carmageddon

Take a seat, I’d like to tell you a story. It’s one of those stories where everything goes wrong before it goes right – the kind of tale that, in a movie, makes you want to cover your eyes and just watch through the cracks between your fingers. Only this is the story of my life last week.A week ago Saturday we were driving 55mph down the freeway in our small SUV (Honda CR-V fist bump), packed with children and an out-of-town guest, on our way home from a family function when the engine failed. Wouldn’t restart, didn’t even turn over, just died. DanO coasted to an off-ramp and came to a stop safely out of traffic. We unloaded, called my long-suffering and ever-helpful in-laws for a ride home, and had the tow truck bring the car to our house so Dan could take a look at it. Every third conversation we have is about him trying to save money by doing it himself and me begging him to pay someone to do it. But that’s neither here nor there.Our other car: DanO drives an old Volvo sedan from our house to his office 1.5 miles away and home again. It’s seen better days, that’s for sure, and somewhere along its 210,000 miles, it got a mismatched color hood. We like to pretend it’s a custom paint job. Back in August, the Volvo had some major engine failure issues so, again with the doing it himself and saving money, it sat infront of our garage for months while DanO tried different things and we lived a one-car lifestyle. About 2 weeks ago, he found the solution and got his car up and running again with one glaring exception: 3 months of sitting undriven in the driveway killed the battery and it wouldn’t hold a charge. SO. To drive it to work and back everyday, DanO had to plug it into this mobile jumping thing (like this) to start it.Get up at 6am. Jump his car. Drive to work. Finish work. Jump his car. Drive home.Of course, the solution to this would be to get a new battery, but we hadn’t gotten around to it in the 2 weeks that it had been operational (as fun as it sounds to bring the boys to Walmart and wander around for an hour). But when the CR-V died and the Volvo became our only car, I was all: Honey. I refuse to jump the car in the grocery store parking lot in order to get home.Monday we dropped the boys off with my in-laws (<— I love them) and went to Walmart to replace the battery. It felt like we were just going to coast through being a one car  family again – only a smaller, harder-to-get-two-kids-into car. This time last year, we got serious about our finances, specifically living debt-free, and we were faithfully saving up for a new car because it had been on the horizon for a while. But we weren’t done saving yet, so we were going to make do with what we had in the most stubborn, Scandinavian way we could.The morning after taking the battery in, I took the boys to my MOPS group a few towns away in our cozy little Volvo. After the meeting, when I went to start it to leave the church, and it wouldn’t start. It wasn’t the battery; the engine turned over but it died when I tried to drive. My body went into fight or flight mode, and to my credit, it chose fight. I jumped out of the car and literally ran after my friend’s mini-van as she was starting to drive away (we were the last two moms to leave after cleaning up). After a frantic call to DanO to explain the situation, we switched all the carseats and children and things (my word the things!) into her van and she drove me home as I called the tow truck to get the Volvo and again, bring it to our house so DanO could try his hand at it.Now, I’m not really good with numbers, but at this point it occurred to me that I had two fully dead cars sitting on my property and exactly zero running vehicles. Thankfully, I was still in adrenalined fight mode, and hadn’t shed a tear.When DanO got home from work, he tried a couple of things on the Volvo but it was quickly clear that he didn’t know what the problem was. I was given the go-ahead to call and reserve a rental company to come pick us up and take us to get a rental car, and also to call AAA back and have them tow the CR-V to an auto shop because we realized that it just wasn’t going to happen. We needed to pay someone to fix at least one of the cars and that was that.Quick intermission to plug AAA membership if you drive well-loved cars like we do. Friends, we towed cars three times in four days. I don’t even want to begin to think about how much that would have been out of pocket for us. ::shudder:: Instead? It was $60 for our membership and no additional costs. Amen and amen.I got on the line with my besties over at AAA, had them send a truck out for the CR-V, and started to reserve a rental car through them because they have a really great discount rate. It was mass chaos in my house – DanO outside still trying to resurrect the Volvo, both boys running rampant while I was on the phone, and at one point the 3 year old was outside on a 38 degree day without shoes on. It was just a wee bit more than I would have liked to have been handling at the moment.Which is probably why, when they told me that all 4 Hertz locations within ‘pick-up radius’ from us were sold out of cars, I collapsed into a sobbing heap on my kitchen floor.Out. Of. Cars.Are you covering your eyes and only watching through the cracks yet?They were out of cars on a random Tuesday in November. Of course they were.A little bit more of a back story here: Alongside our new car fund, DanO has been saving to get himself a new computer for a while. He almost has enough, and would probably get the rest in Apple gift cards at Christmas since that’s what he asked for. The morning of this very same random Tuesday when our Volvo died and Hertz was fresh out of rental cars, I got a text during my moms group that his work is buying him a new macbook pro (nicer than he’d have bought himself) and he would be his for personal use as well. I was elated for him, plus we suddenly had a good amount more in our car fund.Back to 3pm, we have two dead cars both sitting at our house to be worked on, no rental cars, and not quite enough money to buy the kind of car we want (one new enough that we wouldn’t be in this crappy, dead car position again in 3 years), O and I’m crying in a puddle on the kitchen floor. Me crying has this awesome effect on my husband: it turns him into a super hero. He texts our babysitter and schedules her to come at 5:00pm. He calls my in-laws and asks if they can pick us up and let us borrow a car for the evening. He looks up mini-vans at dealerships near us. He decides that it is worth it to finance the remaining money between what we have and what we want to pay. Friends, that last one is no small miracle.All those things happened that night: babysitting, borrowed car, walked onto dealership (ok, three dealerships) told them which cars we wanted to test-drive (based on their online inventory) and then we handed them our cash and bought a freaking mini-van just exactly like it needed to because 1. Dan had his laptop covered by someone else 2. the lack of rental car was the last straw that made him realize what needed to happen.{signing all the things}In retrospect, I praise God for the seemingly random lack of rental cars and I think it was no coincidence that it was that very morning that his work told him about the laptop. Yes, we took out a loan. It wasn’t ideal, it wasn’t how we wanted it to be, and it wasn’t how we were planning on it working out. But it all came together after a few tears were shed.And now mama has automatic sliding doors. Hecks yea.{Friends and readers, meet Holly the Honda Odyssey. Holly, friends and readers.}Our plan is to pay to fix the CR-V and sell it. Jury is still out on the blessed Volvo.Another notable aspect of this whole thing: we now have a car with ample space for more than two babies. Discuss.

remembering spring

I heard a bird yesterday.I realize this may not be alarming to many of you, but as I sat in an airport shuttle van with the sliding door open to the warm Dallas air, the chirp smacked me square in the forehead – as sounds do when you hear them for the first time in five months.Five months. Five solid months of snowfall. Five months of lifeless outdoor landscapes. Five months of keeping two small, male children mostly indoors and going positively stir-crazy.That’s not to say that beautiful, crisp winter mornings don’t have their place. They certainly do. On Christmas.So birds. They have those here in Texas right now, apparently. Which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did considering that the first 18 years of my life I lived in a climate so moderate and constantly alive that moss growing on people’s roof shingles is a legitimate problem. There’s moss on everything in Oregon, as if the whole state were that part of the woods that’s far enough in so no one goes and disturbs it and moss and such feels safe enough to grow. At least that’s how I remember it.In Minnesota, everything dies. I guess this comes in handy in the area of moss and bugs and other things it’s nice to kill out once a year, but it is positively devastating for the humans that live through it. It seems like every year I make it through January in Minnesota and think that I’ve made it. I’ve survived negative temperature highs; the dead of winter is behind me. But then I get to March and I’ll be darned if it’s not 38 times longer than January ever was. March holds the promise (and even the delivery) of spring for so much of the country. Birds chirp from California to DC. Moms instagram pictures of their kids in shorts, outside digging in the sandbox.Meanwhile, I have 10 inches of snow in my yard. March makes me dig way, way down deep to this treasure trove of memories. I remember that last summer it was gorgeous and hot and sunny and my kids were the ones playing in the kiddie pool in the back yard. I think through the fog about the days out on a boat on the St. Croix river. I will myself to recall the afternoons we spent in the strawberry fields as a family.And sometimes, I fly to Dallas and hear a bird chirp just to get me through.I will make it. Spring will come. It will.

i can't save you..

jeez, i don't know about you but i think i may need one of those sun lamps from sharper image. man! this winter is intense! woooh. i went out tonight, and was like, wow there's a whole world out here that i almost forgot about! it's so easy to hunker down, batten down the hatches and just hibernate the shit out of this place. luckily, we have the world wide intra webs to keep us keepin' on. take for instance this fine pin by richard barlow from red cake gallery, save your own soul. it kind of has new england smack dab in the dead of winter written all over it. am i right? add to cart, pretty please.

3 millions de Gears of War 2

A l’image de son prédécesseur, rien ne semble arrêter le succès de Gears of War 2, et Microsoft est bien évidemment aux anges. C’est ainsi que Phil Spencer (directeur de "Microsoft Games Studios") a annoncé dans un podcast de Major Nelson, que le titre d’Epic est proche des trois millions d’unités vendues. Une bien belle mais finalement peu étonnante performance, étant donné le succès critique et public du jeu.

· Forum Gears of War 2

to my one year old

Good morning Buddy!You are one year old today. A year ago this morning you were born. It was such a great morning, and I will always remember that those last moments right before you were born, my midwife told me to stop pushing, so you and my body did the work together. You worked hard that morning, OBaby. We worked hard together.A year later, as amazing as your birth was, it has been even more amazing to watch you grow.God blessed you with a healthy body this year, one that was able to grow and learn and develop. You have gone from a 7lb 11oz little newborn to a 18lb 5oz one year old boy. That in and of itself amazes me, but there has been so much more growth this year, too. You have learned to hold your head up, roll over, roll over again, scoot on your belly, crawl with a surprising amount of speed, sit up, feed yourself meals, drink from a straw cup, pull up on things, stand on your own, sign some words, say mama and dada, and walk.I am so, so proud of you, buddy.It’s funny, I guess, to feel such swelling pride at what you have learned to do, because, well, isn’t that just what babies do? They learn things and grow? Yes, bud, you did exactly what God designed you to do this year as you developed by His grace.You have traveled to 3 other states and learned that being on a plane really just means having a *very* captive audience. You have certainly made countless friends, smiling at everyone you meet eyes with in the grocery store, restaurant, or park. I have watched you learn how the world around you works, and as a result you have become more comfortable with it.And while it may seem trite or silly to be near-exploding with pride over you growing as you naturally should, I know that it is right. I have watched God work, create you from the tiniest seed in my tummy, and teach you to grow all the way into a boy who can take his own steps. It has been a joy to watch you grow as He intended.For the rest of your life, may it be as natural for you to follow God as he teaches you and shows you which way to go as it has been this year – rolling, scooting, sitting, crawling, standing, walking. While natural, it has not always been easy. Learning those kind of big things is hard work. I imagine God has more hard work and big things in store for you. On the other side of it, though, as you look back at how much you’ve grown, you will know that the hard work had to be, and that it was worth it.This year it was moving and standing and eating that God taught you how to do, but someday it will be doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God.What an exciting road you have before you! This year has only been the beginning.For each year from here on out, OBaby, may God bless me with that same joy and pride at watching my little boy follow His path and grow exactly as God has designed you to.I love you to the moon and back,Mama

Aarons Birthday PART 1

The morning started off nice.. We got to sleep in a little!! And to top things off, I even slept through the entire night!! That only happens about once a month, so it was very much needed!!

I drank my glucose drink a little late. I was pretty scared.. but decided to fill up a glass all the way with crushed ice, pour it in and drink it was a straw really quickly. Surprisingly.. It wasn’t bad at all! It tastes EXACTLY like fruit punch. There wasn’t anything too weird about it. (Except the after taste) By the time we got to the doctors office (an hour later) I was pretty shaky… and felt very wired! My blood was drawn.. and I survived… (and Aaron didn’t pass out!! Yippee for him!) I begged the lady taking my weight to just write.. House or Boat or Wale and let me skip that part, but she wouldn’t. (I didn’t look!) The pee test.. that didn’t go so well. There was apparently a lot of glucose. Which I assumed would be normal. Apparently it’s not. The doctor thinks I’ll have to take the 3 hour test.. :( Soooooooooo not looking forward to that.

We’ll find out on Monday.

She did suggest that maybe I lay off the cheeseburgers a little!!! :) Usually at my monthly appointments I gain about 2-4 pounds since the last appointment. I gained 10 this time. But I knew that! I weigh myself every week! The week after my last appointment I gained 2 pounds.. the week after that was my horrible 8 lbs week!! Then the past two weeks I haven’t even gained an ounce. So far I have gained a total of 19 pounds. BUT ..if you look at it the other way.. I only gained 9 pounds in the first 24 weeks and 10 pounds in the last 4 weeks!! I think that is where her concern is! I really don’t think that’s too bad. I was aiming for no more than 30.. Don’t think I’ll actually get to that goal… but we’ll see.

I took the dog for a walk last night.. and it was really nice. Maybe I’ll keep doing that (We both slept like babies!!)

Anyway.. I was STARVING after our appointment. We were just going to grab something fast foody to take to work but I told Aaron we should go somewhere and sit down. So we went to Village Inn. It was really good… and a nice way to start his Birthday Day!

Oh…and since we have freshly charged batteries I decided to update with a tummy picture. (I also happen to be wearing the same black shirt I normally do when I take pictures.) I thought.. might as well update with a 28 week picture since I’ll be 28 weeks tomorrow..

GUESS WHAT?? I’ll be 29 weeks tomorrow!!! Holy cow.. where do the weeks go???

So this is officially 7.25 months along….
(please remind me to crop my head out of these pictures from now on!!)

Just for reference.. this was 26 weeks… so 3 weeks ago.. There is actually some change this time!! :)

Oh ..and she told me we get one more ultrasound at 36 weeks!!! She wants to check the placenta one more time and check the size of the baby.. So right around Thanksgiving we get one more look before we meet him! (I’m still really hoping $100 will fall out of the sky because I’d really love to go do the 3D ultrasound sometime…)

Umm… I think that is all that has happened so far.. oh.. and I got the A-O-K to fly to Dallas for the business trip! Good thing since we already bought Aaron’s ticket!

So this pictures really doesn’t have anything to do with anything.. But I found it the other day..and just think it’s cute! This Riddick (the much much more shaggy version) probably about … 3 (?) years ago.. He came to work one Saturday with me.. (Don’t tell my boss!) That was my desk at the time (we’re in a different building now..) And I love how he’s looking at me..and how there is a picture of him taped to the monitor and how he’s the backdrop on the monitor!
Again.. has absolutely nothing to do with anything.. just cute! :)

double your fun

I have a son who rolls over. And it’s not like this illusive Big Foot of an activity that you want to capture on film every time in case it never happens again. It happens every 2 minutes. Then every 28 seconds. And then 4 times back to back (well, back to tummy to back to… you get the point).The fun part is when he puts himself on his tummy, he totally loves tummy time. Before it was this thing that the crazy lady with the milk stores made him do for his motor shmevelopment or whatever. But now? ‘Check this out milk lady! Look what I did! I can look around the room this way! Why didn’t you ever show me this?!’I imagine this phenomenon will be a staple of our relationship for quite some time. I shovel the broccoli onto his plate for years and then he meets some nice girlie who likes to eat healthy and SHAM-WOW, the kid adores his greens. But I digress.I think I figured out the reason behind his rolls (no, not the ones in the back of his knees, I mean the activity):The kid wants to eat the carpet.It’s a beautiful coincidence, really, this teething stage commencing at exactly the time when he learns that if he moves his arm just so and pushes off of that leg, he COULD TOTALLY GNAW ON THE FLOOR.What’s really great about this teething/rolling partnership is that I won’t even have to buy those fancy Little Aloutte wooden natural teethers that I love so much. We’ve got a thousand square feet of oak flooring!Perfect.