Two minus One Equals Bummer

Last week, I had some van issues. I noticed that it wasn't staying cool when I drove around in the heat, which usually means I'm running out of coolant (we have a leak in the reservoir, so we have to fill it often.) I told my mom that I should probably add more liquid, but then promptly forgot.

Friday, after driving it around a bit, I stopped and smoke and steam POURED out. I was at Walmart, luckily, and decided to get some coolant among some other things. After getting ALL of my shopping done, I went out to the van with the boys, set Cameron to work buckling Jake in, and I filled the van with the coolant.

The noises coming from the van were NOT normal, it sounded like a big ol' monster truck or something. As I got to the Learning Center, where Cameron does developmental therapy, the van died. I took Cam in, and spent the next hour trying to get the van started. (Thankfully, Jake fell asleep, and wasn't too bothered by my "mechanics.") Finally, I decided that I needed to let the van cool, and called Steve to save me.

Since then, I have tried to drive the van, but it's met with the same results: billowing smoke from the tail-pipe.

Steve looked under the hood today and noticed that the upper hose is trashed.

It looks like we're back to being a one-car-family again. Bummer. :(

Thankful November

Cars/Vehicles

I'm grateful for this day and age when we have cars to take us places. I was doing errands on Saturday (fun ones, not the boring ones) and I filled my van with gas and reset the miles. By the time I got home, after my 4 hour break, I had logged 20 miles. If we didn't have cars and I would have had to walk that, I don't know if I would have made it; not to mention dragging two little, cranky, boys around.

On days like yesterday, when it snowed several inches, I'm grateful for cars more than usual. I'm glad that I can climb into the car OUT of the cold and that I will get to my destination in relative warmth.

I'm also grateful that in my family we have two vehicles to get us places. When Steve and I were first married we didn't even HAVE a car, now we have two, and we don't have to rearrange our schedules to get the other to the places they need to go. It's SO SO SO nice to have more than one car in our house.

I'm grateful for cars because they make our lives SO much easier and more comfortable. We truly are BLESSED!

SHOOT!!

Well, the retreat was WONDERFUL!! We laughed and talked for a LONG time! (I pooped out early, I went to bed at midnight, while everyone else stayed up watching a movie until 2 am.) I was SHOCKED at the amount of snow that was still in the mountains! In some places there were drifts that were about 16 feet high! (I WISH I had taken the camera so I could show you some pictures!) The roads weren't AS bad, the sides had snowdrifts that were 4-5 feet high. I'm doubting that the snow will be gone by Memorial Day weekend!

I ended up sharing a room with my mom. I had worried that my pregnancy induced snoring would keep her up all night, but she said she didn't even hear me! I was SO relieved. (Steve must have super-sonic hearing....)

Then today, I was lounging in the cabin while the other ladies were taking a walk in the snow (I had only brought my Crock-type shoes, so I didn't want to walk and get wet feet...) and I heard my cell phone ringing. I called back (the phone was upstairs, and I was NOT) and talked to Steve. He said that when I got home he had something to show me. I asked him what it was. He said, "Something." I got a bit annoyed and asked, "WHAT!?" He told me it had to do with the van, and then I freaked!

He told me that last night between 9:30 and 11:00 someone had taken a bb gun and shot a hole in our rear window of our van. The window was shattered, but the window was still intact. I got upset. I asked him if he'd called the insurance people, and he had, but since our deductable is $500, we'd have to either pay the deductable, or pay full price for a rear-window...out of our pockets. Since a rear-window is a little over $200, we'd decided to pay for it ourselves. The problem is that any window replacement place is closed for the weekend, and they probably wouldn't have that window in stock. So we'd have to wait until Tuesday.

I'm so bummed.....why do some people delight in destroying other people's things?! ANNOYING!!

Happy Day!!

I am so excited! Our van is officially fixed. We have been sharing custody with the auto shop for the last few days, it's been rough! But after weeks of head scratching we've finally figured out what was wrong with the thing. I'm so excited. I was worried about getting it fixed in time for us to go visit Steve's grandparents in Moscow (not Russia, Idaho) at the end of the month. Now all that's left with it are the little things, lube, tire check...the "easy" stuff!

After that snow storm this morning the snow melted rather quickly. Now we have a small flood in the basement/garage. So when I go to do the laundry I have to do some fancy footwork to avoid getting wet feet. It's okay, it happens all the time. I guess that's what you get when you live in an old apartment!

I have been having fun looking up several friend's websites today. I haven't done that for a while and I'm glad that I took the time today. It's fun to see what's going on in their lives when we're all spread out all over the country!

Van Issues

We've been having van problems since we bought the blasted thing last month. The first thing we noticed was that the door sensor was not working, then the next day we noticed that the power locks didn't work for all of the doors. We were frustrated, so we called the dealer and he referred us to a place that is just down the street from where we live. Well, they looked at it and decided that they needed to order parts for it and they would let us know when we could bring it back to get fixed...the call never came. So after Steve's fun drive to Pocatello last week and the discovery of yet another problem (this time the cruise control) we decided that we needed to call them and see what was going on. When I called them back the guy I had been talking with told me that he had been on vacation and had assumed that the problem had been resolved while he was gone. He felt bad and told us that we could bring it in today. Anyway....they looked at it and found out that this van has serious wiring issues. So the guy bought another van (same make and model, but a few years older) and will take the parts that he needs off of that to fix it. Hopefully after tomorrow this van will be the van of our dreams!

I can't tell you how much I love seeing my family! I know that family is the most important thing in our lives...after everything else is gone, all we have left is the love of our families. I think that's why I'm so glad to know that my family is a forever family! Anyway, tonight we went to my parent's house for dinner and Family Home Evening and just laughed and had fun! I haven't done that for a long time! We were joking and making one-ups the whole night! I love my family! Did I mention that my family is great and that I love them?? Because I do!

This picture of Cameron and my brother was taken years ago...I don't exactly remember when, but it was pre-glasses. He had taken these old sunglasses and popped the lenses out and would walk around like he was cool. Then my brother, Shad, pulled his pants clear up to his armpits and, voila, instant nerd!

Quote of the Day:
"I'd rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy."

What a Valentines' Day...so far....

I have just gotten back from getting the new van tweaked. My friend, Carrie, told me that I spent a lot of time talking about the little things in my last blog, but not the things she really wanted to hear about. Our "new" van is a 1998 red Ford Windstar. It looks really nice (especially covered in snow, like it was this morning.) The only problems with it were a long crack in the windshield and the door sensor has a short in it. It's being fixed right now and hopefully we can have it all done by the time my husband has to go to work. I was sitting in the waiting room reading and just about fell asleep. I was very relaxed. I'm sure that Cam and the little girl I babysit will remedy that shortly.

I ordered my husband a balloon bouquet yesterday and he'll be getting it at work. I don't know what kind of balloons they will be giving him, but I know they'll be fun. I ordered 2 "singing" balloons. When I find out what kind of balloons those are I will let you know. I figured that the kids at his work would like the extra noise...and be entertained as well.

My husband gave me a love knot that he wrote a beautiful love note on and a CD that I have been wanting for a while. That may be the extent of our celebrating of this holiday. I think that if you can't show love and gratefulness throughout the year, why jam it all into one day? Our celebration will be ongoing!

What a weekend!!

I didn't think my life would be this busy! It all started on Friday when I went to a wedding of a family friend. I went to the ceremony and then afterward I had to hurry home so that I could go to a doctor's appointment that I had to discuss my Insulin Resistance. Before I went there though I found out that we had gotten our tax refund and was very anxious to spend it. So I went out a splurged a bit. I had talked to my mom about going to this particular doc, and she said that there have been times when she goes there and has to wait for 4 and a half hours. I wasn't really thrilled about that concept, so I grabbed a book and headed out. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was ushered in quite quickly and the doctor was there within minutes. He discussed some solutions and has put me on a strict diet and exercise plan along with a medication that should help me overcome this part of my existence. (So far I've been an absolute flop on sticking to it...)

Then I went home and hurried with my boys to go car shopping. We have been looking at mini-vans for several days now and decided to try a few more places before giving up on the whole thing and buying one that we love, but may be more money than we could afford. So with Cameron and the little girl I babysit strapped in the car we headed out. We tried one place and found that the van was worthless...at least in our eyes, but they were willing to give us more for our trade-in. We hesitated, but decided to try a few more places. We went just down the street and found the van we've been searching for. We love it. It's not as nice as the first one that was expensive, but it's decent and within our price range. So armed with the papers we signed over our lives for the next 27 months and bought a mini-van.

Then we hurried home to drop our little charge off with her dad so that we could go do a bit of shopping before running off to 2 wedding receptions. We had to take my brothers with us, so we grabbed them and hurried off. Now, before I get too far into my story, I should explain what kind of brothers I have. I am the oldest child of 6 and I was lucky enough to be blessed with 4 brothers. Growing up with brothers was not fun to say the least, but I survived...barely. As we've gotten older, my brothers have seemed to shoot up way past where I stopped. They are all taller than me by a long way and they all have my strange sense of humor. Well, we rushed off to both receptions and then afterward decided that we were hungry and needed to eat. So being lazy we went through the drive-thru at Burger King (for my son) and Taco Bell for the adults. While going through Burger King's drive-thru my 23-year-old brother told us to ask the lady if they had any "King Kong burgers." He was referring to the one they have on the commercial that is bigger than the lady's head. Well, the people got a bit annoyed and hurried us to the window to pay. When we got there they asked us if we wanted any sauces to which my hyped-up brothers all shouted at once the type of sauces they wanted. At this time my husband got annoyed with the whole thing and quickly ordered crowns "for the kids in the back seat." The lady working the window speedily grabbed us 5 crowns and we drove off laughing!

That excursion to Burger King was NOTHING compared to what they did to us at Taco Bell. My 19-year-old brother works across the street from this particular Taco Bell and thought that he knew the guy running the drive-thru and instantly began yelling...."HEY CHRIS!!" To which the annoyed guy replied, "Please don't yell at me." We ordered and then my 16-year-old brother in the way back started yelling one of his favorite lines from The Family Guy, "I want 10,000 chicken fa-ji-ta's!" My husband started to whine that he didn't want to be kicked out of Taco Bell for life to which my 23-year-old brother said, "That's okay, there's another one just down the street!" At this point of the night I was so tired that I was laughing at everything!

The next morning I had a funeral to go to for my Great-Uncle where my dad was giving the life sketch that he had wanted me to type up for him. I spent most of the night before trying to figure it all out and set up our new printer, to which we were missing several pieces. After the funeral we came back and I waited for my husband to get off work and then we went and spent more of our tax money. Then I had to hurry home so that I could make phone calls to remind people of our church choir practice the next day.

Today we went to church and found out that instead of singing with the choir next week, we have to wait until the week after (which I was previously asked to form a women's trio to sing that week...but we haven't practiced, so we're gonna put that off.) Then we cam home for a quick minute and then I hurried to my mom's house because one of my uncle's was in town and wanted to have a get-together with the family who lives around here. We had so much fun tonight. In fact, I don't think I need to do my exercise for the next week because I laughed so hard my belly hurts!! I love hanging out with my cousins, they remind me of myself and the kind of person that I am. We're planning another get-together this weekend and I can't wait! I feel worn out, but happy.

While at the funeral on Saturday I was thinking about the kinds of things that people will say about me when I'm not here and I hope I've been a happy influence and lived my life instead of just letting life pass me by. I was even thinking about the way that my husband and I met and what a funny story that was, but I will save that for another time. The ride just doesn't stop! What a fun time.