Cars and Toenails

Thursday Jerome and I bought a car. it's a 2005 Nissan Sentra (oh, how I miss MY old Sentra... sniff...) with 76,000 miles on it. And, Jerome is always quick to point out, a stick. We got a great deal on it and it was a pretty quick and painless procedure. We test drove, we said we like it but we're only willing to pay $x amount per month, any higher and we walk. So they gave us the price we wanted (which was actually about $20/mo less than we could actually afford!) and we (well, J) got a brand new car. It was so nice being a two-car family.

Yes, I did say was.

Remember the fiascos I was having back in June with my car? how I had, like, 3 starters put in within a week?? Well, my car decided last night that it didn't want to start. Again. And it's 6,000 out of the 12,000 mile warranty on the part. Well FML.

Well, it started this morning so we drove it the 1 mile to the South branch of the shop we always take it to and dropped it off, then J drove me to work. My grandma was supposed to come pick me up at 3 for a doctor's appointment to remove and ingrown toenail, but they sent my home at 10:30, so J has to drive and pick me up, then take me home, then go to work ('cause I can't drive a stick yet!).

After I get my nastiness removed off of my foot, I called the garage for an update.
Diagnosis: Lagging Starter

BUT

He said he didn't care that we were 6,000 miles outside of warranty, he knows how much trouble we've had with this starter before, so he's replacing it. FOR FREE. And the diagnostics test he had to run? On the house.

MLIA

It's Obligatory

At least in the blog world, LOL. This post is a day late because our weekend was CRAZY. I'll post about all that later. (BTW... Blogger is being annoying and not letting me add ANY photos! So this post is dumb without those but I accidentally hit Publish, so all my Reader friends and my mom and grandpa -- who subscribe via e-mail -- will get notification of this anyway. Le sigh...)

Five (!!) years ago, I had a friend, and we realized that we both wanted to be more than just friends.

Three years ago (on Wednesday), he asked me to marry him.

One year ago, we said our I dos.

Our life over the last five years -- and the last one, especially -- has been full of ups and downs.

But I haven't regretted any of it.

I love my husband, and I can't wait for what the future holds.

April Mission Trip

The day after Easter, I'm headed to Georgia for a mission trip with work. (Not my new work, my old work... FCS.) We'll be working at the Goshen Valley Boys Ranch, which works with teenage boys in foster care. I'm really excited, but I have a favor to ask.

If I know any of you personally (or if any of you STLWed gals will be at the GNO on the 26th), will you help me provide donations? I want to bring down things like boxer shorts, t-shirts, deodorant, etc., for the boys. Let me know int he comments if you'd like to help. If you won't see me before then, e-mail me at phlpns314jlf at yahoo dot com and we can figure out a place to meet up or I'll give you my address and you can mail your donations to me.

Thanks for considering and thanks in advance to those who help!!

Anyone Know Why...

...My sidebar that is supposed to be here ---->

Is actually down there??

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Anyone? Bueller?

I tried changed the HTML code to made my main/outer/sidebar wrappers bigger but it didn't work.

I use Google Chrome but it was doing it on IE8, too. And then when I posted this, the sidebar was in the right spot. Confusing? Oh, yeah.

**I've realized that if you're lookinga t a specific post/label search, it shows up right, but if you just go to the main page, it doesn't look right. SO WEIRD!!**

Yes I'm Around

Been a while, hasn't it? Quick recap of my last three weeks:

We mvoed the last weekend in February to a condo that's a little smaller than our townhouse was, but the rent stayed the same, we're not being charged for the kitties, AND (bonus!) we're a Hell of a lot closer to work, church, and our families than we were before. We're really seeing Sebs' personality come out, too. In the old house it was really HIS home. It smelled like Paulie everywhere, so who could blame him for not feeling like it was his? He hid under the bed ALL THE TIME. In fact, in the week we've lived here, I think I've seen him more than in the two and a half months we had him while living at the old place.

I've got some posts to write about stuff I've been thinking about, thanks to our sermon series on the Spiritual Disciplines. It's been awesome, and has really given me (and, I assume, the rest of my church) a LOT of food for thought.

Our youth group's 30 Hour Famine is this weekend. It's basically a 30 hour period where we fast to bring recognition to the fact that BILLIONS of people are starving in the world. On Friday night, we're going to the City Museum and on Saturday we're doing a lot of service projects. Such a fun activity, and it's a great way for our kids to learn about poverty throughout the world.

My job is going well. Those kids have me laughing everyday, and it's awesome. Like little J yesterday who started singing "Pants on the ground, pants on the ground." Ha. Or K who is our "problem child" but her biggest problem is just that sometimes she doesn't listen, and she is soooo cuddly! Or another K, who will give you a big big bear hug, and then when you say "Mouse hug" will wrap her arms around you for half a second. Don't get me wrong, I'm still looking for a teaching job for the fall, but I'm loving this while I'm waiting.

That's all for now because I have to go to work. (Yay.) I'll catch up with you all later!