It’s been a great day thus far.

Here’s a  few reasons why:

1. My Car Started  ( we charge the battery last night)

2. The Sable started

3. The sun has been shining all day- it really does make a difference!

4. My parents dropped by out of the blue (they never stop by). They offered to watch the kids while I ran to the grocery store to get a few things. I went to the grocery store ALONE!!!    It’s been awhile since I have done that. I can go at night when Daniel is home but I prefer to go in the daytime while he’s at work.

5.  I was able to get Drew’s  morning poopy diaper into the trash outside before the trash men picked it up. That means one less dirty diaper in my home for the week- yeah!

6. Lucas and Brooklyn are playing great together this afternoon

7. My laundry is almost all caught up

8. Did I already say the sun is shining? I LOVE it!

9. There haven’t been any spills today.

10. Drew has been sleeping for over an hour now.

4:30pm same day as blog entry below

My car won’t start.

I got Drew all snuggled into his seat and told the kids I was going to start the car so we could leave to pick up Dad from work.  As I was walking to the garage, the wonderful children I gave birth too were all falling apart because they didn’t want to pick him up. I came back into the house unsuccessful, the stupid car would not start!!  Yes I said STUPID!  It’s a bad word in our house and I said it!!  Maybe I can get sent to my room to be alone for 15 minutes–lol. Okay back to the story- I called Daniel and he said try it again in 5 minutes. I did and it still would not start.

Who is picking up my husband from work you may wonder?  That would be my parents!

I went out one more time to try and start it (after we said a little prayer) and still no starting, it only ticked.  I sat in the car and called my parents. Lucky for me they answered their phone.  Not so lucky for them though.  They were getting their coats on and heading out the door to go to Bob & Jim’s to pick up the Sable. It was the alternator on the Sable, what Daniel thought. It was a lot of $ to fix. They were going to pay for the repairs and bring it back to their home.  But instead they are going to pay for the repairs on that car and head down to Detroit to get Daniel from work and bring him home. I have no idea what we are going to do about a vehicle tomorrow.  This is getting to be extremely frustrating! He has already used vacation days on this stupid car!

If I haven’t gone into a deep dark depression before tomorrow I will blog about the outcome.

Seriously?

I know that’s what some of you have been thinking and YES more car problems for the Hills. Today only two issues.  One minor and one major.  I’ll start with the minor-

8:30am-go outside to start warming the car so I can take the kids to school because it’s 15 degrees outside. I HATE going out to a freezing cold car, it makes me grumpy. So I go out to start it and it doesn’t start!  AAAHHH!  I come back into my warn home to find 3 boys running around like crazy inside the house NOT getting ready like they should be.  Oh yeah, and Drew was crying. At this point I want to climb back into bed.  In a few minutes,  I go back out and it starts after a few tries. In the meantime while I am having my own car troubles,

(this is the where the major problems occurs)

Daniel is broken down on the highway.  Is it our BMW? NO!!! That’s currently in our garage. I’ll get to that later (or maybe I won’t).

It’s my parents Sable that we are currently borrowing due to the BMW being broken down. Daniel calls to tell me the Sable broke down at I-75 & I-96. Basically I don’t have time for him because I need to get the kids in the car, take them to school, I pretty much tell him to wait because I have to deal with the kids and my car troubles. He’s pretty sure it’s the alternator (on the Sable). He wants me to get the kids to school, run to AutoZone, buy an alternator and meet him in Detroit so he can fix it. Yes fix on the side of the highway. We have done this many times before in our marriage, we are ghetto! I tell him to sit tight and that I would call him after I get the kids off to school.

Note: Daniel is waiting in a car, freezing his butt off!  But of course, I am not thinking about him and the cold so I don’t even realize that until later-  sorry honey…

8:45am- my car starts.  I take the kids to school and come back home. I am suppose to go to the post office and mail something to my sis-in-law and run to the grocery but of course I cannot so I am not happy.

Daniel has now been in the Sable broken down car for at least 45 minutes. Honey, I did check the weather and it warmed up 2 degrees, now 17 degrees.

I get myself and Drew back  into the house, close the garage door which I swear almost fell on top of the BMW, take off my coat, get Drew out of the car seat because of course he pooped, and change his diaper.  I  finally call Daniel to see what the plan is going to be. I am thinking Drew and I are going to get back into the car and head to AutoZone BUT we didn’t!!  Thank goodness for me but not for my parents.  Daniel said he called  them after our last phone call and they were on their way to help him out. They should be there by 9:30am.  Daniel has now been in a broken down car for 1hr. 30 minutes. Finally my life had calmed down and I had a few minutes to talk to him. It was then that I realized my husband was freezing to death! He mentioned somewhere in our conversation that he couldn’t feel his finger and toes anymore but the good news was that the sun was shining down on the car.  It could have been colder. Of course he saw the good.  If  it were me, I would’ve been freaking out and thinking I was going to die in the car due to the freezing temperatures, of course letting him know exactly how I was feeling in what I would’ve thought were my last moments on this Earth.

My parents got to the broken down car. Daniel jumped in their truck and they took him to work. He got there safely and way late! That means he’ll probably be working way late too! Fun for me (and for him).  They went back to the Sable, hook it up, and towed it back to the Westland area to a shop called Jim and Bob’s on Wayne Rd.  and went back home to their warm, cozy house. I wonder if they knew what they were getting into when they decided to have their 6th child???

All has calmed downed for now. I worked out on the treadmill going 3.2 miles, talked to my sister in Germany and had a calm morning. I am sure the day will remain calm until about 4:15pm when my 3 older children arrive home. I get to tell them we need to head downtown to pick up Dad from work. We have had to do this before and they DO NOT like it.  See it sucks for them because they come home get a snack, go to the bathroom, and  do their homework,. We’ll then get in the car, head downtown to pick up dad, come back home, eat dinner and then it’ll be time to go to bed.

I should get off the computer and go re-read the talk President Monson gave in the October 2008 General Conference “Finding Joy in The Journey”.  We just had that lesson yesterday in Relief Society.  Debbie Christensen did a wonderful job teaching us.  I am not “Finding Joy in the Journey” today!!  LOL!!  I am only kidding.  I am grateful we have 2 cars, even if they don’t work  ALL the time….

(I didn’t get the BMW issues, that’s for another blog entry)

“PELICAN PARTS” -Cost for auto parts to fix it $352.50

When do you stop putting money into a car?

When you can afford another car payment perhaps…?

Well, we can’t afford another one now or anytime in the near future!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

When I was a child growing up,  I loved Valentines Day.  I would either give a box of chocolates to my brother “less than” or he would give me one. We did this my entire life (until I got married).  This is how my parents had it work– 3 girls and 3 boys in my family so depending on the year we would get or give  a box chocolates. If it were the “girls” year then my mother would be in charge of getting the “girls” to get the “boys” a box of chocolates. If it were the boys year then it the same thing happened but just with boys.  This was a great tradition we had and I will forever remember it.

Now that I am a parent I wanted to do the same, the only thing is we had 1 girl and 4 boys so it does not work out as nicely as when I was a child. Daniel and I decided that we would do something for them every year to let them know how much we love them.  This year I went to Target and got CANDY! I wanted to get boxes of chocolates but my kids are pretty picky when it comes to sweets and I did not want to hear how they didn’t like certain things. So I decided to buy what I knew they would eat.  I found these super cool heart lunch bags for cheap.

Aunt Tamara made us cupcakes, bought some plates and napkins. Daniel picked up a pizza on the way home from helping out the youth decorate for the dance tonight.  The kids are going to have pizza and after we put them to bed we are going to get Chinese- I can’t wait!!!

Hours later—

I DID IT!

I surprised Daniel. This is very hard for me to do. Why?  Because I can’t keep a secret when it comes to surprising Daniel.  I usually end up telling him because I am so excited about it- lol!!  I sent him away to get the  Chinese food and I  got to work.  First things first were the kids. I tucked Lucas into bed (he was tired), fed Drew his bottle and put him on the floor underneath the toy thingy we own. I forgot what they are called. I made sure the other 3 kids (Jack, Zoey, & Nolan) knew to stay in the basement watching their movie. I told them they could all make beds in front of the TV and watch a movie. I knew they would fall asleep during the show.  I ran to the dryer to get the tablecloth and put it on the table.  I wanted it not to be all wrinkly and I wasn’t about to iron it so I threw it in the dryer about 30 minutes earlier.  I quickly set the table with all the nice dishes, wine glasses and candles, lots of candles.  I got the glass pitcher out and filled it with ice water, polished the silverware.  After the table was ready I began to light the candles.  That was a trip because I am dumb when it comes to using a lighter.  Our one easy lighter ran out of butane so I had to use a cigarette lighter one. You know the kind you use your thumb to light it up? I get about 3 candles lit and then burn my thumb- lol.  I then quickly said “screw this” and I got out the toothpick and lit up our gas stove for fire. I lit about 16 more candles of all shapes and sizes the tooth pick style way and only ended up burning myself 1 time! There were candles everywhere- it looked awesome! I was pretty proud of myself.  I was able to get the house all ready with 5 minutes to spare.  I ended up calling him to see where he was because he wasn’t home. When I called he was just finishing filling up my car with gasoline.  What a guy, he filled up my tank on Valentines Day- who could ask for anything more?

He arrived home with Chinese food from Schezuan Empire (located on 5 Mile/Middlebelt).   He was surprised and  had absolutely no idea that I was going to do it.  When he walked in, I was sitting at the table all ready.  So we sat, ate and talked without one single interruption! It was great.  We got the chicken fried rice and peanut chicken (mild). This is our favorite Chinese restaurant- its super yummy.

I hope everyone who reads this blog had a wonderful day today, we sure did!

In Febraury Jack had his annual pinewood derby for cub scouts. Jack and Daniel both LOVE this event.  Making the car and spending the time with one another is far more important than the actual race. I think Jack thinks that too.  He’s not very competeive but he does love anything ART!  Being able to design a car and have his Dad help him out with the cutting, he thinks is pretty awesome. Daniel gets into it, which is great because if I had to help him it wouldn’t be pretty.

The evening went well.  Jack was happy with how his car did,and I was happy for him.  However, he did not get any awards, which would be partly my fault.  I have been very bad since Drew has been born with cub scouts.  I haven’t politely reminded he or his father to do any thing about it either.   It used to be a Sunday afternoon father/son activity but since 2pm church started we haven’t done anything!! Daniel home teacher before and after church most Sunday.  I guess I am too lazy to do it before church and there is no way we can after church. Our after church is pretty scheduled and goes something like this-

2-5pm church;

5:45 arrive home (seriously too, Daniel is a talker after church )

6pm change to PJ’s

6:15-6:45pm dinner

7pm sit and talk about coming week while kids run around the house

7:30pm get ready for bed

8pm lights out

I do not have a single excuse why we don’t do anything before church. It’s 100% laziness. I am not a fan of 2pm church.  I never understood why we can have it begin at 1pm, they do it out west and it works, right?

Then again, if we went to 1pm church, Daniel probably wouldn’t get any home teaching done before church.

( I still secretly wish they would just have 2 wards in the building and we go to church at 9am)

This recipe was from the Food Network website:

Ingredients
For the Dough:

* 1 1/3 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
* 2 cups granulated sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

* 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
* 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
* 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the parchment sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut the dough into 64 circles. (You can reroll the scraps once.) Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla.

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.

An update. Drew started to get sick last week. I took him to the Dr on Friday January 30th. The Dr told me he had bronchitis and sent me home with a nebulizer and prescription of albuterol . We gave him treatment every 4 hours/ 24 hours. He was not getting better so I took him back today and they prescribed him a steroid (I forgot the name), he’s on that for a few days. I’ll take pictures and post more details tomorrow, but I have been with a sick baby and not blogging lately. I hope this is a one time thing and doesn’t turn into what we had to deal with, with Nolan. That was one very long year of my life and my parents lives, they baby-sat while Daniel and I worked.

Sometimes isn’t it fun to be a parent?

One more thing– Good news, he weighed in at the DR today @ 12lbs 5oz.