the morning as we can. I guess it’s definitely bearable—just hot! The heat comes with some funny side effects, too. For example, since our door doesn’t have a screen (the screen’s broken, of course), but it’s the quickest way to get cool air into our house at night, we open the door wide, put a fan in front of it (sometimes two), and then turn off all the lights or else our house will fill up with bugs. One night we were sitting at the computer and I turned over and saw this huge beetle-looking thing on the curtain by us. I jumped up and away so fast that it scared Josh, but he took care of it. So with the heat and the bugs and the dark…it’s been an interesting summer. ;-) At least our freezer is stocked with ice cream and otter pops (thanks, Brenn and Audrey), and we drink lots of cold ice water and stay cool the best we can.

In addition to living without AC, we’ve also been building character as we live without a dishwasher. I didn’t realize how dependent we were on it till it was taken away! But a few months ago we noticed that our new floor has been warping by the sink, so the plumber came over to check it out and found out that our dishwasher basin or whatever is cracked and leaky. He “solved” the problem right then and there by turning off the water to the dishwasher, which stopped the leak…and rendered us dishwasherless. (Josh tried to turn on the water again later, but we couldn’t find the valve.) So we waited to hear from our landlords about a new dishwasher. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and…well, we finally heard from our landlords (Chad and Kelly) that they had just had a baby! Well, our grudges were forgotten and we were happy for them and more understanding. We even sent them a congratulations card in the mail. Anyway, word is the new dishwasher will come soon, and we’ll have only (hallelujah!) six more dishwasher-free days! Woo hoo!

So, despite these oh-so-challenging “hardships,” Josh and I are still very, very happy and loving life! (But if you have any tips of how to cool down a house in the heat of summer, we’re all ears!)