We're almost there!

This last month has been nothing less than complete chaos in my life. This move has been by far the WORST move ever for us. We've had issue upon issue, trial upon trial during it. It started off okay, but we've had a few delays. First of all, Steve's passing (which I can't believe was almost one month ago), and we've had a lot of weather issues that slowed down our move AND the transmission went out in our van. So we have been without it for about 3 weeks now, and I'm realizing just how much I need it! The only other vehicle we have is a very small pickup that really can only hold 3 people (and our family has 4) so we HAVE to drive around with Blake laying on our laps. We don't really go anywhere as a family, except church. But it has been a pain anyway. Oh well, I'm just thankful that we do at least have the truck. I'm just hoping we can get our van fixed, I know it is going to be a VERY EXPENSIVE thing to fix though. But back to the move, we are SO close to being done, I think one more day at the old house and we will be DONE!!! And of course the unpacking at this new place, but still, we are almost done!!! WHOO HOO! I don't want to even THINK of moving for a long time! Lord willing.

And today is one of those days that I just think of my Dad all day, because it has been 4 years ago that we lost him. Last year I made a slideshow of him and I cried all day. Today, I've been okay, as far as the emotions go, but I still miss him so much.

I just can't believe how this last year has flown by, it seems like I JUST made the slideshow of my dad, and it seems like Ryan and I JUST went to Dallas for our 9th anniversary. And it is that time of the year again. Our 10th anniversary is just around the corner (in like 2-3 weeks). Ryan wants to go back to Dallas, but our money situation isn't great, so I don't know what will actually happen. And speaking of time flying, I can't BELIEVE that we have been married 10 years!!! Wow.

And last but not least, I wanted to post a picture of my sweet little niece, gosh I just adore her!!! She is the most precious baby!!!

Me and my little ♥ Madison ♥

Uplifted

Friday night Ryan, with help from Bill P. got a new fan belt on our van. So I'm feeling so much better now. Plus... Bill found something under our hood that he said was making our van get TERRIBLE gas mileage. The vacuum had come loose. He put it back together and said it would help at least 4-5 miles a gallon better. I knew that we hadn't been doing very good on gas mileage. I just wish I would have known why a long time ago. Who knows how long it had been loose. I don't exactly know what it does to improve gas mileage, but I trust Bill, he knows a LOT about cars. I'm so glad that he found this problem before our trip to Colorado in August. We should also be getting that tax check soon, I HOPE!!! Then we will get our A/C fixed. So slowly, but surely, things are coming together.

Then last evening I took the kids to Henryetta where they were having a fish fry at the church. It was really nice. Then they had a bunch of homemade ice cream. Yummy. Afterwards we drove home and all of us went to see The Incredible Hulk. That, by the way was an AWESOME movie. Blake absolutely loved it!

Today we had such a great meeting. There was a lot of visiting brethren, and it turned out to be a very uplifting meeting. Ryan G. gave her hand to be baptized. So this evening was her baptism and ordinance supper. I was really down at the end of last week, but this weekend definitely uplifted me :)

WHY!?!?!?

Well... I'm on foot again, probably for at least a week or two. Our stupid van started messing up yesterday. We were driving over to see RD and Andra's precious baby boy and it started making a weird noise. It sounded like we were constantly driving over branches and they were hitting up into our engine. We pulled over and looked under the hood. We saw that our fan belt was halfway ripped and we are pretty sure that it is what is making the noise. So we went home and got into our teeny tiny truck. Poor Blake had to sit on the floorboard. We probably wouldn't have went then, but I had made them some homemade cinnamon rolls. And by the way, Ryan and I are on a diet, so I didn't want them staying in our house, LOL. We did make it over there and it was SO worth it. I got to hold Caanan for about an hour. He's so SWEET!!!

But anyway, Ryan drives the truck to work and that is why I'm on foot. Thank goodness we live 2 blocks from the park, so we can go there. And I can go get groceries or whatever I need to get in the evening. HOPEFULLY we will get that tax check in the next week or two. As soon as we get it, the first thing I'm going to do is buy the parts I need to fix our van. Right now, we need: a radiator condenser (for the A/C), a left front fender, a left lamplight, and now a fan belt. And hopefully we can get it fixed shortly after I get all the parts. It is really miserable driving around with no A/C in Oklahoma. Anyway, I just needed to vent a little about the stupid van problems. I can't seem to figure out why we ALWAYS get problems like this. And it always happens when we don't even have 2 pennies to rub together (not literally, but pretty close). PLEASE pray for us, we are going through a REALLY tough time (mainly financial). We really need it. Thank you :)

Rounding up car parts

Back in September of 2006, Ryan was backing out of our driveway in Olathe, Colorado and turned too quick and hit the corner post of our chain link fence. So we have had an ugly little dent in the left front fender for a long time now. Then, in June, of 2007, our air conditioner stopped working and I found out that it was our radiator condenser that needed replaced.

Back to the wreck. We haven't turned it into insurance, because we thought we would have to pay our deductible up front. I really didn't know how insurance worked. So we finally turned it into our insurance and the adjuster came out and looked at the fender and took pictures and then explained that we didn't actually have to PAY, it's just that they figure up how much it would cost for all of the damage to get fixed and then subtract our deductible (which unfortunately was $1,000.00) and the rest was ours to do whatever with. Well he called the next day and told me that we would be getting back about $450.00, which isn't enough to fix everything. But...we can buy some used parts and slowly save up and have someone to fix the dent. I called a couple salvage yards and found some of the parts we will need to fix the wreck AND I found a used condenser, and Brother Bill P said that he would show us how to replace the condenser, so we will have air conditioning again! YAY! I'm so glad that I have located these cheap parts, that will help a LOT with the cost of fixing these things. I'm going to go to the salvage yard either today or Monday and get those parts. So I'm a little upset that we aren't getting a lot back from insurance, but I am excited to be able to buy the parts right now.

Talk about amazing!

I haven't had very many things going on in my life, so I haven't blogged in a few days. But I finally have something worth blogging about. Ryan has been working in Oklahoma City for about one month. Sometimes he has to drive our little Toyota pickup all the way to OKC (100 miles away), and sometimes just to Chandler (about halfway) and rides the rest of the way with his boss. Well, he came in from work last night and said that the truck had overheated when he got off at the Sapulpa exit. SO it was hot for 5 minutes or less. I immediately started to worry that we would have to put more money into our vehicles, which we just don't have. But amazingly it didn't start to overheat until he was almost home. Well this morning, he drove our van to work and I went out and looked under the hood. I immediately noticed that the fan belt was completely off of its tracks. The belt was also VERY rotted and breaking apart everywhere. It looked TERRIBLE, see:

So I knew it was not going anywhere for a while. I called sister Amber T., who lives 2 blocks from the kids' school and I asked her if I could borrow her car to go get a new belt. She said absolutely. I then called brother Bill P. and asked him how to put in a new belt. He said that he would have to look at it because every vehicle is different. I told him I really did not want to bother him with coming over, but he is such a nice person, he wanted to help me. So I walked my kids to school (about 5 blocks) and then walked to Amber's house and got her car. I drove to the parts store and got new belt, drove back and pulled in at the same time as brother Bill and sister Marcelle. We opened the hood and he said it was going to be easy. We only worked on it for about 10 minutes and had it in! I was just so thankful that I have such wonderful brethren who truly care about us. We got the job done for just a little over $13.00 and 10 minutes. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is! The truck is good to go now! It is amazing that Ryan hasn't had problems driving as much as he has, and it is amazing that the truck only started overheating when Ryan was ALMOST home, and it is amazing that, with a little help from my wonderful brethren, it is fixed! It's turned out to be a great day!

Car problems stink!

I think that we were chosen out of many people to have to go through car trials. I know everyone else has car problems from time to time, but we seem to have them regularly. Our last car, which was a Pontiac Grand Am, gave us CONSTANT problems. I'm pretty sure it was a lemon. We probably sunk around $7,000.00 dollars in repair in that piece of junk. And you know we always had a loan on it and the payoff was way more than the book value of that thing, so we were STUCK with it. We would fix one thing and immediately another thing would go wrong with it. And a lot of the things were very pricey! Transmission, clutch, you name it, we fixed it. Well, we finally got rid of it and bought Ollie and Sharon's van (Dodge Grand Caravan), which had a warranty left on it. SO we didn't have to deal with anything for a while, probably a year. Then the warranty expired and things started to slowly go wrong. We had to put new brakes on the van last April (2006). And then in September,2006, Ryan was backing up and hit a corner post which made a huge dent in the front drivers side, knocking out the turning signal and making a loud noise every time you open the drivers door. I know that's not the van's fault, but it is still something that needs fixed. Then in June (2007), I was driving out to Colorado for Stephanie's wedding and the stupid air conditioner went out on me. It will cost around $700.00 to get fixed. So we had NO A/C this summer, it was MISERABLE. The passenger sliding door is starting to be hard to open. And just recently our van's brakes started to squeak and even when we weren't using the brakes, the wheels squeaked. SO I had it checked out today, and there's a bunch of things needing fixed that will cost $478.00. I'm very frustrated! Why does car repairs have to cost so much??? If we fix everything that needs fixed on our van, it would probably cost us $2,500.00. Just say a little prayer for us, this is just a trial, I know, but I'm incredibly stressed over this STUPID van.