When it rains, it pours....kinda stinks!

As you can see from older posts, we just had to replace John's car. The money we received from the insurance company was not enough to purchase the next car...so we had to cough up some extra money for that.

The night we picked up John's new car, I followed him in our van. All that day, I noticed that the front window of the van kept fogging up. It seemed to be getting worse that night. We took the van to the shop to find out that it was blowing antifreeze out, onto the window. The shop called and said there was a leak in the heater core, and that it would be $500+ buckaroos to fix.

The morning after dropping the van off, I loaded my dishwasher and pressed start. I stood in the kitchen and noticed that the darn thing was not washing. The last few days we noticed that it was running rather loud. It was really bugging me too, because we just purchased it a year and 1/2 ago. But that morning, it decided not to work at all. I called the store where we had purchased the dishwasher to hear that the warranty was only good for a year. OF COURSE! The associate told me that I could try calling the Whirlpool 800 number. I called them, they were not much help, so I gave the poor lady on the other line a piece of my mind. Didn't help the dishwasher plight, but I felt a little better. I decided to call the "fix it guy". (He has been fixing appliances for my parents for YEARS and I have also used him a time or two.) He came and looked at the dishwasher and said that it was the motor! The price of a new motor...$200+ and that doesn't include installation! ERRRRGG! He recommended that I call Whirlpool. So, I got on the phone right then and called them back. The associate at Whirlpool basically told me that it was beyond the year warranty. I grumbled and told him that it was a NEW machine and should not be giving me problems. I told him that I wanted to talk to a supervisor. He told me that he would get in trouble if he let me talk to a supervisor. I basically told him that I didn't care, and still wanted a supervisor. After being put hold for a minute, the same guy returned and offered to ship me a new motor for FREE, but I would have to pay to have it installed. DONE!

Cost of John's new car + Van repair + New dishwasher motor installation = Broke baby!

For cryin out loud!

Why is it such a struggle to eat right, stay active, and be healthy? The above picture just makes me laugh. Although food is not usually my problem! My problem...

Exhibit A.


Exhibit B.


Exhibit C.


It is such a rediculous habit, and one that I have such a struggle over. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It's funny how each person has their weakness. For some it is brownies, cookies, candy, chocolate....the list goes on. Mine is obviously the dang Mountain Dew! The funny thing is, I don't really like other soda pop at all. I could completely go without it. For cryin out loud!

I'm going to do my darndest to cut this very bad habit and may have to seek divine help in the matter. I just don't feel like I can do it alone. I sound like a dang alcoholic!

I guess for the next little while I will be a walking headache and grouchy mama!

Recently....

Well, we did it! We finally bought a car. It is a used car that was being sold by a girl from the Health Center (John's office). We felt comfortable buying from her, as we felt like we could trust the history of the car. The car is a Nissan Altima and we think that it will be a good car for us.



Riley is singing with the choir at school. She just recently had her first concert. It was fun to go listen to them. Riley has several friends that sing in the choir with her. It is nice to see her trying different things at school and also fun to see her interacting with her friends. You can tell that she is well liked.



Anytime Haley is in the car, she wants us to stop at the "big cart, little cart store". This however is not really the name of the store. She calls it that because they have big shopping carts, and little shopping carts there. (It is a locally owned Hardware store, and the owners are in our ward). She loves to go there, get a small shopping cart and find some candy, toy, etc. to put in it. We frequent the store as often as possible.

Haley's outfit is a little random. She wears this dress as a dress up and thought it was great attire for the hardware store.

We went to there the other day and found that they are selling baby chicks. She was so excited to be there to see the little chicks.




Sunday is just a lazy day for us after we get home from church. We just spend the rest of the day relaxing. Jace and Haley broke out the foot massage after church yesterday. They think it is such a treat to use the foot massage.

While they were relaxing, Brynn made us all a pudding pie. I think it was her first time to make and pie crust and bake it. It was de-lish!

Flashback Friday

Whenever my parents go out of town, I am kind of their go-to gal. They always ask me to get their mail while they are gone, water the plants, whatever needs to be done. Last year while they were out of town, I went over to their house to get their mail and do a few things.

When I entered their garage, I could smell something. It wasn't a good smell. It wasn't one that you wanted to linger in your nose. It was more of a dry-heave smell.

As I approached the door to the house, I passed by the outside fridge and noticed blood coming out of the freezer door. It was running about 20 feet into the garage. The first thing out of my mouth..."Oh my h-e-double hockey sticks", or something close to it.

I opened the freezer to find that the meat had defrosted, due to some ice on the door. P.S. The freezer was completely FULL of meat. I instantly knew that it was MY responsibility to fix it....oh goody...quick, sign me up!! My mom and dad were not coming back for a few days. I couldn't just let it sit there, waiting for them when they got home. (Although it was tempting)

First, I called my dad and he told me to put all the defrosted meat into some garbage cans, put the cans in the back of his pickup, and drive them to the garbage dump. Are you flippen kidding me?

When I hung up with my dad, I realized that the bloody meat would get quite heavy in the garbage cans. So, I decided to call my sister Monica and see if she could help me. I sprayed out the garage, and loaded all the meat into the garbage cans. It filled two garbage cans. Monica arrived and helped me lift the cans into the pickup.

When we arrived at the garbage dump, the smells were 20x as bad as my parents garage. It was so ripe and putrid smelling there!! I've been there before, and this day was worse then ever before.

We hopped out of the pickup and I immediately started to dry-heave. I was gagging so bad that my eyes were watering and I thought that I was going to pee my pants. I crossed my legs and held on to the side up the pickup....and continued to dry heave with my legs crossed. I could not for the life of me stop dry-heaving. Poor Monica knew that she was on her own. She managed to muscle both garbage cans out of the back of the pickup, and dump them. I'm sure that if anyone was watching they were doubled over laughing. I'm sure I was quite a sight.

Every time Monica and I talk about this, we just can't stop laughing! I could not have done this without Monica. My kids think that I was so brave to open a freezer that had blood running out of it. They say, "Weren't you scared that you would find a body in there?" Oh my goodness...I think they have seen one too many scary things on T.V.

Drive In

Haley just loves her preschool class! Her teacher has been teaching for over 25 years, and is just wonderful. Today in class they learned about Transportation. Each student brought a box to class with them. They made their boxes into "cars" and went to a "drive in movie". Haley said that they were able to watch Tom and Jerry (one of her favorites) and eat snacks. She came home...all smiles!


Haley is holding her car key and drivers license.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Scroll down, pause music, and enjoy!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Recent Happenings

We heard back from the Insurance Company that John's car was considered totalled. We have been spending the last little while looking for a car. John would absolutely LOVE to have a truck but alas, the cost of a truck far exceeds our budget. Maybe a few years down the road. We have gone car shopping a few times. It blows my mind how much a NEW car costs these days. We were shocked that a tiny little car without many bells or whistles starts at around $10,000+. What blows my mind even more is that many High School students drive around in these brand new cars.

I just remember how hard my brothers were on the car they drove in High School. It was a white Buick that we referred to as the "W.T." (white trash) It was a nice "grandma" car before they polished it off. Once they got a hold of it, it smelled like B.O., fast food, stinky feet, farts, you name it. I'm quite certain the car we buy for our children to drive will be nowhere near new, and hopefully will fair a little better then the W.T..

Brynn is playing in the grade school Orchestra. She has violin practice every day after school. (They bus the kids over to the Junior High) Brynn recently had her first concert. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they sounded. The violin can be quite "screechy" if not played properly. She just seems to have a natural ability with the violin and I hope that she will continue to play it.



A couple of nights ago we went to the church for the annual Pinewood Derby. This was the first time we have ever had to make a car. When I say "we" made a car, I mean John and Jace....mostly John. I'm not sure we know all the "tricks of the trade" with the making of a Pinewood Derby car. I'm also not sure that I really care. Jace said before we left, "I don't want to come in first, and I don't want to come in last." I was glad he wasn't that concerned with winning. Jace's car ended up as the 3rd runner up, and I think he was completely satisfied. It doesn't take much to please that sweet little guy.


Jace's car is in the lead....go Jacey GO!



Haley turned 5 and had a total blast opening all her presents. I think her favorite one was a little soft kitty. She sleeps with it every night along with her other animals. I love how she always looks like she is being attacked.

Haley loves to sleep with her dog. She affectionately calls him "barf-barf" (Don't ask me why)


Riley is done with the basketball season and is now on to track. She just had her first practice yesterday. This morning she wanted me to bend down and pick up a book up off the floor for her. I was thinking...what? Why can't you do it? She told me never mind, and I watched her and realized that she was very sore from yesterdays practice.

I am excited to go watch her track meets and you can bet-cher-buns that I will have my camera with me, documenting it every step of the way. Crazy Camera Lady! I'll try not to embarrass you too much Riley!

Fabulous Five

My sweet little Hay-hay is 5 years old today! I just can't believe it!!! Yesterday we had a little cousin party at Leo's Pizza. Before we went to the pizza place, Haley had a well check appointment with our doctor. (I'm trying to get her registered for Kindergarten). The doctor's office scheduled her for a well check up and said they couldn't do shots until the week after (due to scheduling). When we got to the doctors office, the nurse said, "Do you want to get shots today?" We weren't planning on it, but I decided to do it. I thought Haley was only going to have 3 shots...no such luck. They ended up giving her 5! Poor little girl got more then she bargained for! She was very sad, and I kept wondering why the crap I decided to do that right before her party! But, once we got there, she got out of the car and started playing with cousins and forgot all about it. (I think all the movement at the party was actually good to help her legs from getting sore.)

Haley woke up in the night was a nasty fever (probably because of the shots) Luckily, this morning she is feeling pretty good, aside from sore legs, and is ready to PARTY!

HALEY LOVES:
-Ice cream! She always wants to go get some when we drop the kids off at school. I always remind her that she can't have that for breakfast.
-Popsicles (She calls them poxiples)
-Makeup, dress-up, anything to be beautiful
-Playing the Wii
-Watching Sponge Bob and Barbie movies

Talk on Time

It seems like there has been so many different things going on that I have not been able to post about this yet. On February 23, my dad spoke at a BYU-I Devotional. The talk was titled, "The Precious Commodity we call Time".

Before the devotional, we had lunch with the President of the college, President Clark and his wife. We sat around a huge table and ate an amazing lunch. It was nice to be able to sit and visit with President Clark, and all those that were there. The table in the room was really cool. It was kind of diamond shaped so that everyone could see each other at the table. I think there was a total of 22 of us sitting around it. (I wanted to take lots of pictures, but my arm was hurting so bad that I was lucky to get the few that I did.)

I stole these next two pictures from my brother Jared. Thanks Jared! This table is way bigger then it looks in the picture.
Notice how they made a Y under that FABULOUS piece of pie.


After lunch we walked over to the Hart gym and they had reserved seats for us. As I sat there and waited for it to start, I had butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous for my dad and wondered how nervous he was. When he got up to speak he was NOT nervous at all. Or at least he didn't appear to be. I think he has given a million talks, so what is another one, right?

Waiting for the devotional to start.

My dad and his brother Heber.
My parents had lots of young men and women come up and talk to them afterwards. I think a lot of them were missionaries that served with my parents when they were serving as Mission President. It was fun to see how excited they were to see each other.

The end of the Altima

On Saturday, John went to his office with Riley and Brynn. On their way home, they were in a car accident. The other driver, a 16 year old boy, failed to yield while turning at a green light. John was going straight and had the right of way.

John was cut some how on his eye and he also hit his leg rather hard. John ended up needing a couple of stitches. Riley was hit pretty hard in the face with the air bag, and she also has lots of bumps and bruises on her legs. Brynn was in the back seat and was not hurt too bad, although she is sore. It is a little comical that Riley and Brynn were fighting over who got to sit in the front seat. I don't think they will fight over that one again for a while.

Both air bags deployed and I'm quite certain that the car is totalled. HUGE bummer. It was a great little car that did not give us any problems. Now we have to face the daunting task of finding a new car. The problem is WHO do you trust to sell you a good reliable car? On the bright side...no one was seriously injured. No one broke anything and were all able to walk away from the accident. I am SO grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over them.

It took a while for that poor eye to quit bleeding.

This is how his eye looks now.

John had a huge bump under his knee. It looked like a knee under a knee.


Riley looked at this picture after I took it and say, "Oh man, I look like a meth addict".