System Administrator's Day

Today was the 6th annual Internation System Administrator's Day. That is the day I can tell everyone all the computer stories about how bad they are to me and they get to tell me how valuable I am to them. I didn't get a message from my boss (how typical) but the Regional Director bought me a veggie tray and crackers and we had a little party in the break room. That was nice.

Holding our Breath....

We got the Toyota back. This time, there was no charge for the towing or the fixing. The found a burned out wire in the "loom" and replaced it. They also did a front end alignment so now the steering wheel is straight. It didn't seem to have any quirks on the way home and it appears to be running better. We will see how long it lasts. I'm glad that this time it was free.

AAAAAAAGUGUGUGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Is that how you spell a scream? I can't remember......We thought our Toyota (or Totaled, as I am now affectionately calling it) was fixed, but last week we took it in to fix the quirky headlights and this morning it is back to not running. It starts up okay and then dies. GRRRRR! WE just picked it up yesterday, paid the bill, and now it is back to being a piece of junk! I called Toyota and they are going to send a tow truck to pick it up....in fact, they just came to get it. I hope they can actually make some progress this time. If not, I suppose we can do what Taylor suggested....push it off a cliff and be done with it. We were a one car family for quite a while, a little longer won't kill us. And watching this car drop would be extremely satisfying...oh well, a girl can dream.

More Kid stuff in the backyard

We now have a 14 foot trampoline in our backyard! Dawn decided that since all the grandkids are in Southern Utah, the trampoline should be there as well. As we are the only family with a big enough backyard (yea right!) It is now at our house. Now the kids run from the swimming pool to the trampoline. I think we are going to need to charge admission to all the kids that are going to be coming over.

Well...more bad news...

I can't believe it but we are experiencing even more car problems! This time with our "new" van...the service engine light came on yesterday and the car felt very jerky so I took it in to the dealer to have them run a check on it. She just called me to tell me that the entire transmission needs to be replaced and it is going to cost

a lot!

I guess it's a good thing that we didn't have to spend as much as we thought on the Toyota, but I sure wish we could be done with this business. We still have a few things to tweak on that car too, so I won't be surprised if we wear out our credit card in the next few days.

I am trying hard to keep a positive attitude about all this but right now I think I'm going to have a good cry. And I am DONE buying cars....

Toyota is back

Last night I got a message on my phone the the Toyota is finally finished and I could pick it up. From all the doom and gloom, I was very nervous how much it was going to cost. So I called them this morning to ask them how much it was (I had found my Platinum credit card and was ready to have to use it) the guy started reading the numbers. 3..6..7..2..6 I was expecting 3,672.6 but then he didn't read any more numbers. So I said 367 dollars, he said uh-huh, and I quickly said thank you very much and I will be there shortly to pick it up. I then called Anissa, had her pick me up, went and paid in full for the repairs, drove it home on the freeway, came back to work, and am a very happy camper. :-D

I may just have to go to Tunex and show them how much our "unfixable" car cost to fix. I, of course, will drive the Toyota over there. :-P

Happy Birthday

Today is Tonya's Birthday. Unfortunately, however, she is at Girl Scout camp, so there won't be any parties today. I hope she and Taylorare having fun up there. Shaylie is in Holden with Anje and Bella. We will probably do something for Tonya on Sunday.

In other news, our Toyota is ready. I wonder how much it is going to cost.

Night Out

I took Tonya to her favorite restaraunt, Red Lobster, last night. It was kind of her Birthday Dinner, as she will be at Girl Scout camp on her birthday. We then went and bought some DVD's. We got: I, Robot, National Treasure, and Baptists at our BBQ. We watched Baptists and then freeze framed it to find Anissa, Dawn and Anje in the extra's scenes. I will get a screen cap of that soon.

Lagoon Trip

We went to Lagoon on Saturday. We took our traditional pictures in front of the height posts, however, Taylor is now taller than the posts, so it is not of much use, but it is nice to be able to see the growth through the years. Another problem, Taylor is now to tall to ride the kid rides! That is ok, she consideres The Fire Dragon as a kids' ride. She is a little daredevil. She likes the scary rides.
We will have pictures later.

Red Cliffs

After work yesterday, we drove up to Red Cliffs recreational area. It is about 20 miles north of St. George and west of the town of Harrisburg. It is a nice park and it only costs $2.00 to go out for the day ($8.00 to camp over night) Once you are there, there is a short natural water slide into a decent sized pond inside on a little rock canyon. The hike there was a little nervous however, as it was hot, all the girls (except Taylor) where complaining (or on the verge of death), and the half mile seemed to go on forever. When we got there Taylor was the first down the slide and did it a lot. Anje also went down it, however Shaylie was to little to climb up the rock so she only played in the pond. The hike back out seemed a lot easier for everyone.

Independance Day

We had a great, though very long day yesterday. We all got up early and Tonya had to help the young women put up the American Flags along 450 East. When she came home, we went to Worthen Park for breakfast. It was really good, ham eggs and pancakes and it is just fun to go out and have a good start to the day. We went back home for a while and cleaned up and then went back to the park for all the activities. Taylor did the rock climb, although she didn't make it to the top, and then Taylor and Shaylie played on the air-filled equipment for a while. The city also has some free games around the park, the girls played those, and they had long slip and slides set up and a water sponge war area. Needless to say, the girls kept nice and wet. Lastly, they rode a train around the park (it was a lawn mower tractor pulling 50 gallon drums :-) ) We also bought Taylor a two-legged walking puppet.
Later, Shaylee and Sydney came over to swim, and then Anje, Anissa, and Dawn came down. We ate dinner at home and headed to our usual place at the park.
The fireworks started promptly and ten o'clock and the hillside was prompty on fire by 10:05. The fires were out by the end of the fireworks, but it was a pretty good fire. The fireworks were good also :-D
We came home afterwards and did our own fireworks, and I was so tried that I went to sleep about five seconds after that. It was a pretty good day.

New Trims

Forgot to post this a couple of weeks ago, but here are the girls' summer hair cuts.

Every five years whether it needs it or not...

I cleaned out my pantry today. I found baby food and items that I had in there almost five years ago. I also took out about 1500 WalMart bags. I don't know why I was storing these...probably thinking they would come in handy for some project or something. It is really amazing how much stuff could fit in that tiny closet. I am taking a big load to DI (in the "new" van)!

Speaking of which...I took it in yesterday to get the transmission serviced. The guy said it looks pretty good and there wasn't anything there or in the engine that looked worrisome. So that was a good thing. I've been in for an oil change and I may want to go get a tune up before we head up to Salt Lake. The only thing that has bothered me at all is that I went out to drive yesterday and it took me three times to start it up. Yikes. But we hadn't driven it at all the day before so maybe it's tempermental that way. I hope that is all. The WalMart invoice says they checked the battery and it was good....

I'm looking forward to getting away from St. George for a while. The smoke is crazy from the fires. I am getting a little stir crazy too, with all of Shaylie's friends over all the time. I'm beginning to feel like the neighborhood babysitter. It's good for Shaylie to have friends though, I guess. Taylor's friend Shaylee is in California this week so she has been playing with some of her other friends. She only has about 3 girls that she really enjoys. Our Shaylie was invited out to dinner by the family of one of her friends--Garrett--and last night they went to the Pizza Factory. That was fun for her. She said she only ate one....I took that to mean "one pizza" since she loves it so much. This weekend she has a birthday party at the house of the same friend.

Shaylie has decided on a party theme for her birthday. Puppies. "The Dog" specifically...except for I might mix and match a bit. I found some fun party games and activities. She is inviting both boys and girls so it is a good theme. It was funny though, she asked me how old she would be if she had a puppy birthday. I think since we talk about her Ladybug birthday and her Unicorn birthday, she thinks that you have to have a specific kind of party to turn that age. Does that make sense?

Anyway, the summer is going by quickly. I am excited for school to start already...