Lola (my car) had a rough weekend.

After work on Friday, I was driving up the hill to Orem and she started to struggle. The check engine light went on and acceleration was very difficult. When I made it to the first stop light my car was idling so rough that she was literally shaking.

Not good.

Confession: I am not good under pressure and I was trying not to freak out.


Shocker, I know.

I was on my way to watch Safe Haven with a friend. I've been looking forward to see it for months but I was so stressed about my car that I was a ball of nerves through the whole show and didn't enjoy it at all which is really annoying.

(I got these photos here).

When the movie was over, I said good-bye to Rachelle and headed home. My car was not doing good. I only made it to the stoplight at University Parkway and State Street when the meltdown (me) started. I called my Dad in tears. He's so funny and just told me to put Heet in the gas because he was sure I had water in my tank. So, being the obedient daughter I am, I pulled into Chevron and did as I was told, then I drove around for a little while. It wasn't running any better, so I did what any stressed out girl would do, I pulled over and had a major breakdown right there on a side street in Orem. In my defense I was really tired and hadn't eaten since noon (it was 8:30 pm) so my blood sugar was low.

Plus, I'm really tired of handling every single crisis alone. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my independence and can take care of most things, but it would be really nice to have a partner, especially when it comes to home/car repairs.


That's all I'm saying.

My friend Anna who lived close to where I 'broke down' wasn't home and Jordan and David were conveniently out of town for the night. I called Rachelle who was already all the way home and probably in her stretchy pants ready for bed.

She's so nice and came back to save me. I decided just to drive (very slowly) to my mechanic in North Orem, then Rachelle took me all the way home. She's such a great friend.

The next day was my Uncle Evan's birthday party in Lehi and as soon as I got home, I texted Cade and told him I couldn't go because I was stranded without a car all weekend. I have to admit that I was kind of glad to have an excuse to stay home and really deep clean my house. Cade would not accept that and said that he and Krystal would pick me up. When I told him that there was no way he was coming all the way to get me he said, "Oh, you don't want to hang out with us?"

What a dork.

So, they not only drove from Bountiful to Spanish Fork to Lehi back to Spanish Fork then all the way back to Bountiful on snowy, crappy roads but they also bought me lunch at Cafe Rio.

They're pretty much rockstars.

We had the best day. It was so great to hang out with them all day and see my aunt, uncle and cousins. It was also nice to be distracted from worrying about the millions of dollars my car repairs were sure to cost.

However, Monday morning when I called my mechanic, I got some pretty great news. They just had to replace 4 coils and the spark plugs. WHEW! Not that getting a new car would be the end of the world, but it doesn't really fit into my budget these days. 

Lola has 160,589 miles. Here's to 160,000 more! She's running better than she has in years.

Since we are currently between snow storms (is Spring coming soon?!), I stopped by the carwash today.


Besides, my mom says a clean car runs better.

I've never noticed that the soap at my carwash is different colors.

Pretty cool, huh?

WT Birthday

A couple of weeks ago, while we were in Lava, we celebrated Cade's 29th birthday.

Jordan, David and I got him lottery tickets and Mom, Dad and Krystal got him ammo.

A total white trash birthday...

When in Rome, I guess, right?

AND, he won $35 on the scratch cards.

HOORAY!!

($25 on one and $10 on another)

So, the grand total of his gamblings in one weekend (including Bingo) = $68

Not bad.

Sun Valley Wedding Reception

So, I've been really behind updating this blog so I'm playing serious catch up. I had some serious computer problems that are now (hopefully) fixed and had to go to Apple about 4 times too many.

Both of Jordan and David's receptions were incredible. I'll post photos of the Twin Falls reception later. Their Sun Valley reception on January 4th was beyond awesome. It took tons of work for all of us, but turned out just about perfect.

My dad spent a ton of time making these amazing ice lanterns. They lined the walk into the clubhouse. (One of my parents' friends has a house in Lane Ranch and he was kind enough to let us use their clubhouse. It's absolutely gorgeous!)

My mom and many of her friends worked tirelessly for months putting together the decorations. They looked amazing.

 

A definite highlight of the reception were the floating lanterns - like on the movie Tangled.

They were amazing.

A perfect ending to a perfect night.

Under Construction

My dad stayed the whole week of Thanksgiving to frame my basement.

He's the best!

Here are the plans:

I'm pretty excited and this all makes me feel very grown up.

So, it's almost all framed and we're just waiting for Spring so we can put an outside door in. I really don't want all the construction coming through my house.

I'm so grateful to have such a talented father. I'm also excited to have Jordan and David live here this fall.

I got this in the mail yesterday. It was full of the most delicious chocolate.

My parents are so great!!

BINGO

I spent last weekend with a few members of my family in Lava Hot Springs, ID.

My mom grew up there as did my grandma and a few generations before them too. It's a sleepy little town (population 411 - no joke) with natural hot springs and an olympic size swimming pool complete with diving platforms and water slides.

In fact, my parents met at that pool. My mom was a lifeguard and my dad was there on a break from college. So, it's a pretty special place!!

A couple years ago, I blogged about my grandma's house and how it was almost completely destroyed by mold. Well, thankfully, the insurance company covered the loss and her house is completely new on the inside. It's pretty great.

This was the view from my window.

It was a super nice, relaxing weekend. I rode from Utah with Jordan, David, Cade and Krystal and we met my parents and my grandma and Aunt Launa there. It was so nice to get away. I read a 400 page book in 1.5 days. So nice to escape.

We (me, Dad, Cade, Krystal, Jordan and David) decided to try something new - on Saturday night, we headed to the Community Center to try our hand at BINGO. A friend of mine went a couple of months ago and loved it. He strongly suggested that we try it out and it was SO FUN! Seriously, not to be missed if you're ever in the area.

Cade got a Bingo! He won $33. Hooray!

One round was an "L with a postage stamp" to win. Dad was so close! Dang B9!

(His birthday is next week and I had a shirt made for him that says Lava Hot Springs Bingo on the front and B9 on the back. I hope he loves it!)

We had the chance to win $1199.99 on blackout but, sadly, we didn't. Cade was the only one in our group to get a Bingo. I hope we have better luck next time!

We were the only table without beer so, by default, we were the most boring table. There are some very interesting people at Bingo, that's for sure. But I was super impressed with some who were playing with 8 or 9 cards at a time. That's talent! The officiators were so funny too.They take Bingo very seriously.

I'm so excited to play again!

Cade's car is rear-wheel drive so we need a little help backing out of the driveway (did I mention it snowed pretty much the whole weekend?!).

We had the best weekend!