Happenings lately

Ok so I feel obliged to write something since it's been over a month since I've blogged. I don't think anyone really reads this (except you Laura!). HaHa

Anyway... over spring break we went to Mom's in Oklahoma. It was a wonderful week. Deklan was a pure angel - mom could tell a huge difference with his meds. Wonderful... until the day before we were supposed to leave. Then it snowed - massively - more than it had in 25 years. Great. Although we didn't leave the house at all the first day of snow, it was still snowing the morning we were supposed to leave. I knew it would be fine to drive - I'm somewhat experienced in driving in the snow. Besides, I knew once we got out onto the interstate we'd be just fine. So we pull out and we're fine... for the first 2 and 1/2 miles! Then my car goes wacky... the check engine light comes on then the check gauges light comes on then my car completely shuts down. Shuts Down! It just wouldn't start. It was snowing, we're 10 miles outside of town on a mountain (yes they have mountains in Oklahoma) road. There were no cars coming - it was Sunday and 2 hours before church would be over. The girls walked back to find a house to get help. Before they made it back (after quite a while) D and I started walking, got only about 1/4 of a mile when a truck stopped to help us. We got the car jump started, but before we could shut the hood and put into drive, it died again. This time it wouldn't start at all. Luckily my cousin had driven by a few minutes before so he went to get my girls for me. Turns out they had walked to the nearest house - 1.1 miles from where the car died. Anyway, we pushed the car off the road and the guy that stopped took D and me back to Mom's. Of course all our stuff was packed into the van so we had to take Mom's truck and go get our stuff. I can drive on snow... but cannot 4-wheel in snow. My mother's truck has 4WD so we used it. Unfortunately it does not work on slushy ice. We slid off the road and could not get back on. Hayleigh and Kodi pushed while I gassed the truck.... Hayleigh and I pushed while Kodi gassed the truck... Needless to say we were all covered in mud. It took us 45 minutes to get the truck unstuck from the snow. It was actually hilarious. At one point I tried to walk over to the van and fell flat on my face - literally! At first I was going to cry then I just started laughing. I mean if I had just watched my friend do this I would have been laughing, so why not laugh at myself? The girls were really concerned at first until they figured out I was laughing. Hilarious! Anyway, the next morning - snow storm over, we're stranded in Oklahoma, and no way to get the van started. My cousin - did I mention he's my FAVORITE cousin - went with me to fix my van. The alternator belt had come off. He spent hours working on it, but couldn't figure out how the belt went on - it was either too long or too short every time he wound it through all the pulleys. He finally had to go to town and get a diagram for the way it was supposed to go. Anyway, we started off with my mom in her truck and my cousin in his following us into town. Before we got the other 10 miles into town, I lost power steering and all my gauge lights came on again. We pulled into the gas station to find that I had completely lost the belt this time. My cousin drove the van (because I had a hard time driving it without power steering) over to a garage in town. He had to replace the belt and the tensioner pulley. So we finally got going - 2 days after the end of spring break! Yeah.. wonderful spring break ending.

Then we started soccer. Every Saturday from early 8 or 9 a.m. until after 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I get really tired and it makes the weekend feel really short, but it's for the kids so it's ok.

We've already finished our "fun nights" at the schools for the year. Deklan's was last weekend. I hate fun night because it's so NOT fun for most of the parents who get suckered into volunteering. That doesn't mean all parents don't think it's fun, but when you get that call... "Could you please work the such-and-such booth because we don't have any volunteers?"... then you know you're done. And in Deklan's school I'm the stay at home mom that will volunteer if asked, but I am not in the clique of the other volunteers. You know? Give me the other kids' schools and I'm fine, but not little D's.

We have about four weeks of school left. Yay!! We've got our vacations planned. Vacations? Yes, two - my husband gets two weeks of vacation but not at the same time. The downside is that we're kind of depending on our tax refund to fund our trips. We bought a house this year so we've qualified for the huge refund. Ha! What a joke. We sent our papers in - had to mail them because of the new tax forms we had to fill out - the first week of February. I got a notice April 1 that they needed more information. I faxed the paperwork over on April 2. As of Friday, they still didn't show record of where it was in processing and didn't know when we'd get our refund. Just great! Get your paperwork in early, they said... you'll get your refund back quicker, they said... Yeah right! The IRS lady said - and I quote - "Well,the president wanted to get the refunds out quickly and it turns out that about 75% of the first set of refunds filed were fraudulent so we're trying to get that money back too." I swear I am not making that up... 75% fraudulent! No telling when we'll get our money back... maybe by next April?!