Two Years

A more traditional birthday picture post will happen another day, but I wanted to take the time to share some of my favorite recent pictures of Ethan. Somehow, he turned two today! The time has truly flown and he is growing bigger (well, sort of) and smarter and funnier each day. He is a sweet and loving little guy and we could not possibly love him more. Happy 2nd Birthday, little buddy!

Our Graduate

It's hard to believe, but Emily is officially a Kindergarten graduate! The year flew by, had it's ups and downs and ended well with a very bright and happy soon-to-be-first-grader.

Emily learned to read (very well) and can count to 100 in a variety of ways (and she'll be happy to demonstrate to anyone who will listen!). She weathered her first broken bone (she broke her big toe when she fell from the monkey bars early in the school year), learned to navigate sitting at a desk and following directions, made friends, and had lunch in the cafeteria, even learning to order hot lunch. It's been a big year.

This is Emily walking in to her graduation. She looks so big to me.

Emily receiving her diploma from Mr. Hampton, who helped her get out of the car in the drop-off line on those days (and there were quite a few) when Miss Em just didn't want to get out of the car. I appreciated Mr. Hampton more than he knows.

Emily's Kindergarten class. Top Left: Jada, Emily K, our Emily, Sam M.

Middle Left: Mrs. Frazier, Abigail, Sam R., Naomi, Nathan

Bottom Left: Niall, Lily, Olivia

Emily and her wonderful teacher Mrs. Frazier. God definitely blessed us with the perfect Kindergarten teacher for Emily. She was just the right mix of compassionate and no-nonsense and knew exactly which one Emily needed at the time.

Our very lovely little graduate. I had a strange experience that night, because seeing her all dressed in her white cap and gown sort of gave me a glimpse into the past and the future all at once. She looks so very like me as a child, something I'm seeing more and more, and I could see a pretty good resemblance to how I looked on my high school graduation day...which sort of gives me an idea of how she will likely look about 12 years from now. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be ready for that.

A rare picture of our little family. Ethan did his best to last through the ceremony, but since it started at his bedtime and he has never been one to sit still for...anything...we were very grateful that Grandma and Grandpa were there with us to help entertain him.

Emily with Grandpa and Grandma.

Public Service Announcement :Very Important

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any gas appliances/gas water heater/gas heat....please GET A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR!

(Sorry to yell, but adrenaline is running high today)

Longish story short, I was out of the house all morning running errands, went grocery shopping and then came home with Ethan. I fed him his lunch (we'd picked up chicken and mashed potatoes from the deli). Since it was already later than normal, I decided I'd eat a little later. Ethan finished his lunch and was a little crabby, so I went to take him upstairs for his nap.

On the way upstairs, I stopped to turn on the oven so it could preheat. I was going to let it preheat for 10 minutes (set the timer) and then stick my lunch in. I went upstairs with a headache, changed Ethan and laid him in his crib (5 minutes, tops) and on the way back down the stairs kept thinking how bad my head hurt and noticing that I was feeling kind of nauseated and dizzy, but since I get a lot of headaches, I didn't really give it much more thought.

I sat down in the living room (just off the kitchen) and started reading a friend's blog post and all of a sudden this awful noise starting blaring. I had no idea what it was! The dog was going nuts and frankly it just scared me and made my head hurt. Then I realized it was the carbon monoxide detector. I looked over at it and it was reading GAS. Not a good sign.

I ran upstairs, grabbed Ethan from his crib, grabbed my purse and got out of the house as fast as I could. I had no idea if we had a major gas leak or what, but I was terrified. I went across the cul de sac and called 911 and reported what had happened and they sent out a fire truck. (Meanwhile the dog was running all around the neighbors' yards!)

The firemen checked out the house and couldn't find anything wrong (but then they turned off the oven when they got inside. They waited with me for the gas company to arrive (it took at least 30 minutes). The gas man tested all our gas appliances except the stove and then had me come in (the firemen left since nothing was apparently wrong) and tested the stove with me. Sure enough, as soon as the oven was turned on, his CO detector started going nuts.

So, our oven (which is approximately 18 years old ) has now been officially tagged as unuseable, we've had a minor case of carbon monoxide poisoning and we need a new oven/stove ASAP. But we're alive. I just keep thinking "what if?" I was sleepy anyway, Ethan was supposed to be napping....I wasn't feeling good and so easily could have just tried to nap my headache away like I usually do.....It could have ended so tragically. Quite literally, the carbon monoxide detectors saved our lives, as I am fairly sure that we would have died without them...either now or later when I was supposed to be baking 4 dozen cookies for Emily's school.

So, please get a CO detector TODAY if you don't have one and actually install it. We just recently (in the last couple of months) installed the ones we'd had lying around for years. It really is a true life-saver and every bit as important as your smoke detector. We always think these things won't happen to us...but they do. And if you know a family member or friend who doesn't have a CO detector...tell them this story. In our case, it only took a few minutes for the effects to kick in (less than 10) and I can't imagine how horrible it could have been.
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Some Fun Pictures

Pure Mischief

There's a t-shirt that I saw recently that says, "Mischief is my business and business is good!"

I think we may need to buy this shirt...perhaps in multiple sizes because it's a pretty good bet that the saying will remain accurate.

Mr. Ethan is 21 months and some odd days old now, and it's pretty clear that he is an ornery mess...but oh, so fun and happy and easy-going.

He loves his big sister, whom he calls "Em" and he adores (and copies) everything she has and does. He is especially fond of anything Barbie.

Despite his love of Barbies, he's all boy. He likes to run around with no clothes and kick back with the remote. I think they're just born with the need to have a remote in their hands!

He likes to play dress up with Emily's "pretties"...including any shoes that might be left out.

But again, he's all boy because he loves all things technological. He was being a little naughty today, playing with daddy's computer.

But like all ornery little boys, he knows how to make his momma laugh to get himself out of trouble. He's trying to wink in this picture. Oh, and who knew one Oreo could make such a huge mess?

Mercedes Rules and Ford Blows Chunks

Catchy title...don't you think?

Take a few moments, grab a cold drink and settle into a comfy chair...I have a tale to tell and it might take a while.

I think that my readers will recall that back in October of 2010, my Ford Windstar minivan was unceremoniously recalled for a cracked rear axle. I was given a rental, which lasted approximately 10 minutes from the dealership to the rental car lot, where I let them know that the tiny not-quite-car-not-quite-anything type vehicle was not going to work for our family of four for the coming 4+ months. So Ford grudgingly looked for something larger, while giving us a small sedan to drive. But knowing that Thanksgiving and Christmas were rapidly approaching, and we always travel with two young kids, two of the largest carseats known to mankind, a large stroller and all of our luggage, I requested that Ford provide something larger. It wasn't even remotely fair to take away a minivan and stick us in a small car for months on end.

We drove the car for about a month, and then about a week before Thanksgiving, we were finally able to switch to a larger crossover vehicle. It took a lot of haggling with the dealership and Ford, but I was satisfied.

Fast forward to January: I had found the NHTSA website to be quite helpful in providing updates on what was happening with the recall, as well as a resource for finding other areas that they were investigating on the Windstar...and I had noticed that it looked like there was another very similar issue being investigated on the front subframe involving corrosion and cracks/separations which would affect steering and control of the van.

I had a feeling there would be another recall, and at the end of January, the second Windstar recall was announced....while my van still sat on a dealership lot, waiting for the first repair to be performed.

Here, I'll take a quick break and let you know that Andrew has been driving a two-door, ten-year-old, reeks-of-gasoline, has no heat (but paid-for!) car. It needed serious, significant repairs, not to mention the fact that we were quite literally having to leave the garage door open to make sure that the house didn't explode due to the gas fumes from his car. Since the repairs would have cost more than the car was worth, and the car really didn't fit our family at all....we started looking for a new small SUV for Andrew. We didn't know whether we would get the van back at all, or whether we would keep it, because quite frankly, we weren't too confident in it's safety at this point.

Back to our story....

Well, four and a half months after the initial recall was announced and our van was "grounded" at the dealership, I got a call on a Monday morning (while waiting for my OBGYN appointment...fun!) from the Ford dealership that my van would be ready to be picked up at 5 pm. that evening. Well, as luck would have it, that evening was the same evening that I would be meeting Andrew at a different dealership way across town (more than 40 minutes away) to purchase his new vehicle. In between my doctor's appointment, paperwork that had to be done before the new (used) vehicle could be purchased, naptime for Ethan and picking up Emily from school (in yet another direction at least 40 minutes from the dealership with my van), I knew that there was absolutely no time for me to thoroughly clean out the rental car, uninstall two car seats to switch them to the different rental car that would drive us to the dealership, and then install the two carseats back in the van before or after I picked Emily up from school. It just wasn't doable, so I told the Ford dealership that I wouldn't be able to get there by 5 pm that day, but that I could be there first thing in the morning.

That seems reasonable, doesn't it? They told me the van would be ready by 5 pm and I would have picked it up by 9, 9:30 am the next morning. Not even 24 hours after I'd been notified it was ready. Perfectly reasonable to me.

Well, apparently, it wasn't reasonable to Ford. The dealership told me that now that my vehicle was going to be ready, Ford would no longer cover the rental vehicle. Not even until the next morning! They were giving me less than 8 hours in their specified time frame, to get my vehicle off their lot, or else I would have to pay $40 for the rental.

To which I replied, "Are you kidding me? That is totally unacceptable. I cannot be there at five and I am NOT paying for the rental."

Of course, I'm immediately boiling mad, but I'm sitting with Ethan in the waiting room of the doctor's office, so I can't totally lose it, but in my mind....I was. I kept standing my ground with the service manager and told him to call Ford, or give me the number and I would call them, but no matter what, I was not paying the rental fee when I wasn't given adequate time to pick up my vehicle. No way, No how.

So, after my doctor's appointment, I got a call from "Russ" telling my that he'd called Ford and that they would not change their mind. I told him yet again that this whole thing was ridiculously unfair, that I had been more than patient for four and a half MONTHS and that I wasn't asking for anything unreasonable and that I would not be paying the rental fee. I also told him that I would be calling Ford myself....and I did.

Since I've already taken quite a long time telling this story, I'll just sum up my conversation with three Ford "customer service" representatives for you:

They are the most unhelpful, useless group of people I've come across in a very long time. I tried my best to remain calm and polite, but I also did my fair share of letting them know EXACTLY how I felt about Ford and their dealership and their "customer service". I really hope it was recorded. I said nothing that I am ashamed of, but if they couldn't hear the frustration and just plain anger in my voice, then they weren't listening. I was in tears by the end (and this was over the course of hours) and I am not one to cry easily at all. I was a huge ball of stress and felt awful.

Yes, it was "just" $40, but not really. That $40 wouldn't have made much difference in our budget, but it was one of those times in life where it was time to take a stand against poor customer service and a company which had put our family's safety in jeopardy and then made every step of the way a hassle. This was the straw that broke this camel's back.

In the end, Andrew left work early to go pick Emily up and keep the kids while I cleaned the car and uninstalled the carseats and did all the switching. Even without all the carseat maneuvering, it took a couple of hours to accomplish everything, which never would have been possible without Andrew's help. It was a huge inconvenience on a day that was already jam-packed, but I took my stand, and got my van back and did not pay the extra fee.

Of course, I got my van back with almost no gas (literally not enough to get home) and three completely tattered and unuseable windshield wipers (which were absolutely NOT left in that condition, but I have no proof).

And so, Ford and a local Ford dealership have forever lost my support. I will quite literally never buy a Ford product again. If this is how they treat customers who the company themselves have greatly inconvenienced....then I don't ever need another one of their products. And we followed through on this promise by not purchasing the Ford extended warranty plan on Andrew's new (used) vehicle (we happened to be dealing with another Ford/Toyota dealer).

And so while Ford blows chunks......

Mercedes is awesome!

Meet Andrew's new 2004 Mercedes!

(Wow it feels weird even typing that!)

Isn't she beautiful?

We ended up finding a fantastic deal on a gorgeously maintained, loaded Mercedes ML350 SUV. We traded in Andrew's car, plus put a little money down and now have a smaller car payment than we paid for either of our other vehicles..significantly smaller (and they weren't big at all)!


We figured this would likely be the only time in our lives when we would find a vehicle this nice in our price range....and so we jumped on the chance, and I am so glad we did. We all fit nicely in this car, and there's even one extra seat if needed. We have room to haul things and best of all, it's nice and safe and has heat! (Andrew's in love with the heated seats!)

The only downside....the car quite possibly may be smarter than we are! I've never seen to many owners' manuals and fancy buttons. We're still trying to figure out what everything does. We even went out and sat in the car in the garage one night, after the kids went to bed, and read through the manual in an effort to figure out how to work the radio!

But all in all, at least we have one nice, safe dependable vehicle and one that still needs some more work, when the parts are in (Oh goodie, more dealings with Ford), but is paid for.

And that's the story of why Mercedes Rules and Ford Blows Chunks. You're welcome!

Stuff and Such

Ethan ADORES Mickey Mouse. So when I saw a Mickey chair at Toys R Us, I knew exactly what to use his TRU gift card on.

Of course, it took three separate shipments from TRU, all damaged, and then a trip into the store, but we finally have Ethan's Mickey chair.

Isn't he cool in his shades? I found some baby-sized little boy sunglasses (with sharks on the lenses!) and he's a happy camper.

His chair rocks too.

And it's great for kicking back and lounging.

Speaking of lounging....

Ethan wanted to be just like Emily. "Anything you can do, I can do better...."

Ethan Finds a New Home

I think Ethan might be confused.

It's a Barbie house....not an Ethan house!

Blizzard, Endoscopy and Recall...Oh My!

This is the post in which there is absolutely no connection between the three topics being discussed. Consider it fair warning.

First up, no, these pictures aren't a repost from January, although they might as well be.

This is our "new" snow from yesterday. Enough already.

The drifting was a lot worse this time though....there wasn't as much snow...just a ton of wind.

And now, in truly random fashion, I'm going to completely change the subject to: Endoscopy!

Guess who gets to experience that? Yep...yours truly gets to be sedated and have a camera shoved (I mean threaded) down my gut to see what in the world is going on in there. I've been feeling lousy for some time and having what I assumed where panic attacks. I've suffered from them before, though it's been about 9 years since the last one. I've been to the ER three times for chest/stomach pain and even done the treadmill test and everything comes back just fine, so I'm trying to figure out what's wrong...because I still don't feel good. I'm taking an anti-anxiety med but either it's not really working, that's not really my problem or possibly both.

In a little twist, I also suffer from migraines, and have for several years. When I get them, I end up taking far too much ibuprofen and excedrin in an attempt to simply keep functioning and not end up curled in a ball in my bed (which doesn't go over well with the kids). I've long contended that I'm probably giving myself an ulcer, and now I'm fairly certain that I could have one. And so, now we're going to check that out, via endoscopy, on Friday. Dear Andrew gets to escort me to the appointment, handle picking miss Em up from school, and then picking up a still-loopy and somewhat sedated me from my appointment. He's a nice guy.

And finally, in yet another complete subject change, Bekah asked me a while back if I had my recalled van back yet. The short answer is "no". But I'll give you the even more interesting long version...just because.

We dropped off the van back in mid-October, to be inspected for possibly cracks/corrosion on the rear axle. As it turned out, the van did have a crack and had to "grounded" at the dealership until replacement axles were manufacted and installed. We knew it would be at least January, possibly March, before we would get it back.

Well, we haven't heard a single word from Ford (save for the automatically generated reminders to "get an oil change" or "have your scheduled 100,000 mile maintenance performed now"), so I started searching for more info on how much longer we'd be without our van. I found info on the NHTSA website that included all the official internal documents between Ford and the dealership (at least the ones that had to be submitted to the NHTSA). Along the way, I also noticed that there was an investigation into possible corrosion and separation of the front "axle" (because I don't really know what part it is technically speaking).

When I saw that, I knew it was likely that somewhere down the line, the van could be recalled again. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I noticed that the investigation had gotten bumped up to higher level analysis...and I just knew in my gut (the one with the likely ulcer) that it was going to be recalled.

So, it wasn't really that big of a surprise when, innocently perusing the local news website, I found a headline stating that, "Ford Windstar Minivans to be Recalled for Front Sub-frame Corrosion". Yes...my van, still waiting to be fixed from the first recall, has been recalled again.

So I went back to investigating the NHTSA website and read some internal memos from Ford to the dealerships that basically said that if a van has already been "grounded" for the rear axle, please don't install a new axle until the front end has been inspected. So basically, we probably won't bother to fix the van if both parts are broken.

I have no idea if ours is cracked/corroded, but I know what I'd bet. And if that's the case, then I would fully expect that Ford will probably offer to buy back our van, rather than fix it. Which would be fine, except it's completely paid for (ironically, back in October) and what they will offer won't even come close to buying a decent used minivan. Even if they offered Ford incentives (very likely) Ford doesn't make minivans anymore (apparently a good call). The heck of it all is, if Ford had just offered us what they will have paid for our use of the rental vehicle for a likely 6 months, I would have been satisfied. It would have been almost $6000. But we'll never see that.

So, to sum it all up....I hope it stops snowing soon and I hope that if I indeed do have an ulcer, it is found and fixed and some meds prescribed....because at the rate this recall with Ford is going, I'm going need a heavy-duty prescription to prevent the stress from eating right through my stomach.

The End

News Flash: Christina Grows Up and Goes to the Dentist!

Yes, the time had come where I knew I had to put on my big girl pants and actually go to the dentist...because I had a tooth that just didn't feel right. It didn't hurt, per se, just felt weird when I would chew.

And so I went. I had no childcare until today, but all the Saturday appointments were taken, so I waited as a "walk-in" from about 10:30 until 1:00 or so.

I am now sporting a replaced/repaired/augmented filling (the old one was 20+ years old) and a brand spanking new filling because I have "very groovy teeth" which really means that I am horribly prone to cavities in my molars. I'm also sporting a very numb cheek, tongue and lip.

Fun stuff. But I survived. And I even made another appointment to do a full evaluation and cleaning in February. Shocking....I know. I'm sure I'll come to regret that.....

Fun in the Snow

I don't think these pictures need much explanation! (Enjoy Mom...and anyone else who still reads this!)

Trying to train them young!