If I could go back in time to approximately 2 years and 1.5 months ago, I would have written a note to myself to forgo the whole idea of buying a used van with money out of pocket, and to just put that money into a solid down payment for a new or nearly-new van. Because this stupid van is slowly sucking the life out of us.
So anyway, Jesse ended up taking the van to the mechanic after he couldn't decide for sure where the leak was coming from. Because did I mention this? After the whole overheating thing on my trip down to deliver dinner to my friend, we thought we were fine. But last Thursday, when Jesse got home early from work, I had him take the older kids out to the park for a bike ride. On the drive home, which only takes about 10 minutes, the car was just starting to reach that critical point of the temperature gauge pointing to HOT-HOT-HOT just as he pulled into our parking space. Well, crap, we thought. Now what? Jesse took a look at it later that day when it was cooled off, poured gallons more water into the radiator, and fluid was basically just pouring out. Well, not pouring. But might as well have been. But he couldn't tell if it was a pipe, or the radiator, or maybe even the water pump (though the location of the water pouring pointed to probably not the water pump).
He could have purchased a radiator and probably replaced it himself. But with the high likelihood of losing his job soon, we didn't want to play guessing games with our money and replace parts we weren't sure were the culprit. So we had to wait over the weekend and take the car into the mechanic on Monday. And we walked everywhere we went, except for church. And for that trip, we took multiple containers full of water, just in case it couldn't make the trip. We were blessed that we didn't have any problems, and that Jesse also got the (stupid) van into the mechanic without any issues.
The mechanic confirmed it was a radiator problem: The radiator was split. The water pump also had a very small leak in it, but Jesse decided to save some money and do that repair himself. The mechanic's bill for the radiator replacement was just over $500, which is a pretty reasonable price. And then we had to spend another ~$50 for new fluids and a water pump that Jesse replaced the next day. BUT! The car isn't leaking anymore, and we can continue on our merry way.
Except for that nasty little problem of the car randomly dying whenever it wants to. That *might* be a "MAP" sensor problem? I don't even know what that is, but the part costs about $50. We might go ahead and try replacing it.
And there's still a bunch of other issues with it, like the leaking doors during heavy rain storms, or the myriad of electrical problems (stereo buttons, turn signal, horn, airbag... to name a few), and the leaky A/C system. At least it's easy to recharge the A/C, so we're not dying of heat on every drive.
But still.... can you imagine my life right now if I didn't have a junker van? I can, and do often. You should have heard my grumbling when I had to renew the van's registration for 2 years last month, when I totally would have preferred kicking it into a junkyard, or dumping it into the ocean, or anything other than basically telling Maryland, "Yes, I'd love to commit to having this van long enough to register it again! Where can I send my money?!?"
What I wouldn't give to have been out new-van shopping instead of radiator-fixing.
Wishful thinking....
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Facebook Friday...late
Changing routine somehow makes me forget what day of the week I'm on. Obviously, I missed Facebook Friday on Friday. Again. So here we are on Saturday, and I'll get you up to speed before I end up with another month-long Facebook Friday post! ;)
Friday, July 3rd
11:06pm
Becky wonders if she should wake up Jesse so he can move from the couch to the bed.
(He had been snoozing on the couch in front of the TV for over an hour!)
Saturday, July 4th
1:24pm
Becky wanted to do so many fun things today, but with our only vehicle having a radiator problem, we're only driving if absolutely necessary until after it goes to the mechanic on Monday. So, no pancake breakfast at the church, no parade at Towson, no driving to the trail to go for a nice long bike ride, and maybe not even fireworks, if we can't see them from our hill.
10:09pm
Becky took a 2 mile (total) hike to the grocery store and back (with Jesse setting the pace... ugh!!), made meatballs/carrots/crusty bread for dinner, and enjoyed spying fireworks from the hill across from our parking lot. We also set off a few fireworks of our own, but one of the fountain ones was VERY noisy and scared Alex half to death, poor guy.
Monday, July 6th
11:26am
Becky got a call from Jesse, who is at the mechanic with our van: The radiator is split. Will cost ~ $500 to replace it. The water pump is also on it's way out, but Jesse knows how to replace those, and will do it during his surplus of free time this week and save some money.
Tuesday, July 7th
11:53am
Becky went for a nice fast-paced walk on the NCR trail with the whole family today. Still, the fresh air wasn't enough to squeeze the cranky attitude out of Jacob. Next up is lunch and grocery shopping.
11:24pm
Becky has too much to do this week. Can I just take a vacation from life? Maybe hide in a hole and read some books instead of dealing with things that need to get done?
Wednesday, July 8th
8:13pm
Becky got lots of stuff to support Alex's tooth health today: Xylitol, glycerin-free gel for brushing with; xylitol "mints" to take multiple times a day; vitamin D supplement; minerals to add to water; Also got news that he's on Dental insurance now, so calling the dentist is on my to-do list.
(He now has an appointment for Tuesday, but they may not be able to do much more than take a peek, since they normally only see children starting at 3 years old. But at least we'll have an idea of what we're dealing with?)
Thursday, July 9th
2:28pm
Becky called the elementary school to get registration papers for Melinda. It seems beyond unreal that she's going to be in school so soon!
8:07pm
Jesse got a call and has at least 2 more weeks of work pretty much guaranteed. Yay? Can't say I haven't enjoyed having him home this week.
10:39pm
Becky got the munchies and sent Jesse out for some fried food, after which we'll dive back into our Gilmore Girls-athon. Aren't we exciting?? ;)
Friday, July 10th
6:35pm
Becky had a lovely day out with the whole family down at the temple. ♥
(Jesse and I took turns going in and doing initiatories while the other took care of the kids. It was such a HOT day outside! So glad to have a wonderful visitor's center to take advantage of. And so glad we went, it had been too long, and it was such an uplifting activity.)
Friday, July 3rd
11:06pm
Becky wonders if she should wake up Jesse so he can move from the couch to the bed.
(He had been snoozing on the couch in front of the TV for over an hour!)
Saturday, July 4th
1:24pm
Becky wanted to do so many fun things today, but with our only vehicle having a radiator problem, we're only driving if absolutely necessary until after it goes to the mechanic on Monday. So, no pancake breakfast at the church, no parade at Towson, no driving to the trail to go for a nice long bike ride, and maybe not even fireworks, if we can't see them from our hill.
10:09pm
Becky took a 2 mile (total) hike to the grocery store and back (with Jesse setting the pace... ugh!!), made meatballs/carrots/crusty bread for dinner, and enjoyed spying fireworks from the hill across from our parking lot. We also set off a few fireworks of our own, but one of the fountain ones was VERY noisy and scared Alex half to death, poor guy.
Monday, July 6th
11:26am
Becky got a call from Jesse, who is at the mechanic with our van: The radiator is split. Will cost ~ $500 to replace it. The water pump is also on it's way out, but Jesse knows how to replace those, and will do it during his surplus of free time this week and save some money.
Tuesday, July 7th
11:53am
Becky went for a nice fast-paced walk on the NCR trail with the whole family today. Still, the fresh air wasn't enough to squeeze the cranky attitude out of Jacob. Next up is lunch and grocery shopping.
11:24pm
Becky has too much to do this week. Can I just take a vacation from life? Maybe hide in a hole and read some books instead of dealing with things that need to get done?
Wednesday, July 8th
8:13pm
Becky got lots of stuff to support Alex's tooth health today: Xylitol, glycerin-free gel for brushing with; xylitol "mints" to take multiple times a day; vitamin D supplement; minerals to add to water; Also got news that he's on Dental insurance now, so calling the dentist is on my to-do list.
(He now has an appointment for Tuesday, but they may not be able to do much more than take a peek, since they normally only see children starting at 3 years old. But at least we'll have an idea of what we're dealing with?)
Thursday, July 9th
2:28pm
Becky called the elementary school to get registration papers for Melinda. It seems beyond unreal that she's going to be in school so soon!
8:07pm
Jesse got a call and has at least 2 more weeks of work pretty much guaranteed. Yay? Can't say I haven't enjoyed having him home this week.
10:39pm
Becky got the munchies and sent Jesse out for some fried food, after which we'll dive back into our Gilmore Girls-athon. Aren't we exciting?? ;)
Friday, July 10th
6:35pm
Becky had a lovely day out with the whole family down at the temple. ♥
(Jesse and I took turns going in and doing initiatories while the other took care of the kids. It was such a HOT day outside! So glad to have a wonderful visitor's center to take advantage of. And so glad we went, it had been too long, and it was such an uplifting activity.)
Unsupervised
We haven't been great about getting out of bed very early this week, with Jesse home on a forced vacation from work. That means that the kids are up and playing while we're pretty oblivious to what's going on, catching some extra zzz's while we can. This morning, they surprised us with a couple actually good things.
First, a box of gallon-sized ziploc bags somehow got knocked down from the top of the fridge. Might have happened before we went to bed without us noticing it, but the kids sure noticed it this morning. They took them and proceeded to "clean up" the playroom by stuffing those gallon-sized bags with as many toys as they could. And then they stacked them all on the chair in the living room. See the picture? So proud of themselves. Even Jacob, in all his underwear-and-swim-goggle glory. You can even see a bit of the very clean playroom floor in the doorway behind them. .... .... Maybe I should implement gallon-sized bags into our cleanup routine??
And then, as I was setting out a breakfast "snack" (snack only, because we were heading off to IKEA to grab breakfast and do window shopping, but since Jesse and I had gotten up at 9am, they were already "starving"), I saw some papers on the table, and I was floored by the drawings I saw on them. Melinda had found her "how-to-draw animals" book that I bought a few months ago. She had deemed it too difficult and frustrating back then, but she did awesome this time, all on her own:
A Cobra, complete with wiggles:
Top: a fly;
First, a box of gallon-sized ziploc bags somehow got knocked down from the top of the fridge. Might have happened before we went to bed without us noticing it, but the kids sure noticed it this morning. They took them and proceeded to "clean up" the playroom by stuffing those gallon-sized bags with as many toys as they could. And then they stacked them all on the chair in the living room. See the picture? So proud of themselves. Even Jacob, in all his underwear-and-swim-goggle glory. You can even see a bit of the very clean playroom floor in the doorway behind them. .... .... Maybe I should implement gallon-sized bags into our cleanup routine??
And then, as I was setting out a breakfast "snack" (snack only, because we were heading off to IKEA to grab breakfast and do window shopping, but since Jesse and I had gotten up at 9am, they were already "starving"), I saw some papers on the table, and I was floored by the drawings I saw on them. Melinda had found her "how-to-draw animals" book that I bought a few months ago. She had deemed it too difficult and frustrating back then, but she did awesome this time, all on her own:
An Angel Fish:
A Butterfly:
A Cobra, complete with wiggles:
Top: a fly;
Middle Left: a worm (with wiggles);
Middle Right: a starfish (with a million dots!!)
Bottom: a sperm whale
She said the worm was the trickiest one for her. But she put a lot of detail into all of them, and I could tell what they all were right off the bat. What a fun thing to discover first thing in the morning!
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