Cold and Heat

It's getting cold.  We had snow on Halloween!  I heard an "old wives' tale" that the date of the first snow is the number of snows predicted for the winter...I hope we don't have 31 snows!  I've never heard that particular tale before, so I think someone just made it up and started spreading it when we got our first snow on the 31st.  Haha.

Our furnace drowned along with the water heater in the flood last May. We had a new water heater installed mid-May.  In August, we had to replace the dishwasher. In October, we had the house re-plumbed so we could run the water appliances better.  Since it was spring when we had the flood, and getting warmer, we decided we needed to wait on replacing the furnace since we had all these other expenses to cover--not to mention the cost of sending a kid to college!  So, here it is snowing and getting really cold in October, and we not only don't have a furnace, but we now have no way to pay for it...

We did get a little space heater, but even cranked all the way to 86 degrees, it doesn't do a lot when it's really cold out.

25 degrees on November 1!

It was so cold it felt like Christmas, so Sylvia and I put up the tree and Christmas decorations on November 9!

I saw a cute new cowl pattern and whipped this up to keep warm too.

On November 11, Hermes arrived (along with more snow!) to install our new furnace.  However, the weather continued to worsen throughout the morning, and they weren't able to get the furnace delivered!  They took apart our old furnace and did as much preparation for installation as they could, but left early in the afternoon to allow time to travel slowly back to their shop.  

Sylvia and Caeden were asked to take a nice picture for me to send to Annah, and they went for the awkward family photo version...

It was very cold in our house the past couple weeks.  We are thankful for electric blankets!  Jeremy even got out his fleece pajama pants and robe!

It was 50 degrees in our house, because the windchills were below zero outside...

Our friends the Ramirez fam loaned us a couple more space heaters.  It was 54 inside when the Hermes guys arrived today to finish the job.  

We now have a nice Trane furnace installed sideways and suspended 4 feet above ground.  So, if/when we have another basement flood, it should be safe.  They finished around noon today, and walked me through the thermostat and controls.  

By 1:30 it was back up to 68 degrees in the house, and I could teach piano lessons.

We are all thankful for heat.  It has been a very difficult 6 months for our family, financially, and emotionally.  While we are in a yucky spot right now, and that causes a lot of stress and worry for us, we are thankful that we were able to have access to the credit needed to have the furnace installed.  It's not something we could go without any longer.  We thank God for his provision for our family, and continue to trust Him.  

Today was the first day of marching band camp! These two were excited and ready to go!

As Caeden practiced guitar this morning, I asked to record him. He didn't want me to, but decided he would do it himself so he could watch it back and learn from watching himself.

He recorded several songs, but since I am having issues with importing videos from Google Photos into YouTube and I'm not sure anyone can even see these here on the blog, I'll just post one for now.

This afternoon, Caeden and I went to town. We took our big change jar with a couple years worth of change to the bank for vacation money.  It was more than $500 worth of change!

We went to the library this afternoon.  Caeden has been very anxious to play a Star Wars game on XBox, but I wasn't sure about it.  I told him he could try it out at the library.  He got to play for over an hour today and was very excited about it.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

As usual, my mom was on the ball with Valentine's Day and sent the kids a cute handmade Valentine from Arizona.  They love the fact that she keeps the tradition of sending them a valentine, and think it is fun to open!

 This year, Gram made them a valentine of themselves! So cute!

Thank you Gram and Krampa!  We love you!

I supposed Valentine's Day/week wasn't very "romantic" around here.  We have been running to all kinds of wrestling meets, keeping up on music lessons and practicing, homework, sleep, and other priorities. And, last week, we had a septic clog that kept us without use of a toilet in the house for 3 days...at the same time that our washing machine broke.  We tried everything we could to try to fix the septic clog on our own, but didn't have time to rent the equipment needed to do it.  So, between having the tank pumped and paying septic plumbers to get the job done, that was a fun time. And when the total to fix the washer came in over $400, we decided to get a new one.  Jeremy and I scrambled to a few places on Sunday afternoon to look at washers, and he chose one that was delivered yesterday.  He and Caeden got it to the basement, and Jeremy hooked it all up.  We spent almost an hour last night shining a flashlight through the lid, watching it wash the first load.  So romantic, we had to laugh at ourselves!

It is a nice Samsung washer, and I'm pretty sure it's smarter than I am.

One of the features I wanted (besides it not breaking twice in the first 4 years we have it--We got the 5-year service plan warranty!) was the ability to pre-soak items.  This not only has a pre-soak cycle, it it has a sink built in the top!  You know you're a grown-up when you're excited about something like that, I guess!

I did make the kids pink heart-shaped almond-flavored pancakes for breakfast today!  I guess maybe we are not always great at showing the love on forced holidays, but we do love each other around here!

After teaching my Saturday morning voice and piano lessons, the girls and I decided to go shopping.  Jeremy had a bunch of things he wanted to do outside, and Caeden is under the weather with either allergies or a cold or both, so the guys stayed home.  Caeden was fine with resting and watching a couple Star Wars movies.

We girls started at the party store, looking for a few red things for Annah's class color day coming up during Homecoming week.  I thought these were fun sunglasses.  

I like to get as many things as we can at Meijer so that our mPerks will give the greatest reward.  It was definitely worth it today!  We saved $100 in specials like BOGO 1/2 off, etc.  And, we saved $22 with mPerks and $22 more with coupons!  I was pretty excited.  I am not a coupon-er, but I do feel like we save a lot with mPerks.  (As you can see, we have saved almost $1200 so far this calendar year just at Meijer.)

These two do not agree on what bananas should look like.  Sylvia likes them to have plenty of brown spots on the skin for maximum banana flavor (So even her yellow ones aren't good enough yet.), and Annah likes them green.  They crack me up.

We also went to ALDI, and we save a lot there.  I pointed out to the girls just the difference on frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts:  2.5 lbs at Meijer for $7.49, and 3 lbs at ALDI for $5.49.  I feel like I have to pay very close attention and remember what various things cost at different stores to get the most for the money.  

This evening, Jeremy cooked some amazing ribeyes on the grill!  Annah did a little homework, and the kids all practiced their instruments.  

A good day!

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Pizza Ranch Fundraiser

My guys are doing wrestling camp every evening this week, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures.  Sounds like it's been a good week of learning for kids of all ages, and they'll be ending it with a tournament tomorrow!

After music lessons in town this afternoon, we dropped Caeden off to Jeremy at work so they could get to wrestling camp.  I took the girls to Pizza Ranch for their youth group fundraiser.

Pizza Ranch let the church set up a display table, a tip jar, and gave 10% of their sales for the night!

They let their regular staff off for the night and the kids bused tables.  Sylvia had a pretty busy section.

Annah's section wasn't as busy while I was there.

They did work hard, really!

They raised about $500, which will be divided between the kids who worked and will go towards their Experience Jesus trip.

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Girls Out Shopping

The kids had the day off school yesterday! We spent the morning going through the girls' spring/summer clothes and sorting out what fits and what doesn't. 

Annah had musical rehearsal from 11-4, so we dropped her off at school.  Then we picked up Ethan and dropped him and Caeden off to Jeremy at work.  They met Scott and went up to DeKalb to watch IESA State Wrestling.  

Sylvia and I went shopping!  It was part of her birthday gift.  The older she gets, the more fun it is for her to pick out her own presents.  We had a great time together.

We started at Kohl's because she had a gift card.  Sylvia found an awesome deal on a denim jacket that was $60 marked down to $12, then discounted to $7.80! That was an exciting bargain!  She also saw these skirts that are just what she wants Gram to teach her how to make when they do some sewing over spring break.

She was looking specifically for a cream-colored lace dress, joggers, and some spring/summer items. In the mall, we also went to Rue 21, Aeropostale, and JCPenney (Where we got her some gray joggers [I don't get it, but these are the big deal for JH and HS girls at school right now. Personally, I think they are just sweats and should not be worn in public. I'm trying to get over it.]). Sylvia tried a lot of clothes on, and found some great deals at Rue 21.  At each store, there were items she liked (crocheted shorts, cream lace dresses, denim overalls, etc.), but they didn't fit work with the small budget we had.  We decided to go to Walmart. Sylvia found many of the things she was looking for at much better prices.  She bought navy crocheted shorts, denim shorts with crocheted fringe, denim bib overall shorts, and some other cute shorts with pretty trim.  The best part was the fact that Sylvia understands that the only thing "better" about the "right" label is the fact that it costs more.  She found all the totally adorable clothes she wanted at Walmart and was able to buy a lot more items that way.  She is becoming a smart shopper.

We picked Annah up at school, ran home for a quick supper, and headed back into town for Annah's violin lesson.  Then we went home for the night and watched The Secret Garden. Oh I love that story!

This morning, I decided to get the girls out of bed at 8:34.  They were awake, but being lazy.  I taught a few lessons, then we went back to town for more girls-only shopping.  (The boys went back up to DeKalb to watch our 2 Ridgeview wrestlers who were still in the fight at State.)

Jeremy gave us an IHOP gift card, so we had lunch there. Annah had peach raspberry pancakes, which she loved.  Sylvia had chicken florentine crepes, which she was excited about, but hated because she had never tried hollandaise sauce before...and there were too many onions.  She likes to try new things, though, so she chalked it up to a new experience.

Annah needed a few things before heading to Florida next week, and Sylvia was still in search of that ideal cream lace dress.  We started at Walmart today, because we knew they had good deals on shorts and t-shirts, which are what Annah needed most.  She got some more of her favorite scrunchy shorts, and some t-shirts and wanted some other things but couldn't find matching pieces.

Annah had a gift card to Meijer, so we went there next.  Sylvia almost bought one of these dresses, but decided she could come back if she didn't find exactly what she was looking for at another store.  Annah bought a couple tank tops (that would match the shorts she wanted from Walmart) and a pair of crocheted flip flops with her gift card.  And we got 20% off with mPerks.  I love mPerks!

So, we went back to Walmart to get the shorts Annah wanted to match the tops from Meijer. Thankfully, the stores are basically next to one another.  Next, we went to Target to see if they had a cream lace dress.  They did!  And, it was the best price we had seen and fit better than any of the others Sylvia had tried on!  We bought it right away and were thankful!

By this time, we were a bit tired, but the girls had haircuts at L'Couture in Lexington.  They both just got trimmed up, and Annah got her brows waxed. I had never seen such fancy green glittery wax, and had to take a picture! 

We had such a great time together, and when they got home, the boys reported that they did too!  What a fun weekend!

This is Thursday

When we had dinner with Grandma L over the weekend, she gave each of the kids some money.  Caeden's immediately started burning a hole in his pocket, but since we wouldn't take him to the store immediately he changed his mind after a few hours and decided he would put it in his savings account. He has asked me at least 2 times every day since Saturday if we could go to the bank, and we finally got there today.  He was quite the grown up little boy, and went right up to the teller window by himself.  When the teller asked how she could help him, he told her he wanted to deposit money into his savings account, his name and how to spell it, and how much he was depositing.  He answered all the questions he needed for his own transaction.  I was pretty proud of him for deciding to save his money this time.  He usually either spends it all immediately, or puts it in his piggy bank and then gives it all away when the school has a charity fundraiser.  It was nice to see him thinking it through this time.

After Caeden's guitar lesson, we hurried back home.  The girls didn't have violin lessons at the Music Shoppe this afternoon because their teacher, Ruthie is in Chicago for a special medical appointment for one of her children tomorrow.  But, she is such an awesome teacher who goes way above and beyond! She knew Sylvia had an audition coming up on Monday, so she did a short FaceTime lesson with Sylvia! See her on the iPad at the left of the picture?  Too cool, and so thoughtful of her to do that for Sylvia!

Already, Annah is having quite a bit of homework in 7th grade.  She's in an advanced math class that has daily homework.  Tonight she had 2 tests to study for.  I helped her study for Science and also Family and Consumer Sciences.  I had to take a picture of her science vocabulary word "lichens," and text it to my brother.  He and I still tease Dad about the family vacation when he tried to teach about lichens.  At the time, we were ungrateful snotty kids who thought we were too cool to learn about boring lichens and that wasn't what family vacation was supposed to be about.  Now, I think it's pretty cool that we still remember Dad teaching us about lichens.  He has shown my kids lichens in his forest, and they thought it was pretty cool and exciting.    

End of an Era, You Might Say

I'm pretty sure I can't adequately chronicle all that has been going on with our cars over the past month. If we focused solely on that (which, I admit, we have at times), we could get pretty doggone discouraged...

In August, you may recall, we had to have the good ol' Aztek towed out of the garage and into town to have the ignition replaced.  We also had 4 new tires put on, as many people had reminded us upon seeing them that we were in great need.  That little adventure all cost us over $1000.

Then, two weeks later, I was on my way to church with the kids on Sunday morning, and the coolant indicator light came on and an alarm started dinging.  I called Jeremy, who had me shut the car off immediately when I realized (upon his asking) that the gauge showed all the way over on "HOT."  Not a good feeling.  We were able to get it to the repair shop, and a long list of things (including every particular type of gasket there apparently is) was repaired to the tune of $1400.

Of course, during these past several weeks, we have had to beg rides, borrow and rent cars, or stay home when we needed to be somewhere many times.  It's been an adventure.

So, when we went to Indiana a couple weeks ago, the day after we got the Aztek back from it's repairs, we made it there just fine and dandy--all 250 miles.  Yay!  No lights, no dinging, nothing scary.  Until...I went to take the kids to G'pa and G'ma Lopshire's house and got about 2 miles into the trip and the same thing happened--the coolant light and the alarm went off!!!!!

Ugh!!!  We felt like pulling our hair out.  But, the decision was made to leave the Aztek there to be fixed (rather than try to make it all the way home and possibly get stranded or overheated somewhere along the way!) and borrow my Dad's car.  He and Mom were planning to visit us soon, and they would just take the Aztek to their trusted car guy and bring it back when they came to visit us...

So, Dad's car guy checked it out and was really angry to find that our shop here had not done a thorough or adequate job (We'd kinda guessed by this time.), and that it would cost another $1600 to repair it.  He also advised that the repairs wouldn't last 2 years (what we were hoping to get out of the Aztek) and wouldn't be worth doing.  Wow.  Now we need a "new" car, and we pretty much flushed about $2400 we didn't have down the toilet in the past few weeks.  Not a great feeling, to say the least.

So, Dad's car guy buddy, Ray, was so upset about what our car repair shop did to us (or rather, charged for and didn't do), that he offered to give us that $1400 we put towards our last repairs on the Aztek toward a car like my dad's that he had on his lot.  We were surprised by such a generous offer, and after doing some research here locally, we decided it was the best way for us to go. 

Dad made several trips to Ray's to talk about our situation with the cars, and brought the car (a 2002 Toyota Avalon) home to give it a good look-over.  He and Mom found everything they could see and sent us a bunch of pictures of a few tiny cosmetic problems, just so we would know exactly what we were considering.

We felt the cosmetic things weren't big issues, and Dad worked with Ray about fixing a few other concerns before we made everything official.  Jeremy took care of the loan and title and tax stuff, and Mom and Dad brought the car to us when they came yesterday.  

(Just to add to the apparently now never-ending saga of our car troubles, Jeremy and Annah went to get in his car to go to the football game last night when Mom and Dad were about an hour away from our house with our "new" car.  Jeremy's car wouldn't start.  Seriously!!  We aren't sure what's going to happen there, but we need it to last at least another year!  These are the days of praying for our cars, I guess.  It feels so greedy and selfish that we have two, but we are limited from a lot volunteer and good activities if we have only one.)

Anyway, we have loved driving Dad's Avalon the past two weeks and are happy to have this nice car now.  It feels pretty luxurious with its heated leather seats, even though it is 10 years old.  We hope it will last at least 5 years until we have its loan paid off!

Wonder if we should name it?

Turn the Key

We got the Aztek back today.  The part that needed replaced was around $85.  Add in labor,  oil change, new tires, car rental...it was over $1,000 we weren't planning to pay this week!  Blechh.  But, we are glad to have the car back, and blessed to be able to get places we need to go.

Cars

As I mentioned yesterday, the Aztek wouldn't start.  It still won't start.  This is not okay, since it is our family car--the only one we will all fit in at once.  We can't really try to go without it for very long.  

So, today our Aztek was towed out of our garage and all the way into Bloomington.  (21 miles according to Google Maps.)  We are grateful for good auto insurance through State Farm, and our agent Maggi Pratt...we know at least part of the towing costs will be covered.

It was an unfortunate thing that the car was in the garage, with not much clearance overhead and on one side...a special kind of jack had to be used.  (In fact, Jeremy took off work because the towing service told us it would take 2 strong men to do it, and we saved $50 by Jeremy volunteering to be the second guy.  The towing guy arrived early and ended up not needing Jeremy, as the car moved more easily than he expected though, thankfully.)

I'll admit, it doesn't feel good to see your car going down the road behind a tow truck!

Another benefit from State Farm (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if this is an employee benefit or a benefit of being insured by them?) is that we get a great discount on car rental!  So, Jeremy rented a car for the next 4 days so we can get around over the holiday weekend.  However, we had to pick it up after the kids were home from school...That meant all 5 of us cramming into the "Sweet ZX2"--a feat we had never before attempted! 

 Jeremy and Annah were in front...

...and the rest of us were quite "cozy" in the back!

We are blessed that both of our cars are paid for, so we have no loan or regular car payment on them.  Jeremy bought his car new in the spring of 1998, right after he graduated and started working for State Farm.  It now has over 200,000 miles, no air conditioning, no cruise control, no functioning parking brake, and is loud!  But, we are glad it's still running, and pray it will last another year.  

The Aztek we bought new in 2002 when we were pregnant with Sylvia, and it is at about 185,000 miles itself.  It has been a great car, with several costly repairs, but we need it to last a lot longer!

So, as we drive our rented Chevy Malibu around this weekend, we will consider the potential it has (or doesn't have) for the next Lopshire family car.  And, we will continue to pray the fix for the Aztek doesn't cost us an arm and a leg that we don't have.