Saturday of Surprises

And not the good kind, either! Unfortunately.

I had gotten into our van earlier, to take the kids somewhere, and when I turned it on, it started vibrating and rattling. I thought it was just a fluke and drove down the road to the ATM, but it kept up the whole time, and then two warning lights came on, including the Check Engine light. We knew there were a few little things wrong with the van, but not where it would stop working on us. So we had to have it towed Saturday morning, to the Honda place. They later called us back and told us that there was a wiring problem, we needed new spark plugs, new brakes, and a new timing belt!! Arnold added it up and it could be around $2,000 to fix it all! And of COUSE our van is due for inspection later this month. And we just hit 100,000 miles recently, and isnt that when everything all goes to crap.. when your warranty expires?! When it rains it pours.. its true what they say. They also said that they had to order the wiriing part, so that it would be wed. or thurs before we got the van back. Everyone knows we have 3 kids and we NEED that thing to haul them around! Arnold drives an old, tiny Ford Escort to work, and we are having to rely on that thing in the meantime. So i am without a van this week, and we are stuck at home, but at least we have ONE vehicle that works, we are blessed for that. We also think we have it figured out how we are going to pay for the repairs, God really has taken care of us.

Surprisingly, we found out that in a bind, we can fit THREE seats in the back of Arnolds car. How, i dont know. It took a lot of time, and a lot of cussing and yelling on Arnold's part to make it possible ;) And the kids are soo close back there that they can feel each other breathing on them, its that bad. But at least we can get places! We were able to make it to a big yardsale I had heard about.. it said 20+ families and it sounded really good.. so we went, and went thru the whole process of getting the kids out, and then it turns out it was all old people! And there were like 7-8 of them, definately not 20. Not to be mean, but they had all stuff I definately wasnt interested in. There was not a single thing I would have bought! so that was a waste, but oh well.

We then went to our church for a big Back to School Festival they were having. It was to reach out to families in the community. They had bookbags and school supplies to give out.. I heard they ended up giving out around 250 bookbags to kids in the area! They also had food, face painting, bounce houses, games, and free haircuts! It was a great thing that they did, i was so happy to see such a great turnout! We went to let the kids play for awhile and got some lunch. Brooke got a butterfly painted on her face, but Rachel didnt want anyone touching her face so she got one on her hand instead. Caleb had his name painted on his arm. in purple.. thats his new favorite color these days, lol ;) And we ended up seeing RAY while we were there ;) After it was all over with, Arnold helped put the church back together for services on sunday. He put all the chairs back on the left side of the church.. he was quite proud of himself ;)

That evening we hung around the house and the kids played. Brooke had gotten a makeup set for her bday, so she tried on makeup for the first time. I tried to help her out but she wanted to do it herself and started looking more and more like a clown.. but at least she had fun. Her daddy did not like that so much and told her to wipe all that off her face, haha. The kids were begging me to go get new batteries for their Leapsters, so I went out to the store. Ended up renting two movies while I was out.. "Big Mommas House, Like Father, Like Son" and "Arthur." I ended up with a sinus infection or something that day, and my throat was hurting, so I took a nap that afternoon for a little while before we ate dinner. That night Arnold gave Caleb a haircut. Its a little crooked but I think it turned out pretty good, haha. He needed it cut before school!!

Trying out her new makeup set!

Calebs new haircut
Rachel walking around in her Daddys shoes ;)

New pillows I bought for the living room, thought they were cute!