Not much

Nope, not much going on at all in my neck of the woods. I prepared and mailed off 23 eBay packages today before 5pm, and thank heaven, we've got our rent, and maybe a few bills covered too. yay!

That's what eBay nightmares bring I guess. :) So its not all bad.

Still no word from the temp agency yet. I'm thinking I'll get a Sunday paper and peruse the want ads.

Yesterday I finished the whole bag of Turtles Chex Mix and now I want more (and more, and more...) Seriously, if you like chocolate at ALL, or even sweet caramel, you'll love the Turtles Chex mix. I also finished off a whole box of Crunch n Munch today too. I'm such a piggie. I'll be back into my fat girl jeans in no time flat I guess. lol kidding... (I seriously hope I'm kidding anyway!) I do have my bike here too, so maybe I can go for a ride on that sometime. Valerie (Shara's 7y/o daughter) learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike this summer, so maybe we can ride to the park sometime.

Otherwise, that's all that's going on here. We're going to Shara's office to clean it in a few minutes. She gets paid lots extra for that, and I don't mind helping, especially since so far, I've stayed here rent-free. :)

They're going to Canada this weekend, so I'll be home mostly alone. They have a chocolate lab named Shyanne, but she's pretty much a lazy dog, so it should be pretty stress-free.

Shara has a gift card from her boss for JCPenny's so we're probably going there after we clean to see what we can spend it on. WooHoo!

GREAT NEWS!

I just finished posting that other entry, when I went to check my email and got some GREAT NEWS!

"Dear IELTS Candidate:

You have been scheduled to take the IELTS test on September 22, 2007 – General Training module."

HURRAH! September 22nd is the date! :D The sooner the better, for sure! Thanks for your prayers! I'm so excited! Now I can plan the transportation aspect. :D YAY!


Edited at 3:39pm to add: As per Hayley's comment... I'll be taking the test in Boston! woohoo! I'll be stomping around my brother Stephen's old missionary hood. He's looking into getting me hooked up with members to sleep on their couch Friday night. :)

Trying new things

If you ever want to be ambitious and try new things, new foods, new experiences, you should totally go live with another family. It's quite amazing how different each family can be. That's what I've noticed this summer.

I spent a week in Utah and there was a whole mesh of families, granted that wasn't all too weird because I lived with Andrew and Amy last September for a month, and I've stayed with Paula and Ben for a Christmas in 2002. Each family I've lived with had their own unique way of getting things done, disciplining their children, rewarding their children, teaching them, cleaning, and even cooking food for their families. There are a LOT of similar things too though, like Church. You can feel each of their spirits and love of the Savior. It's really cool. It's almost like being a fly on their wall. I think that's why I'm such a huge fan of blogstalking. I get to see into each persons' life and it is really quite eye-opening.

I've tried some really good new, yummy things lately. Here's my little list:

Chex Turtles mix is awesome. Caramel Popcorn, Caramel & Chocolate covered chex, peanuts, faux M&M's, and pretzels! YUM! I highly recommend them.


I am a HUGE HUGE fan of Chocolate Twizzlers. HUGE. In Utah, I was so sad when I couldn't find them. So I opted for the Rainbow twizzlers instead, I wasn't as satisfied with them as I am with the chocolate twizzlers, but they weren't that bad, and my nieces and nephews sure didn't complain when I had them as prizes for the treasure hunt games we played when Dave & Logan were getting married.

Thankfully I saw my good ol' chocolate twizzlers at Wal-Mart here in Buffalo, so they DO still make them (a worry I had while in Utah).


I also tried the Oreo Cakesters everyone was raving about. I honestly wasn't that impressed. Maybe it was because they were chocolate? Are the normal creme ones any better? I guess after having Hayley's version of homemade oreos, nothing is quite the same. I wasn't all that impressed. Sorry.

One of Shara's favorite quick and easy dinners is "Lamboy Tacos" (Lamboy is her mom's last name... apparently she served a mission in Richmond, VA 2 years ago... I've gotta ask my brother if he remembers her. ;) Small world). You mix ground with baked beans (pork & beans or bush's type), and then you get a skillet with oil, and put those small corn tortillas on it, put some of the beef mixture in it, and fold it in half like a taco, brown it on both sides. Then you add cheese, and she shreds lettuce, adds tomatoes, and puts a spoonful of mayo in it, and they're really good tasting tacos. If you wanted them to be more taco-y you could probably add taco seasoning. But they're really tasty!

It's very interesting eating at other peoples' houses. My husband and I have a "normal" set of foods that we eat, and we normally don't deviate from it. Other people have their own "comfort foods" or easy meals they cook, because really, food is a BIG part of life. It's really quite interesting to see. I'm just glad they've welcomed me into their house & their lives so freely. I really feel so lucky, in spite of all the bad luck at the border I've had. Change isn't always bad. We don't have to like it (I really miss my husband and my house, that I do not like one bit), but its not all that bad.

Shopping!

So. I went a little wild yesterday at the Salvation Army. I didn't find any skirts I like, but oh well. I did find two really nice pairs of dress pants! My mom had sent me $20 dollars extra, so I figure why not spend it, right?

Here's my new pants!



There are four awesome things I'm currently loving about these pants.

1) The first pair is Perry Ellis (This is where we say ooh la la!) Granted, they're men's pants, but they're the perfect rise and hit me at the perfect spot on my ankle. I likey!


2) The second pair is pinstriped PINK! I'm usually not all that girly, but this I just ADORE for some reason! They're a teensy bit too big, and slightly long for this 5'4" gal, but I figure I can get them tailored right? How could I pass up a pink pinstripe? HOW? See, I couldn't leave them there. ;)


3) They're both machine washable! (WOOHOO!) They pretty much pay for themselves right there. No dry clean! YAY!

4) The last thing I'm loving about these pants is the price! I didn't get them on any special ticket day or anything, but still they were only $5.99! Can you believe it??? Well, here's proof:

I'm so loving THAT. After taxes it was $12.55. I'm quite proud of myself.

Then when Shara got home we did a late Target run (got there at 9:30p store closed at 10). She got a $25 dollar gift card for signing up with her company's Verizon business link rewards (which is awesome. Its like free target money!) And because she's so smart, she chose the Target rewards over any of the other rewards out there. So we went and spent it. Fast.

I couldn't resist the cute mossimo shirts, not the t's I was talking about earlier But there was another top that my mom got me when I was in Utah. She got it for me in brown, and it was perfectly flattering for me, and I've been thinking about a black one for quite some time now, so I splurged (sorry hunnie) and got it for $12.99 :).

It's just like this one but in Black (and I already have the Brown one.) It's totally flattering on me, makes my chest look smaller (always a plus), and I can wear it with my new pants! So, it was a good shopping day yesterday for sure.

Hopefully I'll get a temp job really soon, otherwise all this shopping I'm doing is (mostly) in vain. I did have fun though! :) Gotta shower, and get at least 5 eBay packages ready. =) Have a lovely day, I'm pretty sure I will!

Taking care of business

That's what I've been doing lately. Here's what I've done since Friday night when I got the bad news.

1) Filled out my IELTS English Test application off to Boston with 2 passport pictures, $155 bucks (thanks mom), and sent that off Express so they'll get it tomorrow by 3pm. I called them today, and they said they have a few spots left for the test on September 22nd. (That would just be AMAZING if I were to get one of those spots! The sooner the better people!) So if you're praying, pray I get the Sept. 22nd test! And then the results are sent 13 days after that. So I'm really pulling for that 22nd date!

2) I re-registered with AppleOne, the temp agency I registered with last September. I took the typing tests and got over 10000 keystrokes per hour, which is pretty darn fast if you ask me. So my job hunter lady is quick at work to place me in whatever she can. :D

3) I also registered with geico. They have a HUGE call center in Buffalo, and I think I'd be very well suited for that. So we shall see.

4) I'm also keeping up with eBay, mailing out all kinds of makeup and hopefully we'll have our rent by the end of the week. :) *fingers crossed*

5) I've realized it takes like an hour to fully blog-stalk everyone, and leave comments. :)

Um... Other than that, there's not much going on. If I do get a job anytime soon, I'll probably be going to the Salvation Army to get some cheap skirts or something, as all my other skirts are in Canada. *le sigh*

I talked to the hubby for a good long time today, and he's surviving without me. I feel bad, because I'm the reason we're renting a whole house, which is slightly more expensive that what we "need". Neither of us, on our own needs a big old house, just a room is fine, so part of my working moolah (hopefully I get some sort of job soon) will go to rent and bills. Maybe I'll finally be able to pay tithing too. It's been a while since I've had a job I can call my own. :)

That's all from Buffalo! Thanks for tuning in campers!

Denied

So bogus. So, I tried entering Canada last night so I could be at my mother in law's BBQ tonight, and be in church on Sunday, but that's not happening.

They asked lots of questions at the border, and I got unlucky. They ran my ID, and I ran into trouble. Big time. I could have been arrested and held at the little jail at the border. (not good!). Thankfully, they let me return to the US.

If I would have had those papers from the Visa office in Buffalo saying that I have a file number, and need to take an English test, there's a better chance they would have let me back into Canada. But My mom sent it on the 18th of June, and I still haven't gotten it. So I can't go home.

So, now I need NEED to take that English test like yesterday. I can't take it in Canada, because if I'm ever found *in* Canada, I could be arrested, deported, and excluded from the country for at LEAST a year. (NOT GOOD!).

SO, now I need to schedule an English test. The one near Boston is looking like my best bet. My brother served his mission there, and he says that community has the second highest concentration of Mormons east of the Mississippi. That's somewhat comforting. I was on the phone with my mom last night when he called her so I said don't hang up with me, talk to him, and ask him about Boston. I'd need to arrive there the night before the test, camp out in a member's driveway, or on their couch, anything. Then wake up early the next morning and go take my test, then drive back to Buffalo.

There's a test being given today, on September 8th, and I think the 22nd of September, and hopefully its not all booked up by now. My mom said she'd loan me the money for the test, gas to & from Boston, and toll roads, (thanks again mom) and I'd love for that expense list to NOT include a motel.

So now I've got my application papers for the test all printed out, and ready to go. Thankfully the test is $155 dollars here, while if I take it in Canada, its $240. I don't understand why every stinkin' thing is more expensive there. The dollar is almost equal.

Anyway, that's the latest depressing news from me. No trucking job, no husband, no Canada. *pout* Guess I'll have to get a "real" job down here for a while. *sigh* Then I can pay my mom back, and maybe get my credit looking somewhat normal again... (not likely though).

*Another sigh*

eBay nightmares...

That's what I'm having lately. Nightmares about eBay. For the past week, I've done nothing but take pictures, type out descriptions, and post gosh darn makeup on eBay! I'm so so so sick of it! :(

If anyone wants to humor me, and maybe comment on how spiffy my pictures and or pages for my ebay crap looks, by all means, please do. I'm feeling so down and out about it all. Here's a link to what we're selling.


AAAAAnyway...
I've been without cable TV since October or so, and I've been loving watching tv with Shara here in Buffalo. Lately, we've been watching lots of reality tv, and I LOVED watching America's Got Talent. Granted she tivo's it, and we watch it the next day and cut out like 30minutes of CRAP commercials (The ONLY way to watch tv IMO), but I just about fell in love with Cas Haley. He's got SUCH an Island flavor to his music. I'd buy his album if/when he puts one out. He's very Bob Marley meets UB40 meets Sting meets AWESOME!!! :)

Here's some of his performances from You Tube. I likey. :)


Singing Red, Red, Wine with UB40! LOVE IT!


Intro, and his first performance Sting/The Police's song Walking On The Moon


Singing Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke


Elvis and UB40's Can't Help Falling in Love with You (I think this one is my favorite!)

I like him. He's talented. SPOILER Below!...











he didn't win :( and I'm upset about that. :( I hope he still makes it big! He's only 26 he could do it! :)

Night & Day

I just wanted to post the difference in the pictures from our old crappy camera, to our "new" one we got a year and a half ago... which further explains why last weeks' trip to Buffalo was such a flop.

Here's the old camera:

That, honestly, isn't even the worst picture it takes. So I'm giving the old bugger the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't even take normal pictures outside... The outside pictures all look like this:


Poor dave and logan... they just got married, and already they look very blue. heh Crappy camera.

Anyway, here's that same origins item I posted above, with the good camera:


Really... which product would you rather buy? The one that looks all yucky and blue? Not so much!

It just sucks that most of my weddingy pictures are blue. :(

This one is cute though. :)



They had flavored soda, with half and half, whipped cream, and cherries to drink, and Ella got a hold of her daddy's drink and went to town! I love that girl. :)

New Banner!

I'd just like to thank Natalie for my new banner! I had to change my layout from the browns to the red/oranges, but I think its a MUCH better color scheme!

Thanks Natalie! For those of you who don't know, she has Free Banner Fridays now, and all you have to do is put a teensy little comment in THIS POST! THEN Maybe... just maybe you'll feel as lucky as I do right now!

Isn't it awesome? I love it! YAY! *\o/*

Dedication

What a glorious day I had today. Our little 3rd ward's new building was dedicated today. Elder M. Russell Ballard was there to give the dedicatory prayer. On his way in, he said "My, my!" in response to all the people standing up. And then he looked right at me and asked me "How are you doing?" stunned I smiled and said "Just fine thanks!" It totally pricked me to the core.


The meeting continued and we sang Hymn #3 "Now Let us Rejoice" and I cried. I don't know what it is with hymns lately, but they make me cry. And like everyone on the stand was looking at me, and a few people in the crowd saw me too. It's my O Canada day revisited, but add in the stake presidency, and an Apostle. But seriously, read the lyrics to that hymn and try not to cry. The promises in it are just awesome, and I'm so thankful for them.

Funny thing is though, we sang that same song durring our normal Sacrament Meeting, and there were no tears. I suppose it was Elder Ballard's presence that brought me to tears. He was the Toronto Misison president in 1974, so this area has a special sacredness in his heart, and we were glad to have him there. He spoke of dedication, and why some temples had more than one dedicatory prayer, and he told us that dedication isn't for the building, its for the people. So we need to dedicate, and re-dedicate our lives to the gospel. It was a very inspiring talk and prayer today.

I taught the lesson today in Young Women's as well, it was on the Plan of Salvation, and it was not your typical lesson either, not like Primary days anyway. The girls were asking the tough questions, questions I didn't exactly know the answer to. Lucky for me our Stake YW President Carol Glanfield was there, and so was our YW President Sarah, so they helped me field the tough questions. They said I did a great job though, and I was thankful for that. The spirit from that lesson must have carried over to the Dedicatory part of the day, because I surely felt my Heavenly Father's love for me today.

Speaking of Young Women's, I was released as the 2nd Counselor, and called as the 1st Counselor today. Our former 1st counselor was needed in Primary as the pianist. This should lead to all good things. Our new 2nd Counselor is Laura De Souza, someone I was hoping to be able to get to know, and now I have such a great opportunity to do so.

I'm a little bummed though, if Jon and I take that trucking job (which I'm 95% sure that we will), I'll be gone nightly from like 5pm till maybe 8am (with a 2 hour break in the middle), and I won't be able to go to the activities anymore. :( So sad. But the money is really good, and maybe I'll even be able to pay some tithing with it... I hope.

Anyway, it was a lovely day, and I feel so blessed to have been in the presence of an Apostle. He didn't stay to shake hands, because he had to get across the border ASAP to catch a flight out of Buffalo, but I feel special because he asked me how I was doing. :)

I win!

You may not realize it, but this is my 100th post! Yay! This is very special. For this post, I'd just like to "announce" that a new blog banner is coming!

Yesterday I won Natalie's banner giveaway because I threw my name in her hat! Yay me! WOO HOO!

Natalie's blog is soooo fun to read! I've been blogstalking her for quite a while now, and she's so cute, witty, and she finds SUCH fun things to look at or buy. I've just added her to the list off to the right of my blog for your blogstalking pleasure. And I'm so very excited to have won a Natalie original for my new blog banner! I tried to be creative, but it didn't really work. ;)

I'm so excited! Yay! :-D

I love Target.

I think Target is the best thing about my recent visits to the US (aside from seeing my family again, of COURSE). In Utah, my mom spoiled me like crazy there, and now I'm able to go in Buffalo whenever I want because its like 5 minutes away. :)

They have these pretty cool Mossimo t-shirts. They're on sale this week for $5 bucks. FIVE BUCKS! These are the same shirts I bought in September in Connecticut (Thank you Andrew and Amy) and fell in love with nearly a year ago.

I got the Black, and the brown (above) one called "Sorrel Tree" I like it. I got those last fall, and more recently I got the pink (as pictured above) and a white one. They're so super cheap, great for layering... I can't take it! There are more colors I want. Someone hold me back! I have to be super careful when walking around Target... Its like I can't keep money in my wallet when I'm in that store. :)

Speaking of money. Dan may have a truck-driving job for Jon and I in a few weeks. There's a company that he contracts for here in Hamilton, with a truck route to Guelph (Where Dan and Shara once lived, They actually just sold that house, his mom was living there, but now she'll be moving closer to the border) ANYWAY, The job is $750 a week, which is a WHOLE lot more than we make on eBay... AND It'll be enough to get us back on our feet, AND able to pay down some credit cards too! All we have to do is work out the technicalities of the job. I have already been on the "run" last December, when Dan's contract worker's license was suspended. I drove for a day, so I'm somewhat familiar with it. I'd do the driving, and Jon would do the paper work and pickups. The hours are crappy, but we'd be together, and the money is good. So we're considering that in the near (like early September) future. :)

I may even be able to do Avon at the same time, but that's just an idea I've been playing around with. We'll see.

Anyway, go get yourself some cheap t-shirts. I like the v-neck, but they also have scoop (which may be more "in standards" as I sometimes have worn a cami underneath. :) )

Flop

Yep, that's what this week's trip to Buffalo has been. A flop. I should have brought our GOOD camera down here to take pictures of all this makeup. Did I? no. Why? I don't know!

I have the old crappy camera here, It takes blue pictures with a blue picnic-table-cross-hatch thing going on. See:


The best picture this camera was able to take is this one, probably...


So I went ahead and used it on my auction. The hubby says they won't sell for nearly as much as they should. See, the key to eBay is beautiful pictures, and beautiful auctions. Are you more likely to buy something with a crappy picture and 2 words of description? Or something with a picture that tells you you MUST have it, with a description of the product that the retail stores use (which is usually what I do).

So, I'm all depressed aobut this crappy camera. BUT, the Desrosiers are making a trip to Montreal this weekend, and I'm hitching a ride to Hamilton. They said they could pick me up on the way back too. Excellent. It saves me gas money (Something my husband can be happy about), I'll be able to bring Sasha cat her medication, I'll be able to bring the camera back with me, and in my humble opinion, the most important thing... I'll be able to go to our new Chapel's dedication service. (I even have a ticket to sit in a cushy seat!) Elder M. Russell Ballard will be there. Very exciting. This time last year, our branch was just a tiny little branch in the basement of a government health building. (Heck, we were still that just in April of THIS year)... Then we moved into our new building (right downtown) in May, we were "upgraded" to a ward, our boundaries were increased, and now we're having a dedication. Very exciting. I think the Open House will be in a month or two. Not sure.

Anyway, I should probably find out if I'm teaching on Sunday or not. :)

I'm also making some zucchini bread today. Shara bought some large and in charge zucchinis yesterday. I've only used a half of one big one so far, and its made 2 big loaves... well, almost. Hopefully that works out ok. They're in the oven right now. I've posted the recipe on my recipe box blog for your convenience. There is like 3 teaspoons of cinnamon in it, 2 cups of sugar, 3 c. flour, and 2 c. zucchini... It seems like it'll be a sweet/spicy-type bread. Fun stuff!

Busy, busy!

For the next little while, I'm going to be eBay lady supreme. There is a bunch of makeup here I need to take pictures of, edit, and post on eBay so it all sells, and we can ship it for super cheap from the US. That's why I'm in Buffalo.

I think I'll be listing most of the stuff on my shell-E username, and not the other one I normally tell folks about. :) Should you be interested in what exactly I'm doing lately, check that link.

If you see me slacking, whip me back into shape. I'm not on vacation here!

Now the only thing I have to worry about is how long the batteries in the camera last me. I stop taking pictures when they go dead. :( boo!

Tag! You're it!

My sister-in-law Amy tagged me to answer these questions. So here goes!

Jobs I've held:
1. Ice Cream scooper (Hey, me too Amy! At the BYU-Hawaii Seasider though)
2. PowerQuest (Software Company) TSR (Phone lady, not quite customer service, not quite technical support, we registered their products, and collected information. boring)
3. Computer Technician - Isis Pharmaceuticals
5. professional eBay lady.

Movies I can watch again and again:
1. Garden State
2. Hope Floats
3. Top Gun
4. Far & Away
5. Practical Magic

Guilty Pleasures:
1. Dollar Store purchases
2. Cheese
3. Chocolate
4. N'Sync

Places I've lived:
1. Hawaii
2. California
3. Utah
4. Ontario, Canada
5. Connecticut for a month, and Buffalo for a month

TV Shows I enjoy:
1. Desperate Housewives
2. Men in Trees
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. ER
5. Friends (I could watch these ANY time)

What were likely the first things you thought when you saw best friend for the first time?

1. I don't know if I really *TRULY* have someone who considers lil' old ME their BEST friend still... But probably the one thing that ran through my mind was "thank goodness she likes me!"

Some of the places I've been on vacation:
1. er... Utah
2. Southern Cali
3. Las Vegas (WOOHOO!)
4. I dunno, I need more vacations.

Websites I visit daily:
1. ebay.com
2. paypal.com
3. gmail.com/hotmail.com
4. blogspot.com/blogger.com and ALL my "blogs I read" links.
5. Banking/CC/Financial sites.

Favorite foods:
1. Hubby's creations (He never uses recipies, he just cooks! It always is so yummy!)
2. Most Mexican dishes rock my socks.
3. Put a potato in anything and I love it. (Perogies, Fries, Poutine, tots, you name it)
4. And we can't forget the Ice Cream category. ;) I love them all, but not so much mocha stuff. yuk.

Body parts I have injured:
I have a few scars. 2 on my face, a few on my knees, and of course, where my toe nearly fell off.

Nicknames I've had:
Belly, Bellica, Maren-mickell (Those are by my dad only, usually). In 9th grade, our History teacher made each of us create anagrams for our names, and my lovely classmates came up with "The Shy Smelli" Using my first and last names at the time. The whole year I was called Smelli, and I seemed to be ok with it. Maybe that contributed to my somewhat low self-esteem back then (or my current obsession with Secret deoderant? not sure). *sigh*

My husband calls me donkey, and I call him honky.


Your turn. I tag:
1. Jamie (she only has to do it once though, since Amy tagged her too. This is probably cheating on my part, but I don't know too many people. :) )
2. Hayley
3. Holly
4. Jessica (post it on facebook!)
5. Michelle


Who tagged me: Amy

Future Plans

Now that the car is working, and back in my posession. I'm never letting it out of my sight again. Never.

I still need to pick up a few things from Buffalo. We've decided that it would be a great idea if I were to go to the US and sell the eBay makeup we have down there. We'd be saving a TON of money on shipping, probably enough to pay for the cost of gas there and back. I should be leaving to go back to Buffalo shortly, and then I'll come back here after everything has been sold and shipped. Jon thinks its a great idea, and so do I. Plus, the Desrosiers are MORE than happy to have me stay there, and so am I... they live minutes away from a Target! ;)

I'll probably be leaving tomorrow. :)

Jeep is fixed!

And I am now in Canada! Just in time to go to Festival of Friends! (Our family tradition ;))

You're dying to know what it was right?

It was a retarded fuse.


A freaking two dollar fuse! ($1.98 + tax)



This is a pic of one just like mine. Dan got his multimeter out and tested all the fuses under the hood. His son was even upside down in the passenger seat to reach the fuse box under the dash there. This yellow one (#20) was bad, so we replaced it and vroom vroom vroom! The car starts up! yey!

For my own peace of mind, I also took my starter into the Advance Auto Parts store and had them test it, and it was bad... So the $60 I spent on that wasn't a waste. If I wanted I could get $10.00 back for it. Not sure what Jon wants to do with it yet. It might be worth more up here if we recycled it for its metal, its freakin' heavy. So who knows.

Anyway, the Jeep is back in Canada, crossing the border was a whiz (Although, I kind of decided to go back to the states Monday and sell that box of makeup while I'm down there. It'll take more than a week, but I figure its only 80 miles, and I can come home on weekends, right? Not sure how that'll work, but the Desrosiers (Dan & Shara) have been MORE than welcoming to me, and I really do feel like I have a place in their home. (Someone called yesterday and asked me what "my dad's" fax number was... meaning Dan... He's only 44, not quite my dad people. I guess I still sound like I'm 9 years old on the phone. (This worries me, for my English test for Immigration, there's a verbal section. I hate verbal sections.)

So, now I've gotta go get ready for the festival/fair thingy! All is well I suppose!

Thanks for your positive thoughts, good vibes, and especially your prayers! ;) They're greatly appreciated. I'm glad I'm home. What an ordeal and a stress-out this past week has been. I'm so glad it didn't cost thousands to fix! :D

Next thing we need is to replace the front windshield, it has a big ol' crack in it from Easter 2005, and we've never fixed it. A rock pelted the car driving from Toronto to Hamilton to visit his family for Easter. Sucks. After that, we'll get a new paint job. The clear-coat is peeling off and it looks like one of those rust-bucket cars in Hawaii. Pathetic.


see? :(

Not to mention the little blemish in the fiberglass from my accident 2 years ago... oopsie!


Pretty bad huh.

Oh well, I still love this car. Love.

The feeling of driving again was so exhilarating just driving and being on the road again. I opened up my sun roof and cranked up the radio and sang SO LOUD! It was great. :) I'm a happy kid.

Also, more good news. I ate my tomato. It was red red red! And it was amazing. I split it with Jon and it was probably the best tomato I've ever had in my life. Sorry I didn't take a pic for ya, but it was too tempting for me to wait any longer. I hugged the hubby hello, and ate a tomato, then I unpacked the car. :) There's just something about eating something you grew yourself ya know? Good stuff!

That's all for now! Thanks again everyone! :-D

What is wrong with my Jeep?

So... This morning, the "car guy" from the Desrosiers' ward came over. We took the battery out (it was dead again), and took that as well as the starter from the scrap yard over to Advance Auto Parts, and they tested them both for free. The starter worked great. The battery, however, did not. It wasn't creating a clear connection. The battery post was loose, and practically corroded all the way through, no amount of cleaning could fix that thing.

Sucks that it has a 5 year warranty from a store in Canada (its only 3 years old)... *sigh* So, instead of getting $5.00 back by turning in my old one (I bought a new/cheap battery) I'm keepign it so I can get a good one whenever I *do* make it back to Canada and Canadian Tire. *nother sigh*

So, we switch out the battery (well Ray did it, I just watched). Tried it, it didn't work. We even re-juiced up the battery with a charger, tried it, and nada.

So, Ray continues to switch out the starter. And I go to turn the key once that has been done, and again, I get absolutely nothing. Not even a coughing car. NOTHING. It is completely dead. DEAD.

Ray says he thinks it's the computer, but why the heck would a computer in the car die from 10 months of it just sitting there? NO IDEA. And then he said it'd probably cost a thousand bucks. (yeh right, like I have *that* kind of money!)

Shara thinks its the Alternator. I think I need a 2nd opinion, a professional one too. Maybe I should get a job while I'm down here... blah! I'll just be finishing up the inventory list so we can figure out what to sell from the stuff we have here.

Poor little Jeephicle. :(

Time for another update...

So, people have been calling my husband, expecting to talk to me... but I'm not there! I'm in Buffalo.

There's a big box of makeup here keeping me company. Hopefully I can get it inventoried tonight, so I can start taking pictures, and describing it for eBay so I can sell it off real quick.

Maybe not too quick. My husband says it might be a good idea for me to sell it here, rather than to try and bring it back into Canada (where they might tax the crap out of it), and sell it up there, and end up shipping it for a LOT more. So we're saving money by me being down here, selling makeup.

Granted, I'll miss my Young Women, but I hope I won't be gone for too long.

Looks like I'll miss Festival of Friends too :( AND my father in law's birthday (both August 10th)... but my thoughts will be with them, for sure. :)


Car Update:

I found a starter at a wrecking yard, it was only $45.00 with a $10.00 core charge (I get that back when I take them my old one), plus tax. So I'm recycling, AND saving money. Gotta love that! I just got "paid" today too, an eBay lady finally paid for her 50 lipsticks, so I can pay for shipping and a few other things I'll need here for the next week... or so... We'll see! If anyone needs the phone # here, or wants me to call them, just email me. They have free long distance to the US and Canada, so it really works out. The Desrosiers have totally accepted me into their family, as if I really WERE family. Which makes the homesickness i'm feeling for Canada slightly better. :) (if that makes sense... I'm not sure how to word that one).

The mechanic is coming out tomorrow at 8am instead of today, so hopefully we'll get the car on the road (literally) then! :) The battery died again... so we'll have to charge it again too.

Other than that, I have no complaints! I made dinner tonight for Shara and I. Dan (her husband) is on the road, and is stopping in tonight around 9ish, and is heading back out again. He's a trucker, and such a trooper. They're both so good to each other, its really great to see that in a marriage. :) Anyway, I've got to inventory this makeup so I can get listing it tomorrow!

ALSO, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to my sister in law Amy (her blog is to the right ----> ). She took pictures of me while I was in Utah, and not to sound too boastful, but they really turned out great! So I updated my profile picture here, on facebook, and on myspace. I really love the picture she took of me in color. Not to be vain... but I'm good lookin! My profile pic is at the bottom of my blog on the right side as well.

Enjoy!

Stuck in Buffalo... Again...

Only this time its not because I'm not allowed into Canada. (Well, I very well could be not allowed into Canada, but I'm not sure yet). For now, my car isn't starting. We charged it up yesterday, and then we even gave it a jump start (the charge was from a plug-in battery charger thingy), and nada.

The darn thing won't start. Dan thinks that it's the starter. I'm fairly clueless in the workings of these things, so I'm going to have to believe him until I have a 2nd opinion. So, today I've called around, and I've found some fairly reasonable prices for the work. I'll break it down here, because I can.

Pep Boys
Starter: $69.99
Labor: $64.00 (This is the USA, its not Labour here ;) )
Tow: $69.99
Total: $203.98 + Tax

K&A Auto Repairs (local ma & pa type place)
Starter: $80.00
Labor: $54.00
Tow: $45.00 (usually its plus mileage, but they're *right* down the road, so he said it'd just be 45 :) )
Total: $179.00

Firestone
Starter: $220.00 (oddly, he quoted me this last... and that is when I hung up)
Labor: $71.20
Tow: $50.00 (They outsource it, I no likey)

I also called a battery & starter company, and they'll sell me a starter for $93.55. yuk.

So, if I could somehow figure out if we could tow it to that K&A place, It'd be like $134 + tax. The catch though, is that they only accept Cash. Grr. I'm clueless as to how that will happen.

I do have my PayPal debit cards for both my PayPal accounts, but I don't know if there's money in there or not. lol

Just checked. They're both pretty much empty. :( $1.01 left in one of 'em. Hubby has my main debit card in Canada (I didn't figure I'd need it). And while I was in Utah, a new WaMu card arrived in the mail. I didn't realize it was to replace my 2nd checking account I have with them, and not my main account, so I was retarded and cut up the atm card for my main account (this is only AFTER I was able to activate the darn thing online, so I figured I was replacing the right card). So now I'm without atm card... because the 2nd account's card is useless because I don't have a pin for it. I know. I'm retarded.

I think I'll call an auto wrecker place next. *sigh*

My Tomatos

I talked to the hubby today. I miss him so much. Especially at the wedding last night, they made everyone get up and dance. I took baby Courtney from Paula and Ben so they could dance together, and I danced with her. She fell asleep, so I guess I'm a crap dancer.

Anyway, my husband said my favorite tomato was turning redish! It should be ready to eat in a week or so! He even sent me a picture on demand.


When he got the picture, he added "for your blog" next to the link. lol He knows me so well. Anyway, I'm so proud of these little tomatos. Soon I'll be giving them away to everyone at church. :)

Speaking of baby Courtney, Amy took a few pictures of her, and she left some on this computer, so they aren't edited to perfection, and I'm sure Amy will later post some of the better ones, but I just wanted you all to see my cute baby neice. She'll be 2 months old on the 10th.

So far so good!

So, I got here Tuesday evening, finally... Went shopping almost immediately till 9:30, mom got me some jeans, 3 shirts, and some cute shoes! Thanks mom! Yay Target!

Yesterday, I went to the post office, and the bank. Fun stuff. In the evening, our family went to Los Hermanos on Provo's Center street (yes, it's Center here, not Centre... ;) ) During dinner, My nephew Ty got super tired. This kid is adorable. Whenever he gets tired, he puts his hand under the collar of his shirt. He started doing this before the food got there. He was mostly awake for another 20 minutes or so, then he started zonking out. My sister in law Amy (Ty's momma) put some footage of the kiddo falling asleep. Crystal (my brother Stephen's wife) recorded him falling asleep. The food arrived, and he promptly fell asleep in his taquito. It was so precious. Check out the videos on her blog here. I laughed so hard I had giggle tears. Good times indeed. :)

THEN 6 of us (Stephen, Crystal, Andrew, Jamie, David, and I) went to see the Simpson's movie. I laughed my head off the whole way through! I totally loved it.

I haven't taken my camera out of the bag yet, but it's the not so good camera, that has to be manually adjusted, otherwise there's a blue hue on it. Ah well. I think my mom said she had a disposable camera I could have. :) I'll be using both shortly.

Today I get to see Jessica, my good ol' Canadian roommate. She's from Alberta, but is living in Orem with her Husband and 3 boys. They're quite adorable. She tracked me down through Facebook, so I guess facebook can't be all bad, right? :)

THEN this afternoon, we need to go to the church and set up for the rehearsal/family dinner, we're getting food catered from L&L's! For those of you who aren't from Hawaii, or who haven't eaten there, L&L's is heaven. It's the best Hawaiian food you'll ever eat. And I'm oh, so excited we're getting food from there!

I still haven't gotten my hair cut, maybe I'll do that Saturday after lunch with Hayley? No idea... lol My flight leaves Monday at 11, so maybe then? I'm not sure. My husband ran into the guy who is supposed to cut my hair in Hamilton, so maybe I'll just wait? Probably not... Not sure. I want a good hair cut, but I also want it CUT for goodness sakes. I think now I want it long for the wedding. I picked up my long-lost curling iron in Buffalo, so I really want to curl it. I'll need some super-ultra-mega hold hairspray though, otherwise it won't stick.

I also finished my James Patterson - The Beach House book last night. I thought that fattie book would last my whole trip. NOW what am I supposed to do on the way back? *sigh* Must. Find. New. Book!

Anyway, I need a shower, busy day today! :)