Well, I got through it! (If you haven't seen the interview from the Super Mom post, that's my very intelligent and well thought out answer to my plans for Mother's Day.) We had a group of 40 over for dinner, both Dode and my moms, our siblings and nieces and nephews were here as well as Maribeth (a family friend) visiting from Arizona and her son and his wife. We don't mix both sides of our family very often. The numbers of Dode's relatives outnumbers mine 4 to 1. We had a great time visiting and feasting on hamburgers, hot dogs and assorted sides. Since sunny days are few and far between here, even though it was wet and cloudy we have to BBQ when the mood strikes! If I had my way, we'd be eating "girl" food on Mother's Day but past experiences have proved that asking Dode to make me a complicated meal is just asking for frustration for both of us. I read in the paper that it's been 191 days since we've hit 70 degrees (and that 70 degree day was an anomaly as it happened November 3rd).
the little ones gathered around Boma's ipad
Miriam decorated the cabinets with hearts, thank you signs and I love you's
Savannah is cruising in style
Snow White dress, roller skates, laser gun
Transmission woes
Monday morning Dode set off for a work conference in Lynnwood driving the company van. He'd only made it a block when he noticed that the transmission was slipping. He came back home and switched over to our mini van. When he pulled into the parking lot at the conference, the van started acting funny and making a bad noise. We'd lost the transmission! What are the odds of a person driving two different cars, only one hour apart, and blowing out both transmissions?! It defies statistical probability.
Now we have the quandary of, "Do we fix this van or do we buy a newer one." On the plus side of fixing the van is the cost. We can replace the transmission for about $1,000. The down sides of fixing the van are many. The kids are crammed in with hardly any leg room. The windows aren't tinted and we have no air conditioning (think green house) and there are no vents or windows that open for the 2nd and 3rd row of seating. After long drives on summer days, red faced sweaty children emerge from the van feeling overheated and sick. I can never fill it all the way up because the gas tank has a leak. I have "intermittent blinkers" that work when they feel like it and not when they don't. On the plus side of retiring the van, we'd get more room, better air movement, and a lower mileage vehicle.
We're diligently scouring craigslist to see if we can find a newer van in the "Grand" style. That will give us leg room and vents for the kids. The difficulty we're finding is that most of the vans in our price range are over 100,000 miles. The mini van leaders (Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler) have a long history of having transmissions that only last for 100,000 miles between rebuilds. That means the vans in our price range contain a transmission time bomb waiting to happen. We don't want to upgrade and end up right where we are, with an out of commission vehicle. In the mean time, I'm driving the big van everywhere. Taking a 12 passenger van that gets 14 mpg down to Everett for a doctor appointment by myself feels like a bit of overkill!
Front Page News
I made it on the front page of the Arlington Times. The kids couldn't wait to tear into the papers when I brought them home Tuesday night and read what the article said.
Guys and Dolls
It's an amazingly beautiful theater
We had such a big group that we needed to take the big van which meant parking was challenging. We were too tall for one of the garages we tried so we ended up parking in a parking lot across the freeway and walking a few blocks. The play didn't start until 8:00 pm, which got us back home a little after midnight. The phone call from the produce truck driver at 5:30 am seemed to come way too soon! Isaac decided he is not a fan of musicals. The girls thought it was beautiful. Dode just wanted a more comfortable seat.
Jacob and his friends Shamois and Liza
Elizabeth and her friend Nicole
after I took this photo they told me no photos inside the theater
the rest of the crowd had left for the van but we'd made a stop at the restroom
Isaac, Nicole Anderson, Arielle Anderson, Elizabeth, me
Tea Party
Saturday the girls went over to Great Grandma Dickson's for a tea party.
They dressed up, loaded up a bunch of my grapevine milk glass pieces and some snacks and set off for the adventure. After enjoying their treats, Aunt Viv got out her necklace supplies and the girls all made necklaces. They used big plastic beads. Miriam found two alphabetic block beads with "M"s on them (one for Miriam, one for Mom) and made me a necklace. She was adamant I wear it church. I wasn't sure I could get away with it today since I was teaching the lesson, wasn't the day for wearing Mother's Day finery last week? I put it on once I got home and proudly wore it to the fireside that night.
I agree with Dode...a perfect woman in so many ways love mom
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