Blood, Sweat and Flour

I’m cheap.

I admit it and I embrace that part about me.

I hate spending money on frivolous things like: FOOD!

Seriously, how stupid is it to spend a ton of money on something that is so consumable? You eat it, you enjoy it for the 30 seconds it’s dancing around on your taste buds, you swallow it and then… well… we all know where it goes after that.

Yet, I (obviously) enjoy eating.
I really enjoy putting that tasty food on my taste buds for that 30 seconds and savoring each flavor as I chew each bite
(unless it’s really good. Then I just inhale the food.)

That left me in a bit of a conundrum as I was preparing for
Buttercup and Biff’s reception.
How do I serve the tastiest morsels ever without spending a gazillion dollars?

My answer was simple:

I make all the food.

1) It’s much cheaper than catering.
2) I am in control of the ingredients.
3) I am in control of the outcome and how it ultimately looks and tastes.
If it tastes great, then I win.
If it tastes bad, then I can’t blame anyone else.
Which can cause a problem
because if it tastes bad and doesn’t work,
I’d rather blame someone else…
Ahh… what a vicious circle!

I digress.

I felt that I would save a lot of money if I made all the tasty reception treats on my own.
So that’s what I set out to do.

Here’s our menu:

1) Ohio Buckeyes2) Mini pies3) Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread4) Oreo Bark5) Brownie Bites6) Cream Cheese mints7) Mini fruit pizzas8) Mini cream puffs *9) Mini cheesecake bites *

* Foods that I purchased.

I have to say that I’m pretty proud of how things turned out!

************************

I’ve never planned a wedding reception before, so I didn’t know how to plan the numbers.
I made the Ohio Buckeyes first.
(They are a peanut butter balled dipped in chocolate)
I made about 700 of them and they were the crowning jewel of the refreshment table.
I didn’t realize how many 700 really were.
That was an insane amount.
Steck and I ended up dipping only about 500.
That was an insane amount.

*****************

My mini pie shells were different. I only made about 300 of those.
I used my regular pie shell recipe and a flower cookie cutter to cut the shells out. Then I baked them in mini muffin tins. They were so tiny and cute and the crowning jewel on the refreshment table.
A  serious amount of time and effort was needed in baking them. I felt like a quitter when I gave up after baking 300. I wanted to bake more, but I ran out of shortening and was too cheap to buy more.
If 300 wasn’t enough, it was too bad.

We filled the shells with pie filling purchased at Prepared Pantry. which is pretty much the coolest store in the western United States.
We used chocolate, lemon, cherry and apple pie filling. It comes in pastry-type tubes, so it was a breeze to squeeze a dollop into the shell and then top with a squirt of whipped cream from a can.
They were so cute!

(From left: Oreo Bark, Mini Pies, Ohio Buckeyes and Brownie Bites)

The mini fruit pizzas were my crowning jewel.
I saw the idea on Pinterest but used my own recipes.
I baked about 400 round sugar cookies and used my aunt’s fruit pizza recipe to make the cream cheese “sauce” that goes under the fruit.
That was topped with slices of strawberries, blueberries and kiwi.
They were so pretty and absolutely delicious.

***********************
Biff specifically requested the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip recipe. I had help on this one!
I baked the first 5 loaves….my recipe makes 3 at a time.
BUT WAIT!!The math doesn’t work out on that!
When I baked the first 3 loves, I didn’t put parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, so when I dumped them out, the bottom of the bread stuck to the bottom of the pan.
It’s not attractive.
And you can’t serve “unattractive” to your guests.Sadly, my family had to consume the ugliest loaf that refused to be separated from its baking dish.
It was definitely a burden, but we sacrificed. ;-)
(The recipe is called Better Than Great Harvest Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread.
I promise it wasn’t a burden to consume that destroyed loaf.)
My wonderful seester, Red, made another batch of the bread, so that gave us a total of 8 loaves.

***********************

Remember when I posted my brownie recipe last summer?
That’s the recipe I used for my brownie bites.
When I was baking the mini pie shells, I looked at that cute little mini-muffin tin that I borrowed from Steck and had an epiphany.
I wanted to use that pan to make brownies!
Brownies that were cute, and colorful chocolaty goodness.
So how could I do that?
I held on to the pan and slept and pondered and brain stormed (with myself) on how I could make those bites yummy and memorable and pretty.
And then it came to me!
I have a recipe for mint brownies.
You make a mint flavored frosting and frost the brownies. Then you slather the top of the frosting with a chocolate coating to seal it up.

I’m pretty sure the brownie bites were the crowning jewel of my refreshment table.
I bought fuchsia food coloring from Prepared Pantry and colored the icing, hoping it would match Buttercup’s color theme.
(It was close… which is pretty good when it comes to food.)

When I finished making them and putting them together, I was very relieved to take 300 of them over to my neighbor’s freezer.
Otherwise we would have taken only about 75 to the reception.
They were so good and extremely tempting!

*****************

The Oreo Bark was not planned. I made it the night before the reception.
Biff loved it.
I tried making a cream cheese and Oreo cookie to fit the color theme, and they FAILED!
Dismally.

This left me with  3 packages of left over Oreos. And I wanted to do something with them.
I remembered seeing a picture on Pinterest where you take crushed Oreos and mix it into melted white chocolate and pour it onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
When it’s cool, you break it into small pieces and voila!
A delicious sweet treat is born!
I liked how the black and white of the Oreo and white chocolate looked on the table.

****************

Also on Pinterest, I saw a recipe for Cream Cheese mints.
I remember my mom made these when we were little.
I LOVED them!So I asked Steck if she would make them for me, which she graciously agreed to do.

I was really bummed for a couple days because I couldn't find the left-over mints. I searched high and low and I couldn't locate them. But today I started cleaning out "Command Central" -- which is Mom Talk for "The Extra Bedroom Where All the Wedding Stuff is Stashed" and lo and behold! there they were!

I was pretty excited!

They were beautiful and matched Buttercup’s color theme as well.

I also found the left over pie shells, so put them together and took a photo so Buttercup and I can always remember what the treats looked like.

*****************

My last two dessert treats were purchased at Sam’s Club. Mini cream puffs (which I hear are quite tasty) and cheesecake bites. I didn’t get a taste of either.

************************

It was a LOT of work doing all that baking.
But I had a BLAST!
I’m sure my hands will eventually recover and stop cracking and bleeding from all the washing (dishes and hand washing) that I did, but it was all worth it.
And I’d do it all again.
To save money.
To have fun.
To create a beautiful memory for my child.

**********************

P.S. I will post recipes for these treats, eventually.

The Final Countdown

It’s 9:30 pm -- two days before Buttercup’s reception --and I have two choices of what to do with my time:
a) Go to bed.
    I don’t need to explain this, do I?
b) Keep cleaning my house.
    Yes, the house that has been sorely neglected for the past 6 weeks while I have been feverishly crafting, painting and baking.
I won’t go into the sordid details, but I will confess that the spiders from town saw the neglect and brought their U-hauls and have been escaping the sudden temperature drop outside to take residence in the cozy comfort of my dusty corners.

What’s my choice? What am I going to do with my time?!?

Why, I’m going to start blogging of course.

Sometimes, it just feels good to do something that you don’t HAVE to do, right?  I’ll let those spiders have one more night of frolicking frivolity before their demise at the sucking end of my Hoover. (I’m benevolent that way sometimes.)

We got Buttercup’s bridal pictures back from our photographer and I wanted to share a couple.

That’s a good reason for a blog post, right?

(The photo below is actually a photo I took. The photographer was very gracious and let me practice while she was working.)

I am ready to choose option “a” now. My eyes are feeling so heavy. But before I go, can I tell you how excited I am that we chose to have the reception the day before the wedding?!? (Gelly, you know I got the idea from you, right?!) I am excited to spend one whole day doing each event individually. I feel so busy and swamped with all the reception details that I am afraid I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the reason we’re celebrating… the actual wedding. By having the reception over with, we can just sit back and enjoy the wedding and celebrate the fact that these kids decided to make sacred covenants and enter into an eternal marriage. Saturday (actual wedding day) is looking to be blissful and calm and completely peaceful for me…. maybe…. Hopefully….. Keeping the fingers crossed.

Oh, and another wonderful thing has happened: Buttercup and Biff chose to be married in the Guilder Temple, which is the same Temple that Max and I were married in 24 years ago. I started to get curious about our sealer. Is he still working at the Temple? Could he actually perform the wedding ceremony for my daughter? I contacted the Temple secretary and found out that yes indeed he is still a sealer in that Temple! All we had to do was call him and see if he would be willing to come in on his day off.

Well, I knew we had that one in the bag. See, this man is an old family friend. He has been a friend of my family’s for decades. He was my mom’s bishop when she was a teenager (he was the youngest bishop in the church at that time); he was my stake president when I was born; we all lived in the same ward together and I’m sure some of his children used to babysit my siblings and I; he gave me and my siblings our patriarchal blessings; he married Max and I; and when my seester, Wees, was sealed to her husband and children, he performed that sealing. He has been engrained in our spiritual milestones!

I gave his phone number to my dad and said, “Dad, do your magic. See if he’ll come marry Buttercup and Biff.” Without hesitation, wonderful President said yes.

So… the same man that married Max and I will be marrying our daughter and her new husband. How cool is that?!?

It makes me happy.

And now, Option A, I CHOOSE YOU!!!

Dear Mom, I’m so sorry…

… that I got married one week before Christmas.

Yes, I did that to my mother.

Max and I thought we were acting in the best interest of everyone by getting married between semesters at Ricks College. That way I wouldn’t lose money on my housing contract, we wouldn’t be too distracted to get our school work done (that part of the plan didn’t work so well) and – well – we would be “on break” after all, so it would just be easier if we got married on Dec. 19.

Obviously, I was NOT the person planning my wedding.

And now I understand what a terrible thing I did to my mother.

I’m planning a wedding – I don’t have a huge holiday looming that I also have to plan and prepare for – and I feel like I’m about to lose my mind. People warned me about the intense work that is involved, but I didn’t fully comprehend what they were saying.

It’s like having a baby. People tell you that you can experience moments of being uncomfortable, but they don’t spell out the details of how uncomfortable you can actually be.
They tell you that labor and delivery are painful, but somehow they don’t communicate that it really IS similar to pulling your bottom lip up over the top of your head… pain-wise.

Holy cow!!

The days are winding down…. we have just under 3 weeks until the reception (remember, Buttercup’s reception is the day before the wedding) and my goal is to have EVERYTHING put together, completed and baked  in two weeks.

TWO WEEKS?!?!?

If you think I’m crazy now, just give me another 10 days and I’ll be completely bonkers!!

But even though I feel like my life is totally out of control, I should recognize that I actually have a lot accomplished. The dress is bought and we will pick it up from the alteration lady on Wednesday. We have most of the clothing we’re providing for the members of the bride and groom party. I have the centerpieces organized and ready. After searching long and hard for affordable, GOOD photographers, I feel confident in the ladies we have hired… and can I tell you that I feel we have them for a STEAL? Seriously, don’t ask how much we’re paying. It’s embarrassing. I feel so cheap!

Wait!

We’ll call it FRUGAL!

I have decided in an effort to save moola, I will make all the refreshments for the reception. I’m still working on that, but so far I have between 500 & 600 peanut butter balls rolled and frozen, waiting to be dipped into chocolate the week of the reception. I have about 400 sugar cookies baked and frozen (for mini- fruit pizzas). I’ve only made two loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread, because I had a slight disaster baking them, but I will finish baking them tomorrow. Also this week, I will be making about 400 mini pie crusts. Here’s hoping they turn out! And a few more items.

Yep,

Crazy.

Certifiable.

But I haffta do it! I only have one daughter. I only get one shot at this – unless Inigo marries a girl from across the country. Then I get to plan another reception, but on a much smaller scale, I’m certain.

Here’s an observation I recently made: Remember when I was Camp Director? The first year I planned camp, I was a basket case. I worked myself to the bone trying to learn everything, organize everything and make it the best camp EVER!

The second year was easier. I still worked hard, but it wasn’t as scary. I was a lot more confident in my abilities and had learned that whatever we had planned, would be fun and the girls would all say it was their “best year ever!” (Don’t they say it every year?)

The third year (yes, I was camp director for THREE YEARS!!) camp planned itself. It still required a little effort, but I had learned enough and had things left over from previous years that it kind of just fell together.

Planning a wedding/reception is exactly like camp. At first, I planned NOTHING. I was scared, overwhelmed and didn’t know where to turn or who I could ask for help. Little by little, people approached me and said, “Do this,” or “Look here” and I began to see that I actually can plan and prepare. Slowly, things began to fall into place and I gained a vision of what to do and where I can turn for resources and ideas. (HELLO PINTEREST!)

And now, I really believe that if I had to, I could plan another wedding reception. Yes, it would still require work and effort, but it wouldn’t be nearly as stressful. But, I don’t get to plan another one. Not for a long time anyway – at least 13+ years.

(Someone told me that if you’re the mother of the groom, you wear beige and SHUT UP! Meaning: leave it all up to the bride and her mother. It made me laugh!)

So anyway, in all my camp/wedding analogies, I was trying to decide which is more work: A week at girl’s camp with 10+ girls, or a wedding reception.

The race is close… very close… but I think the wedding reception wins! After all, when you’re planning camp, the bishop calls someone – an assistant – that HAS to help you. As it is, I’ve done most of the work for the reception on my own. HOWEVER!!! Let me add the disclaimer that I have had MANY offers of help. I’m not sure where to have people help, so I haven’t taken a lot of people up on their offers, but there’s still time… so all you friends and neighbors who read my blog, BEWARE!! I may have said no to you last week, but you may not be so lucky next week! :)

And if I have been neglecting my blog lately, please understand, because my daughter’s getting married and I’ve been otherwise occupied!

Communicating…

Last night I caught Inigo in a lie.

A full on, outright lie.

To be fair, this kid is usually extremely honest.

Painfully honest.

I haven’t caught him in a lie in months.

Last night was one of those times where he felt it was easier to “stretch the truth.”

(The kid IS human, after all!)

He was being punished and dealing with the consequences of his actions
(non-violent of course)
and he said,

“But mom, it was just a miscommunication!”

Oh really?

Is that the “new” way of thinking these days?
Just like “new math”,
telling untruths/lies can be construed as
”miscommunication?”

Nah.
Not in this house!!

Dumpety Dump Dump

I’ve got a lot of things running around in this old brain of mine…. time to clear them out and make room for more. Plus, I’ve decided I’ve had enough wallowing in my own self-pity… So, my daughter moved out of the house! Get a grip, Valerie! It happens! So, we’ve had a few flat tires this year? Hello! At least we have a car that can get flat tires! I’m ready to stop feeling sorry for myself and ready to face life with a smile again….

Walking:
I have found a trail in Florin that I have started walking on every morning! It’s amazing and wonderful! I have always said that if I can find someplace interesting and not boring that’s outside, I would walk it every day! AND I FOUND IT!! This trail is in the dry farms and it’s got a fairly steep incline, a gradual incline and then a beautiful downhill portion. Since it’s in the farming area of our town, I’m walking in the fields of potatoes and wheat, along with patches of sage brush and wild grass. I hear the grasshoppers hopping around in the dry grass and on the dirt of the trail I can see hundreds of footprints: people, dogs, bunnies, and birds. Lots and lots of birds. I wonder what kind they are? Sage grouse? Pheasants? Quail?
I also hear that there are lots of skunks up there. I take Lola Dog with  me, so I’m hoping that they are sound asleep from their night of carousing by 8:30 when I’m up there.

I think the loop that I normally walk is only about a mile, so the other day I walked it twice. Today, I went with a friend and we walked a new (to me) portion of the trail, which I believe is just short of two miles. I’m working hard at getting faster so I can go farther. I’m happy to have found this trail. Sad that I found it after living here in Florin for 13 years!

This is the only tree along the trail. There are always LOT of birds singing their early morning song from the branches of this tree as I walk by.

You can see my faithful walking companion, Lola, chasing something… a magpie perhaps?

(The other day a crop duster was flying over and spraying the potato fields while I was up there. Lola tried her hardest to catch that plane! It was hilarious watching her run – at top speed – through the fields, with her little cocker spaniel ears flapping in the breeze. I wish I had the presence of mind to video it!)

Just some of the footprints I see on my morning journey.
Both of these pictures were taken with my phone, so they’re not the greatest quality

Wedding Planning
Seriously. How do you plan a wedding??!? I have been feeling completely lost and in the dark. I really didn’t plan on Buttercup getting married so soon and so young. I really thought I’d have another 3 years before I had to start thinking about it, so I didn’t pay attention when I went to receptions. She’s been engaged for a month, getting married in two and what do I have to show for it? Not a lot! I have a couple crafty things completed and she’s picked a color scheme. We have the dress on lay-away and I know which ties to purchase for the groom and his co-horts.

I have needed serious HELP, but I’m not the kind of person that calls someone up and says, “HELP!!”

Finally, I realized that that’s exactly what I needed to do. So I called for help today. I contacted a friend in my ward who offered to help with food. She says she’s very good at planning food for large gatherings. Well, I don’t know how to plan food, so I’m going to use her. I called a local person who has a business in decorating for weddings. I wanted to do most of it on my own, but finally realized I simply can’t. I’m here alone and I can’t do all the planning, organizing, assigning and everything else required for a wedding in addition to packing up the house, keeping the house clean, keeping up with Inigo and helping out with his activities, etc. etc.  We’ll meet with her on Monday and I can’t tell you how GOOD it feels to know that I have help in that area!

Now, I just need to find an affordable photographer….

Television
We turned off network TV. We realized that we were paying a lot of money each month to only watch about 3 hours of TV a week. (Love my Judge Judy and Jimmy Fallon!) We watch Netflix a lot more, so we opted to get rid of TV and keep both Netflix plans.

So, now that I don’t have Judy or Jimmy, what am I watching? Let me tell you, I have gotten reacquainted with Sam and Diane, NORM! and Cliff… Yes, at that place where everybody knows your name. I just finished Season One of Cheers and have laughed my head off. I have also gotten reacquainted with the good folks flying out of Cape Cod on Wings and both Inigo and I are totally and completely in love with the Huxtible Family. Inigo has even said that he wants to have 5 children so he can name them all: Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy. If he’s lucky, he’d also like to have a Cliff and Claire. If I’m upstairs in the kitchen and I hear him downstairs watching TV, giggling madly, I know he’s watching The Cosby Show. He’s made it all the way into Season 4.

I will admit I watched the British comedy, The IT Crowd and found myself laughing so hard that I thought I would disturb my  neighbors, but in the middle of Season 2 (I think) it turned raunchy and when the “F Bomb” started being said at least once in each episode I stopped watching. BUT, before that, it was simply hilarious. Why they ruined it with such foul language, I’ll never know.

I will miss Modern Family on network TV, though. It starts next week and I’m excited for the season premiere. It was filmed in Jackson Hole and I’m so excited to watch it! Hopefully it will be on my ABC app for my iPad soon.

Houses
Inigo and I are still in Florin. There are still no houses available in New Florin. I don’t know how we’ll ever get over there. Poor Max. Poor, lonely Max.  (The rental that we thought would work only had one bathroom. I’m sorry, it may sound snobby, but we need more than one bathroom in our home! Even if we are living out in the sticks, I will NOT allow the men in the house to relieve themselves in the yard if the commode is already in use!)

And that’s it… for now at least. It feels good to get all this stuff off my chest. It makes room for other frivolities and nonsense. So I say, BRING IT!

Grown Don’t Mean Nothing

░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░

Buttercup is gone.

Outta here.

Removed.

Missing.

In other words:
No Longer Living At Home.

She thought (and we agreed) that she needed the experience of living away from home and her mommy before she committed herself to living with another person for eternity.

So, she found an apartment and moved out!

I’m proud of her for making this decision, but I miss her terribly:

I went grocery shopping the weekend she left and I realized I don’t have to buy her favorite cereal any more. (Okay, I still choose to buy it because she doesn’t have a lot of money to buy her own groceries yet!)

In the morning, I still wake up suddenly when I realize that I can’t hear her getting ready for school. There were many, many times I’d frantically run down to her bedroom to wake her up because she overslept or missed her alarm.
I still have that impulse to bolt out of bed at 6:30 if I don’t hear her.

I listen to Pandora Radio through my BluRay DVD player and one of the channels I have programmed is Broadway music. (It also plays a lot of Disney and Glee songs.) I can’t tell you how many of those songs remind me of my girl!
The song that plays that most, that can make me sit down and bawl because I miss my girl so much is You’ve Got a Friend in Me by Randy Newman.
It’s from the first Toy Story movie.
That song was from her first dance recital when she was in kindergarten.
Even after all these years, I can see my sweet little girl, in her white tu-tu with silver stars and pink ballet slippers dancing while the teacher told them the steps:
”Heel….
Toe….
Heel….
Plié ….”

Even though she spent most of her days and nights at school and work, and she hasn’t spent a lot of time at home in the past year, the house seems unnaturally quiet.
She was never a real chatterbox or an “in-your-face” kind of girl, but I can feel that she’s not here anymore.

Someone said to me at church on Sunday:
”Motherhood. It’s the career that if we do it right, we work ourselves right out of a job.”

So, here’s my question:
Is it this hard on EVERY mom who says goodbye to a child when they move out?
Is it a secret “Mother’s Code” to not talk about it, and how sad it leaves you?

Or am I just a big cry baby?

Do I notice it more because I don’t have a house full of kids?
Do I notice it more because it’s only me and Inigo in this house that once seemed too small but now seems too big?

One mom I was talking to said her mom rejoiced when a kid moved out, because she had 8 kids and it made life so much easier at home when they left.

I guess I don’t understand that.

I recently found this quote:
“Grown don't mean nothing to a mother.  A child is a child.  They get bigger, older, but grown?  What's that suppose to mean?  In my heart it don't mean a thing.”  ~Toni Morrison

(Well said, Ms. Morrison!)

I read to Inigo every night. And when we get done reading, he climbs into my lap to hug and kiss me good night.
When I say good night and I love you to him, I find that I’m reverting back to saying it the way Buttercup said it when she was little.

”I’ll You!”
was the way she said “I love you,” until she was about 4 and starting to talk more clearly.

“I’ll You, Buttercup!!”

░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░ │ ░

Still Gloomy

Remember in June when I wrote this post about all the bad luck we’ve been having?

Well, the bad-luck-sisters are still playing with our life string!! And they are having
waaaaay too much fun with it!
At night, when I go to sleep, I can hear them cackle and laugh while they wad it up and throw it back and forth to each other.
They are tying it in knots and lassoing each other with it.
They play jump rope for hours with it.
They are displaying too much gaiety if you ask my opinion.

Let’s fill you in on what’s happened since my posting on June 29:

* Buttercup ended up in the ER with severe abdominal pain. This was only an hour after an emergency visit to Community Care in Florin.
(Max and I were out of town, so we didn’t have a lot of control over the situation. We probably wouldn’t have taken her to ER. We would have waited to see if the previous dr.’s diagnosis and treatment worked. They diagnosed her with an intense bladder infection.)

* Buttercup ends up having a CAT scan and having more blood work taken. The ER docs think it’s appendicitis. (Sound familiar?)

* Finally, about 2 am I get a phone call that says she has a cyst and that’s what’s causing her pain. It should burst on it’s own and no further treatment is needed.

I’ll sum up:

In two months time, two people in my family had two separate ER visits with two separate CAT Scans.

And here’s the kicker:

Our insurance, that I was so happy to write about on June 29, has DENIED all our medical claims. The medical care we sought was “out of network” so they are refusing to pay. But they are so generous in applying all the costs to our deductible, which IMO is incredibly high for an employer sponsored insurance program.
GREAT.
Super.
Nice Insurance people.

I have to ask the question:
”WHAT IS THE POINT OF PAYING MY INSURANCE PREMIUM EVERY MONTH IF THE STUPID INSURANCE PEOPLE WON’T PAY MY MEDICAL BILLS?”

I could go on and on,
but I won’t.

There’s even more bad luck.

Back in June, I wrote that we had accumulated 6 flat tires during the course of this year.
Now that it’s September, I am “happy to announce” that we can add

(drumroll please…..)

TWO MORE
flat tires to the count!

Seriously.

We had the 8th flat over Labor Day weekend while we were up at my parent’s cabin in Montana.
It wasn’t a total on-the-ground flat, but air was leaking enough that Max and my dad were worried that it would be completely flat by the time I made the 2 hour drive back to Florin. And with holiday traffic, it wasn’t worth the risk to go totally flat on the highway, so we put the spare on before I headed home.

While we were there, my dad noticed his tire was looking low, so he got out the air compressor and filled it up. While he was putting tools away, I could still hear air coming out of the compressor and I thought that was weird since the compressor was completely turned off.

Turns out it was his tire that was leaking air.
There was a HUGE hole in it!

So, before we left the cabin, we had to change another tire!

(This tire is NOT added to my totals, even though I feel our bad luck is starting to rub off on other people.)

Add to this list:
 Buttercup’s car.
She drives an OLD (1991) Chevy Corsica.
Yes, her car is older than she is.
She likes to point that out.
But, I say, at least she has something that has 4 tires and a steering wheel!

She has had some trouble with it.
The “serpentine belt” broke and all the equipment that goes along with it had to be replaced.
Also the alternator.
$400 in repairs in a car that cost $800.
Oh, she had a flat tire too.

(It’s included in the flat tire total.)

We are also having some mechanical problems with the Tahoe.
* We need new shocks
* The battery is wearing out
* Something is up with the fuel injector
* The catalytic convertor needs replaced

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GRAB THE BAD-LUCK-SISTERS AND KNOCK THEM IN THE FACE?!?!

************************

I usually try to be upbeat and positive.
Sometimes I just need to vent.
I’m still trying to follow Max’s
”LIFE IS GOOD!” motto.

*************************************************

Max has found two houses in New Florin to look at.
One (to purchase) is a new home they are in the process of building.
It’s very small and probably cheaply made, but it’s the only thing in our price range.
The housing market there hasn’t been hit hard like everywhere else and home prices are still very high.

The other home is a rental that is about 3 miles out of town in the country. Rent seems reasonable. But we don’t know what the inside of the house looks like and what condition it is in. Rentals are a rare find, so if we want it, we’ll have to move fast. The house is available October 1.

Looks like we’ll finally be making the move.
I’m scared and a little LOT sad.
I knew the day would come when we would leave our happy town and our great friends,
and I’ve had more than ample time to prepare,
but it’s going to be hard to leave.

**************************************************

My next post will be happy and upbeat.
I promise!