For a long time now I have been telling Melissa that I honestly thought something might be wrong with her hearing. I have noticed that we seem to be turning the volume up on the TV more and more and she seems to not hear me frequently. So today when we walked into Sam’s Club and the sign said free hearing tests, I said let’s go. She thought I was joking at first but I insisted and so she reluctantly agreed. Well low and behold, Melissa does in fact have some hearing issues with her left ear, to the point that she needs a hearing aide. She is not very happy about the turn of events, but we got her one right on the spot and she tested it out in the store. She admitted that she does hear considerably better with it and though she doesn’t really want to need one, she realized that she really does need it. So we bought the one right then, and she has been wearing it all day. It’s going to take some getting used to, obviously, but I am having a fun time showing her how loud she used to set the TV, or watching as she “hears something for the first time.” Her right ear is borderline as well, so there is a possibility that she may need one for that ear in the future as well, but we will deal with that when it happens. Until then, she needs to adjust to this one, and become less self conscious about it. I also had my hearing tested, and with the exception of some tinnitus in my right ear, my hearing is pretty good. Though I was able to view the scar tissue from my tube surgery when I was a kid, and honestly it looked pretty neat.

Tonight we got to our furthest point so far in our hunt to purchase a house, we had a house inspection performed on a property that we placed a bid on. I accompanied the inspector through the interior and exterior inspections and learned a lot about what to look for in a house. The outside inspection was not as long as the inside inspection and that was mostly due to all the snow we got last night rendering many items in-viewable. However, what we lacked looking at on the outside we more than made up for on the inside! The inspection lasted about three hours and after everything was said and done Melissa and I have decided to walk away from this property. There were enough little things wrong, and a few major ones, that made us decide that even though the house was cosmetically very nice, this just wasn’t the house for us. It by no means was a waste though, not only did the inspection reveal these things to us in time to walk away, but I also learned a great deal that I hope to remember for future viewings.