I Just Want My Car Back

First they said I would have it before (last) weekend.

Then they said I'd have it by Monday (yesterday) night for sure.

Then they called today and said they were working on it and they'd let me know if it was ready by 4:30.

Now it's 5:20 and I still don't have a car.

I just want my car back.

Sunday

This weekend has been quite uneventful. Friday night, when I finished babysitting my Dossett babies, I went over to Dylan's to hang out for a bit. Saturday he came over to my house at 10 in the morning and we drove around, what felt like the whole state of Arkansas, looking at houses that he'd found online. Did I tell you he's in the process of buying a house?? He applied for a loan a few weeks ago and since he's been approved he's gone c.r.a.z.y. searching for houses!

Saturday night, we went to a 40th birthday party for a lady I babysat for a couple years ago, who has since then became a very good friend of mine. Dylan teases me all the time that if we get married, all of my bridesmaids at the wedding will be over 40. ha! He might be right! Most of the "girlfriends" that I really love and trust are women that I babysit for or work with at the preschool. They're the greatest and I'm so lucky to have them as my friends! Anyway, the party was so fun. Julie, the birthday girl, went SKYDIVING on Friday to celebrate her 40th. She is so brave!! But what a good way to celebrate your 40th, right? I love her!

Today I have a baby shower to go to for a friend. She is having a baby boy in September :) I think this might be my first baby shower to go to. I'm excited!

These past two weeks have been AWFUL and I cannot wait to see if this week will be any better. Hopefully, by Monday night I'll have my car back. I can't wait to put all of my stuff back in it and CLEAN IT. I've missed it so much... I know that sounds silly. It is just a car. But it isn't the same without it! Hurry up Monday night!

Hope you have a great, lazy Sunday :)

Bad Luck?

These past two weeks have been rough...

It all started a couple of weeks ago. I was finishing up my lazy last few days being off from babysitting for 2 weeks. Dylan and I spent a rainy day in Eureka Springs, eating and shopping and such. We were on our way back and he was driving my car when a light came on the dash. I looked it up in that little book that you're supposed to keep in your glove box and it turns out it is a pretty darn important light... and i needed my car serviced immediately. Called the mechanic.

When we arrived back into town, Dylan pulled over at a tire store (still raining) and got me out of the car to look at my tires that were so "bald" you could see the wires poking out in some places. Turns out it is pretty dangerous to have bald tires... especially in the rain. So at this point, I need my car serviced, 4 new tires, and a towel. Because I'm standing in the pouring rain. Dylan prices tires for me at that store and we head home. A couple day's later my Mom buys new tires for me for $449.00 dollars (since I didn't have the money right then and they were kind of a necessity :) By the end of July I will have all the money to pay her back. Thankfully.

Monday the 12th I take my car to a mechanic to find out what the light is for. $35.00 later, I leave with a fixed car and an appointment for Monday the 19th to get my transmission fluid flushed because I was supposed to do it a year or so ago. I feel much better at this point AND it wasn't raining so I was dry and my hair still looked good.

I made it through Tuesday ok, Wednesday morning was pretty good too. But as I was on my way to babysit the Dossett kid's that afternoon, my car did something weird. Really weird. I would push the gas and it would only "go" a little bit. It did this for 2 or 3 miles. When I pushed the break the car would flip out... and then I would flip out. I called Dylan in a panic and he got frustrated that I wasn't "smart" enough to pull over. Then I got frustrated that he got frustrated and we didn't talk the rest of the day. :) Lovely.

This is turning into the longest story- I'll wrap it up.

Denise Dossett was the sweetest to me that day. She called her brother-in-law's who are mechanics and they came and took it to their shop overnight to fix it. My sweet aunt and uncle (who live close to the Dossett's) brought me an extra car they have so I could use it until mine is fixed. I got my car back the next day. Knowing something could be really wrong, but they did a quick fix to help me out (And I'm so thankful for everything they did for me! They were so nice to work me into their schedule!) Dylan and I took my aunt's car back to her on Friday and we were driving my car home when....

The transmission went out.

That was the problem. And guess what?

It is still OUT.

I had my car towed in to the shop on Monday (Same day it was supposed to have the transmission fluid flushed.. ya know.. to prevent the transmission from going out.) and they've had it all week. The new transmission will be almost $4,000 dollars. It will be a little more because they are doing some other stuff to it as well. All week I've been stressed out and signing papers for a loan :( I thought for sure I'd get my car back by today but the mechanic called yesterday and said the new transmission won't even be here until Monday. I hate Mondays. Seems like that's where the bad luck always starts!

So anyway. That's the bad luck in a nutshell. A big nutshell. Oh no wait- While borrowing my aunt's car and on my way to babysit on Monday (Did I tell you I hate Monday's??) I got a flat tire... IN HER CAR!! Seriously?!

The worst part of the whole thing... is this all could have been prevented if I just would've flushed that stupid transmission fluid a year ago. This is all my fault. :/

But beware. If you drive a honda... most of their transmissions are no.good. You can find this out on many websites where customers can post complaints. Most of their stories match mine.

So if you drive a honda (I drive a 2003 accord) START SAVING YOUR MONEY!

**Bless you if you've made it through this post**

To Dylan

On our one year anniversary...



I only hope we can keep learning and growing together as a couple. Thank you for putting up with me for the past year ;)

I love you!

What is making me crazy this week:

4 brand new tires (because I should have purchased them last year and now mine are BALD. completely.) .... $450.00
New car part that looks like a plastic accordion.... $50
Oil Change (1,000 miles over).... $40
New Transmission fluid (Which is supposed to be the color red, mine is DARK brown.)... $150

Almost 700 Dollars... SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS.

Monday morning = not the greatest mood.

I am, however, looking forward to babysitting the Murphy's this afternoon after not seeing them for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!! Can't wait!

4th of July

The past week I've been in my own little world. The two families I am babysitting for this summer, have been out of town since last Saturday. Since then, I did double duty housesitting/dog-sitting to keep the income while I took my little "vacation" While I have been missing BOTH the Murphy family and the Dossett family like crazy, I sure have caught up on a lot of sleep... So I'm ready to go for next week! Ya'll can come home any day now! ;) Seriously, I've missed every single one of you!

Dylan and I took a little trip to the river (I told you about that, didn't I?) a few weeks ago... Here are the pictures I promised!





The place we went to was Steel Creek in Ponca Arkansas. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!


And there she is, my very first fish!!


And this is Dylan trying to keep up with me ;) He caught 5 tiny little fish, but they didn't compare to my HUGE one! ;)


Last night, my aunt Karen and uncle Chris threw a forth of July party that was amazing! My family is huge, and there were even more people there than the usual Sunday dinner crowd. For dinner, we had macaroni and cheese, pulled pork sandwiches, pork tenderloin, baked beans, (and a lot of other sides I can't remember!) Because I was mainly focused on dessert! I made these puppies:



Homemade red velvet cupcakes with homemade cream cheese frosting and topped with fresh blueberries! I worked for about 3 hours on those yesterday, and I wanted to DIE by the time they were done! It took forever and I was exhausted! I made them completely from scratch and I am SO proud of myself... I even had one for breakfast this morning! hehe!

Along with those cupcakes (And I wish I would've taken pictures! Ugh!) There were vanilla cupcakes shaped like stars with blue frosting, homemade vanilla ice cream with homemade chocolate fudge, homemade banana nut ice cream, brownies, angel food cake, and some other stuff I can't remember! It was soooo good! I barely ate dinner :) I seriously focused on dessert the whole night!



Dylan and I had a great time. One thing I really love about him, is that he gets along with my family really well. He fits in just great and they all love him :) I'm fortunate that he likes to be around them too!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Peace OUT Summer School!

I was up until 2:00 this morning stuffing in all of the crap I could into a 10 page paper. Don't get me wrong- I knew what I was talking about (and it was mainly all about my opinion anyway) but TEN PAGES?! Come on Dr. T! I had a 4 page paper due in class at 7:30 this morning, then I turned the 10 page paper into my other professor's "box" and I was outta there! I think I did really well in both classes. I'm expecting A's... so we'll see.

Now that I have a couple of months school free, I can hopefully keep up on blogging!

Dylan finally went back to work last Sunday. And when I say finally, I mean FINALLY!! He had over a month of R&R while I busted my but to get to class EVERY morning at 7:30, write 8+ papers, and babysit nearly every day. All he did was sleep and go fishing... I swear. I shouldn't complain too much because he did take me out to lunch a lot :)

I'm really thankful that he found a new hobby, fishing, to put all of his energy into. It was a really nice way for him to unwind after his deployment. He has even taken me a couple of times! OH! And he bought me a pink fishing pole :) :) :) I'm getting pretty good at fishing thanks to him. We went to a beautiful river/creek last weekend about an hour and a half away from our hometown. We packed a picnic lunch and stayed there allllllll day long (which = sunburn. but that's ok.) We swam and fished and basked in the sun! I even caught my VERY FIRST FISH!!!!

It was so funny because the fish were SOOOO friendly there. They would swim right up to you in the water. You could almost catch them! When I felt a tug on my line I started yelling "DYL! DYL! SOMETHING'S THERE!!" And he, of course, started laughing. He gave me directions on how to reel it in, and once I saw it, I said "Oh my gosh! Poor fish! Dyl, the hook is stuck in his mouth!" An older man and his grandson were near and he started laughing, then said something like "Is this your first fish?" Ha. YES!

Anyway, Dylan and I have just been taking it easy and spending our summer doing silly things like that. Next post will be full of pictures I hope! I'll try!

HAPPY FRIDAY!