The Bad, The Good, The Funny, and the Tender Mercies

I'm slowly making my way through writing up about our amazing trip, but it's slow going and I didn't want to forget any of the details of our Thanksgiving Week, so I thought I'd do a little recap here before diving into our travel posts.  

THE BAD:

1. Our car totally went kaput driving 70mph down the freeway while driving my brother, Matt, to the airport.  I was barely able to maneuver off the freeway to a parking lot, where my brother had to Uber the rest of the way and I had to call someone to rescue me.  (see below for more details)

2.  I got a full-blown stomach bug on Thanksgiving Day and spent the entire day in bed with zero appetite and feeling miserable.

3.  They fixed our car for a somewhat reasonable amount, told us it was ready to pick up, then called us back a while later, and said, "never mind, it's still being weird."   We still haven't heard the new verdict.

THE GOOD: 

1.  My sister, Kristina, and her family (husband and 5 kids), plus my brothers, Nate and Matt,  came to visit.  They came to town for the BYU-OU football game (a game my Dad would have LOVED) and Kristina and Nate stayed for Thanksgiving.  

2.  Ellie and Emma came home from Rexburg and Provo, and Cami and Lucie flew in from Alabama for Thanksgiving, so  we had everyone home but Adam (still on his mission) and Garrett (who was working crazy shifts at the hospital and couldn't get off). 

3.  We had a lot of fun baking and just hanging out together.   We also visited the Orem Temple open house, went to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point, and got several inches of snow. 

4.  My nephews, Manuel and Isaiah, got baptized while they were here.   They are a year apart in age, but the older one was pretty nervous and wanted to wait for his brother to do it at the same time.    

5. No one else (except Lucie and me) got the stomach bug and thankfully it was only a one-day thing. 

6.  Lucie stayed behind when Cami flew home and I get a bonus week of Gigi time!  

THE FUNNY: 

My nephews' baptism was definitely the most entertaining and memorable baptism I'd ever been to in my entire life.  They were both a bit nervous about getting baptized and that nervousness translated into extreme silliness.  There was potty humor, there was giggling, they screamed as they went underwater, one of them screamed, "I'm blind, I'm blind," as he came up out of the water, and the other kicked his dad in his sensitive parts because he'd been instructed by an older sibling that he may as well, because he'd be forgiven for it anyway.   It was definitely irreverent, but knowing their background of trauma (they were adopted out of the foster care system a few years ago), it was honestly beautiful to see them overcome their fears and embrace it in the best way they knew how.  

THE TENDER MERCIES: 

As inconvenient as it was for the car to break down during a busy holiday week when I had a million places to be, there were so many tender mercies and little miracles that happened with it, that I need to capture them here, so I don't forget. 

Tender Mercy #1. It was me driving it in a populated area, not Glen in the middle of nowhere on his way to Saint George.  He drives that car to Saint George 95% of the time and I only requested it because of Lucie coming to town.  

Tender Mercy #2. I had 3 separate trips to make to SLC that day and the car broke down on the trip when there would be  the fewest people on the road (at 5:30am).  

Tender Mercy #3. It all went down (power steering stopped working and car started losing power) right at an exit, so I was able to maneuver off the freeway quickly and safely. 

Tender Mercy #4.  Our AAA membership is all up to date, so they were able to come tow the car to our mechanic with little stress. 

Tender Mercy #5.  This car literally has 230,000 miles on it and has had very few problems, so honestly it's a tender mercy it's lasted as long as it has.  We clearly need a new car soon, but we  are hoping to get it running again and working well enough to hand off to Adam when he gets back from his mission. 

The EEG

June 14:  After 6+ years of having dozens and dozens of absence seizures per day, the last few months Ellie's seizures have dropped to almost zero.   Even in Europe when our routines were off and she was often very sleep deprived, we hardly noticed any.   The neurologist was hopeful that she was finally outgrowing them (the normal course of her type of epilepsy).  This thought got us very excited and we started having grand visions of her having a normal EEG today and us starting to wean her down from her anti-seizure medication.  

Alas, it was not meant to be.   She still had at least two seizures during the procedure, which means that, yes, her medication is more effective than it's been in the past, but she still has childhood absence epilepsy and it's not time to wean her from the medication yet.  

<sigh>

After that it was time to go home and deal with the car.   Glen actually stayed home from work to help the process.    It was a looooooooooooooong day of ongoing car issues and other worries.   

In the meantime one of our favorite missionaries was in town visiting with his mom and asked to come visit.  We felt very honored that he would choose to come visit us and I was disappointed that I could not be home when he came.   

We love Elder Perkins!   

The evening  was one of extreme unpleasantness that I shall  refrain from recounting in this public forum.   Let's just say that it was rather hellacious and it, combined with my extreme lack of sleep from the night before, meant that I was not in my best form for dealing with it all.  

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The Good, the Good, the Bad, the Bad, the Bad, and the Bad

June 13:  
 Good:  I went to a visiting teaching brunch with some awesome ladies.  The food was delicious and the company even better.

Good:  Ellie and Adam had a piano recital and they both did great!

Bad: Spencer crashed the car (yes, that would be the second  crashed car in the last couple of weeks).   The struts were damaged, the tire shredded, the passenger side mirror shattered, and the front passenger side body banged up.  We only repaired what it took to get the car moving again, completely ignoring the damaged body and mirror, which meant it was only $450 down the tube.....  

Bad: It was a HUGELY stressful evening sorting out the details of everything that happened. 

Bad:  Because of the stressful situation at home, Glen had to take the metro home from the airport tonight.   It took 2+ hours. 

Bad:   Cami backed out of her commitment to stay up late with Ellie, so that Ellie could be properly sleep deprived for her EEG in the morning.    That means yours truly got to stay up until 2:15am and wake up at 6:30am.   Yay me. 

Bad: Sleep deprivation and stressful circumstances  are not the ideal set-up for proper mental functioning.  

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Real Life

May 25:   We left on our trip 2-1/2 weeks ago with fans blowing all over our flooded basement.

We came home and within 12-hours this happened:

It's totaled.

And it happened right as I was leaving to go the homeschooling conference.

Paying for the  tow truck and impound lot fees was not on our list of expenses we wanted to incur right as we returned from our trip, although a certain kid will be eventually paying those back.

Nor is dealing with a four drivers on two cars ratio any fun.

In fact, I'm not sure about this real life stuff.


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SIGNS OF THE TIMES

March 16: 

Today we had to make a quick stop at the library to pick up a couple of poetry books for Adam's English class.   There in the library parking lot was this parked car.  

There was an old man sitting in the driver's seat taking a nap.  On his forehead was emblazoned the Alpha and Omega symbol.     Ellie and I giggled a little as we walked past, but I couldn't help but wonder:      1.  Could he actually drive with that contraption on his car?   2.  Was his mental health okay?   I assume the answers to both questions were, "no," but, hey, at least he's making a statement!  

Later on, we passed this awesome church sign:  

I love me a good church sign and this one is often full of good one-liner wisdom!  

On a related note, I think I'd thoroughly enjoy a stint as a church sign letter layer. 

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Stuff

In case you haven't noticed, I have no idea what I'm doing with this blog.  I say I'm not going to blog at all, then I blog once a week, then I'm blogging every day, then I barely remember to take any pictures.    I do really like the challenge of capturing the daily happenings of our family, but, man, I really miss the days of being meaningful or funny. Until I get my mojo back (maybe when the kids are all graduated from  homeschool), I am certain that this blog will continue to evolve.  Into what I have no idea, but let's hope that it's something awesome.   

February 18:  

Here's a random sampling of what we found on the floor of our van today.  

A box of juice boxes, a water bottle, a pair of binoculars, a scripture case, a Hank Smith cd, some sprinkles, and an analytical essay!   It's almost as random as our day which included bot fighting, homework at Panera, and an awesome YW activity.  

February 19:  

What can I say?   I had a lot on my plate today and absolutely nothing turned out quite how I expected.  I ended up pretty grumpy and craving everything I can't eat on my diet.   

Adam, however,  rocked at the food thing and made awesome tinfoil dinners for his scout campout tonight.  

I Spy...

February 12: 

I spy four lies and a truth...

My sister, Kristina,  is pregnant. 

My brother, Nate, is buying a house. 

My mom is retiring. 

 I love dieting. 

My tire is flat.  

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Vacation Crash

I read about a study this week that showed that vacations are good for the soul.  

Occasionally taking time off from our daily duties for a few days helps relieve depression symptoms and makes people happier and healthier when they return.  

Our vacation last week was perfect for us.  

We slept late every morning, hiked a lot, visited new places, and ate out for most dinners. 

 It was exactly the kind of rejuvenation that we needed...

which was lucky for Cami...

because she did quite a number on our car today…  

 and she was lucky to have gotten the well-rested, still-on-vacation-high mom and dad when it happened.

  

As you can imagine, she was completely devastated by the whole incident and she is not looking forward to working off her ticket and insurance deductible amounts or going without a car for her senior year, but  we are very grateful that no one was hurt and that the people she hit were kind to her. 

I'm thinking though that all this might warrant another vacation for us soon.     

If you're going somewhere fun and relaxing soon, let me know if you have room for any stowaways! 

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Good News!!!

At age six, Ellie has already found her dream car....


except she's hoping it will be just a tad more fuchsia, since pink is only her second favorite color behind fuchsia and before purple. 

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Mom to the Rescue

The Problem:  It's time for soccer and one of the soccer balls is missing.  All that can be found is this long-lost ball that has spent a few too many days in the backyard.... 

While the ball was well inflated and perfectly fine for kicking around a field,  there were still buckets of tears and arguing over which one of the kids would have to be the one to take the scruffy ball to soccer...

I was feeling my frustration level rise as quickly as their decibel level, when suddenly I had an idea!!!!  Why not break out the markers and make the soccer ball as colorful as they wanted it to be? 

After Ellie, Adam, and Cami frantically colored away, their smiles seemed to grow as each pentagon took on a new color and design. 

It was definitely the most colorful ball on the field...

which worked well for masking the fact that her socks didn't exactly match....

YAY!  Make that one big colorful tally mark in the "Mom Saves the Day" column!

And believe me, when I say that I need all the tally marks I can get today.  I'm at about negative 3,000 after a little parking lot incident I had today in our three-day-old car.    



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Isn't it Ironic?

After receiving word that the crashed Corolla was a lost cause,  we decided to go ahead and get a new Sienna and make our old Sienna the commuter car.  We figured it would be nice to have the family car be new and reliable and have a safe, old car for Spencer to drive when he gets his driver's license in a few months (not that I'm old enough to have child with a driver's license yet or anything). 

So, on Friday night, after much haggling on the internet and in person, we bought this beautimous new minivan with 8 seats, automatic doors, a navigation system, and even a built-in DVD player.  While these features may not seem very exciting to most of you, to those of us who have been driving around the same old economy car for the last decade, these features are downright  luxurious. 

On Saturday morning, before leaving the house, we give the kids a lecture about how we're going to keep this car uncluttered and clean, including a strict no-food policy except on vacations.  We really made a big deal of it and went so far as to breathe out threatenings for anyone who dares to maim our sparkly new car with so much as a muddy footprint. 


Shortly thereafter the aforementioned parental pep-talk/threats, the following prayer was given by Ellie: 

Dear Heavenly Father, We thank thee for this day and for our new car.  Please keep us safe.  Bless us to be good and keep our new car clean, so it won't get messy like our old car.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Shortly thereafter the aforementioned prayer, we get in the car for our inaugural trip (other than driving it home the night before) to take Ellie and Adam to ward soccer. 

Within 20 seconds of being in the car, Ellie accidentally dumped out a bag of stuff she'd randomly brought with her.   Thankfully, the stuff was all easily picked up and put back in the bag.  Unfortunately the long-lost crumbled remnants of a chocolate Easter bunny that also adorned the inside of the bag proved to be another story. 

<SIGH>

At least the new-car smell hasn't worn off yet. 




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RIP: Little Corolla

Now that our Corolla has officially been declared dead and gone by the insurance company, I thought I'd give a little eulogy on what had been, until a couple of weeks ago, a faithful little commuter car for Glen.  

a)  we purchased it on Ebay in 2003

b)  we drove to West Chester, Pennsylvania to pick it up

c)  we paid $6900 for it, which was significantly below blue book values for a one-year-old car

d)  it had nothing automatic and sported old fashioned window rollers, no CD player, and manual door locks, etc.

e)  we thought we were so clever when we got these personalized license plates  (4 MY 4 QTs)

f) we never updated our license plates after Ellie was born.  When questioned at why only four of our five kids were considered QT's (cuties), we would tease that one of them had outgrown their cuteness.
 
g) it had 110,000 miles or so on the odometer at the time of its demise

h) other than the obnoxious phase it went through shortly after Glen added his bike rack to the back, it's been a good and faithful car that's needed very little in the way of maintenance

i)  The estimated cost of repairing the damage inflicted in Glen's rainy, early morning  accident was over $10,000

j)  The insurance company estimated its replacement value at $6000 and sent us a check for that amount (minus our deductible)

k)  that's only $900 loss in value over 8 years.  We attribute it to the good deal we got in the first place and for how well Toyotas hold their value in our area. 

Goodbye faithful Corolla.  We will miss you and our 7 years of being car payment-less. 



(And here's the story, for those of you hadn't heard before now:   Glen had just dropped Spencer off at school after seminary and when traffic stopped suddenly in front of him, he slid on the wet pavement.  The other car (Kia Sol) only sustained minor damage to the bumper.  Other than a couple of bruises from the seat belt and wounded pride, Glen is completely fine. )


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When it rains....

it pours!!!!!  And, no,  I am not talking about the funky weather/storm system that seems to be plaguing the DC area as of late. 

Nope, we've got our own rainstorm going on right in our house. 

Here's what the last couple of weeks have brought us.....

So other than bawling about our quickly emptying bank account, Cami and I decided to break out the umbrella....

and head to DC...

then on to a place we'd always wanted to visit, but never quite gotten around to yet....

GEORGETOWN CUPCAKES (also known as DC Cupcakes on TLC channel)!!!!

There's nothing quite like drowning your worries in miles of walking around DC, topped off with miles of frosting....

but before we could eat our treasured prize, we decided that we should eat a real lunch first.  Fresh hot crepes were just the ticket!  

After lunch, we were rushed and had to head back quickly for a windy walk back to the Metro....

I think this might be a self-portrait of us crossing the Key Bridge, but I can't really say for sure if it's us or not....

When we finally got home, we broke out the cupcakes, eager to split them into sample size pieces so we could try all the flavors.  Too bad the stifling 65 degree heat melted them to smithereens.  

It was then that I decided...to heck with bills, bank accounts, and ruined cupcakes...

It's time to break out the Three Wolf Moon shirt and snarf down cupcake crumbs with style and reckless abandon! 

Just in case you're wondering, I think the salted caramel/lemon/red velvet combo was my favorite.  YUM! 

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