It's that time of year again.

No not when Christmas music being played before it really should, but when you have to figure out how to change all the clocks in your life.  The hardest one, the one in my car.  First of all, its a semi new car.  But secondly, you only do this job two times a year.  9 times out of 10 I remember to change every single clock in the house but completely forget about my car.  Then a day or two later when I get in my car I look down and freak out because my initial reaction is that I am an hour late for (typically) work or, why the heck am I going to be THIS early?? Then it hits me.  Daylight Savings time.  However, I am still driving so I am trying to figure out how to change the time in the 10-20 second at the red lights.  But I can never get it.  Then in my minuscule attention span I typically forget by the time I get to work (you know 3 minutes later).  Then it all happens again on my way home.  That's when I sit in my garage for the next 5 minutes until I get the time right. 

Ta Da!  This year I did it before noon on Sunday and only freaked out once.  That was when I thought I was lat for church.  HAHA  Can't wait for April!

Opposit day!!

Today was a bit, well um wrong. 

Driving down the road to meet with a doctors office I  watched my co-worker make a left hand turn.  However, due to new construction and new very faint lines she ended up turning down the wrong way on the road.  Yeah all of a sudden I saw her facing the wrong way in traffic.  I was in my car screaming to her "don't go that way."  She didn't hear me.  Once I knew she was alright I started laughing so hard I was crying.  Not awesome when you are the driver. 

Later that day I am sitting in the office waiting for my kiddo to show up and in walks an OT with her client.  I look down to realize the child has his shoes on the wrong feet.  I mention something to the OT who proceeds to look at me like, "you have got to be kidding me."  Yeah she put them on that way, not the kid putting them on himself that way. 

Funny!!

I feel like it's been forever

I have realized this past week I have not blogged very much.  It has been a bit busy.  Let me fill you in.

1. Last Saturday we threw a surprise party for our neighbor who turned 30 last Thursday. It was a success, she was surprised.
2. Last Sunday we did church and joined a group to help make new mentors feel at home in our church.
3. Elijah and Daddy when to youth group together and I cleaned up all of Elijah's old clothes and put all the fall/winter ones in his closet (didn't know this whole week would be summer weather).
4. Monday worked until 7
5. Tuesday celebrated my 13 year anniversary with my hubby.
6. Wednesday I worked until 7 and had the issue with the plane crash in the area.

7. Thursday I had a class 1.5 hours away from home learned a lot and feel real good about being a parent and a therapist but spent over 3 hours in the car driving, went out to dinner with the neighbors for the birthday and then promptly fell asleep at 8:00 on the couch.

8. Friday visited a new mommy and baby pair, then headed to the old High school for the homecoming football game and and marching band.  Elijah enjoyed the marching band but was so ready to leave after that.  Seeing that it was 1.5 hours past his bed time.

 9. Today Elijah had his doctor appointment (31 inches long, 25 lb and 4 oz) had three shots, and was mad at mommy. Drove out for the college homecoming football game (E slept 2 of the 2.5 hour drive) watched/stayed for 2 quarters then walked all over the campus for 2 some hours before getting back in the car and driving home (another 2.5 hour nap for E). 

Elijah about to walk off the cliff/hill

  

climbing up the hill





Chiling with my little man under the bell tower





Family under the bell tower



Family photo

Wawa says Elijah

Here dino, smell my stinky shoes.  No daddy don't feed me to it.

 

Now I'm sleepy, but that was my week in a nut shell.  I miss the beauty of my college but would only go back if BJ would stay with me the whole time.  Also blogger is not allowing me to move the pictures to where I want.  So deal with them the way they are.  At least you got pictures.  Be thankful!

Stinky

I was able to function in the real world today.  Well kind of.  I went to my continuing ed class today, however, the first time I ate anything solid was at 7:00 this evening.  It is still in me just so you know, but being the first solid food for almost 3 days my system is not being very nice to the rest of us. 

On my way to work, from my class I pull up to a stop light and am waiting for the light to turn green and someone pulled up next to me smoking.  Because all my windows were down the smell got into my car, and it snuck into my nose.  After I got to work, I closed my windows and went in for an hour or so.  When I cam back to the car to go home...Stinky smoke smell.  That makes me angry.  BOO to smoke.

Issues with the Car

HAHA

Since purchasing the car from my mother I have found some flaws with it. First of all after my last car I told myself that I will never get leather seats again. I get so hot and gross while I drive on leather seats I start to smell by the time I get to where I am going. I also have wet marks from sweat in every fold of my legs, hips (make you look like you have peed) and knees. Next I used to drive with my knees on occasion, like when the steering wheel was to hot to touch or both of my hands were busy doing other things like changing the radio and talking on the phone, or eating. I have had to stop doing that now because no mater how I try to move the wheel the I can't reach the accelerator and the steering wheel at the same time. It really is a bummer. Guess I have to be safe now. My old car had the temp. gauge and the direction of driving. This car does not. And the last one, BJ decided to buy our cars steering wheel protectors. Mine was made of some sort of mesh like fabric. Looked good, at least it wasn't one of those horribly gross ones with all the hair on it. He put it on and we went inside for the night. Today I could barley get a block away from my house and I started feeling VERY VERY anxious. I got a tight feeling in my chest, my arms started to cramp up and I got a very weird feeling in my stomach. I would move my hands around the steering wheel and when I wasn't touching the wheel I felt better. Weird. I figured as it was a sensory aversion to the tactile feel of the wheel. GREAT well if I could just drive with my knees I would be fine. Oh wait, right.... it was a long and horrid ride to work. The second I got to work, I ripped off the steering wheel cover and threw it across the car. The funny thing is the material is the same material that all the office chairs are made of at my work, but that doesn't' bug me. Just on the steering wheel.

Weekend

First of all, this new job I have and my new hours are really going to impact my posting. Or I will be staying up later to get the posting done. I really think blogging is a stress reliever for me and that makes me happy.

Second, Friday was AWESOME. Bj and I Had a wonderful time...after we almost killed each other. Le me start from the beginning.

We woke up at our normal time and brought the child off to daycare. We came home and met with our Financial planner so we can figure out what to do with our $3.00 that we have in the bank account. Once we were all done BJ and I started to clean the house. We spent 2 hours cleaning and our house looked wonderful. We packed for the night and went off to get the baby from daycare.

On our way there I realized it was about 100 Degrees outside and there was no air conditioning in our car. On the way to my mothers I was freaking out because I thought Elijah was going to die from heat exhaustion while I was sweating through my clothing. I was frustrated. BJ and I were bickering back and forth until we just gave up talking. Once we got to my mom's BJ went out to see if he could recharge the AC himself, however, when it was fixed the last time, the people put in bad valves so he was set up for failure before he even began. This making him even more crabby than he was 30 minutes before. At that point in time, my mom told us to just take the Mini. Well as BJ was going to back the Mini out of the garage the garage door spring broke. Finally we got the car out, packed and we finally got on the road. About half way to the hotel we finally started to talk to each other.

We go to our hotel out by the Airport and I was able to watch the big shinny planes come and go. I jumped in the shower to wash off all the grossness from sweating like a professional athlete and started getting ready for the night. When I was done I looked pretty and I was so ready to go to this concert. We got our ride over to the arena and by this point I was beyond excited. I kept hoping that Fergie's hubby would make a cameo, or at least sit next to me during the show. We were just off the stage. And I really do not have any words to how awesome the show was. Yeah, that 's right that's Fergie. It was amazing, made us both super happy. Then after the show we went out to wait for our shuttle back to the hotel and it was right in the landing pattern for all the planes so I could watch them all land. Made me even happier.

The next morning I slept in until 9:30. That's right 9:30, I haven't slept that late in...I don't remember when. Then it was back to my mom's so officially every grandma has had the baby over night now. This is when my mom told me about Elijah's eye rolling. I was hoping it was just a fluke but while we sat there he rolled his eyes into the back of his head twice. It looked like he was about to pass out, or was being possessed by a demon. Either one, I didn't like the options. I then called the doctor, and after seeing him do it once more, we were off to the ER because I just couldn't think of anything but seizures. ER doc told me he wasn't thinking it was seizures, but a learned behavior. Great my child has an eye tick that I have to get rid of before it sticks. Fantastic. The rest of the weekend was much less eventful but I was really sleepy because my sleep cycle was all off.

I forgot

Driving to work today I was sitting at a stop light and a maroon Mazda Tribute drove by. My initial reaction was, "what is my mom doing all the way over here?" Then I quickly remembered I was the one driving my mom's Mazda and she now owns a cute little mini. there for that other car was somebody else. Ha that's my life.

Optional Stop day!

I swear, I think I missed the announcement. Did you get the announcement?? Well after my driving to and from work today I think I collectively figured out what the announcement was.

ATTENTION:

On the 12th day of July all red octagons with a white boarder and big white letters that spell STOP, need to have the following phrase follow it, If you want to.

If this was not the memo it certainly was something close to that. Yeah, driving super sucked today. However, I was also starting to feel that with all the construction crews on strike that now means that your drive like a bat out of hell through the unpaved, pot hole infested, no curbs, no street lined streets. It's awesome.

Bye Bye Baghera

A week and a day ago I bought my moms car. Thus leaving us with three cars in a household where only two of us have the ability to drive. We placed our car on the Internet and sold it tonight. I miss it. Now I need to figure out what I should name my new car. So here is my car one last time. It was a good car except for that incident in Feb. which I am still trying to resolve. But now that we sold the car we can pay off some personal family loans. Thanks parents for that help!

I have not died

I promise, I have not died. I'm just super busy with Garage sale, I want to sleep when I get home and not blog. I promise I will be back in about a week. It is also hard because the weather is sooo perfect I don't want to be inside much.

P.S. We will be selling my car in the near near near future. Want to buy it??

Why are cars so much money??

Let's talk about cars. First of all they cost a small fortune to buy new. Why does a bunch of metal, plastic and cloth cost so much money. 20,000 for a small crappy new car. Great! Then if anything on that nice car breaks it costs another small fortune to fix. I have to say, if I got paid $50 bucks an hour for service I would not be complaining about my car. And why, does a car just get worth less as the time goes buy but the cost to fix it goes up??? Why does a car even really need a transmission? or belts, or oil or I don't know, gaskets?? I have decided that the stinking cars are one of those things you cant live without if your going to live at all.

Beguira and Mikey...BITE ME- but please, please, please don't break anymore!

On another note, Elijah has had his first experience with conjunctivitis of the eye. Rock on! Good week.

O'hare Towing

This all started in my nights of insomnia when I was preggers. Since I couldn't sleep, and there was nothing to do on the Internet, and the options for TV were slim I turned to com cast onDemand to keep me busy. The problem, I got addicted to so many shows during that time it wasn't even funny. However, one of my ultimate favorites was a show called Wrecked. Mostly because it was all about a very large towing company in the Chicago suburbs. I fell in love with the show. I even looked for it this season, but never found it. And plus since it was something filmed in Chicago I would ALWAYS keep my eyes open for one of their 30 some trucks. BJ actually saw the first one, I saw one once a couple of months ago, and in the past couple of months with all my car issues I always secretly hoped that one of O'hare's trucks would come and tow me. BJ today busted my bubble. Yeah that's right, O'hare towing came out to tow his sorry ass car down to Joliet so he can get his transmission fixed. Now you all are probably like, well at least the truck came out to your house and you could see it. Yeah no...his car was at my mom's house because that is where he left his car when he picked up my mom's car when he didn't think he could drive his car any further. I mean seriously??? I stayed up watching these men and women tow semi after semi and car after car out of snow and mud. GRRRRRR. SO JEALOUS!

Off to the doctor

My car that is. Yes, it is going back to the doctor. Actually this is to fix the check engine light and the shaking that is going on. So to day my mom and I played musical cars and I am now the proud driver of a lovely SUV.

On another note, we have had a ton of rain these past few days and when I got home and put Rescue out she went out and drank the water pools off the fire pit cover. I tried to get a picture but go figure batteries were dead and by the time I got new ones she was done. Oh well. It was cute.

Car update!!

I bet you are all on the edge of your seats to know what is going on with my car. No?? To bad gonna tell you any way.

I finally got around to calling Mazda. And guess what happened! Yup you guessed it. Nothing! They said exactly what I thought they were going to say. "My car didn't have any recalls on it."

I then called the National Highway something something something to file a claim. They were really nice there. Especially since I don't have a Toyota that I am complaining about. The guy actually said he was happy it was not a Toyota! I made his day! I filed a claim, and am waiting for paper work to be sent to me to add all my receipts to that the mechanic gave me.

This all got me thinking... I really like my mechanic. He went out of his way to find out about recalls on my car and tell me about them. If I had brought my car to Mazda, that would have been the end of the story.

On another note: I have decided my next car is going to be a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. So if any one has a 2008 that they want to sell. Call me!!! But that's what I want. They are awesome cars. Thanks Dad for getting me hooked. It's a Jeep Wrangler with 4 doors and storage space. THE DOORS AND ROOF COME OFF. COME ON ITS THE BEST CAR ON EARTH!!!!

To Be or Not To Be...

A soccer mom that is. It is getting to be that time in our lives when we need to start talking about getting a new car. However, I am one of those people who likes to think practical and for the future. I know there have been posts about this in the past so this isn't like it is something new since I have become a mom. But still I can't help but think of the future and how spending money now will benefit me in the future. One of the reasons we went to the Auto show was to check out different cars that would possibly become our next car. Well going to the show we were looking for a car that gives us more room so we can take our GIANT stroller with us to places and still be able to bring luggage and stuff. That was the main reason. Then we started talking about getting an SUV. But I am having trouble going for an SUV when the 3rd row of seats is always SOOOO uncomfortable. And of course, since I am little I typically end up sitting in the back row. But then again, people keep saying but it's you, BJ and Elijah. Yes, I know this but... I like to be effective and when our little family and another family go places it would be nice to car pool. Plus, let me just tell you that the new car seat we have is not that little. The thought of having to put that thing in the middle seat and 2 full grown adults in the back is a very crowded thought. Plus, BJ and I are really the first people we know to have kids but that means that in the next few years more people we know will be having kids. So it would be nice to have a vehicle that can hold 4 adults, and 2 children in car seats. Yes, this means we are back to the van. But then I have to think, but it's just me, BJ, and Elijah, and trust me a fourth little Okel is not going to be in the cards for the next couple of years. But some day I would like a fourth, maybe even a fifth Okel so do I buy the car that will live with our family for the next um... um... lets see, my car is a '98 and it is now '10 making it 12 years old. So if I buy a new car it would live with us for 12+ years I would hope. A used car probably not that long. Depends on the car. I could go for cars like a Mazda 6 with seats that fold down or a car like the Subaru Outback that has lots of storage room that will fit our great stroller and luggage. But still I keep coming back to the # of seats. Any help out there??? Thoughts??? I also don't want a car that will cost so much money that we can't go on vacation for the next 12 years. AHHHHHH!

Life

UPDATE #1: No new car yet, need to make time to call Mazda. When?? Not real sure since I work during the time I need to call them.
UPDATE #2: Elijah's butt is doing good. However, he screams bloody murder anytime we need to change his diaper. That's real fun.
UPDATE#3: Elijah is up to 4 teeth. 2 top, and 2 bottom.
The other night I ended up watching the made for TV movie about the high school girls that all got pregnant together because they thought it would be really fun to all have babies together. One of the big things that I couldn't get over (being a person who just had a baby) is how much people really "forgot" to tell me about babies. So this started me thinking about what else people tend to make sound so much easier or better than they really are. Don't get me wrong, I love my little baby and i wouldn't return him right now, but there were things that would have been nice to know before I felt like the only person in the whole wide world that felt them. This made me start thinking though what else is like that and with Valentines Day coming up I thought there were somethings that needed to be discussed.
During one or two of our showers or in cards that we received at our wedding we got some stupid/bad advice. Let's talk about it... Never go to bed angry at each other. Really?? I can't even begin to talk about how many times BJ and I have gone to bed angry with each other since we were married. And in all actuality some times sleep is better than "talking it out." I mean when it is 10:00 and I am heading to bed and realize that BJ didn't put the garbage out like he promised, I will just have to suck it up and sleep on it and deal with it in the morning. Or when there really are times that you really are angry at the other person that you need the night to cool off before you address the problem. I honestly think it, no matter how much you love someone, that getting angry or upset at the other person is healthy because then you can appreciate more.

What's some stupid advice you got?? Let me know, I'll find some fun examples for you if you just give me the advice.

Problem with movie deal

I get distracted A LOT. When I get distracted I think of many, many, many different things. Since posting last night I have been thinking about my made for TV movie. I have realized a flaw...I don't have guts to complain about things at work or people that may be annoying me that particular day or week, or month. Now don't get me wrong, most of the things that happen to me I am not really annoyed by. But there are times. I can always post about crazy dog, and some crazy kids but other than that, I need to be careful not to make people mad at me. However, sometimes I think the dog might be able to read cuz she acts weird sometimes. Oh well, so life will go on, and if my life story ever gets made into a movie, depending on the $$ that they offer me, their might be a bunch "additions" to my blog. Don't worry though if you never make me mad then you won't have to be worried about looking bad on TV. HA... maybe the people I don't like will be played by people who can't act. HA... So far people that have claimed actors: My mom wants Meg Ryan or ?? I forgot, one of my co-workers wants Julia Roberts. I am still pushing BJ to pick someone.

Wish me luck. Tomorrow I will be off to Mazda with my Father to push for reimbursement on my car. Yes, I'm taking my dad because BJ will be at work and I really didn't think the Suits at Mazda would take a 5'1'' girl who looks like she is 12 carrying a baby that is half her size seriously. So Elijah will stay with Grandma and my dad, my automotive pinata bag, and I will go for a ride to Mazda. In a perfect, and completely unrealistic world, Mazda would look at everything and say, "We are sorry for your inconvenience, here's a new car." Um, Okay! We will see what goes down. There is going to be a rumble!

Time to wake up my hubby so he can go to bed.

Once upon a time..

First of all I will fill you in about the car then get to something happier.

Cost of tow to car place: Free thanks to AAA

Cost of Rental car for 1.5 days while car is being fixed: $70.00 after 5% discount from AAA (hopefully we will be reimbursed for this from our insurace company)

Cost of missing 2 hours of work: 0 dollars-all my kids reschedualed

Cost of a broken spring in your drive belt that won't let your car run: $1022.86 **OUCH** Trust me Mazda will be hearing from me and I will be working in all my free time to get as much of it reimbursed as possible.

HAPPIER NOTE begins now-->

Since my mom opened my eyes to the number of blogs out on the Internet and the number of people reading other peoples blogs I have begun thinking...

Now that I know people will read my blog they get a window into my world. Some times, things that happen in real life are better than things someone can create (i.e. my dog). If you get a real interesting life and the right person reading your blog you could get a movie deal out of it. I mean come on, look at some of the movies that have made it big recently. The Blindside: true story on the life of an ordinary man who had an extra ordinary event in his life. Example number 2: Marley and Me: a true story about the life of a dog and how it impacted a family. Example number 3: My Big Fat Greek Wedding: alright I know this one was a little over the top and exaggerated but still taken from life experiences.

Therefore in the future, I see movie/TV producers looking to the blogs of everyday people to make the next big movie or TV show. I mean how cool would it be if one day your just sitting in your living room, writing the day's events on the computer to share with the world, and save your life on the Internet for the rest of history, and the next you are answering the phone to a producer wanting to buy the rights to your life. For that matter everyone I mention in my blog needs to start thinking about what famous person you want to play you in my made for TV movie. Let me know in case I get the call tomorrow.

I would like Sandra Bullock to play me. I think she is clumsy, and she acts the way my brain works.

Oh and by the way this would be awesome!!

Bagheera-The car

BJ and I have names for our cars. BJ's car's name is Miki as in Miki Moto the pearl guy, mine's name is Bagheera from the Jungle Book. Well today, Bagheera decided to threaten to die today. Let's just say, not a good time. Well here is how it all went down.

It all started Monday, when I got home from work BJ opened the garage door with the baby and said, "your car sounds funny." I thought well I haven't heard anything so it must not be that bad, and if it does sound bad, I have no clue how long it's been going on cuz I haven't been hearing it.

On Tuesday, as I was walking out to my car after work I listened to the car a bit and realized, yes it does sound a bit off. But just a tad off. Not enough for me to drop everything and rush it into the shop.

On Wednesday (today), I dropped Elijah off at daycare and on the way back to the house I thought, "this weekend I will have BJ look into the car thing and see if he can figure it out." I also realized that BJ left his phone at home today and I really hoped I didn't need him for anything today. I then jumped in the car, started it up, and backed out of the garage. On the way out my car stutters and I assume it got stuck on the newspaper, so I tapped the gas, off I went. I got down the drive way, onto the street and PTHHH. Car dead! Yeah this sucks. After throwing a mini tantrum beating the steering wheel, swearing under my breath and clenching my fists while pulling out my hair, I tried the car again. No luck. As I sat there looking at all the lights on the dash lit up like a Christmas tree I called my boss to let her know I was going to be a bit late.

Part two of sucky day: I call up AAA- which by the way is the BEST investment you can have if you are a driver. Tangent: for about $125 a year you get tows up to 100 miles, an unlimited number and then you get discounts on things, plus those free travel books if you travel. Back on topic: I spent about 45 min on the phone with them getting a tow truck and looking into a renta car. I was then transferred to Hertz to help me get a car...however, they ran out of cars. How do you run out of cars, your a rental car company. Anyway, I wait around and get a phone call thinking it was the tow guy saying he was here. No, No it was the tow guy saying he was lost. Fantastic, now I will be even later for work. I finally get to the car place and drop off my car. They call Enterprise and "They pick you up." On the way to Enterprise the guy asks, "what are you looking for." Me knowing perfectly well that anything that causes you to be towed into the repair shop will not be cheap says, "something small, and cheap." We get there and the next thing he says is I have an SUV you can drive for 70 bucks a day. Really what part of small and Cheap do you not understand? Anyway I drove off with a Kia Rio. It's small and it definitely is cheapish. I finally get to work about 10:00 and am completely disorganized. I was completely unprepared and I couldn't settle down.

Part three of bad day: The car place called to let me know what was going on with my car and to keep me up to speed with everything. He had checked the spark plugs, they worked, but old so he changed them. Still didn't work, then he checked the cylinders, no problems there, then he had an idea, a hunch. He did some research and found out the symptoms sounded just like some thing he read. Did more research found out Mazda 626's year 1998 had a recall on this part. The mechanic called Mazda and found out that this issue that was recalled, that happened to my car, did not cover my car. He followed this up with it will be costly to fix this do you want me to fix it?? Let me see, YES, my car isn't even driving, what will I do with it not working? He then wanted to know if he should call me with the final estimate. I said, "NO" because I would have to pay it somewhere, and it will be cheaper than buying a new car. By the time I got home I realize, I don't have my house keys, they are with my car, so was my garage door opener. I jump out of the car to use the key pad for the garage door, and nothing. The garage door refused to open. AWESOME!!!!!!!! After 10 minutes of pushing garage door buttons it finally opens I park and am done for the night.

I'm done, I'm tired, I had to do it all by myself like a grown up, and I'm dreading the cost of this wonderful day. All I have to say...thank goodness I didn't have to pay the towing fee. The rest of it... I have to laugh because there is nothing else I can do. However, I may be putting a collection together to cover the cost of the repair.

Final note: Bagheera, you're not aloud to die! Not yet, Not this way!