Happy New Year and come on in 2011!

As of right now I'm afraid of what this year is going to offer.
We awoke this morning to the house being 60 degrees, outside the temps were in the 20's so it could be colder in here.
Anyway something is or might be wrong with our furnace. The thermostat reads 60 degrees in the house and the thermostat is set for 72 but the furnace isn't coming on.
We've replaced the batteries in the thermostat. Now we've replaced the thermostat after learning that the average

age of a thermostat is about 10 years and we've had ours about 13 years.
Still no heat. The furnace cycles but kicks back off before it starts to force air out.
Rob has poked and prodded but nothing has worked so far.
I know he is stressed and cold but there are some things he just cannot fix and this frustrates him.
Rob has been doing some googling and researching causes, fixes and the price for a new furnace.
Now I'm not the type of person who jumps on the "just buy a new one" bandwagon but in this case I would rather just buy a new one.
One of my reasoning's for a new furnace is that we could get one that is more energy efficient. This house used to be a rental and when they replaced the furnace when trying to sell the house they bought the cheapest model.
My other reasoning is that for the past several years I'm always afraid of carbon monoxide poisoning. Yes, we have detectors, which could fail, but it's always a small worry that I have.
Our furnace is around 14-15 years old. To be totally truthful I know nothing about furnaces and this could be still considered a young furnace, I just don't know.
Rob and his googling came up with one little trick to try. Unhook a wire and clean it with a piece of tinfoil and hook it back up.
When I took these pictures he had just hooked back up the wire and the furnace fired back up and has been working since!!
Could it have been something so simple? Please Lord, Yes?!

*Carrie*