I Am Grateful

• 30. A Testimony and belief in my savior, Jesus Christ, and His restored Gospel.
• 29. My blog, for giving me a way to quickly chronicle life and it's happeneings
• 28. Saltines and Gatorade....poor J is sick, sick, sick...
• 27. Family, Food, and Fun
• 26. Noggin, to entertain the kids. I'm a busy cooking and cleaning woman!
• 25. Prayer
• 24. Recipes and menu plans that make life much easier
• 23. Peace
• 22. Music
• 21. Kid cuddles
• 20. Creativity
• 19. Clean laundry
• 18. Sunshine and 70 degrees! What a beautiful day.
• 17. No more gray hair ;)
• 16. Cute nursery kids singing songs
• 15. Saturdays....the only time I get my husband home all day!
• 14. Nicole, my now 7 year old! :)
• 13. My almost 3 year old who makes me laugh on a daily basis.
• 12. A full nights sleep
• 11. Choices
• 10. Diet Dr. Pepper
• 9. A sense of humor!
• 8. The sanctity of family and marriage.
• 7. Good friends
• 6. Education
• 5. The snow we woke up to - my kids were SO excited!
• 4. A free country and the opportunity to participate in government
• 3. My husband's secure job
• 2. My husband
• 1. My health

Comedy of Errors....but I'm not laughing too hard.

We found out a while back that there was some recall/warranty work that needed to be done on our car. So, for some stupid (in hindsight) reason, I scheduled it for today, along with an oil change and tire rotation before we head out on our trip in that car.

So this afternoon the service guy calls...I'm thinking to tell me the car is done. Instead, he informs me that while they were doing the recall work on our car's "Electronic Control Module" (basically the car's on board computer, that controls alot) our car's battery went dead. When that happened, there was a "voltage spike" that, um, went right into the "ECM" and fried it...the car's brain was dead...and they don't have the part to replace it.

OF COURSE NOT!

So he tells me that they've ordered it, and it'll be overnighted and the car will be fixed with new ECM and battery tomorrow....well okay, we'll need a rental...okay they'll arrange that.

*********************
Question 1: Why did the car battery that is less than a year old run dead?
Question 2: How does a dead battery have a voltage spike?
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Ron calls him an hour later when he gets home for the story and to make sure they understand the car must be back to us tomorrow (he'd already told them we were needing it for a road trip.) This is when it became really NOT funny...

The latest update was that the ECM would now not be available until Monday. They claimed they could not pull one out of another car because the '08 part wouldn't fit in our '07.

This is when my husband pretty much ripped the guy a new one through the phone.

So they said they'd figure something out, even said they'd rent us a car to take on our road trip. (Of course the car would be too small to fit our entire family in, and there would be no built in DVD player. Yes, our kids are spoiled, but that is our lifeline to going anywhere in relative peace!)

Later, when we called AGAIN to find out about getting a rental car for tomorrow so I can get my children to school they told us they'd researched it and found that they COULD use an ECM from an '08 in our car, so they were doing that now and we could get the car tomorrow. That's great, but I still need a car to chauffeur my kids around as my husband will be at work tomorrow.

Then we find out that the only car the rental car company had isn't going to fit our family....don't ever try to rent a car in Provo....they have nothing that fits families...so then the car dealership tells us they'll stay an hour late and finish our car for tonight.

So after all that mess, we did get our car back. It is functioning, so I'm assuming the ECM is okay, and we got a new battery....as for the oil change and tire rotation, I'm not all that sure those happened, since the cashier had no charge slip written up for those.

I just hope we don't break down in the middle of the Indian reservation. Then again, our kids might think hanging with Native American kids would be cool...

I'm just glad we got our car back, and I think if we ever get a recall notice again, I'll ignore it!

Today I'm thankful for....

Not that this sounds very nice, but I'm thankful that the Stake Nursery Leader had sick kids, so she couldn't come "observe" today during Ward Conference! We are still working the kinks out, so in a couple weeks, when she does come, things should be clockwork.

I'm also thankful we didn't lose any kids today again. Sheesh. Whenever I started thinking about it, I'd start feeling sick about last week's "incident". I just kept thinking that if that kid had gotten outside, and gone into the parking lot, and wandered behind any number of the large cars out there...ugh! So this week we put the gate up at the door, and the kids got "checked out" and lifted over the gate to waiting family. Much better.

I'm so thankful for my husband who comes home from being at church all day (seriously...he left at 6:30 AM and got home at 5 PM), is starving hungry, and the poor guy has to help me finish dinner. Which consisted today of highly gourmet sausage, egg, and cheese on English muffins. He didn't even complain about the "mock" Hollandaise sauce I attempted to help them along. It was not especially good. Next time I'll attempt the real stuff...and possibly have Canadian bacon on hand.

Lastly, I am so thankful that my HD PBS channel is showing "Persuasion" again at 10 tonight. The kids were not cooperative in letting mommy get her Austen fix tonight, and daddy was completing more church stuff. So I missed most of it. From what I did see, I think I'll enjoy it, although Capt. Wentworth just isn't the same without Ciaran Hinds! What do you think?!




**Updated! It is now 11:38, and I just finished watching "Persuasion"....hmmmm. I am sort-of torn. I really did like Sally Hawkin's as Anne Elliot...a bit more than Amanda Root's portrayal...I guess she's nicer to watch. I thought the whole gist of the story was told better in this version. It is clear from the beginning what Anne's history is with Frederick. As for Rupert Penry-Jones instead of Ciaran Hinds...yep, I got used to that too! Ooh, Anne's family in this version bugged the heck out of me though! So full of themselves when really they need to get a grip, and sister Mary needs a lobotomy. I really didn't like Lady Russell this time, whereas in the previous version, she did feel bad for persuading Anne to not marry Frederick, but in this one, she still had it out for him. Oh well....even though I own the 1st version, I'm pretty sure I'll need to get this one! I am such an Austen-phile!