A resolution to the "car issue"

Ok, this is kind of an ad...but no one paid me or reimbursed me in any way to do it...

For those of you who have followed the story the past few weeks, you know that my (not so beloved) 2009 Subaru Outback wagon died unexpectedly on the next to last day of school.  I had it towed to our local repair shop to figure out what had happened. They had a ton of business that week, so it took them a couple days to sort it out... Turns out the engine was blown.  Since the Subaru has 104,000 miles on it, Subaru basically said, "not our problem", which, although true, was uber-irritating.  They did offer me $500, if I had my car towed to them, towards the purchase of a new, not pre-owned, Subaru.  Ummmm......no thanks.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of the never ending house re-fi--our mortgage lady is great, however, the lender we ended up working with wanted an appraisal and so on and so forth...no problems, just time consuming.  And...no way to finance a car while in the midst of that.  Added to the drama, we still owed money on not only that car, but the other Subaru as well... ("It's a Subaru, we can do a 72 month loan..we'll drive it forever!"  AGGGHHH!)  Luckily, we didn't owe much on either, so as soon as the re-fi was done, I hustled over to both banks and paid off both cars.  Now the good news is that thanks to the re-fi and the car payoff, we don't have a mortgage payment or car payments in July and our total monthly payments (for both/all) will be lower every month after (Ahhhh.....)

So, the Subaru has been sitting in the back lot of our local repair shop, waiting for the re-finance of the house to be finished, so we could pay off both cars and start car shopping.  Oh, and then we had to wait for the title to arrive (it actually came very quickly, in about a week, I was pleasantly surprised) so we can sell it.
Last week, the house re-finance finished so we started the great car shop.  We had actually created a short list of vehicles/amenities we wanted/needed, so "all" we had to do was go test drive and figure out the best deal for financing.  (We tried our credit union, but the dealer actually had a better deal).

Our short list of amenities (some are mine and some are the Mister's) included:  4wheel or AWD, leather seats, pre-owned certified, good (extended) warranty (either included or available), around 30,000 miles (or less) on the vehicle. We also (obviously?) had a price constraint on the total price, monthly payment and amount down...although Mr. Ranch pointed out that he plans to drive his Subaru forever, since it hasn't had a problem (knock on wood)...so I "should" relax and be willing to go up a little on the monthly payment.  He and the car guys thought it was funny that I dreamed of a $202.72 monthly payment...like my Chevrolet Cavalier was.  I think I can still hear them laughing. I also really wanted a sunroof, power seats, and dual temp controls...features I had on the Volvo but didn't have on the Subaru.  Oh, and a sunroof...a sunroof would be nice...I asked if I could have a tape deck, along with a CD player, also like the Volvo and no one laughed..they just blinked at me.  Side note...during our search I discovered that a 1998 Volvo XC Cross Country Wagon can be purchased for about $1500 and that most "only" have about 150,000 miles on them...Guess what The Girl is going to be driving in three years?!

So back to me...the requirements led us to a list of possible types of cars (don't make fun of me if I mix up the makes/models...this is for fun only!):  Hyandui Santa Fe, Honda Pilot, Mercedes something, BMW something, Ford Explorer, Acura MDX..Volvo was briefly considered, but the new ones just don't have the reputation for reliability, so I vetoed those.  Subaru didn't even make the list because I'm angry with them.  Blah.  The Boy suggested a Mustang, but although it was fun to drive as a rental, it doesn't really meet (any of) my other criteria.  From the start, I thought the Honda Pilot was our strongest contender, then I drove it...drives like a truck and has to be switched into 4WD...darn, no thanks.  So we proceeded on, eliminating car models as we went.  Car Max was a great place to do this--they had a lot of choices on the lot.  We considered buying a car there, but in the end, Car Max didn't have "the exact car" we wanted. They could get it, which was great, if we had a working vehicle and could wait...but after three weeks of rental cars, I was ready for a car of my own....Mr. Ranch really, really wanted a Mercedes.  They were very nice cars and the price was about the same as we ended up paying, but here are my "stupid" reasons for not buying a Mercedes...1.  The cup holders had stupid safety rails on them  2.  I'd look like a dofus driving my Mercedes into the woods to go camping  3.  I'd cry if one of my students dragged their keys along my Mercedes in the faculty parking lot, even though it would be covered by insurance like any other car. 4.  There was not an option for a 3rd row seat   5.  The sales guy didn't fawn over me, he actually seemed to be worried that I would "hurt" the car I was "interested" in buying.  So, yeah, stupid reasons....but, hey...

Which leads us to Acura.  In another (interesting?) side note, Mr. Ranch told me after everything was done that his Aunt and Uncle had the same "discussion" as us, leading to the same result (Uncle R wanted his wife to get a Mercedes, Aunt S wanted an MDX...they bought an MDX....giggle).  We were very lucky, when we walked onto the Acura lot, the salesman who came out to greet us turned out to be a great guy.  Leo listened and didn't laugh when I told him the specifications and had a couple cars on the lot that (almost) met our requirements. After test driving and some angst over which car and what price and about three visits to the dealership to see what was "new today"...we ended up with a 2011 Acura MDX (white outside, tan inside) that meets all our requirements and wishes. (Reminder to self...even though praying that I would find a car seemed stupid...I guess it worked...) There were a couple cosmetic things that the dealer already said they would fix/address, so the car stayed at the dealer for a couple extra days, having child repellent (stain repellent) applied.  The Girl has been telling The Boy that he won't be able to ride in the car, because it "repels yucky things", which isn't very nice, but makes me laugh every time.  (I keep picturing the the scene from the second Fast and Furious, when they had ejector seats). If you find yourself in the market for an Acura and are in the Denver area, definitely check out Courtesy Acura on Broadway! (And, I think if you tell them we sent you, we "earn" $100..so we'll take you to lunch or split it or something....)

As one more side note, our car salesman, Leo, is on "vacation" this week because he needs to have some medical issues addressed.  I'm sure he would appreciate a prayer or two that the problems are identified, treated, and hopefully eliminated so he can get back to work.

Now all we have to do is have that darn Subaru towed to the salvage guy (he is also currently on vacation) and hand over the title then the "Great Car Drama of 2014" will (hopefully) be at an end....

What I'm, um, "reading" at the moment...

Since I'm writing this a couple weeks ahead of its "post date", I'm hoping that I will have made some progress on the pile of books by then.  But who knows...it seems like the pile doesn't ever really get shorter. Here's what my night-side stand looked like when I started writing...

 Lovely, isn't it?  I count fourteen library books alone.  Hmm..Maybe I should be reading instead of blogging.  Not only do I have a lot of books there, but I seem to have a giant mess as well--kleenex, foot cream, water bottle, flashlight, Kindle charger.  Lovely.  Do you like my alarm clock that used to be a phone?  At some point we disposed of the phone, but I like the features on the clock, so I kept it. On the right, notice the books stacked on the bottom shelf of the stand--mostly paperbacks (a few hard cover) that I have picked up at yard sales or have been given...let's not talk about how much dust is on the top layer.  I think I've been "planning to read" The Joy Luck Club for ten years. Sigh.  My handy-dandy "Amelia Peabody" Compendium is there though--it isn't as dusty as the rest, because, well, I'm a dork.


 I've tried to use GoodReads a few times, but I just can't seem to keep up with "what I've read, want to read, and am reading now".  So at the moment I use a similar, but not as cool, feature on my local library's site and then write the titles I've read in a notebook when they are done.  There does seem to be a rough hierarchy in where the books are sitting--books that are actually on the stand are ones that I've either opened and read the first chapter (and then set aside for the moment), are highly recommended by someone, or are due back at the library soon, so I need to decide if I'm really going to read them or if they need to go back. I think some of these are pictured at least twice--I was lazy in my photo taking:

Mary Poppins She Wrote  I requested this from the library after watching "Saving Mr. Banks".   The book is interesting, just not very exciting and I keep getting irritated at the writer for saying things like "Travers didn't want anyone to write her life story, but she'd dead, so here it is".
The Namesake This is on the summer reading list for my students.  I started reading it at the library, while waiting for The Boy, but only got to about page thirty before setting it aside to read something else.  It seems good, I just haven't been "in the mood" for it.
Fallen Women This book came up at book club--one of the ladies thinks that is is Sandra Dallas's newest (and I think it is, too).  I enjoy Sandra Dallas's writing, so I checked it out.  I've only had it in the pile for a couple days, so as soon as I finish "Carry On Warrior" (see below), I think this one may be next.  Or not.
The Invisible Thread My book club read this last month, I've read the first half and would like to finish the rest...but since I already know "how it ends", I've been reading other things.
A Lesson Before Dying This is on the summer reading list for some of my students.  One of my coworkers loves it, so I checked it out on her recommendation so I'd be one step ahead of the kids in the fall.
Carry on, Warrior  I really am reading this book right now--well, not RIGHT now, because I'm writing, but I just put it down.  It seems to be a collection of Glennon's blog posts from her blog, but I missed many of them the first time around, so I'm enjoying reading some of her "older" writing.  She writes about being a mom, a Christian, a recovering addict.  The stories are interesting and even when I don't agree with her "politics", I can't help but like her.
The Chaperone  I think I may have actually picked this up at the library because I was walking by and it looked good.  Although maybe someone recommended it...I have no independent memory of why I checked it out.
Last Night in Twisted River A speaker that I enjoyed at the literacy conference said that he was reading this book "for fun" so I checked it out...months ago...and keep renewing it...because it does look good...
Indiscretion Ha!  I'm not sure why this is here either, but it looks good, right?



 Here's the current Elizabeth Peter's book, and some nail polish, and a birdhouse The Boy made for me and left on my night side stand.

 And ironically, a book called Unfinished, that my Life Group is reading. (I haven't finished the "right" chapter yet)

 From the floor pile..
Why Don't Students Like School?  Part of my "I should read some stuff for school this summer" program.  It looks good, I just haven't been motivated to pick it up yet.
Sweet Salt Air One of my college friends mentioned on Facebook that she was participating in an online book group about this book.  I usually enjoy the books she enjoys, so I checked it out.
Talent is Overrated Someone recommended or mentioned this at a teacher event.  It looks interesting, but falls in the category of "self-help", so I'm procrastinating...it's summer, you know...
Devil in the White City This was originally proposed as a summer reading book for my students, but didn't make the final cut.  In an interesting "Six Degrees of Separation" moment, I think that the author is a Purdue professor and I might have had him for a class.  At least the names are the same! The book is about the Chicago World's fair and is a mystery, so I am going to (eventually) open this one.
How Children Succeed  Months ago a co-worker was reading this.  I keep checking it out, looking at it, turning it in, checking it out again.  I do really want to read it...I just need to be motivated to read a "thinking book".
Death With Interruptions  Another from the summer reading list for my students.  Highly recommended by the English teachers from my school.

And, of course, a Kindle, although pretty much I just use it to play "one more" round of Bingo Cats before bed, although I do try to "buy" a couple free books every day so the kids and I can just read off our Kindles while on vacation.







And, of course, Drive, which I promised Jen over at Daycare by Design was "next on my list"!!! (It is, really...)


I also checked out some audio books from the library, to "listen to in the car", but since we've been carless (well, in a rental), we haven't been listening as much (and we haven't really gone far enough to listen anyway).  Right now I have From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the Hunger Games in the "library box" and Huck Finn on hold (it is The Girl's summer reading assignment).

So there you go, folks...this is what I'm currently "reading"...make sure you check out "What I read" in a month or so to see if I really get these done!

Names vs. Nicknames....Part I?

When I started blogging about a year ago, I made a very conscious decision to not use my husband or kids' names for a lot of reasons.  One reason was that even though I don't believe that a lot of strangers are reading this blog, it is just "out there", there is the potential for people who I don't know to read it. It is difficult to tell for sure on the Blogger data sheet (at least for me), but it does look like at least a couple times someone has come to the blog after a Google search.  I don't need or want strangers to be able to put my kids names and faces with our address and other info.  Of course, I haven't given out our address or anything personal on purpose, but I'm pretty sure that anyone who wants to figure out who I am and where I am could figure it out.  I mean, Blogger is linked to Google and it is pretty clear on Google who I am...Or maybe I just watch too many detective shows on tv.

Recently I had lunch with my former secretary who  read me the "riot act" the other day about "only" calling the kids "The Boy" and "The Girl"...saying, "they have names!".  I pointed out that I do use their names in real life and on Facebook, just not on the blog.  She was not convinced and kept on me to use real names, not nicknames.

Added to that is the fact that when I start writing it is sometimes hard to remember not to use their names...I have gone back to edit and proof and removed names sometimes.  But maybe that is because I'm getting old...

So I'm torn...do I have a "big reveal" and tell you all the family's names (and then use them) or do I try to keep a minimal level of "privacy" and continue with the nicknames?  Thoughts?  Advice from anyone who has been doing this longer than me?

Happy Anniversary, Mr. Ranch!

Nineteen years ago, on a very warm Indiana day, Mr Ranch and I met at the front of the lovely St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.  Happy Anniversary, Mr Ranch!

My goodness, don't we all look young?

Maybe we should call the blog, "The Adventures of Alice the Cat"

I don't think it is just Alice though, my friend, Beth, has a cat that looks and acts just like Alice, despite the cats living thousands of miles apart.  Maybe it is the type of cat...weird tortoise shell.

The Girl and I cleaned off seven years of debris from the bookshelf in the homework corner.  We decided that the likelihood of anyone "doing" a second grade phonics workbook was pretty low-many other workbooks and old textbooks were moved/removed/disposed of...leaving us with a foot wide opening on the shelf.  Whoo-Hoo--room for more books!  But, um, no...really room for a cat!  In the third picture it looks like she is reading the Spanish book.

 In other "news"...there was a beautiful sunset the other night--made the yard look all glow-y and pretty!

Books I read in May

Truth be told, I probably read more in May than I have in June.  At least I "went through" more books.  Part of not having a car (that I own) for the past few weeks is that we haven't been listening to books on CD/Playaway as much (at all?) but of course we wouldn't be driving around much either. Perhaps in July and August when we road trip (and no, that isn't an invitation to break into our house...The Mister will be home for most/all of the time) we will "read" more.  Or maybe not...I keep intending to read when the kids do their daily reading, but seem to always get distracted by some pet emergency or pile of laundry..blech.

1.  Walk Through the Valley by Debbie Viguie--The much awaited 7th (8th? 6th?) book in the series about a secretary from a Presbyterian Church and the Rabbi from the Synagogue next door who solve mysteries.  The first few books were very good the last couple have seemed like they were written very quickly to tell "what happens next".  I'll still read future books in the series, but they aren't my favorite series right now.
2. Lord of the Silent by Elizabeth Peters--Another Elizabeth Peters...they make good reading by the pool.
3. Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan-I had to look up what this book was about when I sat down to write this post--clearly it made a big impression.  It wasn't a bad book, it falls in the "young adult" or "teen" category, it just didn't make a big impression on me.  It is about a middle school student (high school student?) who is accused of cheating on the standardized test on the same day that both her parents die in a car crash.  It is sad and sweet, a quick read and I'm sure many middle school students will love it.
4. Zero Tolerance by Claudia Mills-This (like #3) were "suggested books" at the reading conference last spring.  I'm kind of ashamed to say that I renewed this one about six times and when I sat down to read it, was done in a couple hours.  It was a fast read about a middle school student who accidentally brings her mom's lunch, with a paring knife in the bag, to school.  She tries to "do the right thing" and it all falls apart.  It is set in Colorado and possibly based on several true stories from the past few years.  My twelve (almost thirteen) year old daughter saw it in the "return" pile and read it in about two days--a new record--so I'd say it is worth a quick read.
5.  Treasure Hunters by James Patterson--The Boy read this last winter and I looked at the pictures a couple times, but it was one of those "almost graphic novels", so I wasn't that excited.  We stumbled across the "play-a-way" version at the library in early May and, since we were between series (no new 39 Clues until fall?!!!) we gave it a try.  It was surprisingly good...we're looking forward to the sequel next fall/winter.  It follows four siblings who solve mysteries (sort of).  Kind of like a modern day BoxCar Children.
6.  Masters of Disaster by Gary Paulsen--This is one of Gary Paulsen's overlooked masterpieces.  We love it sooo much, that when we borrowed the CD from the library a few weeks ago, and discovered that the library CD skips entire chapters because it looks like someone rubbed it with steel wool, I bought the CD online.  The CD takes about two hours, I think that reading the actual book takes even less time.  It is a fast, funny read, that, although apparently written for ten year old boys, is hilarious if you've ever known a ten year old boy.  The main characters do all kinds of funny things (like riding their bikes off the neighbor's roof) that are horrifyingly funny as a parent and hilariously funny in general. This one I highly recommend...just don't tell me you hate it if you do...because I love it.
7.  Left to Tell:  Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza--This was recommended by one of my co-teacher's daughters who has spent a lot of time in the Rwanda, first in the Peace Corps and now as part of an internship.  Heather has a blog, I Kunda You: Life and Love Continue, if you would like to follow her adventures and find out more about what is happening in Rwanda these days.  The book was very interesting--many of us have seen Hotel Rwanda, and Sometimes in April was standard viewing for our geography classes a few years ago, but both of those stories minimize the faith based portion of some people's experiences.  It reminded me a lot of The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, which I haven't read in years, but would like to read again now.  Left to Tell is a memoir/biography of Immaculee Ilibagiza, telling her amazing story of survival and walk with God before, during, and after the Rwandan Holocaust.  I believe there is a sequel, which I may look for later, describing her life since she left Rewanda.
8.  The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan-I wasn't going to read this, but I was bored in the children's section of the library the other day and it was sitting on a display, so I picked it up and was reading it...and it was ok.  This is book three of the Kane Chronicles, the series that follows two kids who might or might not be working with Egyptian gods, and so forth and so on...think Percy Jackson, but mythology you've never heard of, unless you read about ancient Egypt.  It was a good adventure story, a quick read and actually entertaining.  Riordan says this is the "last book in this series", but he said that about Percy Jackson too and then started a new series with the same characters from a different point of view.  I suspect that Riordan is either going to do that with this series or somehow pull the main Kane character's into the "Percy" books.
9. The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson-- Our local library is interesting.  It is in an old grocery store, but you probably wouldn't notice that unless you knew. It is a lovely building, but the library board (or whoever) made some interesting choices when they put the library together.  Most of what were the aisles of the grocery store is now the adult section--shelves of books, displays, computers, study tables--and most of what appear to have been "specialty areas"--deli, meat, bakery, freezer--now have special functions of their own--children's room, reading room, offices, genealogy and local history room.  Some of the rooms have doors and some are more like alcoves...it is a very cool building.  So you might ask, what does this have to do with book #9?  Well, the "teen" books and other materials are broken out from the rest of the library materials.  I've been told that the "Teen Tower" was once a freezer--clearly it has been completely remodeled, as it has lots of lights, windows, etc.  Children can visit the teen tower alone once they are eleven (doesn't make sense to me either,  but whatever), so The Girl has been hightailing it over there to read Seventeen magazines for a couple years.  The other day, The Boy "needed" a new graphic novel, having read "all of them in the kids section!!!!", so we made our way through the adult section to go to the Teen Tower and see what was there. As we wandered towards the Teen Tower, I saw this book, and since I do love King Tut, picked it up, only later realizing it was by James Patterson. The book was a fast read, I believe I actually grabbed the large print edition, so super fast--it is a (greatly) fictionalized account of how King Tut could have been murdered.  Entertaining, quick, worth the read.
10.  The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters--Yeah, still reading these...almost through the series for the tenth (no, really, maybe the fourth) time.  Still good, mindless, reading.
11.  Mud Shark by Gary Paulsen--not as funny as Masters of Disaster, but still very cute and funny.  Mudshark is the nickname of a middle school boy who has lots of adventures, we found this on CD at the library and again, it took about two hours to listen to.  The reader wasn't as good as the reader of Masters of Disaster, but it was still cute.

Ah, the Joys of owning a home..

Did you get the sarcasm there?  Actually, this is more about the joys of owning a large dog who doesn't know how big she is.  For years the pets have abused our back patio door--Alice climbs the screen, Indy has been known to push the door off track in her rush to get outside...but the final straw last summer was when Liberty decided to go through the screen.  Now, if she had just gone through the screen, ripping it off the door, but leaving the door frame intact, we would have been fine. However, Liberty believes in doing things right...she not only ripped the screen out of the frame, but also, at the same time, bent the door frame so badly it couldn't be fixed (d'oh.). Well, fixed correctly that is...I can do (temporary) wonders with duct tape.  We finished last season and started this spring with the messed up door...but after Alice escaped through the broken door (and then couldn't figure out how to get back in), we broke down and bought a new door.  This time we went for the heavy duty frame--guaranteed against all kinds of disasters (well, maybe not against dogs, but still...).  We proudly brought our new door home and began to install it...only to find it was too wide for the space.  Blink....blink.. No, we didn't buy the wrong size door...there wasn't enough space between the door frame and the patio wall for the new, heavy duty door....AGGGGHHHH!!!  This was, of course, late on Sunday afternoon, so we put the door (and the receipt) in the garage to return later.  While the door sat in the garage, we had a moment of inspiration...Why not just make the opening wider by chipping off part of the wall?

So a couple weekends later, this is how Mr. Ranch spent his Father's Day afternoon...chipping away at the patio wall. After a couple more minor issues with the door, it is installed and we now can have a nice cross breeze through the house again.  Now, what project should we tackle next? 

Clean (ish) house

In preparation for the house appraiser's visit, we had a frantic house cleaning....here are some pictures, to prove it was (sort of) clean...

 The dining room, which the appraiser insisted on calling two rooms--apparently the tiny corner with the piano and the lamp is our "living room" and the rest of the room is the "dining room". This summer it is all a "storage room" for all my stuff from school.

 The family room...complete with dogs, replacing their hair that had been recently removed from every surface.  This room, combined with the kitchen, is where we seem to spend the majority of our time.

 The kitchen...yes, that is an empty fish tank.  And the bottles by the sink are root beer bottles from the festival, I need to find somewhere to store them so we can get half price refills at the next festival...

 More dogs, furring up the place

 Now, it looks like a mess, but this is one of my favorite "rooms" of the house...I have dreams of making the shelves floor to ceiling, built in, with doors at the top or bottom for the debris...this is where we could have (should have) added another bathroom, so it isn't a bad sized "corner".

 Bonus/Music room...ok, it is still a cluttered mess..we tried. Lately, The Girl has spent time in this room, not only playing her drum set (not pictured, but to the left) but also watching tv "alone".

 The Boy's room...view one (notice that his sister staged his desk to look like a "scientist's desk" so the appraiser would think he was a smart guy)

 Boy's room, view 2.  Those are stickers over his bed and legos under it...ah, to be 9.

 Master Suite, with quilt created by Susan Guzman--Here is a link to it pictured on her design page with all the proper credits.

 Master bath...needs some love, but at least the dirty clothes are cleaned up, right?

 Another favorite corner that needs some work, but I love--some of my favorite books live on the shelf behind the chair there...I dream of sitting there and reading...but more often, Indy is the one in the chair.

 Another view of the master bedroom

 This is The Girl's room...complete with sleeping girl...

 View from the master bath window--there really are mountains, my camera just wasn't totally up to the task

 And the view from the master bedroom--aka "one of the reasons we bought this lot/house". Oh, and it shows the trail that brought The Boy and I home after our adventure a few days ago!

The reward for a clean (ish) house?  I got to have coffee with (in?) this cute kitty and read for five minutes :)

Last Day of School

The kids finished school on May 30 and I finished on June 3...but here are some much delayed end of the year pictures...

 Yes, those are boxes (and a larger than life Johnny Depp) from my office in our living room...we packed up our offices for the summer, hoping for new carpet and paint...

The Girl was thrilled...

Excellent... a good picture!

In case you want to compare...here's a link to the first day of school pictures 

Fun with science

Over the years we've collected a lot of science and art project kits that have been squirreled away "for later".  About a week before school ended, I realized that kids are old enough to read the directions and do a lot of this stuff on their own--whoo, hoo! Today's project was bouncy balls.  Actually, all one has to do is pour the powdered stuff into a mold, hold it in water to saturate it, then let it cure for a few minutes...and wa-la...bouncy balls!

Stay tuned...this summer's "entertainment" may consist of me handing the children the rest of the science and craft kids to entertain them!

Boyisms...

Scene:  On the way home from dinner at the Rockyard Grill a couple Friday nights ago, The Boy and the Girl are sitting in the back seat. 

Suddenly, Mr. Ranch and I hear, "Ooh I think there is some brownie on my kids menu, glad I saved that for later!".  (Ew?)

Later, during the same ride, when I mentioned that we could go see if Krispie Kreme was doing their "donut for each A" promotion...The Girl said something like "ooh, Mr. Perfect (The Boy) will get like twelve donuts!  Not fair!".  His reply?  "Oh, I'm not perfect, I got a b in handwriting"

Both comments were followed by hysterical giggling from all four of us, in case you wondered...

Never a dull moment

So it's been an interesting week here.  On my way home from my next to last day of school on Monday my car died, like died-died.  Sigh.  So I coasted off the interstate, onto the off ramp about three miles north of my exit.  I called AAA and Enterprise and had the car towed to our local car dealer. I think it is a sign of what an "Un-Suburu Suburu" my car is that I sighed, pulled out my cell phone and my AAA and Enterprise cards and made arrangements before I even called Mr. Ranch or the kids. I ended up with a rental for the last day of school--they had to upgrade me to a Mustang, so that was fun.  Our drive way looked like a scene from Fast and Furious.  When one of Pete's cousins saw this picture on Facebook he asked where Vin and Paul were.  Giggle.

Tuesday I finished packing up my office at school, in the hopes that the district will really hold firm on their promise to put in at least new carpet an maybe new paint. I was supposed to go to the end of year office party, but instead I came home and took the kids out to lunch then ran as many errands as I could think of and returned the car.  Enterprise is wonderful, because they will "pick you up", but their "call in" price was "meh".  Sorry, Enterprise, next week I'll be renting from your competitor who will rent me a car for a week for the amount you asked for for two days.

Wednesday and Thursday the kids and I spent the day around home--went went to the pool, started summer reading and math activities, nothing too exciting.  We did an adventure when the home inspector (we are in the midst of re-financing the house and needed an appraisal) showed up an hour early.  After corralling the dogs for the  inspector, he was able to finish his appraisal and we were able to go back to the pool.

Friday, The Girl had an all day youth group activity so The Boy and I got up early and went for a walk.  We got about a block before we decided it was really cold, so we came back and got sweatshirts.  Then we left again.  We decided to go on the trail in the open space behind our house.  We took the right branch instead of the left we usually take to the top of the hill and ended up, not exactly lost, but not sure where we were going to end up.  At one point I thought maybe we were going to end up in town, which would have been a bit of a bummer, since town is 3.5 miles from our house and all I had was my phone (no wallet or even library card).  Eventually we came off the trail, started walking along the sidewalk and discovered we were really only one neighborhood to the west of our neighborhood.  Ah, very good.

While I found some breakfast and made some calls--to the auto shop checking out my car (still dead), and to Suburu National Customer Service to ask if they had any great advice (tow it to a dealert). The Boy and I discussed walking to a movie in the afternoon, but the theater is about 3 miles away and a six mile hike for a movie didn't sound worth it to The Boy.  We made salmon cakes for lunch (tasted fishy...no surprise, I guess, but I was hoping for less fishy and more salmon-y) then decided to learn more about Marvel Comic characters by watching Wolverine.  In the middle of our movie my phone started buzzing--surprise!  A tornado warning for "our" area!  Eeesh.  Turns out it was a potential for tornado activity (I thought that was a watch?) so we finished our movie on the Kindle in the powder room and then watched X2.  I feel like an XMen expert.  Or not.  I kept asking, "um, who is that?  what is going on?"   The Boy kept showing me "everything I needed to know" out of the Wolverine book from the library, but I'm still not sure I can pass an XMen quiz.

It has been interesting being a one car family this week.  There are some things that I like about it--not needing to "run out and pick up something" when we realize we "need" it, but that is also the downside, I suppose.  The poor dogs have had to eat Iams instead of their regular food from Costco because Mr. Ranch was able to dash into the grocery store, but didn't have the checkbook to go to Costco. Liberty does not like Iams...she'll eat it, but looks at us like we've lost our minds.  Indy won't even look at us, I think she knows I'm going to Costco on Monday and figures she can live off her fat reserves until then.  Alice, on the other hand, loves this dog food, as she loves all dog food.  Weird cat.

This has been a good way to start the summer though--there is no pressure to "get moving" because there isn't anywhere to go.  We've played frisbee in the park almost every evening and completed a lot of "cleaning" (ok, really just dragging mass amounts of paper from the school year to the recycle bin).  I've spent some time researching new (used) cars and emailing with the re-finanace folks and most of our laundry is done (!).  It did reinforce though that we need to teach The Boy to ride his two-wheeler--if we had bikes (and time) we could (in theory) ride them to the library (although that "big hill" worries me a bit...going down into town and up to get home!).  The Boy has started reading Sherlock Holmes to me and is very impressed that I haven't been falling asleep like I did last summer when he read "Gulliver's Travels". I think that is a comment more about Gulliver's Travels than about me falling asleep... I even started reading one of the books on the summer reading list for my students.They are assigned by the English Dept and next year I won't teach any English classes (probably) so I'm reading "for fun" so I can discuss the books with the kids when we all get back.

Then on Saturday we had the most interesting adventure of all...The last time we took Indy to the vet, they gave us a list of symptoms to "watch for".  We were told that if she started exhibiting them, to get her to the vet right away because, well, that would be a sign that her heart murmur had changed from a murmur to heart failure.  So on Saturday, while Mr. Ranch was out exercising, she had every symptom.  (Google "congenital heart failure in dogs" if you want to know).  To make a long story short,  the whole family was a hot mess, we bundled the dog into the car, took her to the vet to discover that (wait for it) she has indigestion.  So we are the opposite of the old men who don't go to the hospital for a heart attack because they think it is "just" indigestion...The vet gave her basically pepto bismo and a sedative and sent her home.  Indy is definitely showing her age today, I think the whole adventure wore her out (it wore me out).  The vet sent us home with some overpriced dog food that Indy won't eat (we only opened one can though, we're going to return the rest, per the vet's directions). In trying to get her to eat I boiled a chicken breast for her (Indy's favorite food, the only "people food" she has even stolen from us).  She will "only" eat it if we pretend to drop it though--won't eat it out of her bowl.  Crazy dog. Speaking of which, I guess it is time for me to go cook my dog some lunch....

Dinosaurs, Golden, and grumpy kids

I actually have visited Dinosaur Ridge before... but realized that the kids have never gone!  Mr. Ranch rides his bike and runs this path and nearby, so he knew the lay of the land, so a couple weeks ago when Grandude visited, we thought this would be a fun day trip.

 Off we go!

 This might be when The Girl started chanting "This is boring, let's go to the museum where it is air conditioned".

 I want to live here...just saying.  I'm intrigued by who lives there, too--I counted at least 8 mailboxes in this youtube video--be warned, it made me a little dizzy!

 Dinosaur footprint #1

 Girl in footprint

 A whole bunch of dinosaur footprints!

 Red Rocks in background

 Grumpy Boy pointing to cool rock

 Grumpy Girl avoiding us

 Happier Boy, pretending to be a dinosaur

 Happier Girl posing with Dinosaur Boy.  After this we made everyone happy by driving into Golden for lunch.  We originally planned to go to into Morrison, but it looked like there was probably an event at Red Rocks, so we drove on.  We ended up having a nice little lunch at the Old Capital Grill and going for a walk through downtown.  We ended up by the river and Mr. Ranch and The Girl ventured down below to test the water temperature while The Boy, Grandude and I hung out on the bridge and people watched.  There were a lot of kayakers and tubers--fun to watch!

The Girl, happy, probably because she is wearing her birthday gift (backpack) from Grandude, The Boy, melting down because he is hot and tired.

We were slightly bummed to see that the slide from the park was closed--wouldn't that be a wet surprise? 

 By the end of the day, after being fed and watered, our grumpy children were happy and reported that the trip was a success.