Perfect Reminders

This post is a direct follow-up of this one, so go over and read it first if you haven't already.

So, as it turns out, what a difference a day makes. By the time Jesse woke up on Saturday morning, he was in much better spirits. Stiff and sore from spending time under the car on Friday afternoon, but obviously feeling more confident.

He headed out to the car first thing in the morning. Actually, Friday night seemed to help a lot: He had taken off to go pick up parts at the auto shop, and stopped to browse GameStop (for a potential birthday gift for Jacob), and also walked over to 7-11 and picked up a nice big Slurpee. Because, you know... those Slurpees can cure any foul mood. ;) No, but really... he spent a good chunk of time out of the house, and when he came back, he was much better. I know I often do well to just get out, too. Anyway, so he already had all the car parts on hand, and the van was ready for working on.

He decided to just cut out the bad section of pipe and replace it with a hose, an idea he found browsing forums online. Seems that he gets most of his car-repair ideas from the internet, these days. The pipe that was bad had been rusted out, and basically exploded into a series of holes. Not unlike the hot water pipes that caused multiple leaks in our old apartment. Back then, they simply clamped a hole, 4 or 5 different times, until finally they decided they had better replace the whole thing. Well, I'm sure this pipe will eventually need to be completely replaced, but for now, it's just patched. Hopefully, and this is a VERY BIG hopefully, we will be able to replace our van before another piece of the pipe rusts all the way through.

In all honesty, I think it was a full-on miracle that I was able to get from the interstate to Melinda's doctor appointment after the car overheated on Friday. After seeing how quickly the fluid was pouring out of that pipe.... it's a wonder I got anywhere at all without issue.

Back to the repairs... this is the piece of pipe that Jesse cut out. Lovely, isn't it? Completely rusted. Hilariously clamped. But, it got him home with the van, saving us a towing fee.

While he was working on taking care of that, he decided to knock out a few other repairs. First, he replaced the serpentine belt. It had been getting worse and worse, giving off a near-constant squeaky hum that annoyed me to death. Second, he replaced the MAP sensor. We think, knock on wood, that this is the solution to our year+ battle with the van randomly dying or jerking while driving. Apparently, what this sensor does is monitor the pressure in the fuel lines and adjust the amount of gas sent to be combusted. So if it senses wrongly, it will send the wrong amount of gas, and thus (according to information we read) cause mis-fires and poor gasoline economy. Since we've changed it (and it's a ridiculously simple-looking part for $60), we haven't had a single hiccup. We may be cured!!

Jesse finished with the car repairs right at lunchtime, and we enjoyed a good time out at Red Robin, where we hadn't eaten in ages. It was nice! We even treated ourselves to fruity lemonades instead of our typical water. After we finished eating, we went over to the T-mobile store and asked about Jesse's phone. Turns out that he should be able to get a $30 phone to replace his current phone, and be good to go.

So, all problems pretty much taken care of, things went back to normal. But the stress of the weekend stayed in my mind, so I was very grateful for various things that were said. Here on my blog in comments, or by email, or by messages in church today... I was reminded very thoroughly how God is in control of our lives, and that He truly does have a plan in store for our family. We may not know for sure what it is, and it may be stressful waiting around to discover it, and we may have a lot of trials along the way... but He will bless us.

In fact, one particular thing really struck me today. Our Gospel Doctrine teacher is the daughter of Elder Andersen, as I mentioned in a previous Facebook Friday. She was telling a story today taht happened when she was younger: A missionary was talking to Elder Andersen (I think when he was a Mission President, but Alex was distracting so I didn't catch that part for sure). It was just after the missionary had completely wrecked his bike, and he was feeling very down and discouraged. Elder Andersen (true to his personality!) said with enthusiasm and sincerity, "Elder, isn't that just great??" The missionary was confused by this response, and Elder Andersen explained his thought process a little bit more. I'm paraphrasing here, not quite quoting.... "Don't you see? If the adversary is working this hard to get you down, there must be some really incredible blessings coming to you soon!" Sister Ebert, his daughter, related how that conversation has really stuck with her over the years, and connected the story with the scripture in D&C 103:12: "For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing."

All the rest of the meeting, as I was listening to other quotes, hymns, thoughts, and testimonies, the Spirit bore witness in my heart of the truth of that idea. Sometimes, circumstances can cause you to forget and despair... but I truly know that the Lord hasn't forgotten our family and our needs. And I know that we experience these trials for a reason, and I truly know that we will be blessed at some point in time. And I have to say, Sister Ebert's story really gave me a glimmer of hope... what if, those blessings we receieve after trial (after trial, after trial...) are going to be incredible and magnificent? Something we can't even really imagine? And even if not magnificent, they will be very well received.

I'm so grateful for the loving words of reassurance of all of my family and friends. I'm touched by your prayers and support, and so thankful for your love. I know the bad times will pass... But all the same, I'm glad for the reminder of why we even have the bad times in the first place.

And just because they're all so cute, here are some pictures I took of the kids on the porch while Jesse was down working on the car.

Okay, so Jesse's not a kid. But he's our own personal conquering hero, and he sure deserves a picture in the blog!

JunkVan Strikes Again

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....

Sometimes You Don't Get the Answer You Want

On Monday evening, I was taking dinner to a friend who just had a darling little baby girl.  Since we're down to one car, and it hasn't been the most reliable thing in the world, I said a quick little prayer before I went off on the drive:  "Heavenly Father," I asked, "Please bless this car to spare me from trouble today and that the drive will go smoothly."  And then off I went, while Jesse stayed home with the kids.

10 minutes later, just after I got onto the highway, the van seemed to be lacking in uumph.  Wasn't speeding up like I thought it should.  So I glanced suspiciously down at the RPM gauge, which often shows me when the van is acting up.  When it drops below the number 2 on the highway, it's usually during a hiccup.  When it drops below .5 at an idle, it dies.  So I glance at the RPM gauge, and it looks fine.  Huh, I thought.  Must have been my imagination....   And then, my eye notices the temperature guage.  Instead of hovering happily halfway between C and H, it is right up next to the H.  And seems to be moving even closer.  Uh-oh.  That's not normal.  Just after I notice that, I see the little thermometer light come on at the top of the dashboard.  Crap.

So I quickly dug out my cell phone and pressed the speed dial button for Jesse.  I usually avoid the cell phone while on the highway, but I wasn't sure what to do about this situation, since it hadn't ever actually happened to me before.  Luckily, Jesse answered his phone on the 2nd ring.  Sometimes he leaves it on vibrate, or forgets about it back in the bedroom, or whatever, and so he won't even answer his phone after 2 or 3 calls that go to voice mail.  When he answered, I said, "Uh, hi.  So, the temperature guage is all the way up next to hot, and now the light is on...."  Jesse immediately says, "Get off the road.  Pull over as soon as you can."  ...I continue, "And, uh, now the light is beeping at me and not stopping."

Long story short, by the time I had dialed his number, and figured out what to do, I was right near the next exit off the highway.  So I went ahead and pulled off there, and stopped the car in a striped-out zone right at the busy intersection, turned off the car, and turned on the hazards. 

Jesse then walked me through locating the radiator cap:
"It's a steel cap, sort of in the front frame area of the car...If you follow the tube from the reserve tank, you should be able to find it."  I wasn't finding it.  He started describing what a radiator looks like. 
"Is it sort of honeycomb-looking??" 
"YES!!  That's it!!" 
"Great, I found the cap, then!"  I open it up, and woooooo!  There was a ring of greenish liquid inside.  Score!! 

Jesse had somehow managed to stow no less than 3 large bottles of coolant in the van without me noticing.  Well, the van is typically pretty messy, so I guess it's not terribly unusual for me to not notice some of the contents.  But it took an entire bottle and then some to fill up the radiator, and then I used up the 2nd bottle and a portion of the 3rd to fill the reserve tank.  That radiator was basically bone dry.  And, as Jesse explained to me, if I hadn't managed to get the car stopped soon enough, it would have overheated to the point of  the engine seizing.  Our only car's engine.  That would NOT have been good.

So yeah... not exactly an ideal, smooth, flawless trip down to deliver a dinner to my friend.  BUT, I later realized, if Heavenly Father was going to answer my prayer with a no, He couldn't have picked a better time.  It has been so hot and humid these last few days.  Can you imagine if I had the kids with me?  They would have had to remain buckled in their seats without the benefit of the A/C.  It would have been unbearable.    Or what if it was while Jesse was at work, where he often doesn't get cell reception these days, and I hadn't reached him in time to figure out what I needed to do?  I'm not sure my instincts would have led me the right direction, to pull of the road immediately.  They obviously weren't kicking in yet when it happened, you know?  Or what if Jesse hadn't put the coolant in the car?  I would have had a fun little walking trip to find a gas station.  Or at night time, when I couldn't see what I was doing?  Or, or, or....   Truly, if my car was going to overheat, it chose the best possible time, when I was without the kids, Jesse was a phone call away, and I had everything I needed to fix the problem and move on. 

Oddly, I was sitting at a busy intersection, with my hazards on and the hood up, for about 10 minutes.  Cars were stopped next to me waiting for the light to change.  Many, many cars passed me.  Only one car stopped, and an older woman got out to see if I needed help.  She called me honey and said she stopped because it just as well could have been her and her family in that situation.  I was just about finished up at that point, so I thanked her and sent her on her way, but I was feeling pretty incredulous that nobody else stopped.  NOBODY.  When an obviously young woman was alone and probably needing help.  I mean, I'm glad I can take care of things myself, usually.  I can certainly change a tire, and now I can also fill the radiator, too.  ;)  But why on earth wouldn't people stop to check?  I know I would have, even if I was running late and had all three kids with me.  The only exception might be if it was a man alone... that might not feel safe to me.  But I might pull over and see if they need me to make a phone call or something, you know?

Anyway, it all worked out.  No lasting trouble- we just have a slow leak in the radiator that we've forgotten to check on for a good while, so it was our fault, I guess.  I'm glad we had things on hand.  I'm glad Heavenly Father said no to my prayer, so that things would work out at the best time.  And I'm also glad for an awesome husband who knows his way around a car well enough to walk me through it.

And by the time I'm through with this stupid hunk of a van, I'll probably qualify as a mechanic.  When the time comes, if I could kick it into a junk yard, I would.

Just sayin'. 

April 1st Rundown

April 1st was so interesting last year, what with me going into labor and all. This year's April 1st was also an "interesting" day. A full day, for sure.

This was the day that I woke up with my voice completely hoarse and bullfrog-like. Fun times, for such an unexpected twist! (Nature's April Fools joke on me??)

We started off our morning bright and early with Melinda and Jacob's swim classes. Melinda is definitely being moved to a Level 2 class. She kept insisting her teacher said she would be Level 2, but nobody talked to me about it until this week. The teacher tested her very quickly on things like "diving" into the water and floating on her back, because she wasn't sure if she'd be better off in Level 2 or Level 3, I guess. But Level 2 it is. Melinda absolutely *amazed* me by retrieving 3 toy rings from under the water at the end of class. She wouldn't open up her eyes underwater, of course, but she'd take a good long look at where the rings were, close her eyes tight, take a deep breath, and plunge underwater. She'd stay there for 3-4 seconds, feeling around with her hand, and pop back up for a breath. She later told me that she even took her feet off of the ground while she was under. With some persistence, she got all three of the rings, and dunked herself under the water at least 10 different times! She had the most proud smile on her face as she handed her three rings to the teacher! Jacob was okay for most of the swim class - he avoided getting his head near the water during the "Simon Says" portion at the beginning, but didn't hesistate with hopping back and forth between walls when it was time for that, and didn't really seem perturbed by jumping into the water off of the wall when his teacher was ready to catch him. He DID freak out about being asked to float on his back, though, even with support. I could hear his yells of "It's too scary for me! I'm tooooo scaaaaary!!!" from inside my closed-off room. He curled his body up and wouldn't relax to even try. Not unexpected, though - he does that even in the bathtub. And the other little girl in the class reacted the exact same way, only without the words. We'll see if he gets brave enough to try over the next few weeks, huh?

After swim class, we popped over to the party store and bought a boquet of balloons for Alex. Because what new 1-year-old boy doesn't like a fun floating balloon? And then we stopped by Edible Arrangments to order a special treat for Jesse. Jesse's just been amazingly supportive and loving lately, and then I got to thinking about how I wouldn't even have these adorable kids to celebrate their birthdays if it weren't for him, and I just decided it was high time he got something special, too, for always being there for us and making our lives so much better.

By the time we got home, it was 10:30. Kaija was still in bed, asleep. I certainly couldn't blame her... I'd probably still be sleeping at 10:30am if I had a quiet house, too! But we woke her up at that point, and then I baked a cake. After lunch, we headed out to Coldstone Creamery to get a free ice cream for the birthday boy (which we had *just* signed up for that morning... yay for printable birthday coupons!), and one for everyone else, of course. And really, Alex only had a few bites of the ice cream, I ate the rest. ;) After Coldstone, we were just heading back to the car, where we were going to go pick up Jesse's boquet and deliver it to his work, when he called. Hands juggling 2 ice creams, keys, a diaper bag, and trying to open a door, I opened up my cell phone and wondered why he was calling so soon after lunch. He'd been hit by a car on his way back to work. The guy was making a left-hand turn onto his road, didn't see Jesse (it *was* a dreary day, and the road is busy), and hit his bumper to Jesse's bumper. Jesse had seen him coming, and slammed on his breaks, but with the wet roads, he couldn't stop soon enough to avoid being hit. His passenger side headlight is now gone, the front grill was smashed up by another driver on the road, and the bumper and hood took some damage. But luckily, nobody was hurt, not even a little bit of whiplash. Unfortunately, with Kaija being here, and us being busy, we haven't gotten his car to a body shop yet. We were about to do it on Saturday morning, but discovered the shop that the guy's insurance recommended was MUCH too far for us to go to. When we called to check on alternatives, we discovered that the insurance rep would be gone for an entire week. So his auto care is still up in the air at this point, since we don't want to simply assume we can go wherever we'd like, but have some confirmation so we don't get stuck with a bill. Also, Jesse is really hoping they don't decide the car it totaled. It's still running well enough for him to drive it now, as long as he doesn't take it out at night when he would need a headlight. But if there's some internal damage that would get costly to fix, Jesse seems to think there's a good chance that it could cost more than the car is worth, at it's old age ('94). And then we wouldn't have enough money to get a car to replace it, more than likely. Well, we do, but with job stability being what it is, we wouldn't spend it on a car.

Anyway, so after talking to Jesse and first freaking out and then calming down, we moved on and picked up his boquet. When I dropped it off at his work, he was already talking with insurance people. So I just gave him a quick hug and kiss and let him get back to all of that... but I think it was a nice surprise.

Kaija, the kids, and I all headed out to the Towson mall to do some quick browsing and to play at the playplace. Kaija picked up some new shoes at Nordstrom Rack (holy wowza, the high heels she picked! I don't think I could walk in them! But they looked fantastic on her!). I couldn't resist buying a sweet pink lacy-overlay type of dress for Melinda that was hanging near the shoes. She can't wait to wear it to church this coming week, either.

We headed home just in time to get back and decorate Alex's cake and make dinner. Alex had fallen asleep on the way home from the mall, and he woke up with perfect timing at the end of dinner, giving us just enough time to do presents, cake and ice cream before heading out to the circus.

Now, I didn't spend tons of time on this cake... just made something simple and quick. Sorry Alex. I hope you don't mind in 15 years or so, when you're looking through all your baby pictures. We were so busy, and you were just going to smash things anyway. ;)

And now for the barrage of picture. Don't worry, I'm only showing you about 1/3 of what I actually took...

Alex plays with his balloons for a minute before he gets started with the presents:

Okay, now the fun starts! He loves the curly ribbons.

Peering past the torn paper to figure out what's inside:

Kaija puts the bow on Alex's head. Awww, how cute! (And, yeah, his clothes are dirty. Remember how short on time we were? Not gonna change the clothes just before cupcake time, not smart!)

Yes! The piggy bank was an instant hit! (This one was from myself and Jesse.) Jacob likes it a lot, too. :)

Alex opens a fun little bathtime toy from Grandma Wilcox. Really getting the hang of present-opening now!

Not the best picture ever, but it's the only one I took of Alex playing with the new ball toy (from myself and Jesse).

Aunt Rachel (I hope I got that right!) sent Alex a fun little book called Swing!. I've actually been thinking about buying this one for a couple months, so it was a perfect gift! Jacob "yoinked" it so he could look at it himself, and Alex was just walking up to him to take it back, because he was so interested in seeing it. The pictures move when you turn the pages.

Grandma and Grandpa Newson sent this adorable pajama set. It fits perfect, I love the big truck theme, and he needed new PJ's. Thank you so much!!

Uncle Ben & Aunt Brea also sent a lovely card in the mail. And a few days later, we also got a card in the mail from Aunt Megan and her family, complete with Alex's first dollar bill. Thanks everyone!

On to cake time. Here's the cake I decorated for Alex. Cream cheese frosting is difficult to decorate with because it's so soft... especially when you're in a hurry, and you had forgotten that you ran out of frosting bags and had to improvise with Ziploc bags. That's all I'm sayin'.

Alex carefullly inspects his individual cupcake.

Flips it over a couple times.

Eventually, he smashed it apart, never attempting to really eat any of it. But he definitely enjoyed licking his fingers when everything was flung off of his tray.

Such a silly birthday boy!!

Here are the videos, which, for me, is the best part:









And of course, after all of that, we spent a few minutes finishing up our cake and ice cream, cleaned up Alex, and made sure everyone had clean clothes on. There was just a couple minutes to play with toys, and then we went to the Circus down at the 1st Mariner Arena near the Inner Harbor. But that's a post all of it's own, so I'll save it for later.

Reality Check

(Has it really been almost a week since I last posted? What's up with that?)

Can I just say....

You know you're the world's worst housekeeper when your 3-year-old refuses to pee on a toilet because it's "too dirty". And when you try to convince him that it's okay- it won't hurt him- he whimpers and cries and insists on using the other toilet.

That same child can make me go between proud as a mother hen to horrified as all get-out in 2 seconds flat: While grocery shopping in a busy store, he simply switches from singing "The First Noel" beautifully and angelically, to yelling "NIPPLES, NIPPLES, NIPPLES!!" with a mischievous giggle and smirk.

***

Jesse always says that car problems always come in threes. 1) Van's windshield wipers going berserk, check. 2) Nissan's CV joints about to break any minute, check (Jesse's got the new parts now, just has to find time and good weather to change them). Hmmm... #3.....

I had forgotten Jesse's car rule. Didn't ever cross my mind to expect another thing going wrong. But it crossed Jesse's mind. He wondered to himself Monday morning, "I wonder what's going to go wrong next??" Well, when I drove the van that same day, I saw the answer. Our windshield is broken. Well, not broken. But majorly cracked. And it sure wasn't cracked or even dinged on Sunday. It's cracked on the inside, too, not the outside. Jesse the engineer says that it's from being hit on the outside, something to do with tension of concave vs. convex surfaces. His guess is someone hit it with a football. We didn't notice anyone playing around on Sunday, but the weather was definitely nice enough, and we've seen people playing with footballs in the parking areas before. The nice people in us want to believe that whoever did it didn't even realize it. The cynics in us are grumpy that someone ruined our windshield and maybe just ran away knowing they'd never be caught. And now we have to replace it out of our own pocket, because we sure don't carry insurance to cover this kind of thing, with cars that are so old.

The good news is that we'll be able to afford it, and truth be told, that windshield was pretty crappy anyway. It had grooves in the shape of the windshield wiping pattern, and driving at night made annoying streaks of light on the passenger side, from headlights especially.

We can afford it because of taxes. Why do car problems always happen around tax time, and not summertime, Jesse and I wonder? Probably because winter is hard on cars, we guess, but it's still odd. Almost every time our cars start breaking, it's in the middle of winter. Late December or January. Truly odd.

But anyway, Taxes!!! I had wanted to get our taxes filed this past Saturday, but I was still waiting on the form from our bank. I finally got it on Monday, and well, I decided to try and do it myself, since I had time, instead of waiting for Jesse. We use the TurboTax program, which I really like. They pull most of our information straight from the previous year's forms, so I don't have to fill out much anything new. It's not a cheap program, but since we have a rental property back in Colorado (the money sink that it often is), we really need the extra help. Otherwise, I'd probably just file with a free method online. Anyway, so I went and input everything into TurboTax in less than an hour, and I felt like I did everything right (especially since I always participate in the taxes with Jesse, I'm familiar with the process by now). I was amazed by the amount it was saying we'd get back, though! Over $5,000 for federal, and over $1,000 for state. WOW! $6k tax refund? THANK YOU!! I suppose that it's mostly because of adding a third child to our tax returns, and I don't think Jesse ever changed his W-4 at work, either, to adjust for the addition to our family.

So, good news is that we have plenty of money to cover the random car things going crazy. And enough to make a nice little extra cushion in savings. Maybe eventually we'll even be able to use that savings for a down payment on a house, or something. Hopefully we won't ever have to use it as an actual cushion because of lack of employment or anything.

***

Alex can be so much fun these days. He loves clapping anytime he hears anyone else clap (TV included). He loves pat-a-cake and often "says" it to himself. He's learning the song "Popcorn Popping" from Primary, which is just so cute. He's pointing at things like a madman, which I find just incredibly adorable, the way his whole body gets into it. And the way he babbles nonsense at 50mph while he's pointing to various things. I just wish I knew what sort of things he was talking about... I'm sure it's fascinating!! He's mimicking sounds a lot lately, too (ahhh... especially some of the goofier sounds found on Webkinz games). And my new favorite: Honking noses. We poke his nose gently and say "honk honk!". Then he pokes our nose and goes "hah hah!" It's all so much fun.

But teething is not fun. Still. Ever. He's got his 7th tooth (3rd on the bottom), and is now working on his 8th, also on the bottom. It's loads of fun. Or not.

***

We joined a little preschool co-op with some ladies in our ward. It's once a week, basically for Melinda only (though if I want to hang out and try and let Jacob participate, too, it's okay). Aside from Melinda, it's also all boys. But she's enjoying herself so far! We've done two weeks, and this week it will be our turn to host. We work on a letter from the alphabet, do a little reading, some basic math skills, and otherwise just have some free play time, snacks, that sort of thing. It's pretty casual. But it's nice to have something organized to do. I'm excited for my turn with teaching, too, though I hope it won't take me long to get a feel for a decent schedule!

While Melinda's at "preschool", Jacob and Alex and I have been enjoying some time to ourselves. The first week, that included shopping at Trader Joe's and then coming home to eat and check on the status of the installation of the new dishwasher (which has been SO NICE!!). Last week, we hung out at the playplace at the mall, did some mall browsing, and then went to Trader Joe's again. I was honestly quite surprised at how easily Jacob took to this Melinda-free time during the day, and how much better he behaved without her around. Maybe surprised doesn't cover it.... I was shocked, I guess. I always assumed that the minute Melinda wasn't around to offer a constant playmate, Jacob would be off-the-wall crazy. I was so wrong, and it's a happy thing.

***

I was quizzing the kids on their favorite things last night to keep them occupied while we waited for food to be ready. When I asked Jacob who his best friend is, he said, "Alex!!!" Aww, how cute. :)

***

I don't know why I didn't start reading chapter books to the kids earlier in their lives. It takes a little extra time on my part, but ohmygoodness, they've been going to sleep so much better! Almost every single night I never hear another peep from them. Big difference from the typical past routine of them bouncing off the walls for an hour or two, with mommy and daddy constantly going back to tell them to stay in bed, before finally falling asleep. This way is so much nicer, and I'm enjoying the reading, myself! (Reminder: My sidebar has a widget from Goodreads with my currently-reading books as well as my recently read books, if you're interested in following along.) And you know, they even stay pretty quiet while I read, too? I didn't expect that when I started it. And the other big bonus is that Melinda is always so full of questions after I'm finished reading, ranging from concepts from the story, to vocabulary, to rather deep spiritual questions that had nothing to do with the story, but must have crossed her mind somehow during some part of the day. It's been nice to have little discussions with her during a time of day when she's so willing to be quiet and really listen to the answer, and respond back with her own thoughts.

I Am Woman, Hear Me ..... Squeak?

I have to admit I was thinking about blogging, or at least bragging rights, when I went about a few bits of my day.  I was patting myself on the back before I had even finished my work, thinking how cool I was that I could fend for myself and get important things done without the husband around.

Yeah, there's a rhyme and reason to that phrase "don't count your chickens before they hatch", after all.

Remember how I briefly mentioned that our windshield wipers were on the fritz, and we ordered a new part that should fix it, and it may or may not come in time for Jesse to put it in the car for me?  Well... It arrived at our door only half an hour before we had to leave for the airport.  And Jesse was still getting ready.  So, definitely not time for him to mess with it.  But, I wasn't worried, I'd been keeping tabs on the weather, and it looked like I would luck out with precipitation for the drive, anyway.  And it was certainly true on Thursday, which was (too) bright and sunny.  But as we got closer to Sunday, it became apparent that I'd more than likely be driving in snow when it was time to go get Jesse from the airport.  (And isn't that lovely irony?  That we desperately want snow ALL WINTER LONG, and then we finally get it the one day I DON'T want it????)  So, I buckled down to reality.  I needed to try and change the part myself.  It should be fairly simple, just unscrewing the plastic covering around the steering wheel, unplugging the switch (which controls the turn signals as well as the wipers), and put it all back together.  If I can change a tire, I can handle that, right?  Right.

But first, I needed to add brake fluid, since the brake light has been staying on almost constantly lately. Which was something else that Jesse was also supposed to do, but forgot about on the days he actually had time.  So after he explained over the phone where I should be able to find the brake fluid, I felt like I could handle it.  Unfortunately, since nobody else is home, I had to drag all the kids out to the car with me.  And buckle them in so they couldn't get into trouble while I worked.  So, I popped the hood, looked for the brake fluid cap, and couldn't decide which one it was.  I consulted the manual and it confirmed that my best guess was correct (yay me!).  I filled it up and closed the hood, glad for one job well done and easily completed. 

Then we went for a drive and got gas, both because we needed the gas, and because I needed some heat in the car for all of us.  It was only 18 degrees at the time.  Not the most comfortable temperature for just sitting in a car that's not running, you know?  While we were at the gas station, I decided to finally get around to filling up the tires with air, too, since they were all getting low.  Check, another job done.

Got home, and it was time to fiddle with the steering wheel.  I couldn't get underneath it without either opening the door or moving the seat, and you KNOW which one I chose, with the freezing cold.  I had to recline the seat as flat as it would go, and scoot it as far backwards as it would go, too.  And then I got to do fun acrobatic indoor car tricks, and lay with my feet hanging off the end of the seat with the headrest, and my head hanging upside down off the seat underneath the steering wheel.  Wasn't that fun?!  Oh, well, aside from the novelty, it wasn't, not really.  I'm not as young as I used to be, it seems.

Anyway, so I unscrewed it in three places, carefully setting the screws aside, and then took the plastic coverings off.  Found two more screws that attached the switch to the steering wheel shaft, and took those off, setting them aside again.  I then unplugged the switch, plugged the new one back in, and screwed it back to the steering wheel shaft.  Of course... I remembered that I should probably go ahead and do a test at this point to make sure it was working before I put the whole thing back together again.  So I turned the car back on, turned the wiper switch, and, ahhhhhhhh, CRAP.  It was still broken!!! (That's me in my best righteously furious whining voice, there.)  They wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe and THEN finally turn back off, no matter when you switch it back to off.  And forget about any intermittent delay, it doesn't exist right now.  And I couldn't get the wiper fluid to spray at all.  I'm not sure if it's mechanical or not, that problem.  Jesse says he just refilled it several weeks ago, and though I couldn't see the fluid under the hood, he did remind me that it's waaaaay down there, aside from the place you pour it into.  And there's a light that comes on in the van if it's needing refill, and that wasn't on.  So I tend to think it's mechanical, since the fluid is controlled in the same place.

Anyway, so while I had been patting myself on the back and excited to blog about how I got the car all fixed up all by myself, even with kids to worry about at the same time, it backfired.  I certainly did not fix the most important thing on the car.  And I don't get to be so proud of myself anymore.  And neither Jesse nor I have much of a good guess as to what might still be wrong.  All I know is that we apparently didn't need that $80 part.  And on the heels of a $350 plane ticket, that's not exactly something that has me sighing with relief.  I guess we'll see if we can sell it on eBay or something?

Well.
Now I have to get back to my more womanly duties of feeding children and bathing them.  At least I know I have more chance of being successful on those counts, even if it is a bit dull.

Duh, *Of Course!*

So, we realized why Jesse's options for plane tickets were so unbelievably ridiculous.

The Presidential inauguration.  Of course.  He's leaving only 5 days before the inauguration, and coming back just 2 days before it.  Well, more like 1 day, with a just-after-midnight arrival.  It would also explain why there were so few seats available.  Everybody and their dog wants to be out here, this time in history, I guess.  Stinks for us.  :(

Though, honestly, with this epiphany, I'm a little surprised that it's actually cheaper to fly in and out of Washington Dulles instead of Baltimore. 

Anyway, blah. 

Still waiting for someone to come over and take a look at my dishwasher, too.  I am not so happy right now.  Who knew something as simple as dishes would make me so annoyed? 

And why does our playroom have to be the coldest room in the apartment, anyway?  By a lot??  It's a miracle that the majority of the mess stays in there, instead of being dragged out to the front room.

Well, maybe not quite a miracle.  I hate to admit that we've been entertaining ourselves with the Webkinz online more than is healthy, the last couple days. 

And you know what else is fun?  Our van's windshield wipers are possessed.  Driving home from Pennsylvania the other night, after visiting our friends Cara and Russ, it was raining/sleeting, and partway home, they just went crazy.  Absolutely crazy.  Switch them on, and they go at regular speed, no matter what delayed interval you selected, and they wipe about 8 or so times before you can finally get them to turn off.  Fun!  We ordered a new part for a lovely $70 that should fix it... but it may or may not arrive in time for Jesse to install it before he goes.  And it just figures that he's leaving on a day with possible snow, and coming home on a day with possible snow... so the two times I *have* to be in the car, I'll probably have to use the wipers. 

It may be simple enough that I could figure out how to install it, myself, but we'll see how desperate I am.  The only thing I'm really nervous about is the possibility that instead of remaining possessed, they just stop working completely, and then what - I can't drive with any precipitation, that's what.  I'm so over this van and all it's problems.  At least the random engine stalling seemed to stop all on its own.  Jesse and his dad Ron conjecture that it's perhaps the additive they use in gasoline during the winter, and maybe we just need to use an engine-cleaning liquid or something to fix the problem otherwise.

I need to force myself to make a grocery list and go grocery shopping today.  I have to say, I'm seriously entertaining the idea of trying grocery delivery, that's how much I hate going shopping with all three kids.  But no, I'll buckle down somehow and get it done.  At least I have an idea of what I want to cook, this week.  That's better than some weeks, for sure.  But I can't put it off another day without risking having no food in the house that the kids are willing to eat.

Enough random rambling for now.  I've got a grumpy baby to attend to.  I can't decide if he's getting a cold or growing some teeth.  He's not been sleeping soundly (though at least he's going to sleep earlier!), and his nose is runny.  And, of course, the grumpy part.  Just in time for Jesse to abandon me for several days.  (love ya, hon!)

The Results of Jesse's Car Work

Jesse had previously agreed to work on our van this past Saturday.  The weather would be nice, the van really needed it, and who wouldn't prefer to work on a car with beautiful sunny weather instead of chilly autumn rain?  Still, it took Jesse a long time to get up the motivation on Saturday.  I can't say I blame him.  I wouldn't choose to spend my free time working on a car, either.

But eventually, he did go out and get started.  He made a quick trip out to Sears to get a few things he needed, then came back home and fixed the thermostat in the van.  It was definitely the cause of our loss of heat - it was very obviously broken.  I love it when Jesse shows me the bad parts he removes from our vehicles!  I was also happy to hear that it was such a cheap part - only about $3.00!!  And easy to access, right at the top under the hood.  In fact, the thing that took him the most time was just trying to remove the thermostat - it was stuck pretty tight to another piece, and we couldn't find our sandpaper.  He eventually went at it with a knife.  It worked.  And then putting in the new thermostat took just a couple minutes.

He came inside, cleaned up, and looked like he was finished.  I asked him, "Did you already do the spark plugs, too?"  (Translation:  Hey hon, I'm so glad you fixed the heat in my car on this beautiful 70-degree day, but wasn't it the car dying repeatedly that was our main cause for concern, here?  Why does it look like you're not going to work on that today?)  He didn't, he admitted.  I reminded him that the spark plugs were the whole point of working on the car, and he hemmed and hawed about it.  Technically, according to lease terms, he's not supposed to do car work in the parking lot (ridiculous rules, oh how I hate them!).  So he was feeling like he didn't know what to do - he could take the van over to his work parking lot and work on it there, and also have access to extra tools at work, but then, he said, he'd have to wait for the engine to cool down first.  I told him he ought to just work in our parking lot, since I very much doubted that anyone would actually tell Jesse to stop working on the car that day.  But finally, he groaned and went to it, deciding to just go over to work.

And when he got there, he gave me a call.  Once he arrived at work and was about to grab some tools, he noticed a broken window in his boss's office.  He ended up having to call the police, wait for them to arrive, give a report, and then wait for one of the head honchos at work to arrive and help him board up the broken window.  (Apparently, Jesse's boss left his laptop on his desk in clear view of the window, and then didn't even close the blinds before he left - so someone walking by could see an easy target.  Yikes.)  So, despite Jesse's intentions, the spark plugs still weren't taken care of this weekend.

But the heat works, and very nicely, I might add!  It warmed up my feet quite well on our way to church on Sunday. 

Jesse says he'll try and work on those spark plugs ASAP.  We have a great forecast ahead of us, with nothing but gorgeous weather for October.  Sorry to make some of you jealous... but, just have a look!!! 

This is for this week!!  Mid-October!!!  Yup, definitely prime time to work on a car.  Only, I do have to gripe just a little bit.  Without a frost, autumn colors disappoint just a little bit.  There are a few trees here and there with really vibrant, gorgeous colors, but the majority of trees are still green and just starting to loose leaves a little bit at a time, going just a dull brown before they fall.  I would really like to see a good frost so all the trees can change at once, and autumn can be really spectacular.  Warm weather just doesn't make for really awesome autumn scenery.  Still... it is awfully nice to put off the warm jackets and constant bundling up for a little while longer.

Teaching an Old Car New Tricks

We have old cars. Our Nissan Sentra is a '96 that I bought, used, in college. Our Chrysler Town & Country is a '97 that we bought used about a year and a half ago. It scares me just a little to realize that they are now selling vehicles that are '09 models. That's 13 years newer than my oldest car. And 12 years newer than my van.

It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that they keep falling apart on us.

This past Saturday happened to be rare perfect weather. Jesse woke up bright and early to go work on the Nissan. Because, as he told me, it's complete death was imminent if the weather should get cool enough to freeze. His water pump needed replacing. It had been slowly and steadily leaking for months, and had nothing but water in it. No antifreeze. Well, he managed to replace it, and get antifreeze in it, so yay, his car won't die a horribly predictable death now. When he came in from fixing it, his hands and forearms were completely blackened. And that was after scrubbing a few times. Here is is Tuesday night, and his fingernails are still pretty gross looking, despite more and more scrubbings. That car was really dirty, huh??

Unfortunately, he didn't have time for even more car work on Saturday, because the van needs it pretty desperately, too.

For several months, now, the van has been randomly dying while being driven. (That's it's new trick - playing dead.) We can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to the engine cutting out. It simply does. Could be turning a corner, could be driving straight down the road. Often after sitting idle, or just letting go of the break to hit the gas again after waiting at a light. Luckily, it's easy to get going again - just throw it into neutral and turn the key again, and bam! You're back in the game. Unfortunately, you know what happens when an engine stops running while you're driving? The power steering goes out. So in order to turn at all, you really have to crank the steering wheel with every muscle you've got. The worst it's been was when the car died mid-turn for me. Got halfway through the turn, the engine cut out, and I had to finish the turn while cranking the steering wheel and coasting through the corner. Interestingly, it has never died while driving on the highway (though it has definitely stuttered a lot), and never on an uphill (thank goodness - hard to coast forward on an incline while your engine is dead).

Now, it wasn't too bad, for a while. It used to be that the van would die maybe once every few weeks. But recently, it decided to get worse. The engine cuts out at least once a day, now. Yesterday, while driving home from the grocery store that was 3 miles away, the car died three times. It's now to the point where I'm very nervous when driving - anytime I have to make a left turn, or pull out of a parking lot, or out of the apartment complex, etc., ... anytime I have to cross traffic, really ... I get really really nervous that the engine's going to die and I'm going to get hit. So I've started driving like an old granny, not pulling out until the coast is more than clear, in order to make sure that I've got enough time for restarting the car if things die on me while traffic is heading right towards me.

Jesse thinks it's probably the spark plugs. I'm doubtful... He changed the easiest-to-reach spark plugs a while back, and they were extremely far gone. He said they were worse than the first time he changed our Sentra's spark plugs. And when he changed those, back in our Colorado days, they were so bad that they were the sole reason our car wouldn't even start in the morning. The reason he didn't change all the spark plugs at once was because he didn't have time to try and reach the others... they're very hard to maneuver to, and he doesn't have a lot of tools to work with. Anyway, so he's hoping that a simple thing like replacing the spark plugs will fix the problem. We can only hope. If not, we'll probably end up going to a mechanic pretty soon and shelling out who-knows-how-much money to figure out the probelm and get it fixed. (Jesse's second guess is an issue with the timing - but that's not something he's equipped to deal with.) At least we know of a good, honest mechanic, now, thanks to our transmission troubles last December.

Jesse also needs to try and fix the heater in the car. It wasn't working last winter, either, but we just bundled up and dealt with it. We didn't have all that many freezing cold days that we were driving, anyway. But I don't want to subject Alex to a cold car when we're driving. Jesse hopes that he can just replace the thermostat in the van to get the heater to work again. We'll see, I suppose. We may have good weather again this Saturday, and I hope that we do. I'm eager to see if we can get this engine dying thing fixed.

Transmission update

Ben left a comment on the Car Troubles post, and it reminded me that I should probably post an update.

We did get the transmission fixed. We got a great local recommendation for a mechanic (the type who will tell you up front that you plain just don't need something, if you don't), and while they don't work with transmissions, they did have their own recommendation for a family-owned transmission shop. That shop is not far from our Stake Center, which is normally a 20 minute drive by freeway. Since the van would only drive in 2nd gear, we had to take the backroads through the outer city. It took a good 40-50 minutes to drive that way, but we made it. Everything seems fixed very well, and they even (cheaply) replaced a broken CV boot that they found while they were working on the van. Meanwhile, the payment went on the credit card, and we're eager to get all our tax papers in the mail, so we can get refund money ASAP to pay it off with.

And we're thrilled to be back to 2 cars again, and having an easier time getting out to do things, even the mundane types like grocery shopping. It's much more convenient to do it when you want to instead of when you have to, based on your car availability schedule.

Although it would have been super nice this morning when it was 19 degrees outside, to have the cloth seats of the Nissan instead of the leather seats of van. Eeek!! Cold seats and church clothes!!

Car Troubles

When we lived in Colorado, one day our Nissan Sentra's transmission just died. We replaced it through Aamco, and it cost a fortune we didn't have. And then when we moved out to Maryland just a couple years later, and were on our way to church, less than 24 hours after we had arrived (and had towed the car the whole way behind the moving truck), yep, the transmission died again. We walked back home and tried to do our best with finding a mechanic would would take the car on Labor Day weekend and get it fixed up. Being new to the area, we ended up finding one who was actually quite far away, and was not trustworthy at all. He ended up breaking a fuel injector on purpose, trying to get more money out of us. Jesse was furious, of course, demanded he put it back on, and went on to fix the fuel injector himself. That transmission also cost us money we didn't have, since we just spent it all on moving halfway across the country and paying medical bills surrounding the impending arrival of Melinda.

Fast forward to 2007. We decided to purchase a used van. We found one at a reasonable price, and that seemed to be in very good condition for its age. The owner said the transmission had been replaced within the last year, and that the new transmission had very few miles on it. We considered that, and decided that since it had replaced, there probably wasn't much risk. Well, on our way home from church this week, guess what started slipping? Yup, the transmission. We were lucky to have made it home. Blessed, more like it, since it was 34 degrees and raining outside. Would have been miserable to finish the walk home with two kids in tow, in that weather. And yeah - did we mention that it's the week before Christmas, we have just a couple hundred dollars in savings, and are already counting on having enough tax returns to pay for the birth of baby #3? Once again, money we don't have. Jesse took the van out for a test drive around the block on Monday, and the van never switched gears, just revved higher and higher the faster he tried to go.

I had an appointment with the midwife on Monday, so Jesse took some time off work to stay home with the kids, while I drove the Sentra down to the midwife's office. The Sentra has its own set of problems, the most obvious one being the rusted, hole-filled exhaust system. It sounded like it had no muffler at all. It also has a strange squeal coming from the engine area. Jesse's not quite sure what it might be, but a possibility could include a belt that needs changing. Anyway, on the way home from the midwife, just a couple blocks from home, all of the sudden, it started sounding a lot worse. And felt like it lost some power - acceleration felt very difficult. I finished the drive home and told Jesse about it. When he checked it, he discovered that there was now a new hole in the exhaust pipes, up near the engine. So now besides the car just sounding plain awful, it was a little too dangerous for myself and the kids to drive in, since exhaust fumes could get into the car more easily, for starters. Feeling very stressed and depressed, I canceled all our activities for the week, including a much-looked-forward-to cookie exchange playgroup, and two visiting teaching appointments, and our regular friday playgroup. And Jesse decided to make his car a bit of a priority, since he was thinking he could probably fix it on his own.

So on Monday night, he found some parts online and ordered them. They shipped through UPS ground, and amazingly, even during the few days before Christmas, they arrived at our apartment on Wednesday. The UPS guy was so funny. He showed up with an assistant, because both pieces were a good 4 feet long and very heavy. He grinned and asked the question he must have been dying to know the answer to - "Are you actually expecting these?!?" Yup, I know - as much as we get typical boxes full of clothes and toys for the kids that I order online, a couple 4-foot car pipes and muffler wrapped lightly in bubble wrap just doesn't cross one's mind as a possibility for typical home delivery, ya know? We laughed as I briefly answered that YES, I was indeed expecting them, even if they looked much different than I imagined!

Jesse took them to work with him on Thursday, and ended up taking the remaining 4 hours of personal time he had left to use up this year, and spent the afternoon outside in the work parking lot, underneath the car, occasionally using some tools that work had available (lucky him!) when he needed them. And you know what? He *did it*!! He successfully removed old and installed the new exhaust pipes and muffler. He got home half an hour late, and absolutely looking 100% like a grease monkey, just covered in grease, dirt, and debris. Even though he had washed as well as he could before he left work. It was a pretty funny sight.

But what a blessing, that he could spend only about $170 in parts and fix the car himself, instead of having to take it to a mechanic and surely paying a good $300+ for labor fees. Every penny counts at this point, and his talents just saved us a huge chunk of money. I'm very grateful that he can do these kinds of things. He was already feeling stiff and sore when he got home (how could he not?? Laying flat on his back trying to lift and maneuver heavy 4-foot metal pipes into the right spot and then screwing them into places he couldn't even see from his vantage point!), so he treated himself to a long hot bath and shower. And while his hands were still black in places, he cleaned up very nicely otherwise.

Now we just need to clean out all of the mounds of junk piled in the passenger areas of his car, and put the car seats in the Sentra, and we'll at least have a drivable car to use while we figure out what to do with the van. We have some good recommendations for local mechanics now, but haven't verified yet whether they can do transmission work. I hope they can. But the important part is that we have something to drive, even if there are some things going on with the Sentra (like the strange squealing) that could probably use some investigation. It's been rough staying home this week, when we had so much planned and were excited about. And the thought of missing church the Sunday before Christmas wasn't sitting well with me, either. Thank goodness for a good visiting teacher who was very understanding of our situation and volunteered to go grocery shopping for me, despite being almost 39 weeks pregnant herself. We had run out of fresh fruits and veggies, and the makings for decent meals, and that's not good for anyone, especially not young kids and a pregnant woman.

While we're still worried about the expense of fixing the van, on top of being worried about how to pay for baby #3, I am at least feeling very grateful for the blessing of Jesse being so good with mechanics, fixing things, and having a working car. The extra worries have really put the Christmas Spirit more solidly in my heart this year - we have so much to be thankful for.