The Sage continues

So my last post was not supposed to have another chapter. Sadly though it does. I watched as my mini-van got towed away this morning. I'm sure your thinking it was for something illegal. Luckily (or not luckily) it was for breaking down in our garage.
That car has given us more grief then could ever be expected. It's been so loyal to us for four years and then three weeks in a row, bam, bam, bam!!!
On our way to church we go to turn over the engine and nothing, dead as a doorknob. (Instead we hope in the Nissan, drive there in a hurry. Chris pulls to far forward over the crub, (you know the sound effects of that crunching sound) reverses only to have half of his bumper hanging off. ..... Back to the mini-van - Chris tinks around last night, charges the battery all night and nothing this morning. It was time to be towed away to find help that neither me or Chris could give.
The starter wires had gone out, corroded away. It wasn't a super huge fix and was back by tonight. This was dissapointing though because the only positive I ever see in having your car worked on is getting a really great loaner to cruise around in for a few days. Since it was towed, and such a quick fix, I didn't even have time to pick one up.
My positive take on the situation is that I'm glad it happened in our garage. Apparantly, there's no warning for such a failure and can happen anywhere, anytime even while in route. The last time we were in the car was Saturday night at a Halloween festival. I can just picture the five of us making our way down main street fully costumed with a wild monkey falling behind (Mason). And then I feel grateful it was only in our garage.
My negative take is, we just the van repaired two weeks ago, and the inspection done last Thursday, could you not see anything then or was this a bad case of super speedy corrosion?

I'll Re-finance the house officer

We'll we're not really going to do that but I'm sure those couches I was all ready to purchase will be put on hold.
Let me share my bad news, this is definately a stormy rainy forecast.
I was innocently coming home from dropping off Rozlyn at preschool to put some beef brisket in the crock-pot. (otherwise I would have stayed in the area and shopped around for three hours like I do every other time. However, I had to take some food that night and needed to return so it would have time to finish. I like to blame this whole story on the beef brisket.)
Next thing I know is that I hear some sirens. I look to see the cops right behind me. As I try to change lanes and move right he follows me. How long has he been following me? I have no idea. I begin to wonder if I was speeding and figure I probably was. Curses!!!!
I'm very nice and our conversation is very amiable, "Do you know why I pulled you over? Is there any reason you were going to so fast?" I answer honestly and say I wasn't paying attention, I don't know how fast I was going and sorry about that. He asks for my insurance and license. He looks at my license and asks if I live in Tomball, to which I reply no, I live in Allen. I can't find the insurance right off and so he says I'll go start this (start what?) while you look for it.
Now Chris is the master of being organized and making sure the right insurances are always in the right cars. I really can't see it, so I call him frantically and ask where in the heck it is. He realizes that we left it in the loaner car from the prior week of having our car fixed. When I dropped it off I didnt' take it out. Never even thought of it, didnt' even realize it was in there.
I get out of the car to tell the cop, which apparantley is a huge no-no. I didn't know this, but the cop was mad and he treated me like a criminal. "Get back in your vechile mam." Do I look that scary?
He comes back to give me the ticket and alerts me that I've commited 4 violations today. Here is the breakdown
Bad information on the license : $265.00
No insurance: $380.00
Expired Inspection: $155.00 (Now this one needs some explaining. It expires in September, when we took our car in this was on the list to be done. (It was expired for 5 days or something dumb like that. When they sent us home, it hadn't been finished because lights had to reset or something. Anyway, I was supposed to take it back it and hadn't got around to it yet.)
And last and really the only reason I thought I was there, speeding: 200
That's right baby, the grand total ringing in at $1000.00 cha-ching.
Beat that!!! I have to go to court and hope everything goes down a very significant amount. I'm going to have to learn to like these old couches after all, because it looks like they'll be with us awhile after all. (and bytheway, the beef brisket turned out great).
Should you want to make contributions to my illegal ways feel free to contact me personally.

To be Amish

.....but I don't want to be Amish. On Sunday night after a crazy weekly planning session Chris, in all of his wisdom gets this great idea that the Amish lifestyle is the one for us.
This is so ironic because that day in Church a lady made a comment how she really appreciates the Amish attitude and lifestyle. Now I start to wonder if this is a sign. Why has my life been free from any discussion of the Amish for 3 decades (minus one fabulous Amish dinner in Kansas during college) and now I'm showered with thought of the Amish. I shouldn't question Chris because he is much wiser then me and all of his points make sense. If we had no T.V. no internet, no email no telephone, etc. life would be much simpler and we would have way more time to enjoy as a family. I tried to explain that I barely have enough time to heat up the T.V. dinners, how does he expect me to grow my own food and make my own bread? My arguement that our family doesn't really get along that well together when we're with each other didn't pull much weight either. It is so convenient to just email someone and getting a response rather then waiting for the mail system. I could always communiate in person but that would take awhile to get to people's houses because I'd have to walk with my stroller since we dont' have a horse or buggy. Chris's commute is also going to stink without a car. Not to try and keep up with the "Jones" all the time but I coudlnt' stand to know that my neighbors are watching T.V. and eating out and I'm not. So my husband is convinced to become Amish.
To test him, since I knew he'd never go for it I consented and said "Great, you've talked me into it, I'm in, I'm cancelling satellite, electric service, cell phones, internet and we'll try it for 1 month." I'm sure my willingness panicked him but he was no longer into our conversaton because he couldn't take his eyes of the T.V. Oh, the irony of it all.
In the end, being Amish would work great only if we lived in the community or if all my friends decided to do it with me. So who's in??

Back to School

So 6 its been just over six years since I proudly walked through the line at BYU to accept my degree and enter the whole new world of parenting. I was two months pregnant when I got my degree. I was so excited for this soon to be new adventure and was sure I'd be the best mom. Contrary to my hopes, my lack of parenting is what drove me to start back up in school six years later. I'm studying the very thing that I finished school so I could do: Welcome to Love and Logic 101.
Now I knowthere are a million parenting philosophies and different theories out there and I'm not on the campaign trail for Love and Logic. However, in a desperate moment as a mom of 3 I'm up for any tips and advice. So I paid my tuition, go each Wed. from 7-9 and definately sit on the front seat.
It's my own intervention, "Hi, I'm Rainie, my five year old doesn't like me and my three old chokes my baby." On to the next person. To everyone in there I'm phyco because of all my comments I make. The more you keep quiet the better parent you look. If your talking, its only about your disfunctional family, but I'm there to get help so I can't keep my mouth shout.
How hard can being a parent be? I hope to graduate with honors in another 5 weeks but so far I seem to be failing the course. We have 5 years of parenting junk to make up for but it's baby steps, right? In the end my goal is to have a fun and happy home. One where we all like to be and where we all get along. A house where my kids are responsible, with high self esteem.
I love these 3 kiddos to pieces. Sometimes I look at them and see how cute they are and wonder why they give me such grief. I'm so thankful for the funny things they say, and the smiles that melt my heart that make all this hard work worth it.