Car Trouble and Blessings

A couple of weeks before our trip, I prayed for humility...and my prayer was answered!  First Logan was sick and in the hospital, then Annie redecorated our house, and then we broke down as we arrived in Colorado.  We cancelled the Utah portion of our trip as a result, and spent an entire week working on our car.  When we thought it was all over, Jim accidentally left his car keys with me and didn't realize it until he was ten minutes from boarding his flight (two hours away!).  Add to that an enormous amount of unexpected bills in just a few weeks, and I was a mess.  However, we've learned some good lessons through all of this, and I have been impressed to realize the blessings we had with each trial.  Each time I wanted to cry (or did cry) the good things about each situation would come to my mind and I could see how the Lord was with us the whole way, even though we needed to be challenged some.  At moments when I was feeling very stressed, I was sometimes blessed to realize someone else's challenges, and it made mine seem so little.

Challenge: Logan's illnesss

Blessings: He recovered fully with no lasting effects.  We were blessed to have adequate coverage for his medical expenses.  We were blessed to meet many caring nurses and doctors who showed genuine concern.

Challenge: Annie's art

Blessings: We had the internet and therefore a quick source of useful information.  The most important areas came clean, and Jim and I had a chance to work together.

Challenge: Car trouble (which happened once again this week)

Blessings: When we broke down, we were only 9 miles from family.  We broke down in a place where we had help (my brother Josh) to do most of the repairs ourselves which saved us money.  The car didn't break down until we were all the way to Colorado, so our vacation wasn't cancelled as a result; at least not entirely.  We had the opportunity to sacrifice a portion of our trip, our desire to simply replace the car, and our comfort (because the a/c never got fixed and the LONG drive home was VERY hot).  It is very difficult at times to say, "We can't afford that," or, "We really want to do that, but it's not the right time," but I know there are longer term blessings by doing so.  Sacrifice is a blessing.

Challenge: Jim forgot his keys

Blessings: This was the little thing that nearly broke me because it was in the midst of everything, but was also the moment I realized how many times we'd been blessed.  The airline changed his flight for free, so I was able to bring him his keys.  Then, because his flight had been moved to the morning, I was able to spend an extra night with him before he headed home.  My brother was kind enough to watch the kids and we had an unexpected night alone. 

Challenge: $$$$ in unexpected expenses

Blessings: The Lord helped us to be prepared, so that not only were we able to pay these expenses, but also to pay all our other bills on time.  The medical expenses, car repairs, and other surprises could very easily have put us in a desperate situation (and I did feel desperate a few times).  Each time we thought we wouldn't be able to pay, we were either relieved that we could, or discovered that there'd been a mistake in a bill. 

Anyway, I really wanted this list.  I really don't want to forget how we were blessed all through this last month.  Here are the few pictures I took of the car stuff.  I'd intended to document the whole thing because I knew it was going to be a big process, but didn't after the first day.

This is the bar we were towing the car with...after it was ripped out from under our car.

Jim pulling the damaged parts off.

The damaged we caused from trying to tow it ourselves.  Off to the junkyard to find parts!

Jim and Josh putting the "new" parts back on.  That was the easy part.  The hard part was that we still had to pay for a tow because it wouldn't start after that and we couldn't diagnose it.  If only we'd known... 

After we had it towed and found out what was wrong with it, we had the shop do one repair and we did the other major repair.  It turned out that the fuel pumps put on our model and year were faulty, which explains the half dozen times our car mysteriously broke down on us over the last year.  The pumps were replaced on most cars by the dealer (ours didn't qualify), and the only way to get one that would fit in our tank was to pay an enormous amount from the dealer (and we weren't even sure that it wouldn't be the same faulty pump).  Instead, Jim got a fuel tank from a car one year newer than ours, and used the inexpensive pump that we could get at the auto parts store.  It was much cheaper.  We're calling it creative engineering, and it totally did the trick.  He did some more creative engineering this week when our ignition lock got stuck (another typical problem for our model of car).  Instead of getting it from the dealer (because they were closed and it would have been more expensive), he got one that fit from the parts store, but didn't have the necessary electronic chip.  Then he went to a hardware store where they created a key that matched the new lock and had the electronic chip in it (copied from our old key).

Let Our Vacation Begin!

Well, it seems our storm has passed for now.  We finally got the car largely working last night.  The only thing that is still damaged is our a/c.  In one week we replaced seven major components on that vehicle: radiator, radiator fan, radiator support bar, a/c condensor, timing belt, fuel tank, and fuel pump.  Whew!  Now I just need to hunt down the remaining hoses for our a/c if we decide to fix that too.  This was a pain, but it was less expensive than replacing the car.  In theory, our car should be in good shape again...may it not break down in the middle of nowhere when we're traveling home! 

So now we can officially start our vacation.  We have our own transportation yet again, and time to enjoy.  Let the fun begin!

It's Still Pouring

I've decided that adulthood is very serious sometimes.  I'm not really referring to events in my own life, but that as an adult I have the opportunity to witness real problems.  It helps me realize that my troubles aren't so troublesome.  Anyway, our own storm hasn't stopped yet, but we're hopeful it will soon.  We're working on fixing our vehicle and trying not to break the bank.  Sometimes it would be nice if money weren't required, but only effort.  The good news about a storm is that it gives much needed water to the ground, and I have no doubt ours will produce a similar effect. 

When It Rains it Pours

So...Logan was finally admitted to the hospital at 6am and we rested for some of the morning while waiting to see the doctor.  Even sleeping a hospital recliner felt good at that point!  We finally saw the doctor in the afternoon, and she set us up with a cardiologist.  The cardiologist did an echocardiogram which showed that his heart was perfectly healthy!  We talked with the doctor at that point, and she said we could go since he was feeling pretty good.  If we want to research what is going on any more at that point, we can do it outpatient.  So we were able to leave the hospital around 4:30pm.  It was an exhausting night and day, but we had our piece of mind. 

We headed home, finished packing, and decided to head out on our trip.  Jim drove the entire night, and was surprisingly alert the whole time.  Phew!  It took us 13 hours to get within 9 miles of Jim's parents home.  The drive was very uneventful to that point, and the kids slept pretty much the whole time.  (I wish I'd slept as well as they did!  Two night without going to bed is a lot...)  However, when we were 9 miles away our engine shut off!  So Jim's mom came with their truck and started towing us.  As we were being towed, the line went slack and then jerked hard pulling the bar we'd attached it to out from under our car.  It also pulled our radiator entirely off  as well as part of the body of the car. 

That's where we're at.  We don't know what we're going to do now.  If anyone is selling a vehicle, or knows someone who is please let us know!

4:30 AM

So it's been another hour and a half, and they've finally drawn blood.  Now that I've had a chance to talk to the nurse, it turns out that we've lost a whole night's rest for nothing.  Our doctor sent us here and told us that they could do the necessary tests whether it was night or morning.  So we opted to get it over with sooner and came in the middle of the night.  Big mistake.  They can't do anything until morning anyway.  I don't blame the doctor or the hospital.  It was just poor communication.  I'm so tired and disappointed, though, that I'm ready to cry.  He needs to be admitted because he can't just wait in the ER for so long.  Since we have to wait until morning (isn't it morning yet?) I prefer that too.  Those rooms are much more comfortable!  Now we wait until he's admitted, and spend tomorrow doing tests.  Oh I wish we'd just sent him back to bed when he woke up tonight! 

When Plans Change

It seems our plans have been changing a lot recently...
Anyway, right now we should be waking up and starting our road trip.  The kids were (still are) excited, we were excited, and we'd started packing about 7pm.  However, we are not in the car right now; Logan and I are at the hospital once again.  He still has not recovered from his mystery illness and it's been three weeks.  We went to the doctor this afternoon (yesterday afternoon?) for a follow up to make sure there were no indicators that we shouldn't take our trip.  Things seemed okay, although he still wasn't 100%, until his bloodwork came back.  His white blood count was down to normal.  Hooray!  His platelets were high and his sedimentation rate was extremely high, though.  That's an indication of inflammation somewhere.  Between that and the presence of a heart murmur he'd never had before, the doctor was very concerned.  So here we are at the hospital again.  The doctor determined that he needed more testing, including an echocardiogram.  However, he didn't necessarily need to be admitted to the hospital, so we are in the ER.  She said we should go tonight or in the morning, and the second was our plan until Logan woke up excited to get on the road.  He wasn't very happy about coming to the hospital, so we gave him the option of going at night or in the morning.  He wanted to go right away in hopes that we could still take our trip.  I hope we can still take our trip. 

So, just now I'm on the computer trying to pass the achingly LONG minutes.  Today was an unusually exhausting day as it was!  We've been here 2.5 hours already and no tests have been run yet.  He's snoring away on the bed...lucky kid.  It's so tempting to cuddle up next to him!  Come on doctors!  Let's run some tests so we can go home!

If this made no sense bear in mind that I'm extremely tired...

How To Remove Permanent Marker 101

On Tuesday night, Logan and I went on a date.  While we were out, Jim very helpfully went downstairs to take care of some laundry.  During that time he heard Annie and Alex running around and giggling upstairs.  He thought, "Oh good, they are having fun together."  When he returned minutes later this is what he found:

Except they weren't in the tub of course.

Then he had another shock...  (These pictures are way too bright because I didn't want to take time to adjust my flash, but this was DARK BLACK marker.)

And another...

And another...

And another and another and another of which I didn't take pictures.  Let's just say that her artwork included five cushions, four walls, three chairs, a table, a dresser, a bed, three articles of clothing, two faces and bodies, three doors, a mirror, and a floor.

After three hours of cleaning we decided to head to bed and had yet another surprise.

So here's the crash course on cleaning permanent marker.

Step 1: Resist the urge to ground child FOREVER.
Step 2: Remind yourself that child is more important than house.
Step 3: Send child to bed for the night.
Step 4: Get out the rubbing alcohol and toothpaste, and send husband to store for more supplies.
Step 5: Make sure husband forgets his cell phone, so you can't reach him when you have a new item to add to his list.
Step 6: Discover the magic of rubbing alcohol and toothpaste.  Seriously.  At least on some surfaces.
Step 7: Work quickly.  Time is the key!
Step 8: Remove ALL writing utensils from child's reach until further notice.

Anyway, I started on the couch and before Jim had returned from the store it was totally clean...all five cushions and dozens of marks.  I think I had such good success because it was the first thing I hit.

He returned home as I was ready to start the dining room wall.  That wasn't as easy.  We tried several things, including magic eraser, and had the most success with toothpaste (not the gel kind) and rubbing alcohol.  It took a lot of scrubbing and we didn't get it entirely out.  You can't see it unless you look for it, though.

By the time we decided to give up on the dining room, it had been three hours so we quickly made an attempt at the other walls (very little success on flat paint) and the table and chairs.  The table and chairs came clean with toothpaste very easily.  Phew!  I had zero success with the kids clothes, but I think that was because they'd been sitting for so long.  I decided they had enough clothes and those weren't worth trying to save so I didn't try very hard.

We thought we were done and headed to our room to go to bed.  That's when we had our final surprise.  She'd colored on our sheets (something I didn't even try to clean because I was too exhausted), our wood floor, door, closet doors, mirror, dresser, and wall.  The rubbing alcohol largely faded the marks on the floor and doors.  The mirror came totally clean with rubbing alcohol and the dresser with toothpaste.  Jim surprisingly managed to get the marks somewhat off the wall with a dry erase marker.  The key was to do a little at a time and rub it off the wall very quickly.

She has lost all art privileges until after our upcoming vacation and I've moved all our writing utensils way out of reach.  They are almost out of my reach...  May this not happen again.  And may it be laughable soon...it almost is.  :)

Disaster Preview

This post will be coming soon, but here are just a few words:

Annie
permanent marker
baby brother
four walls
five couch cushions
three articles of clothing
table and three chairs
dresser
bed
mirror

She's very lucky I wasn't home when it happened.

First Day of School

On Monday we had our first official day of school.  That being said, I'm writing on our school blog again.  So check that out too.  http://1-2-3-school.blogspot.com

Here's our first day picture:

Here's another picture just for fun.  I wish I could sleep so soundly and flexibly.  :)

And a final picture.  FHE wouldn't be complete without treats!

Kids Say

Annie, "Yes, I am going to marry myself."
Logan, "No, you have to have a boy."
Annie, "You can marry myself."
Logan, "I have to find a girl that I don't know and after we get married I might know her."
Me, "Annie, who are you going to marry?"
Annie, "Logan."
Logan, "No, you can't Annie.  That is against the law."
Annie, "I'm going to marry Alex because he is my baby brother and I love him so much."
Logan, "That is against the law!  What does against the law mean?"
Annie, "It means yes."
Logan, "It means NO!"
Annie, "A big grown up is going to marry Alex."
Me, "Who will that be?"
Annie, "You are."
Me, "Should you marry a big man?"
Annie, "No, I can't because they are too heavy.  I noticed that."

Logan, "When I'm a grown up I'm going to get a job to make John Deere tractors."  (This is Jim's new job starting next week.)

Annie, "I want antifreeze."

Annie again on her most charming subject, "I have white pee, but it can't come out because it's going to be painted."

Annie, "I'm a big lady."

Annie while hugging my legs and looking up at me, "I'm bigger than you!"

Logan when feeling a bit better because his fever was going down, "Mom, guess what?  The fever is at my ankles."