Journaling

- Sunday night was the family meeting.  There was a bit of a different feel with Nate's Dad's surgery coming up this week.  We all had dinner together and then a shortened meeting.  I am hopeful and feel like things are going to work out well for him with the surgery.  We will be praying for him.

- Monday night we had the opportunity of doing Family Home Evening at the Care Center.  One of the benefits of the Bountiful Heights Stake is getting to participate in church meetings there.  I love it.  We were doing the FHE with the Davis family and when we got there, a whole bunch of people from our old ward, The Ward Canyon Ward, and also from my old ward, The 54th Ward were all there.  It was a mini reunion :).  Brother Gardner had to make a big deal about us, and told how much we meant to the ward.  It was nice :).  We love that ward.  The kids all got to sing, we sang as a family, and the kids acted out some stories as Andrea narrated.  It was a lot of fun.  I love being able to be there and feel the Spirit with this people.  Fun stuff.  We all went to Arctic Circle together afterwards for ice cream :).  Good times.

- Tuesday morning was Grandpa Russ's kidney transplant day.  We were all a little nerve racked, and prayed for him a ton.  The sweet woman in his ward who had volunteered her kidney for the cause has found a special place in everyone's hearts.  Its neat to think that Heavenly Father orchestrated the whole thing the way He did.  I can't get over how much planning that would have taken :).  And for Debbie to be so in tune to the Spirit.... it's just miraculous. 3-13-12

- Tuesday we got to go to Grandpa Hatch's house for pizza!!  The kids have to fight over the iPad the whole time, and order Grandpa around for drinks, goodies, and such, but all in all, it's a good time.  Steve keeps us entertained :)  I got to witness the amazing speed of my Dad's new computer that he built himself.  Pretty amazing!  And he said he would build me one too ;)  (3-13-12)

- Wednesday, Nate, Erika, Noah and I went to visit Grandpa Russ in the hospital.  I couldn't believe how good he looked!  He was up and walking around already!  Impressive.  He was cracking jokes and laughed at all of ours.  It was good to see him doing so well!  We knew our prayers had been answered.  The kids had all sent letters and it was fun to see him read those, and know that they meant something to him.  What a blessing to have survived and been recovering from such an ordeal so quickly.  3-14-12

- Wednesday was my first evening meeting for my assignment as an employment coach in the ward.  It was a good meeting.  I can't believe how much The Church does for people, including non-members.  It fascinates me.  Anyway, I have been a slacker, repented, and now I am going to do what I need to do to help my person in her job search.  It was very motivating to say the least.  (3-14-12)

- Thursday afternoon/evening was interesting.  I went to Carl's Jr. (or CJ's as we lovingly call it) with Steve and my Mom.  That was fun, we got a lot of talking in.  Then as we were loaded up in the car and I turned the key, the car wouldn't start.  SOOOOOOOO frustrating!  I couldn't tell if it was because it was out of gas or not, because I knew it was low.  A very kind man and his daughter came over, we explained the situation to them, and they went and got me some gas.  Unfortunately, it wasn't just the gas, it was the battery.  So we spent a good 20 minutes TRYING to jump my car.  Luckily we tried one last time "for oldtime's sake" and wahoo! it started!!  I was so relieved, thanked Heavenly Father, thanked the man, offered to pay him, but he refused and said to "Pay it forward!", and drove off.  I needed to go to Target to shop for Luke's friend Carter's birthday present.  I was concerned about what to do, should I risk running out of gas and not stop to fill up, driving on the freeway to ensure that the battery is fully charged?  OR should I risk turning the car off and go fill up, hoping that I can turn the car back on?  (there was another option in my Mom and Steve's minds, they wanted me to leave the car running as I filled it up with gasoline- I just couldn't bring myself to do that.  Sounds too dangerous.)  So anyway, I took the second option, stopped to get gas and turned the car off.  $45 later, the car would not start.  It was such a let down!  We tried jumping it with Steve's friend's car (luckily Steve has friends in high places), but nothing!  I couldn't believe it and I was starting to get really frustrated.  We decided we would need to call in for reinforcements.  My Mom called Simon, he eventually came to get her, and was able to take Steve to get his car, so that Steve could hurry and take Luke to get his present.  I was running so low on time!!  There were all these "at the end of school" things I need to do, and be home for Bradley and Kelly who were walking.  It was nuts.  Luckily Nate showed up shortly after that, swooping in to save the day, brought me and the two littles, up to the school, we gave Charity her costume, and he got me home in time for Kelly and Bradley.  It was craziness!!
The dumb car charged for Nate and Steve when they went back down to rescue it, and we got cocky, thinking it was going to be fine after we drove it around for a couple hours.  We met Steve and my Dad at Wingers, had a lovely dinner, then got out to our car and once again, it wouldn't start.  Luckily my Dad was there, jumped it and it worked really quickly this time for some reason.  This time we got worried, it really should have been fine.  So we ran over to Autozone to test it and  found out that the battery is fine, held a charge, the alternator is fine, and all we can do now is take it to a mechanic to check on the starter and the starter motor.  Lame.  Cars are so annoying sometimes!  This one especially lately.  But anyway. (3-15-12)

- Today was annoying.  I dislike the feeling of needing to go somewhere, but not being able to because the vehicle is not functioning properly.  I know, I'm spoiled. I went many years, earlier on in our marriage, where I didn't have a car, and I feel I did my time in that area.  Right now, it's just not desirable to have six children and an ornery Mom crammed into one living space for an entire Saturday.  Today was proof.  I'm going to spare you the details and not complain anymore about it right now, but I did want to say that it would have been even worse if it hadn't been for my brother Steve.  He saved the day by taking Charity and her puppy to the vet for her appointment that I had completely forgotten about and let Nate take the car.  He took her and sat there and listened and asked questions.... so helpful.  I almost feel like I was there.  It was wonderful.  I totally owe him.  3-17-12
And some other noteworthy news- Charity taught Buddy to sit!  Wahoo!  I'm so glad she is capable!

- Monday was the kids' day off from school and since everyone was so let down when we went to get Buddy rather than Nickelcade back on Charity's birthday, we decided that that's what we would do for our day off.  Unfortunately the car had different plans!  Our car had been giving us trouble ALL weekend!  We were sure it was something simple and that it was just a quick fix until we took it in.  It took them a while to get to it, and then when they finally did, realized it was no big deal.  The terminals on the battery were loose.  So they fixed that free of charge, but noticed that our sensors on our ABS were out.  So $200 later, that was fixed too.  Kind of nice to have been able to pay $100 less than we were expecting to pay for the previous problem, but then to have both issues resolved.  For once the car was on our side :).  Anyway, none of this was resolved in time on Monday afternoon.  We were so worried that the kids weren't going to get to do their fun!!  So we cracked and decided that Nate needed to take the kids.  We knew we ALL couldn't go, so Erika and I stayed home while the other kids crammed into the car and took off for Nickelcade.  I was SO relieved that they were able to go!  Nate was so fun and so generous for them and made it a lot of fun!  Dads are so much more fun than Moms at a place like that anyway ;).  They won over 2,000 tickets, so they all got something pretty cool!  I was impressed!  They seemed very happy and like they all got enough partying for one day.  3-19-12