Fall Memories

Make a Smilebox photobook

Weston's Birthday Party

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Black October....& November?

Ok so we've had a string of bad luck this last month. I was hoping it would end with October but seeing as today is November 1st apparently it hasn't. It started with the dishwasher breaking. Let's see, I think that was around $300 post warranty. Then the after our heater was inspected (I kept having that feeling to get it inspected thankfully before we turned it on) it turned out our heating exchange was cracked (ie carbon monoxide leaking point). Since it's 13 yrs old we opted to go ahead and get the whole thing replaced. Fortunately a guy in our ward was able to help us out on that one and it only set us back $2100. Today, while visiting the local Nature Center we decided to go on a little hike with the kids. Shortly after we started our hike our mini-van was broken into, the window smashed and my purse stolen. There was only $25 in it (sucks for them). I froze all of the accounts but all of my addresses and the birthdays that I had finally written down for the family were all in there. Could everyone please send me all of your family members birthdays again ;). Thanks. We'll see how much this sets us back but since our deductible is $500 I suspect that it will be at least that to replace the window. What a pain! Let's hope that this is the end of our Black Month. Oh, I almost forgot Andrew racing his scooter down our steep driveway last weekend and knocking part of his front tooth out. We'll see what that is to get it repaired.

Gas prices still crazy

So while the rest of you are enjoying fairly descent gas prices as that goes these days we are still suffering from a shortage after hurricane Ike, arrrgggg! Gas here is finally $3.67 roughly, down from 3.89 last week and at least most gas stations finally are carrying gas again. What a time this is! Crazy.

Just adding to this after the fact that gas got up to the low $4s (like $4.20) and stayed there for a few months.

Water skiing

A few weeks ago, I wish our camera had been working, our very kind neighbors took us out on their boat to go waterskiing. Their son who is 17 years old is a national wake boarding champion. The Dad is extremely kind and very kid friendly. He wanted to give the boys some experience with the water and see if they would water ski.

So we tried Andrew first after a lot of coaxing at first. I knew he wanted to try but was a little skeptical. Our neighbor got in the water with him and helped to steady him until he got going. He almost got up the first time but after a short stretch his skis wobbled and he went down. The next time he wouldn't let go of the rope and drug behind the boat for awhile, poor kid. That was the end of his try but I'm sure he'll try it again next time.

So then Weston who was not quite 5 yet decided that he was going to out do his brother and do this thing! So he got in the water with our friend steadying him and popped up on the first try. He didn't actually stand up all the way but he ended up waterskiing a good 75 yards until he decided to let go. He got up out of the water and that was our first indication of his plan when we said, "Do you want to go again?" and he said, "No, I did it longer than Andrew." Well alrighty then. Wish I had pictures of the boys. They were both amazing!

Our trip to Asheville (Sept '08)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Apocalypse Now

Wish I had pictures of this but since it's raining I didn't want to get the camera out. It feels a little like the last days here in the south east right now. There is so much in the news going on right now with the financial crisis and elections that there has been no coverage of this but we are essentially out of gasoline for cars here right now. B/c of hurricane Ivan shutting down the refineries in TX, our two major pipelines come straight from this area and they are all but shut down right now. The gas supply started getting spotty just after the hurricane and while it was "supposed" to be up and running, here we are a week later. It is reminiscent of the 1970s around here. Almost all gas stations are shut down right now in Charlotte down to Atlanta. When they do have them you are limited to 10 gallons and there are police officers and fire trucks as well as security guards at all the stations to make sure that there are no line cutters/fights breaking out and to direct traffic which is backing up the surrounding roads. It is not uncommon to have to wait 30-45 min.s for gas in line. It's giving me an ulcer!