The Grandma Car

When my mom decided that she was ready to move to an assisted living facility she also decided that she was ready to not drive anymore. She had a nice vehicle that she no longer needed and we told her we were interested in acquiring it. The youngest daughter was receiving some money from a trust fund she had with the tribe and was wanting to buy a new car with 4 wheel drive to take to Idaho with her. The hubby and I thought that my mom's car would be a great fit for her needs since it had the 4 wheel drive that she wanted, low miles, a history that we were familiar with and was being offered for a great price. However, the daughter had other ideas. She said this car looked like a "Grandma Car" because it had a gold interior. Well, the hubby and I decided that we weren't too worried about the color of the interior of our cars and purchased my mom's car for ourselves.


This car is definitely a step up from what the hubby has been driving to work and the boys in our family have quickly accepted it into our family. The youngest son was concerned though that the car needed a better moniker to go by than "The Grandma Car". After much discussion the new name that this vehicle is now known by is THOR.


We felt like this was a strong name for a strong vehicle. The gold color is reminiscent of the winged helmet that Thor wears and there are even a couple of spots on the exterior of the car that look like they might have come in contact with that mighty sledge hammer that the original Thor has resting on his shoulder.

Thor might be missing the simple, quiet life that he use to enjoy in Utah with my mom, but we are glad that he has joined our family.

A Trip to the Car Repair Shop

I was a nice wife and let my husband use my van while the oldest daughter and I were in Utah this past week (she was a nice daughter and drove her car on the road trip). Sometime while the van was in the hubby's possession the red plastic cover on the right brake light fell off. That's apparently what happens when the temperature is consistently over 110 degrees. The glue it's stuck on with just dries up and stops working. Well, the hubby made some phone calls and our nice mechanic found a replacement for us. You can't just replace the cover, you have to replace the entire brake light unit, so today I drove to Phoenix to the car repair shop to get it fixed. When I got there he asked me to back the van into an small empty space between 2 other cars. I am not the world's greatest backer-uper and I especially don't like to back up with an audience, but I finally managed to get the van in the spot. I sat in the car while he worked on it, since it was a "quick" job and I almost melted, but not quite. When he was finished tinkering,he had me step on the brakes a few times, flip the turn signal off and on (which worked better after I turned the car on), turn on the hazard lights (which he had to come and locate for me), and put the car in reverse. After watching how well I handled the other jobs, I'm surprised he was willing to stand behind me while I put the car in reverse, but he was brave and I didn't run over him. Everything was working well and I wrote him a check and drove away. I decided while I was in the neighborhood I was going to look for a store that use to be close by so I drove around a few corners and then around the same corners again. I found the store, but it was no longer in operation. About this time I realized that the right turn signal sounded like it was running a race when I flipped it on. I have learned, from experience, that this is the sound it makes when it is not functioning properly. I debated for a while if I should just go home or go back to the shop, but I didn't want to drive back to Phoenix again tomorrow so I returned to the shop. First though, I did pull over, turn the signal on and get out and check if it was working. It wasn't. I wondered if the brake light was out as well, but I couldn't figure out a way to check it by myself. I got back to the shop and we went through the check list again - brakes, turn signals, flasher, reverse. Nothing was working. The repairman wiggled some things and pulled on some things and pushed on some things and replaced some bulbs and then we went through the checklist once more - I was finally getting the hang of this. Everything appeared to be working again, and so I left. As I was rolling up the windows and driving away from the shop my oldest daughter called me on my cell phone. As I started talking to her my air conditioner started making this high pitched whistling noise. It was loud enough that the daughter asked me what that noise was. We discussed that it was the AC and she suggested that I turn around and go back to the shop to get it checked out. By now I had turned onto the main road and was stuck in a major traffic jam where all the lanes merged into one. I turned the air conditioner off and turned it back on and the noise stopped. We talked for a few minutes while I crawled along the road and then she hung up. After I got past the construction and sped up the AC started whistling again - LOUD. I was trying to figure out why it only made the noise sometimes when it occurred to me that the sound it was making was quite similar to the sound the window makes when it's not rolled up all the way. I pushed the window control buttons and sure enough the passenger window was down a little bit and that was what was causing the noise. I called the daughter back and told her not to worry about the AC. It was fixed. We both had a good laugh at how dumb I am sometimes. I'm glad I didn't go back to the repair shop and ask for help. I'm pretty sure the mechanic already thinks I'm pretty clueless.

Today I am thankful that

my visiting teaching companion almost always sets up our appointments.
the turn signal stopped working while I was still close to the repair shop.
I have faith in an after-life and that I'm not in a hurry to find out for sure.

One year ago today - Royalty?

First and Last

This is a picture of my oldest daughter
and her brand new 2005 Toyota Corolla
on the first day she ever drove it.
It wasn't her first car,
but it was her first NEW car and she was excited
even though she doesn't look it in this photo.

Fast forward about 4 years. This is a picture of what this same car looked like today, the last time she drove it.

This morning she was involved in a car accident on the way to work. There was a chain reaction 4 car crash when the front vehicle decided to make a u-turn and didn't quite manage to get out of the way fast enough. The speed limit on the road she was on is 65 and she apparently hit pretty hard even though she tried to swerve and slow down. She says she is fine. She is sore in the areas where the seatbelt hit, but it definitely could have been so much worse. These kind of experiences always make me stop and realize how fragile life really is and how quickly things can change. Luckily this time all that really got hurt was her car.

Today I am grateful for

Seatbelts, and a daughter that uses hers.
a son-in-law who gets called in an emergency instead of me.
Cell phones with cameras.

Poky's Hard Day

Today Poky the Puppy had a very hard day.

It started out badly when she found out that her mommy had gotten up and left the house early, leaving her home with her other mother.

This was so upsetting that she threw up. More than once.

The other mother called Poky's mommy and said "Poky's sick. The vet says we need to bring her in." The mommy was at her sister's school helping and didn't have a car since she had ridden there with Poky's grandma. Since Poky was sick though grandma told mommy that she could borrow her van to go take Poky to the vet.

The vet decided that Poky was dehydrated. She had to get a hydrating shot. More than one. It hurt. More than a little apparently.

The vet put her on a bland diet. We all know bland means tasteless, boring, yucky food. Poor Poky.

When Poky, Mommy and the other mother left the vet Mommy drove over a nail and got a flat tire. Poky had to sit out in the heat while Bud, the very nice and helpful man, helped Mommy and the other mother find the spare tire and put it on the van.

Then Poky, Mommy and the other mother had to drive to Discount Tire to meet Grandpa and get a new tire. Poky had to sit out in the heat with Mommy and the other mother while the tire got fixed.

Then she finally got to go home.

Poky was hungry but not for bland food. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

Poky's uncle came over after school. He laughed at Poky because the hydrating shots made her look all fat and puffy. Boys are mean. Poky felt bad.

Poky wouldn't eat. Poky wouldn't sleep. Poky wouldn't go to the bathroom. Poky couldn't walk right. Poky yelped whenever anyone touched her. Poky felt bad. Poky whined and whined.

Poky's mommy and the other mother and the other, other mother decided something was wrong with Poky. The vet was closed now. They decided to take Poky to the pet hospital.

Poky had to wait for a long time at the pet hospital.

The vet at the pet hospital pushed and poked Poky's stomach. Hard. Poky didn't flinch. The vet touched Poky's back. Yelp, Yelp. The vet says, "There's nothing wrong with this dog except that she is a drama queen." Her back hurts where she got the shots. She is fine. She's just a spoiled baby. Poky was offended.

It was a hard, hard day.

I could have told Poky's mommy that Poky is a spoiled baby and saved her a lot of time, money, grief and sitting in the heat today. But I won't because I think Poky's mommy had a hard, hard day today too.

Another day on the Rez

I spent the day with the oldest daughter again working on her classroom today. I wish I could say that we made major progress, but I think that would probably be a lie. I organized all her teacher books, tore paper and hung it on the walls for bulletin boards, and moved stuff from one spot to another for most of the day.

The daughter's mentor teacher (one of the other 2nd Grade teachers) fell down a hill about a week ago while she was hiking and the doctor told her she had sprained her ankle. She has been hobbling around on crutches trying to get her room set up as well as helping my daugher with her room. The ankle didn't seem to be getting any better so she went back to the doctor today. They took more x-rays and decided that it was broken. She called and said she was waiting to get her cast on and then she would be at the school. We left to go get some lunch and when we got back the message had changed to "I am going to have to have surgery to have a pin put in my ankle and I will be out of school for 4 weeks." Yikes!! The other second grade teacher visited the daughter's classroom every 10 minutes or so for the rest of the day stating how she didn't want to be the teacher in charge in about 100 different ways. I don't know what choice she has. The daughter has never taught 2nd Grade and the sub they are getting is one of the Instructional Assistants from one of the Kindergarten classes. Neither of them are very highly qualified to be the boss.

My niece made the comment that my daughter's classroom looked brand new. This school is a year old and is an interm school while the NEW elementary school gets built. While the building is quite new some of the furniture and supplies look like they have been around since the dark ages. The boys in the family were really impressed with her WWII file cabinet. In this picture it looks kind of dark green, but it is actually army green. They swear there is a cubby inside one of the drawers where you can hide your pistol. I'm not sure that I believe it was involved in the war to end all wars, but the sticker on the front of the drawer does date it back quite a few years. The desks and the chairs are a potpourri of all shapes and sizes and in very limited supply. Each child will have to haul his chair to reading group with him every day.

This building was kind of put up quickly and was not really built to be a school. It is going to be turned into offices as soon as the other school gets completed. It is rather interesting in what it lacks such as ANY real storage and no sink. Each classroom is equipped with a water cooler and paper cups. Just what every school room needs. I'm not sure where you are suppose to wash your hands after a messy project. We definitely won't be making handprint calendars this year. How sad.

I picked the hubby up today when he got off work and we drove into Phoenix to pick up the black car that got towed to the mechanic a couple of days ago. On Friday when he went out to go to work the car just didn't want to start. Come to find out, the brand new fuel pump that got put in a week or so ago was faulty and we needed a new one. Hopefully now it's good for a few more weeks. I am thankful for my cars when they work, but they can be a pain when they don't.

Today I am thankful

that I don't have to start teaching school in a few days.
that I don't have to drive (or sit) in rush hour traffic very often. Why do they call it "rush hour" when it is anything but quick?
that I don't have a broken ankle.

My Happy Birthmonth present today was a new pair of "walking" capris so I can start walking in the mornings again now that school has started and the hubby's car is fixed. They even have pockets to hold a key and my cell phone. This is living!