Time flies when you’re having … life?
I can’t believe it’s been a month since I posted!
Had a great time driving Catie to Northwest Prep School. Actually, my father-in-law did most of the driving. I drove from Boise to Mokelumne Hill, California, with Catie, then he drove to Southern California and back up to Moke Hill and I drove home alone. It was a lot of fun having some mother-daughter time during the 10-1/2 hour drive to Moke Hill. My van was in the shop (blown head gasket), so we drove a Buick that we’re buying from my dad. The only drawback? It doesn’t have a CD player. So, I dug out all my old cassettes and Catie was forced to listen to ‘80s music. Heh. Really took me back in time listening to Roxy Music, Loverboy, Queen and ELO.
While we were in the L.A. area, Catie and I drove to Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. We went on a wild goose chase trying to find a good vantage point to take a picture of the Hollywood sign, but only managed to find it after it was too dark for a picture! Got a great picture of the “No Access to Hollywood Sign” sign, though! I must give kudos to those who battle the L.A. highways every day. I think I’d go crazy if I had to drive down there on a daily basis. And although I live in a relatively small city (heck, the whole state of Idaho only has about a million and a half people!), I have lived in larger cities (Philadelphia and Atlanta) so I’m not completely without big city driving experience. The school Catie is attending is in the mountains east of L.A. Once we got up above the smog, it was kind of horrifying to look down on the brown air. We’ve had some experience with brown air in Idaho, but only when there are a lot of fires burning - which is the case right now. Again, having to live with that on a daily basis would probably drive me crazy.
And the van repair? Well, turns out it needed more than head gasket work. The repair shop said there was coolant in the oil and it had likely been leaking for some time. Even though it had been running perfectly fine. They said it needed a new engine. And they weren’t just trying to jack up the bill, since they didn’t want to do that job and we would need to take it elsewhere for that repair. That upped the price of fixing the van from in the neighborhood of $2,500 to a whole new neighborhood of closer to $6,000. Since the van had nearly 100,000 miles on it and a repair like that usually signals the beginning of many more such repairs, we decided to list it on Craigslist (sold in one day - hooray for Craigslist!). We were driving the Buick and the older van (the one with close to 200,000 miles on it). Then the old van broke down. Sigh ... So we now have ourselves a new car payment. Well, not on a new new car, just on a new to us car. Yet another minivan. Joe always said that once we got a minivan our lives as cool people were over. I think having our third minivan makes it irreparable! We love ’em though since it makes long trips with three kids much more enjoyable. So we sacrifice any possible coolness factor for the comfort. The “new” van is a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. It’s ever so much larger on the inside than the Pontiac Montana was. Feels so luxurious. And it has a CD player. Which makes kids who don’t like commercials or old cassettes happy!
Joe is still loving his new job. He’s working a ton of overtime because they’re so busy. Which is fine now while he’s working through the temp agency and making overtime pay. When they roll him over to permanent employment, he’ll be on salary and it won’t be so much fun! He’s still working on painting. All of the red is done, but the yellow is taking a bit longer (because of the previously mentioned doors, windows, etc. The first coat in the dining room and half of the kitchen is done. Most of the rest is primered, so finishing shouldn’t take all that long (says she who is doing no painting). It really looks fabulous and I don’t know what took us so long to get some color on those bland, white walls!
David and Rabe are enjoying high school so far. Things are finally starting to calm down somewhat. We were pretty much consistently on the go from Rabe’s arrival until just recently. Did the fair, a rodeo, a birthday party, a picnic, a potluck, volunteered at the Shakespeare Festival three times, took a trip to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, went to a local art festival and worked a concession stand during a football game. Rabe has orientation up in McCall, Idaho, this coming weekend, then I think we’ll settle into a more normal schedule. Oh, who am I kidding. We never have a “normal” schedule!
Speaking of Rabe, we cooked authentic Italian lasagna and tiramisu last weekend. It was great. The lasagna was a lot different than the American version (almost no cheese, for one thing), but it was quite tasty nonetheless. And tiramisu is always yummy! Oh yeah, hosting an Italian was a great idea!
I was suckered into, er volunteered to serve on our neighborhood Homeowners’ Association Board. Shoot me now. I think it will be less work than serving as PTA president at the middle school - a job that’s done since I no longer have a middle schooler - so I don’t think I’ve taken on any additional responsibilities. Just different ones. Still secretary for the high school band boosters which keeps me busy during marching season, but slows down after that.
Well, I think that’s pretty much it!
Had a great time driving Catie to Northwest Prep School. Actually, my father-in-law did most of the driving. I drove from Boise to Mokelumne Hill, California, with Catie, then he drove to Southern California and back up to Moke Hill and I drove home alone. It was a lot of fun having some mother-daughter time during the 10-1/2 hour drive to Moke Hill. My van was in the shop (blown head gasket), so we drove a Buick that we’re buying from my dad. The only drawback? It doesn’t have a CD player. So, I dug out all my old cassettes and Catie was forced to listen to ‘80s music. Heh. Really took me back in time listening to Roxy Music, Loverboy, Queen and ELO.
While we were in the L.A. area, Catie and I drove to Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. We went on a wild goose chase trying to find a good vantage point to take a picture of the Hollywood sign, but only managed to find it after it was too dark for a picture! Got a great picture of the “No Access to Hollywood Sign” sign, though! I must give kudos to those who battle the L.A. highways every day. I think I’d go crazy if I had to drive down there on a daily basis. And although I live in a relatively small city (heck, the whole state of Idaho only has about a million and a half people!), I have lived in larger cities (Philadelphia and Atlanta) so I’m not completely without big city driving experience. The school Catie is attending is in the mountains east of L.A. Once we got up above the smog, it was kind of horrifying to look down on the brown air. We’ve had some experience with brown air in Idaho, but only when there are a lot of fires burning - which is the case right now. Again, having to live with that on a daily basis would probably drive me crazy.
And the van repair? Well, turns out it needed more than head gasket work. The repair shop said there was coolant in the oil and it had likely been leaking for some time. Even though it had been running perfectly fine. They said it needed a new engine. And they weren’t just trying to jack up the bill, since they didn’t want to do that job and we would need to take it elsewhere for that repair. That upped the price of fixing the van from in the neighborhood of $2,500 to a whole new neighborhood of closer to $6,000. Since the van had nearly 100,000 miles on it and a repair like that usually signals the beginning of many more such repairs, we decided to list it on Craigslist (sold in one day - hooray for Craigslist!). We were driving the Buick and the older van (the one with close to 200,000 miles on it). Then the old van broke down. Sigh ... So we now have ourselves a new car payment. Well, not on a new new car, just on a new to us car. Yet another minivan. Joe always said that once we got a minivan our lives as cool people were over. I think having our third minivan makes it irreparable! We love ’em though since it makes long trips with three kids much more enjoyable. So we sacrifice any possible coolness factor for the comfort. The “new” van is a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. It’s ever so much larger on the inside than the Pontiac Montana was. Feels so luxurious. And it has a CD player. Which makes kids who don’t like commercials or old cassettes happy!
Joe is still loving his new job. He’s working a ton of overtime because they’re so busy. Which is fine now while he’s working through the temp agency and making overtime pay. When they roll him over to permanent employment, he’ll be on salary and it won’t be so much fun! He’s still working on painting. All of the red is done, but the yellow is taking a bit longer (because of the previously mentioned doors, windows, etc. The first coat in the dining room and half of the kitchen is done. Most of the rest is primered, so finishing shouldn’t take all that long (says she who is doing no painting). It really looks fabulous and I don’t know what took us so long to get some color on those bland, white walls!
David and Rabe are enjoying high school so far. Things are finally starting to calm down somewhat. We were pretty much consistently on the go from Rabe’s arrival until just recently. Did the fair, a rodeo, a birthday party, a picnic, a potluck, volunteered at the Shakespeare Festival three times, took a trip to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, went to a local art festival and worked a concession stand during a football game. Rabe has orientation up in McCall, Idaho, this coming weekend, then I think we’ll settle into a more normal schedule. Oh, who am I kidding. We never have a “normal” schedule!
Speaking of Rabe, we cooked authentic Italian lasagna and tiramisu last weekend. It was great. The lasagna was a lot different than the American version (almost no cheese, for one thing), but it was quite tasty nonetheless. And tiramisu is always yummy! Oh yeah, hosting an Italian was a great idea!
I was suckered into, er volunteered to serve on our neighborhood Homeowners’ Association Board. Shoot me now. I think it will be less work than serving as PTA president at the middle school - a job that’s done since I no longer have a middle schooler - so I don’t think I’ve taken on any additional responsibilities. Just different ones. Still secretary for the high school band boosters which keeps me busy during marching season, but slows down after that.
Well, I think that’s pretty much it!