Why I shouldn't be a mechanic.

A couple of days ago Chris noticed that my headlights and dashboard lights would flicker off and on. I never saw this so I didn't pay it any mind. But in the last two days the flicker lasted longer and longer until Monday it just turned off. A frustrating moment considering I was driving Germantown Road at dusk. Luckily, after some under breath swearing and frantic turning of the light switch, it came back on.

Yesterday this scene replayed itself multiple times. As I was dreading calling the mechanic and seeing my next paycheck being signed over to the garage, Chris luckily put on his Sherlock Holmes hat and started asking me questions.

C: "this could be a couple of things... wait, didn't you change the front headlight a while ago?"

V: "yeah..."

C: "And everything went okay?"

V: "Well, I couldn't get this one piece back on, so I just kind of set it in there. Is that bad?"

Um yeah. So last night Chris braved the cold and obvious frustration and took a look at my hack job. The piece in question was rolling around all loosey goosey. I guess this could create shorts...or something. Who knew? Luckily Chris was able to fix it and this morning I had no issues with the lights.

So what did I learn? When it comes to my car, for gosh sakes, ask for help!

January fun.

We have been wicked busy at the Tioga house. The after-holiday rest period is over and we are now up and running...well for me, literally.

To start, I have decided to run a 5K with Miss Kate and friends. Finishing a 5K has been on my To-Do list for ages, but I've never been able to get past filling out a registration form. Since I've started training (I use the word loosely) my legs have been in a constant state of soreness. But surprisingly I have been looking forward to the next run.

This fall Blake will be starting Kindergarten. I've been busy researching the neighborhood schools and the charter schools trying to find a good fit. I can't wait to see Blake head off to her first day of school...

Hippie Boy had this surge of motivation and we now have crown molding in every room! Just fricken AWESOME! Of course I now have no more excuses as to why I haven't started decorating yet. I have all this freedom to do as I please yet I find myself frozen looking at the blank walls. Ideas are not the problem, only my fear of crappy work is. Bah.

But I have been inspired to create handmade gifts for Hippie Boy's birthday. I can't divulge any specific details yet, but it involves screen-print ink, cutting, sewing and yarn.

And to add to the fun, we had a co-worker and his kids over to our house Saturday night for some Wii fun. His two boys are similar age to ours. There was a lot of running, laughing and overall mayhem. It's exciting to have kids who live close who can come and play. And once the weather warms up, the cool clubhouse can finally get some action!

forever and a day...

It's been forever and a day since I've last posted, and I'm sorry to say that I really have nothing.

Nothing to report.

Nothing to exclaim about.

...well, we did get new dishes!

A great start to 2009

2009 has started and with no avail our family is off and running.

On Wednesday we took the family to go see the Northwest Childrens Theater's production of The Wizard of Oz. Blake joined countless little girls in wearing their sparkly red shoes. It's been a while since I've seen a play or musical so I was blown away by how much I missed it. I don't know if I'll ever be on stage again but looking at my daughters face as the show was happening gives me a sneaky suspicion the acting bug may have taken hold in our youngest!

Before we closed out 2007, our family put together a time capsule. Inside we put a few of our favorite things and answered a few questions. We opened this on New Year's Day and was blown away by who we all were back then and what our "plans" were for 2008. Nothing turned out quite what we had expected.

Inside the container was this picture:


Since this picture was taken we lost Linda (C's mom) and Goldy, the goldfish and we have since purchased a home. We closed up the capsule and scheduled to open it up again in 5 years and created a new one for next year. We took a new family photo too.


This was a "tester". As soon as we got Molly involved...


It was moments before Noro started chasing Molly. This shot tells the story of our family. Chris is trying to make things work. I'm overly reacting to the situation. Ranen is laughing at all of it and Blake is trying to get away from being slobbered. The dog wants to make friends with the cat and Molly....well, she just wants to get out of Dodge. We could have taken another picture, one more staged, but this is who we are.

I also spent a few hours this week basking in the glow of yarn. I met up with an old friend and we had lunch then spent time in our favorite yarn shop, Twisted. It was a blast! More on that later!

We ended the week by going to the Blazer vs Hornet game. It was less then steller, but thanks to Santa we all looked great in our new Blazer gear. It was a long night but a good one considering we had two kids, the game was boring and it ended up being a late night!




I hope everyone had a great and happy new year!