Yoo 699 - Car Maintenance Fun

The RAV4 has been trying to steal the show away from Skylar the past couple weeks. It's still a great car and I love it, but the odometer just went north of 100,000 miles and we decided it was time for a quality tune-up and some minor repairs. So $800 later we were left with just the routine maintenance, which we usually do ourselves to save some money. But are you really saving money after spending $800?

Yes.

Because the shop wanted to charge us $75 to change the cabin air filter. And we did it for $20 and 5 minutes worth of work. Including looking up an instructional you tube video on a slow Internet connection.

And by we, I mean Greg. Greg did all the work. I kept Skylar alive and fed Roscoe ice chips.

I love how impressive his teeth look in this "action shot". Maybe he does have some guard dog in him...

Close-up on the thighs. They're progressing! Half of me wants to cry and the other half of me wants to beam with pride. And eat them? Being a parent is so weird.

We utilize the shop at Greg's work and camp out for hours while the oil gets changed and the fluids get topped off and the tires get rotated and on and on. And then we wash and detail the car. I actually mostly do that part because Greg's attention to detail isn't his shiniest pearl. It's not bad, probably a normal level of attention to detail, but he married me. And I'm anal. So things get noticed. Like when one of the knobs on the dashboard gets cleaned, but the one on the other side doesn't.

It's fine though! We know which parts we need to play. I camp out in the suffocatingly hot car scrubbing the leather and picking fur from every nook and cranny while he does all the dirty work outside the car. Also, he wants me to draw special attention to the rims (top photo) because he did those himself and he's super proud of how shiny they are.

In the end, it was a fun day and we like working together. Even more so with a dog AND baby to keep us company now! Last time we did this Skylar was maybe an inch long?

Roscoe still doesn't love the fact that he has to share the backseat.

And more baby photos to take us out:

Always getting that hand free. Even in the pea pod.

"Mom, I am thinking." The face she makes when she's trying to decide if she's done nursing or not. This is always followed by her either passing out or aggressively attacking the boob again with her focused face.

Super Skylar! Watching her post-nap stretches is one of the highlights of my day.

And I'm going to be so sad when she no longer curls her legs up like this!

Crazy hair. I love this baby. Three weeks and we're all still alive!

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 690 - Relentless Birds and Poems of Pups

It's 3:30 in the morning and I'm up baking banana bread and making my way thru the "Needs Attention" paper pile on my desk. I blame this entirely on the birds right outside my bedroom window that have been communicating relentlessly since 2:12 am. It's a mixture of chirps, tweets, "ca-caaaaaws!", and whistling. And it's loud.

Of course this insomnia has nothing to do with the fact that I'm 39 weeks pregnant and kind of getting anxious for this dang kid sweet, innocent baby to decide it's ready.

Nope.

Also of note, Roscoe is "up" keeping me company as well. See above.

So, in this pile of "Needs Attention" paper work there's an insurance claim that needs to be filed. But that requires scanning a document to PDF with my printer and I lost gumption flipping thru the user's manual trying to figure out how to do that. Which brought me to these gems. They're poems that Greg and I wrote about Roscoe on a whim months ago that I didn't want to lose. And what better place to not lose them than on the blog.

Ahem.

Roscoe. A poem by Greg.

I love when he runs
     all over the place
Then hops on my lap
     and licks my face
He looks for a scratch
     when he lies on his back
Follows me to the kitchen
     to beg for a snack
I love my dog Roscoe
     I will for all time
In his presence I'm joyful
     I find the sublime.

Roscoe, the dog. A poem by Teagan.

Cold wet nose, seeking food always.
Copious cheeks, draped across resting paws.
Golden eyes, loyal and loving and wide.
Neck fat, begging to be squished between my hands.
Puppy paws, smelling like corn chips.
Chiseled haunches, backing into my leg for a massage.
Soft fur, all over my clothes and home.
Wagging tail, no affections hidden.
Floppy ears, whipping back and forth.
Crazy energy. Couch! Stairs! Bed! Again!
Roscoe, my dog.

And some pics of pups to take us out. We love this dork dog.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 672 - Ninja Dog Biscuits and More

I saved up bacon grease for the first time in my life to make pups these biscuits. After I'd mixed everything together and rolled the dough out I realized that I only own ninja-shaped cookie cutters. So Roscoe basically has the coolest dog treats in existence.

Though he could care less about their shape.

He just wants to eat them all now.

I used this recipe.

More dog pictures while I'm at it. I love when I'm working from home and he pushes his way under my desk and flops down on my feet. And then I feel like I have to stay at my desk forever because I don't want to get up and disturb him. It probably helps my productivity.

And Greg and pups. I'm glad he's just as crazy about our dog as I am.

I'm working on a T-shirt quilt and of course I had to make the project infinitely more difficult than it needs to be. I measured all the pieces I want to use and spent hours fitting all the blocks together in PowerPoint to form this final pattern. It's going to be really hard. Especially if one of my triple-checked measurements is off.

So far I've done a "rough cut" of all the pieces and am in the process of fusing interfacing on the back for the final cuts. I've got a ways to go yet. My mom let me borrow her sewing machine for the summer so I have a deadline: first week in August.

Double-yoked egg! This is lucky right? Speaking of eggs...they're expensive. Poor chickens.

I did a double-take when I saw Brie for this price. We bought two rounds and THEN realized they expired in two days. So we ate a lot of Brie that weekend until Dylan swore it made her sick and now no one's touched it.

It's still raining more than usual. We squished along the muddy trails at Phil Hardberger Park this past Saturday. Roscoe was especially happy about it. Then we cleaned him up and took him to Lowe's where everybody loved him and I realized the planned ceiling project is going to be too expensive to qualify for my "cheap home improvement" goal.

Back to the pinterest idea board.

A lovely person pulling a big trailer with no mud-flaps flew past me on 1604 a couple weeks ago and kicked up a rock that hit my windshield just right. I had so many things to say that prove I am not yet perfected.

But he marred my perfect windshield!

I researched my options and decided to give the $14 kit at Auto Zone a try. If it doesn't work at least I'll know to go with the professionals next time. If it does then I saved a lot of money. Either way I learned something.

It took me a couple hours and was kind of fun. The results weren't perfect but the chip isn't in a visible spot to begin with and I just don't want it to spread. So far, so good. Knock on wood!

And a final picture of Roscoe to close this all out.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 668 - AC Woes

The air conditioning problem that manifested itself right as I was fixing the washer problem is finally fixed! Here's the story.

This all started a few weeks ago when Greg broke the "No AC until June" rule (loosely enforced) and turned on the AC. While I was washing our clothes in the kitchen sink because the washer was broke. Shortly after the AC came on, we both smelled burning. It was bad. We shut off the thermostat but the fan stayed on and eventually we had to kill the breaker to the unit so we didn't run the fan all night.

Then the weather cooled off so it was easy to stay alive and we procrastinated fixing it. For three weeks.

It warmed up a bit two Tuesdays ago so I tried turning the AC back on to cool the house off before I went to work. Except I left for work and forgot to turn it off. Five hours later I walked into a furnace. The thermostat said 96 degrees! 

Obviously something was not working properly.

So that Friday I got serious about fixing the problem and spent an hour running between Google and the compressor trying to self-diagnose. That went no where.

The following Wednesday morning we finally admitted defeat and called a repair guy. Mostly because my mom and sister were coming into town that night and it was getting hot. The repair guy came over and spent two hours trying to figure out what was going on. I was uber thankful when he ruled out the condenser! I'd already imagined a worse-case scenario that was going to cost me at least five grand.

Eventually the diagnosis came in: a piece had melted on the circuit board that was causing the AC and heater to run simultaneously (the furnace was winning). Definitely not something I would have figured out on my own and clearly a problem. They tried to fix it but didn't have the part so they just disabled the wire to the furnace as a temporary solution.

Cool air again!

A couple more days passed and they were back with the part. A couple more hours passed and voila! I have a working AC! I'm so thankful to have a working AC.

Also, my voice mail is bad...might not be the best way to reach me:

And the forecast recently:

Tons of rain. We got out of the temple a couple weeks ago and I had a message from USAA informing me that our house had been in a tornado warning. BUT OUR DOG! We got home as quickly as we could through rain sheets and flooding streets. And everything was fine.

That's all.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 664 - Adventures With A Washing Machine

My washer stopped spinning during the spin cycle. I discovered this when I went to retrieve my last load of laundry for the week and realized it was still soaking wet. Unfortunately it was towels and bathroom rugs so it was quite the pain to squeeze them out enough before transferring to the dryer.

That's when I went to bed because it was Friday night and I couldn't even begin to deal with it.

Saturday morning found me eating a cookie two cookies for breakfast and watching a really hilarious youtube video of a man fixing the same issue with his washer. And I quote, "punching it does not solve the problem."

I was inspired.

Then I let it sit broken for another few days.

Now enter Monday and a dire need for clean gym clothes. An executive decision was made to use our FHE activity to research the issue.

First, we started by unplugging the washer, turning off the water, unscrewing the hoses, and pulling the washer away from the wall. Then we began removing all the screws on the back. Until we got to two super stubborn screws. Then we looked for the owners manual around the house but it didn't exist. Then we googled for the owners manual and approximately five minutes later I'd found a repair video for our exact washer that kindly told us we could remove the front panel to fix the problem.

So we returned the back of the washer to normal and turned our attention to the front. There were only two screws to remove but naturally one of them was stuuuuuuuuck. That's when I began googling for ways to loosen tight screws. A lot of tapping and WD-40 and Greg-grunting later, our screw was out and we were in business.

That's when we discovered the shredded belt. Which I promptly ordered on amazon for $10 before resigning myself to the kitchen and hand-washing gym clothes.

It was while I was scrubbing my clothes in the kitchen sink that I smelled an intense burning coming from the air conditioner. I thought the house was on fire. Upon further investigation, nothing was aflame but the thermostat was promptly set to off.

And the air conditioner didn't respond.

Eventually I just flipped the master kill switch and haven't turned it back on since.

One problem at a time!

The handle on my back gate is also falling off right now, but at least I got the belt for the washer and, after doing two loads of laundry, that seems to be fixed.

I'm quite pleased we didn't have to replace the washer or call an expensive serviceman, though I'm thinking our luck is going to run out with this air conditioning problem.

We'll see what youtube tells me.

In the meantime, my favoritest dog on the planet.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 662 - Greg Might Even Be Allergic To These Pictures

But seriously. That poor man has ALLERGIES. All caps. He's been hacking up a lung and near-dead all week. Of course the same thing happens every time the pollen stirs and he lets it go all the way to sinus infection. Because do we learn? I "strongly suggested" he go to the doctor on Tuesday for meds and what do you know...he did. And he's on the mend.

In honor of his allergies, I felt inspired to take pictures of the thriving plant life along the jogging trail. Pups and I frequent this trail together and it usually isn't this pretty. Though I'd take it with a few less poisonous serpents, thanks. We've seen two rattlesnakes already this year.

My previous manager at work has never, EVER, been camping, and one of the reasons he gives for that is that he doesn't want to encounter any snakes. And I'm like, I get that, I really do, but I'm positive I have seen more snakes in town than I've ever seen while camping.

KNOCK ON WOOD.

Too much snake talk.

I ordered a foam sleeping pad and some Darn Tough socks from backcountry.com earlier this week and the package came today. With free samples! It's really exciting to open that box and not only get your gear but see some extras floating around. More companies should take note of this.

That's all the important talk for now.

Have a great day :-)