New Car

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Corey and I decided to trade in our 2014 Honda Odyssey for a newer van.  The van had been giving us trouble on off for several years, pretty much since Westley left on his mission.  We had serious engine trouble.  We kept getting it repaired and have spent way too much money on it.  So I did some research and found some options for newer Honda Odysseys (I really love my blue van).  Corey and I went to the dealership in Richardson just to check some out and ended up buying a 2022 with only $35k miles on it.  They even took our blue van for a trade-in for $4k.  So now we have a newer Honda Odyssey.  I can feel better now that I won't be driving a car that might die on me at any moment.  

Out With the Old, In With the New (Cars, that is)

Over the Christmas break, I took the Malibu in for the safety inspection and renewed its registration. A week later, Travis came in and said that it kept stalling on the way home. We promptly took it over to a car repair shop and were told that the engine was shot. It would either be a new (rebuilt) engine for around $8,000 or find a new car. So we found this car, a Kia Rio hatchback, and paid cash for it, $4500. It's sad to be done with the Malibu, it probably should have lasted longer than it did, but it was a 14 year old car that we'd had for 10 years. We're going to try and do better at taking care of the next one. We donated it to "Kars for Kids" and watched them come haul it away. It was so freezing that day too!

 

Car Accident

On the way home from dropping Annmarie off at gymnastics, I was rear-ended by a jeep that just didn't stop at a red light. He pushed me into the car in front of me, but only a little tap. Thankfully he caused the accident so his insurance will pay for the repairs, but it will be a while before the van is done.

 

Cars, School, and Letter Jackets

School started this week, so naturally something had to go wrong with the car. On Monday, I was enjoying time at the park with friends and all seven kids came along, a rare event indeed. When we went to leave, the car wouldn't start. It wouldn't even make a noise. Some nice people there, who ended up to be members of the church in Sachse ward, helped me out. They took Travis and Eliza to Cooper Junior High to pick up their chromebooks. They got their family patriarch who knows about cars to come and take a look. And they took the kids home with Caleb while I waited in the 98+ degree heat for AAA to come and test my battery. Westley's friend Dekan drove him to In-N-Out to get Corey's car so that he could help out with any driving later on. I waited. Finally AAA came and tested the battery. Westley brought me lunch from Braum's. And the AAA guy said that it wasn't the battery but the key fob. But he was able to get the car started, so I drove it home thinking I'd take it in the next morning. But, alas, the car would not start again. Thankfully, I had left in on the driveway so it was easier to access. I called a key fob guy who came out to the house and he told me it wasn't the key fob, but the battery. So I called AAA and set up an appointment for him to come get the car from the dreveway and take it to our mechanic a few blocks away. The soonest he could come was the next morning. So that's what happened and guess what...it did turn out to be the battery, which I had only replaced last August. They did have to reset the key fobs too though. 

 

School started on Thursday. Westley is a senior, Caleb a sophomore, Travis 8th grade, Eliza 7th grade, Jonah 4th and Annmarie 2nd. We were fortunate that school actually started here in Wylie ISD. A lot of schools across the country aren't starting in person but online, virtually, sort of like we did it in the spring. But our district offered parents a choice--to send students to campus or keep them home and do online. Our family chose campus. We aren't worried about covid19 and the district has all these measures in place for "safety". So 5th grade and up are required to wear masks and they have (supposedly) smaller class sizes and plans in place for quarantining if there are positive cases of covid19. I'm so tired of all the covid stuff. But I won't get into that in this book. We are just very glad to be in one of the few districts across the country, it seems, to get to start school on campus and on the same start day that was planned from last year. So hopefully they have a decent school year and no long closures or quarantines! And hopefully covid fade into obscurity.

Nathan is home with me now.  We are doing preschool this year but only with a few students and those students aren't even paying me!  We are doing exchanges instead.  Eliza will have violin lessons and I'll do preschool for her violin teacher's son and Nathan will get to be babysat several times a week in exchange for teaching this other woman's daughter.  It will all be fine.  I'm also cutting way back on piano lessons and only retaining five of my students.  It's going to be tight financially, but I'm looking forward to being able to devote more time to being a mom!

And Westley's letter jacket finally came!  He earned it last year and was able to put the order in and when he got home from school on the first day, he had it!  I'm so proud of him for earning it and just love how it turned out!
 

The Stomach Bug and New Car

We got up one morning to find that Annmarie had thrown up in her crib.  We thought maybe she had just coughed too much or something because nobody else was sick.  I went about my daily activities, which included taking the van in to get the brakes checked because they were screeching.  I had had them replaced only about six months before.  So we went to Les Schwab.  After we got there and they took the car back, suddenly, Jonah started throwing up.  Then Annmarie started throwing up.  I was waiting for my car to be done, since they still had it back and were fixing it.  Finally, we got the car, which, thankfully was fixed for free because the brakes were still under warranty.

We went home and I barricaded Annmarie and Jonah into the living room with sheets and towels covering everything.  We spent the day dealing with throw up and messes, but by the next day both Jonah and Annmarie were better.  I sent the older kids off to school and everything seemed fine.

Until Eliza called from school saying she had thrown up.  I went and picked her up.  After school, I let the older boys go to the library.  Then I had to take Travis to baseball practice.  I left Eliza home because she was throwing up.  I went to the library to pick up the boys and then stopped at the store on the way home to buy some groceries for dinner.  My plan was to get the food, take it home, then go get Travis from the baseball field.

As I was pulling out of Smith's, the van died.  The transmission was completely gone.  We left the car in the parking lot at Smith's, after getting people to help us push it back, and started walking home.  Corey picked us up on the way.  We went home, then he went to get Travis.  This was on Westley's birthday.  It was not the best birthday.

Travis and Caleb stayed home from school the next day for throwing up.  I had it all day Friday too.  Corey had it on Saturday.  Margrethe got it the next week.  Westley never got it.  That was probably the best birthday present he got!

As for the van, we got a new one. It's a 2014 Honda Odyssey.  We got the full extended warranty too, so hopefully it won't give us any major headaches for the first seven years.