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Feeling Better and Having Fun
Today the kiddies were feeling better as was I. No more rushing to the bathroom! Yippee!
So what did we do now that we are all feeling better? Well, this morning I did some blogging work, shipped a dress to Hawaii that I sold on eBay, I started a big pot of spaghetti sauce for tonight's supper, did some laundry and that's about it...gee, that doesn't sound like much does it?
Jack got his haircut at 1:00 (he was starting to resemble Wolf Man Jack so this was a very important part of our day!).On the way home, we dropped off some homemade cookies with a neighbor. She was tickled.
Then we came back by the house and picked up Daniel and headed for the garage where my car has been getting a new heater hose and oil change. My car may be entering the death throws of it's life...or at least of it's engine life. I drive a 1992 Chevy Caprice which I dearly love. My mom and stepfather gave it to me three years ago. About 6 months later I was rear ended by an equipment truck and it was only the supreme condition of the car that made it viable to replace the trunk. The insurance company totalled the car, but the value was so close to what the damage was going to cost to repair, we went on and paid the difference.
About 2 months ago, my car started smoking (no not cigarettes!). I would pull into a parking lot and smoke/steam would be escaping around the hood. At first I thought it was transmission fluid 'burning off'. DH had filled up my transmission fluid and had spilled a bit. But after a week of this, I realized it should have burnt off by then. I popped the hood and realized that a hose that was supposed to be inserted into the valve cover had popped out (I later learned this is called a PVC valve). Anyway, I couldn't get it to stay in. So oil was bubbling up occasionally and leaking down the manifold and smoking as it burned off.
I went to visit my dad and he managed to get the PVC back into the hole and viola, no more smoke/steam for about a day! What, it's still steaming, but the PVC thingy is where it is supposed to do...what now. Well, as I stood there looking at the steam/smoke, I realized that water/antifreeze was leaking down onto the manifold. And I realized that the reason it smoked sometimes and not others was because I didn't always have my heater or defrost or ac on. So since it only seemed to leak when one of these items was running, I just would do without until our financial situation straightened out. No problem! After all, I have coats, hats and gloves to keep me warm. This solution worked for a couple of weeks. Last Wednesday, I thought I had best check the oil as it had been about a month.
Imagine my horror when I pulled the dipstick out and there was rust on it! And signs that water was mixed in with my oil! It had not been that way a month ago when my dad and I checked it! My best guess was that as the steam erupted due to the leak, that water was getting up under the dipstick and dripping down and that perhaps some had gotten into the hole in the manifold. Now this is really wishful thinking on my part because in all likelihood I am looking at a cracked head gasket. But there was nothing really to do. My dad told me to clean the dipstick off good, add a quart as I was a quart low and check it again in a week (which would have been this past Wednesday).
On Sunday I drove to church and when I parked, the steam/smoke was pouring out from under my hood. I was afraid the car was going to catch fire. The steam/smoke stopped and I went to Sunday School class. This was really a breaking straw for me. We have been barely keeping our head above water and I had no money to fix whatever was ailing my car. When we did prayer requests, I offered up a praise that Daniel had a new contract and then I shared my prayer request that whatever was ailing my car would be minor. As I started making this request, all the worries of recent months came up and I began to boo hoo (I know you ladies out there understand what I am saying). I felt like I was at the end of my rope. I had done all I could do, my husband had done all he could do and we just couldn't handle an emergency right now. My brothers and sisters sitting in that room reached out to me with love, emotional support, offers to help and money for repairs. The whole situation reminded me to always trust that God will take care of me ( a lesson I have to keep learning over and over again because I have been programmed since I was a child to take care of myself).
After class, one member went out to the car to try and help me figure it out. Well as he was looking, his hand brushed the heater hose and it literally just fell apart and antifreeze started pumping out everywhere. I rushed to turn the car off. Now my car had gone from smoking/steaming to undriveable. But Gary knew a great mechanic. And Mark and Susie told me they had a car I could borrow while mine was in the shop. I cannot begin to tell you how much my friends blessed me on Sunday with their love, concern and generosity. So today, we went to pick up my car. The heater hose is repaired, so the smoking/steaming should stop. The oil has been changed, so that if the water was coming from the leaking heater hose, then all should be well. If it is a cracked head...I will just drive it until it decides I can't drive it anymore and I will go on from there. A new engine would be expensive, but since the rest of the car is in fantastic shape, an engine would be cheaper than getting another car...so we will see.
After we went to get my car today, we returned the car I had borrowed (I am so happy to be back in my car). Then the kids and I hit the kitchen. We decided we would each pick a favorite cookie to make this year. Jack picked candy cane cookies, Katrina picked sugar cookies and I picked my grandmother's molasses cookies. Today we made the sugar cookies and candy cane cookies. They all turned out very yummy (of course we had to try some as we went along...wanted to make sure they were good).
My MIL arrived around 4:30 and we sat down to a yummy spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread and a cookie for dessert. After she and I did dishes and she helped me with some laundry, we sat with Daniel and watched the end of the news. Then we watched The Christmas Gift. This is a movie with John Denver from 1986. It is a harmwarming tale and it was fun for all of us to watch it together. The kids and I played with some legos while we watched the movie.
Then everyone but me went to bed. We have to be up fairly early tomorrow as Jack and Katrina have their Christmas piano recital in Lynchburg tomorrow morning. We will have to leave here around 9. Then we will bring Tess (MIL) and the kids back to the house. Our neighboring teen is coming to take care of the kids, MIL has her own errands to run and DH and I will go and pick up a few gifts for the kids for Christmas. Hopefully we can get that done and return home before the ICE STORM comes! I hate ice! Bring on the snow...but I don't want the ice! GRRR! Hopefully it will not interfere with us going to our family dinner Sunday night, but I have a feeling church will be cancelled Sunday morning which is a major bummer! I have several people I want to thank and we will be out of town on the 23rd...
I have my fingers crosse that our ice becomes snow or rain...either would be better.
If you are still here with all of my ramblings and automotive babble, I wish you pleasant dreams!
