Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Yes, we're still out here.

Yá'át'ééh. (That means 'Howdy'). Sorry we haven't posted in a while, things have really been insane. Really. Badly. Totally. Insane.

This month we've had just about everyone off to church camp at one point or another. The babies, obviously, didn't go, the "fist timers" camp for Grace was cancelled also, but everyone else got to go. Even Tasha, who went as a "dorm mom" for Destiny and Ian's camp, got to go.

Right after camp was VBS. Anna was the director and all of us were involved in some way or another. We did "Power Lab" - basically everything had a "science-y" theme to it. We even got to do the "Diet Coke and Mentos" thing. Here's the video, watch it to the end, Tasha lands on her keister!






I even got in on the fun, as much as possible. I played photographer and "Mr. Wizard" on the computer with the projection system. It was fun, but we're all exhausted. Here's some pictures of our kids:












Anyhoo, just to add to our fun, our van broke down again. We're not sure what exactly is going on with it, but it's tearing through serpentine belts (the belt that actually makes the thing run). It's gone through two already and we're going to have to put on a third just to get through. Fortunately, our preacher let us borrow his van for the week of VBS.



The good news on that front is my mom and step dad have generously helped us obtain a new van. A GREAT BIG one! I'm sure it's not the most fuel efficient thing to be driving these days, but it's the only way to safely get the herd where they need to go. Here's a picture of what it kind of looks like (I couldn't scan the real pictures, so I found this online.):








We do have a little Subaru that Anna can drive to work, when we get the clutch fixed. Right now it's being held hostage by the repair guy. He retired, but locked our car on his lot. We keep trying to call him to so we can go move it, but he lives in Albuquerque now and we can only reach him on weekends. Sigh.


AND THEN!!! as if we weren't having enough fun, our washer blew up. Literally. Smoke, flames, flying parts. It was glorious. Both the washer and dryer were about done, but we were hoping to squeeze another 6 months or so out of them, but then our wonderful son had the brilliant time saving idea of trying to wash 10 pairs of jeans and 7 big fully bath towels in one load. They were packed in so tight that I literally had rip one of the jeans to get them out of the tub (which was also full of water, not like after the spin cycle when they are normally packed together!) So we had to dip into our savings (which we were trying to save to build ourselves a storage shed to keep our 20 years worth of crap in) and go buy a new washer. And since sets are normally cheaper, we went and go a new dryer too. (The old one was taking close to three hours to dry stuff anyway.)

So that brings us to today. The new washer and dryer will be delivered in the morning, we're trying to clear a path by moving furniture and stuff so the delivery guys can get the old ones out and the new ones in. The van is still busted and it's youth group night. I ache all over and can barely move.

But, hey. I got a roof over my head and a belly full of hot dogs, so life is good.