The Epic Crash at Middle School

 Papa has had his "hot shot" for at least 15 years. His Toyota was a death trap these last few years though, especially the way he drives. Unfortunately, everyone is always in a rush and during the drop off some lady 2 cars ahead, slammed on her brakes causing a chain reaction no one was prepared for. Papa got the worst of it. We were all a little worried about him. It was a day filled with  work trying to figure out what to do. Rental cars would be $1,000. Ridiculous. Our cousin Chris said he could get it fixed for  $1000. Jody took him to carmax, just to look... and of course... he ended up buying this hybrid beauty. So grateful he is safe, has a sturdy economical car, and that we are blessed. God is so good to us. 

Too much fun!

We have been busy!! We found ourselves with poor old Atlas dying of Covid. He wasn't going to survive and we didn't want to pour more money into a 20+ year old car. Yes. 1996.

We took the plunge and bought a new Honda Pilot. It's an 8 seater, comfortable, good on gas, and we are absolutely in love!! It's pretty basic but we like basic! On the ride home with the kids Maria was hooking up the bluetooth and she randomly hooked it up to someone else in a different car. She hooked it up to "steamboat minnie" and much to Jody's horror... the name has stuck for this car.

We are blessed. It's been so nice to have a car that we are safe in.

Woooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a broken headlight. 1 hour later and help from Nina and Eli.... and of course Heavenly Father!!! it was fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiixed!!!!!!

Woo. Victory dance!!!

Nesting, Cleaning out Drawers

 

Today, out of utter necessity, I needed to clean out our junk drawers. Ah nesting. How you drive me insane and tire me out. I ran across these pictures and they made me smile. I have a small journal from my college days, but oh how I wish I had written down more! It's hard to imagine life without blogging, digital cameras, and in opposite,printing out pictures from film!!

 

My husband is so hot (above). It is so funny how we have each gained 200 pounds. Not really. But honestly, that is what happens in marriage. You get old and fat. We had good times in college, but I wouldn't trade a moment to go back. I'm so grateful for every single day with him. Especially since he has the leader of the black panthers (he's 77 now) cell number and says that if he ever ends up in prison, he will be the person he calls.

 

I love my commentary on pictures. It's like I was born to blog before I even knew it.... thank you cross dresser.

 

 

The champion!!! Our $200 car!!! Man, that car was the best deal EVER. Sure, it was ghetto. But it got us where we needed to go! Plus I learned to drive stick on it. And so did Lily. Tender times and it shook violently after you took the key out of it.

 

I know we were dressing up for an institute dance but I have no memory of the activity itself. I think it was probably lame and we ended up at a club.

HOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And look... no double chin!!! I love Mom's thumb in the picture as well as an ethereal dove floating above my head.

We had so much fun traveling and seeing temples together. I'm glad we took the time to do that because once you have kids, it's hard to get to sessions together. Love Oakland!!!

 

My Nono is the best. I was talking to my dad about how it's sad that my kiddos won't know the people I've loved so much and lost, here in this life. You can talk about memories but it's not the same as Nono taking them to the Peppermill and giving them $40 after just because. At least I have a picture of the water flasks they used for their tea all the time. I loved how I would pick at my Nono's eyebrows on occasion and he would just chuckle and swat me away. Of course, I knew better than to touch his hair. His hair was always off limits.

I loved the oil stains on his expensive shirts and how he told me to put newspaper in my clothes if the weather was cold.

I miss his calls every single day... at 5. Exactly.

 

It's so good to run across things. These made me smile.

The New Truck

 

Where the HELL is Graeagle? In our driveway. In. Our. Driveway.

Our Theo Speedo did it again!

The kiddos were excited. We were excited. The new truck is awesome.

It's a '93 Isuzu Rodeo. It's got 160,000 miles and only had 1 owner. It is in awesome shape (except for a crack down the windshield) and was a whopping total of $1,400.

Hopefully it's going to get decent gas mileage. And last.

 

Joe and Speedo spent the week looking at cars. We are so blessed.

Plus it fits in the garage!!!! And has 4WD.

And a thing on the front to "ram people" as Joe put it.

I love Christina's face in this picture.

My Birthday Gift

Sometimes I feel spoiled. I'd say 110% of the time I feel spoiled.

My life is "choice" to say the least. I'm blessed more than words can say. I don't know what day it is, but awhile ago it was my birthday and I felt the love. My mom went shopping for the food so I didn't have to go out. My husband cooked a delicious dinner (plus the table was absolutely beautiful) and my dad brought some food too. I was spoiled with gifts (a beautiful book from my dad and mom that made me cry) and lots of love. I also enjoyed the Alpha Wife shirt my husband gave me... :) but more so the meal. And of course I can't forget the purple nail polish the girls gave me.I honestly think this is the first time in my life my toes have ever been painted bright sparkly purple.

But the biggest gift was this beauty (as pictured above). I am officially 30 and hence, the mini-van.

Actually, our Buick was getting a bit dilapidated- 2 broken windows, no air conditioning or heating, bad brakes, barely enough room to fit the kids... Don't get me wrong, it's quote "HOT. Now that's an automobile." (Theo Speedo) However, I just didn't feel safe in it with the kids. (And as a side note, God truly watches over us. 2 weeks later the brakes went completely out. Fortunately, my uncle wasn't hurt, but I know that this was a miracle)

We had been looking, but if you're going to get a car, you need an expert. Hence, Theo Speedo. He is the master of all automotive questions and just plain awesome. He slaved away looking all over the place for something to accommodate us. Jody spent a lot of time "bonding" with my uncle and it's provided me with lifelong happy memories, some of which quotes include:

"Jody is the absolute worst driver ever. He drives like a bat."

"You don't drive a car up a hill in cruise control. The motor was going all over the place." (Repeated 10 times)

"Yeah. We don't have a license, you're black and I'm a tall white dude smoking a cigarette, the plates aren't valid.... hope we don't get pulled over"

"There's no Armando. Armando's the dude back at his shop. He's just sh*ttin' us."

"Vans are tin cans. They are totally disposable. But if that's what you want, whatever."

"If you want more room for more kids, go buy a school bus."

"WOW! You fixed the mirror!! *&!*@& I thought you'd leave that thing dangling forever. That's your style letting your cochathokie dangle."

:) Ah happiness.

My Uncle is the absolute best!! There is no one out there with a bigger heart who serves so many. For 2 years he took an old widow to the store weekly and unloaded her groceries for her. He mows neighbors lawns. The list goes on and on. My favorite is when they were having trouble with pit bulls in the neighborhood, he'd go around picking up people who had to walk in his car and giving them rides. He's just great.

My grandma was so kind to buy the van for us. It's used, but it's the highest price out of all our cars. $6,200. The mileage is super low- 58,000 and it's a 2001. Everything is super clean on it. Speedo checked it out quite thoroughly. My Yaya truly spoils us and this van is a huge blessing in our life. The kiddos love it, we love it, everyone loves it. Now hopefully it will last awhile... knock on wood.

And as a side note, we gave the Roadmaster to my uncle to see if he could fix it and sell it. Well, not only did he fix everything (including the brakes that went out) he just cruises everywhere with it and loves it. And a friend of his loved it so much, he offered to pay my uncle $50 to put it in a TV commercial. Fantastic. Fantastic times.

Goodbye Horrible Week! Hello Bright New Week!

2nd week of school... it better get easier.
To say last week was difficult would be putting it lightly.
Monday- School calls, Christina vomited at school because she was in the sun for 1 hour in 95 degree weather. She ate lunch, then had recess, then had PE all in the afternoon. I was in the car chanting to myself, don't panic, don't panic!
Tuesday- I keep Christina home because you're not allowed back at school for 24 hours if you've vomited. We get stuck in traffic trying to run errands with Yaya Sofia. It's hot.
Wednesday- Birthday party madness. Not to mention I forgot it was early release. My poor baby had to wait in the office, they didn't call me so 40 minutes later there's mom. Christina was having fun with another little friend who's mother was horrible like me. I hate myself. I'm so proud of her for knowing what to do. She just went back to class, the teacher sent her to the office and there you go. I'm glad she didn't try walking home and then getting kidnapped. Also, I should make mention Christina got to bed at 10PM because cliff jumping was out in the boon docks.
Thursday- I develop a gum infection. Car breaks down.
Friday- Car is fixed for a nice lump of spare change.

Thank you Lord for a new week, a better week! The funny thing, is it really wasn't that bad. But I was sure glad to be done. :)

The New Car - "Smells like Junk"

We have a GREAT new car!!! It is 100% no shame when you are in it. It is completely normal. We had to get a paint job and the inside "smells like junk" according to Maria, but it is awesome. The Moldsmobile clunked out on us, so we gave it to the twins. Now if only they'd get their licenses. We found the license plate the DMV gave us to be slightly amusing. 801 is the area code for Provo.

Easter Festivities

We celebrate "commercial/bunny" Easter on Saturday. We started off by heading to Trader Joe's at 8AM for a small hunt. But they ran out of eggs so we got large boxes of Jelly Belly's instead. Maria loved the Easter Bunny and gave him multiple hugs. I think she would have followed him the entire time but I found his grass skirt semi-creepy. We headed to Milpitas for lunch and an egg hunt. We must have had at least 200 eggs. It was fun! I stuffed the eggs with an animal cracker or gummy... and Yaya refilled them with 4 or 5 per egg. The girls ran around excited and screaming. They had a blast.

On Sunday we took it easy and tried to keep the Sabbath holy. We watched a short Easter video, went to church and returned to Papa and Yaya's for leftovers. My dad = master chef. The girls played in the sandbox and Maria came in saying "We're whacking Jesus." I went outside to ask Christina what she was talking about. She said they were playing Resurrection. She had different mounds of sand. One was the place where Jesus was hit by the bad people. Then another was were they crucified Him and last the empty tomb. They had a doll who they were pretending was Jesus.

I have interesting children.

You can get a sense of how awesome my hubby's hair is. I love making chemical jokes, it makes me happy. So it's a win-win situation. I also enjoy watching him "fluff" his hair which is basically head banging to imaginary Metallica songs. And honestly I can only think of one Metallica song I know... the one with "we're off to never never land". Enter sandman?

2 days ago was the 1 year anniversary of Nono's death. I think of all the things you can learn and enjoy in life, but nothing can compare to this one fact - that Jesus Christ was resurrected and through Him we will be also. The fear of death is swallowed up in that one truth and the peace I feel each day I am undeserving of. Easter is indeed a wonderful time of year, but I pray that in our home we can remember Christ, His life, His sacrifice, His resurrection everyday and do the things He would have us do.

The Dynaride

Our newest edition. A 1993 Buick Roadmaster. Do I really need to say anything else?

RIP

My heart and soul is devastated to post this, but yes... the Caddy up and died on us. Please take a moment of silence. This car was amazing in every respect. When in California, we would wave to other Cadillac owners and there was this culture of unspoken admiration for the fine automobile we drove. Alas, the crankshaft cracked. AAA did not help and abandoned us in our hour of need.... BOYCOTT!!! Now the car has become the young men's new project. Everyone adores the car. This is all just so painful.

Envy us...

Yes... this would be our new "friend". We decided to go ahead and get another car, we took Theo Speedo (who is an expert and has worked on cars for 30 years) and shopped around. Finally, we found a suitable match for our other exquisite 1981 caddillac coupe deville.... a 1988 Oldsmobile Delta Royale. Behold her in her glory. We value safety, reliability, and luxury that only seasoned cars can provide.