finishing off April

Thank goodness for handy husbands!
My van has been a pretty noisy beast lately.  The serpentine belt would squeak while I was driving down the road and when it was time to stop, the brakes would add their chorus.  Monday after work, Dode and Isaac tore into it and fixed all my problems.  My van runs silently now.  Hooray!  A whole "new" vehicle for less than $30.

new brake pads installed, ready to put it back on the car

working together

I'm so glad Isaac will leave our home with skills he can use to save lots of $$$ for his family and use to serve others.  

 Zaycon in the rain
Murphy's Law sure seems to be in force when it comes to Zaycon deliveries.  Zaycon is a company that delivers bulk meats to different locations throughout the Western United States.  We're the pick up location in Arlington.  They've come in the snow, the slush, the rain, the heat.  Why not on a nice overcast normal day?  Thursday was pouring down rain.  Elizabeth and I did traffic control.  It's impossible to hold a walkie talkie, a traffic control sign, and an umbrella so we stood in raincoats in the rain.  By the time the 1 1/2 hour delivery time was finished, we were both frozen.  It took me about three hours before I felt warm again.  They distributed 70 cases of meat this time, which means by the time they go up the driveway and come back, that's almost 140 driveway trips, making for a very muddy driveway.  One of these days we have to give in and buy a few dump truck loads of gravel.

Miriam and Mom evening
Thursday night was also Miriam and mom evening.  We started off by going to Toys R Us so she could use the gift card she got for her birthday from her Grandpa.  She thought it was pretty rough to be in a store filled with toys and have to pick just one.  She went back and forth  between a few things and finally settled on a karaoke machine.  Boy do I ever love kids shouting nonsense into scratchy cheap microphones!

maybe another big stuffed animal for home?

Sorry, not enough money

Strawberry Shortcake dolls sure smell good.....

Which Barbie princess should I choose?

This is just what I want, a Karaoke Machine!

I had a free entree to Qdoba Mexican Grill burning a hole in my pocket so I got a veggie burrito to go.  Miriam got just what she wanted for dinner too, a chicken nugget happy meal from McDonalds.  We ate together in the car.  I asked if I could have her apple slices and she said, "All I really want is the nuggets and the toy".   Good thing I paid $5 for four chicken nuggets and a plastic toy she'll never play with again!

classy dining at its finest!

She'd wanted to see The Lorax again but once we got to the theater, she saw the sign for Mirror, Mirror and decided that's what she wanted instead.  We only had to wait another 20 minutes for Mirror, Mirror so it worked fine.  She'd been  having stomach problems all day and was going through waves of feeling good and feeling lousy.  Part way through the movie, she handed me the popcorn and said, "No matter what I say, don't give it back to me."  She sounded so grown up!  She really lucked out in the lobby.  While I was getting our popcorn, she was playing with the claw machine.  We never put any money in but it worked and she won a ball.  I think someone must have done a random act of kindness and put money in because the person after us had to put money in to play.

after the movie, holding the ball she won

sick
We've had a bit of flu virus visit us this week.  It started with Elizabeth, moved to Anastaya, then Miriam and finally me.  Being the good mom that I am, I share my food and drink with all the kids so when they get sick, there's not much chance of me missing it.  What sickness hit us?  It started with a bad stomach ache, followed by dizziness, headeache and fatigue.  It seemed to strike each of us the first time at night, making for a miserable sleepless night.  Miriam was the only one to actually throw up.  She just hates taking any form of medicine.  I've tasted the kids' liquid pain relievers and think it tastes just like candy.  But, call it medicine and there's no way she'll take it.  She was miserable enough Friday night, rocking back and forth and moaning while jiggling her foot (something I do too when I'm hurting), so I convinced her to take some medicine.  It took less than five minutes for the medicine to come up as well as evertyhing else in her stomach.  There goes getting her to take medicine any time soon!  The kids all think our bed has magical healing properties and Miriam spent most of Thursday in it.  Miriam and I took a glorious four hour nap with sunshine streaming down on us in bed on Saturday.  I wish I could say that cured us but soon after getting up, I was back to the full body goose bumps and headache.  Yuck!  I felt like I was living the reverse of Shel Silverstein's poem Sick,

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye......
You say today is Saturday?
Goodbye, I'm going out to play."

It's Saturday and Miriam and I were stuck being sick, I cry "Foul!"

Dode says he's moving out until everyone is better so he doesn't catch it but I'm not too worried, he'd miss us all too much.