OOPS

So yesterday after going on my rampage about the van, Mark got home hopped in the van to listen to sound that had my eyes squeezed shut because I kept seeing the red lightning flashes from a Dr. Seuss Book every time I heard it. Of course the irony of the story is the van started and purred like a kitten. Sigh yes I am going crazy. The time is right. It is usually mid June when I lose my marbles.

Frustrations

Why oh why .......oh why is it every time we prepare for vacation, something happens with the van to stress me out. We leave Sunday morning for Chicago. As of 2 pm today my van decided not to start.... at all. It is probably a good thing it won't start because I am not kidding right now if I could push it to the street, I would shove all my weight into it to force it to roll down the freaking hill into the lake.

It started out as an ok day. (well ok should have known going to turn to crap day) Realized first thing upon waking that Mark forgot to take his pill.... I MUST TAKE IT TO HIM FOR MY BENEFIT. haha so I get the girls up and we go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. When get there I find out he accidentally took the house phone to work so I have to bring that home (first clue to day) Stop by bank to get cash for trip, the make us late to Ash's Camp (clue 2) drop her, go to walmart to get oil change, only they said they are running over an hour behind do I want to wait? UMM No (Clue 3) so I go to the oil place up the street a bit and it cost $31!! I usually pay about $20 and that includes cleaning windows and vacuuming! Go home and start printing coupons for trip.

I go get Ash and decide to clean inside of van. I clean and clean. I drop the vacuum attachments under the van. I try to start van to move to get piece and van won't start. Its making some clicking noise. I don't know maybe the batter is dead but then the lights, clock, radio , and air wouldn't work would they?? I am pretty sure this isn't the first time this has happened. I just don't remember what Mark ended up doing. Sigh.... This comes on the heels of just this week, (well and all of last week and some of the week before ) fighting with the Chrysler Company and Bob Brady to figure out the deal with my door locks that won't work.

Just to make this interesting lets look at all the things that have gone wrong with our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan before a trip!

Right after purchase, put seat in floor to make room for dogs to go to Missouri........ the seat won't come back up
Right before a trip the entire rubber seal on 2nd driver door completely came off.
Right before the wedding last summer we put a tape in the NEVER USED tape deck and it made some horrible noise that wouldn't stop even with the van off so we had to immediately take to dealership to have radio unplugged and they had to order new one entirely.
Right before we went to St. Louis at the beginning of this month for Ash's B day, the locks quit working. As in if you push the lock button on either remote, or door, they won't lock or unlock. This also means we have no way of locking or unlocking the back hatch door. It kind of decides what mode its going to be in and we can't do anything to change it. They did fix this (as mentioned before) but it quit working again two days later.
Right before I went to NC last fall, it started putting out this funky noise when turning corners. Now we actually don't know what this was, It only did it for that trip.

Now this is only vacations. For everyday use we have other issues from time to time to deal with. OH WELL........... so goes life right??
Thanks to everyone for letting me vent. Sigh I guess I will go mop floors and clean bathroom and calm down until Mark can get home to jump me....... the battery that is because I am sure that's the problem causing the near tears.

Horse Camp Week Two

Ashley so has every one's number. She will be attending Horse Camp again this week where she will learn to two-point, cantering, patterns, games, jumping, and more.

Now I am happy that she is again going to have this opportunity. I am very pleased with myself also as a parent because I had nothing to do with this this time. I told her if she wanted to go she needed to find a way to round up the $250 fee. So she took to begging, borrowing, and stea........ok no she didn't steal haha. She is borrowing from her bank account for a small portion and she begged for the rest. She called up all grannies, and then begged, and begged dad. At the end there was mention to us paying for the monthly lessons after the week was over sigh......... looks like horses may become the norm for the Frederick Family after all.............

Things that make you go hmmmm

When we redid our bathroom recently why didn't we get this!!!






Can I just say ewwwww!!

What has the Frederick family been doing?

It has been busy this week. Ashley started Horse Camp this week where she has learned the in's and outs of taking care of a horse. She has learned to ride and saddle along with other stuff she cares to not share with me (I have become the UNCOOL mom which means she stays far away from me for now..... thinking hormones have started coming help me now)

Hannah started her gymnastics again and we will be sticking with this from now on. She very much enjoyed her first class today and was very sad to see it end. The best part was the sister of one of her classmates from preschool was there so we both have someone we know to spend time with while there and talk to.

I made a commitment and made all reservations for vacation so on the 24th, we will be going to Chicago for 4 days. Can't wait to get away for a few days. I love my pets to death but its always nice to get away from the drama of daily life with them haha (example we must pace and bark a good 30 minutes before the mail lady comes).

That's about it here for now but will keep everyone updated.

Summer Vacation

Ho Hummm so I had wonderful plans of having lazy days hanging out in my wonderful back yard catching up on all my reading. As usual things are not going as planned.

Ashley refuses to partake in ANY summer activities. I have tried bribing her any way I can think of. The kids are not grasping the facts that all chores must be done before we can even think of doing anything fun. So therefore they are spending day after day holed up in their rooms making bigger messes than what they had to start with.

And I have spent day after day online looking for just the perfect things to do on our upcoming family vacation (I have issues booking hotels some sort of commitment phobia thing) only to find the best offer ever and get excited and have Mark call me two hours later saying oh by the way I have to work so my days are shifting..........sigh I give up

On the plus side, I have cleaned and organized the Kitchen, Living Room, and now our Bedroom. Which is all fine and dandy but that means that all there is left to do is............ paint............sigh again another commitment issue. I have needed to paint my bedroom for about 4 years or so..... I just can't decide on a color and don't want to take on the task of destroying the room to get everything out to paint. Same with the Living Room. It will be a major job because we need to paint the ceilings so that means I have to paint the hall way, living room, entryway, then the dinning room and kitchen all at the same time because the ceiling is all connected sigh.......... makes me have a panic attack just thinking about it.........

Anyway I guess it has to be done right?? So my goal is this week make it to the store to pick out colors for the bedroom. Start out small right? My other goal this week is to paint the bathroom closet to get me back in painting mode.

So I challenge all my readers to post a small goal of a task you have put off all year.

Flower Friday

Happy 12'th Birthday Ashley

I can't believe that 12 years ago right this moment, I was 2 weeks overdue on my way to the hospital to take a stress test to see how little baby Ashley would handle labor. Little did we know that that day she would decide to FINALLY make her appearance.

When the nurses got me all hooked up , I sent Mark off to run some errands and got comfy to watch the Young and the Restless. About half way thru, I called the nurse into the room because I embarrassingly thought I had somehow freakishly peed the bed. Imagine my surprise when the nurse went into hysterics and said that my water broke and as she looked at the printouts from my stress test that there were constant high peaks. She asked if I knew I was having contractions every 3 min? UMM no......... my reply (remember I was young and stupid) was I had menstrual type cramps but they aren't so bad. At that point they freaked. The had me change into a gown and checked me and I was at a 5 already. OOPs ummm where is my husband? When Mark showed up (he had only been gone for about an hour) they had me in a room and I was almost to an 8. Our beautiful Ashley was born by 1 30 and we couldn't believe that now we were parents. Poor Ashley its a wonder she survived all these years. I had no clue what I was doing and didn't have any friends to share experiences and questions with. But were we ever happy. The sun rose and set in this little girl. Now she is growing up to be an independent young lady. Is she just like her mom? Not so much. She is more like her dad. I love her more that life itself and yet at times it surprises me how different we are. I see wonderful things in her future. She may not take the roads I want her to but she will do it her way and be just as successful. Happy Birthday my little Ashey Coles, I love you.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Samantha

Hannah's oldest and best friend is turning 4 today. I thought I would share the fabulous card she helped me make to show Sam how much she loves her. Happy Birthday Sam!!

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

Friday's Flowers

OOH ok so that's my new weekly friday post. Every friday I will post a new flower from my yard! I know I need a life