Holidays - Week 2

Week one has come and gone. It was a nice balance of busyness in Edmonton and some relaxation when we got home (slept in until 10am today, ahhhh). Also today has been about getting ready to go to Swift Current tomorrow and out to Lac Pelletier. I am so looking forward to some lake time. No obligations, no worries, just pure relaxation (and good food, mmm).

I think all that I need to do to get ready yet is get a few things together, paint my toenails, mow the lawns, water the lawns and flowers and pack the van. We bought a hose today for the tap by our deck and I was using it to fill a pail to put some water on our cedars (the landscapers finally came yesterday and fixed up a few things in our yard that needed fixing, including 2 new cedars!). Kiwi came over and started drinking out of the hose and got her face all wet. Then she backed up and put her bum up in the air like she wanted to play so I sprayed her with the hose. She ran away, but then came back and wanted some more. When we were done I went in the house to get a towel to dry her off and she took off like a shot running laps on the back lawn around the tree and back to the fence to dry off. We call this the schnoodle 500 and we have not seen it since she was on her pills to get rid of the lumps she had. She has so much more energy since she has been off those silly pills! But no lumps!

I had made an appointment to take my car in yesterday for an oil change and to get a seasonal inspection done, since my brakes had been vibrating when coming to a stop from high speeds. The results of the inspection were certainly discouraging. I don't know all the technical details off the top of my head, but we were given estimates for upwards of $3000 worth of work that my car needs. I had no idea..... And I am pretty sure that most of the things that need doing are not the types of things that have gotten worse if I did ignore them for a while. There is a coolant leak, and something with the suspension, and front brakes (rear brakes should be done soon too), a belt, and a few other more minor things. We are waiting to hear back from a friend who is an owner of a shop in Saskatoon just to get his opinion if the estimates that we were given were ridiculously high. Even if we were to do the most important things on the list we would probably be looking at $2000 for a car that is maybe worth $5000. We are considering trading it in for something new. I know that we wouldn't get nearly as much as it is actually worth by trading it in versus selling privately, however after the pain in the butt of trying to sell the Buick privately a few years back I would rather just get rid of it, if we are going to.

I have been praying about going to Hawaii. I asked God if it wasn't supposed to happen that he would make it clear. I think getting Angie a new car is slightly more important than going to Hawaii. :( Okay God, I hear you even though I don't want to hear you. But I know that having a reliable car is important, especially since I can't just hop into Jay's van any time I want and take it for a drive.

I have NO idea what sort of car would be best. I thought I would have my car for quite sometime yet. We drove through the auto mall today just to see what cars are even out there. It is hard to know what to buy. I don't think we are in any great rush, I doubt my car will stop working tomorrow, but at least we need to start doing some research and praying for God to provide the right car. This car I have now, we have had it for 4 1/2 years and have barely put a cent into it. We always said we would keep it as long as it doesn't start costing too much.......I guess we are at that point now. It still looks so nice and it only has 120,000kms on it (it's a 1998 Pontiac Grand Am GT). But I guess lots of cars look nice on the outside but have some major issues on the inside.