Fun day with the kids

This morning we were up so I decided to take the kids to Sabbath School. We drove over to the Village Church and I thought we would be just barely on time but as it turns out we were early. There were only a couple of kids in the classroom as we waited. I was so proud of the kids, they sat in their chairs very still and patient, looking all around.

Levi was so excited to see the theme this quarter for the Kindergarten (4-5) class was race cars. They had lots of fun things for the kids to do. They took a dragonfly around and sang to the visitors. They let all the kids come up and get a matchbox or hot wheel car and park it in the parking lot at the church (on the left in the photo above). They had a song with red, yellow and green lights and puppets and Ellie thought that was so fun she got out of her chair and was dancing around. At one point they turned out the lights and there was a black light on so all the kids with white started glowing, that was really neat.

Then they handed out little cars with LED headlights that the kids could put on their finger while they sang "this little light of mine" and they turned off the lights again so the kids could see their little lights shine. Levi saw me taking a photo and he shone his right at me!

All in all the kids had such a great time, it was really enjoyable for them - and me, since they were so well behaved. I wasn't sure if Ellie would do ok in the older class but she did just great.

After that we went home and got the kids changed into play clothes and Oma came to pick us up in her new Suburban! We went to check out the Kids' Day at the Farmer's Market downtown.

The first thing the kids saw were the big tractors, so they had to climb up and sit in the cab. Levi asked 'why does it have two seats?' I told him sometimes it takes two people to drive these tractors.

Levi wanted to get up in the next tractor but there was a little girl in the cab, so instead of standing around waiting we went across the street to check out the roping girls. They showed the kids how to throw a lasso, then they reminded us to go to the Fair next weekend. Here is Levi pulling his rope taught, and Ellie is in the background.

Ellie roped a steer too!

After that the tractor was available so the kids climbed up and noticed this one only had one seat, so they had to share. They also had a disagreement over who should get to steer.

We crossed back to the other side of the street to see the critters. They had a miniature horse named Babe, a standard size horse named Miracle, and a donkey foal who was only 4 months old and I can't remember her name. She was sure cute, and loved the attention. Miracle got a little testy when we tried to pet her. Then Babe peed and it started smelling pretty foul so we we went to the other side of the road again

A fireman was explaning to an older boy what the parts of the Fire Truck were, and Levi thought that was pretty interesting. We learned that they can strap into an oxygen tank from their seat in the cab. The booth was out of fireman hats but the kids each got a coloring book.

We went and wandered around the booths a bit at the Market and the Kid's main booth handed us all kinds of stuff. The booth next to them had an activity where you turn a zucchini into a derby car by stuffing nails and washers and wooden wheels on it. I helped Levi build one and he raced it down the lane. The girl at the end told him he did a good job and gave him a blue ribbon. He asked if he could trade it for a red one because red is his favorite color.

There were coolers of water for sale but I didn't have any cash on me. The kids were trying to steal ice cubes out of the coolers to eat because they were pretty thirsty. I found a shaved ice booth and got them their first ice cone to share. I got a lemonade and shared it with mom.

I thought the kids would like two flavors, and figured Levi would want a red one, so we got cherry on half and root-beer on the other half. Well they both liked root-beer better so next time I will know not to mix flavors. We found a small spot in the shade to sit and eat and listen to the music performers.

Ellie drank a lot of my lemonade. It was sure good.

We went home after that and had lunch. The kids went down for their naps and I had a short one too. Levi never did fall asleep so he got up after I got Ellie to sleep and he played while I worked on some model horse projects. I am participating in a swap so I have a deadline for once! I have other projects I started last winter and it feels great to be working on them again.

There is an endurance ride coming up called "Bare Bones" and the ride flyer has a horse skeleton on it. I thought that was a cool idea for a repaint so I ordered glow in the dark paint and have been working on a test subject. Here she is so far, she still needs a lot of work and the photo is blurry but it will give you an idea of one of my current projects. I am hoping to get a couple done and donate them as prizes for the ride.

Here is what she looks like in the daylight (far left) with a couple other works-in-progress.

After dinner we took the kids for a walk in the neighborhood. On the way home I saw a praying mantis on the sidewalk and it was really fast! I had not seen one move that quickly before so I called the kids back to see it. Matt let it crawl up on his hand and carried it all the way home. I told him he should put it in his beard for a photo but he didn't like that idea!

The kids finally got brave enough to take turns holding it and the last time Ellie held it, it ran up her arm, on her shoulder, up her neck and right across her face! She gave a little gasp and froze. I got it off her as fast as I could but it was quick! She started laughing after that. I am glad she wasn't traumatized.

It was on my head but decided it didn't want to be up there so leapt but landed on my shoulder. Can you see it?

Wheelin'

We have been looking at Suburbans lately. I want something the whole family can comfortably fit in and that can also tow a trailer.

We saw an ad for a local one so we decided to go look at it. On the phone the owner sounded very pleasant and polite. He told me it was in the alley, so as we were driving down the main street we were going slow trying to see which house it was. The lady (neighbor) across the street glared at us. It wasn't hard to find the place, in the alley there were lots of parked cars. The kids didn't get a nap today so they had already fallen asleep by the time we got there.

The owner came out to talk to us and everything seemed to be going well until Matt tried to put the back window down. There are two versions of Suburban back doors. Some have a large window that you have to roll down before you can open the 'tailgate.' The other (preferable version) is referred to as "barn doors" in which two doors open out from the center. Well Matt was trying to get the window down and it fell off it's track and the owner said to go ahead and try to get it all the way down so he could get the door open and get the panel off to fix it. After some finagling they got the window down. Now to open the rear door. It would not open. The owner said he had never tried to open it before and that he would call the prior owner.

The interior had a CB radio which was cool, but also an external temperature gauge that you couldn't turn off, so it just ran down the battery if you didn't start it up every other day.

The interesting thing to me at this point is that the suburban had been advertised as "2-owner" "need to sell, moving" and he told me in an email the milage was "89000." I asked him to clarify if the odometer actually had five or six digits and he replied with "I believe that is the actual milage of the vehicle." Uh huh. That is the first thing I looked at and it only had five digits. It was clean, the paint on it was better than our last one, the undercarriage looked good, the interior was in decent shape, so it could have been 89k, or 189k, hard to say.

When we couldn't get the back door open, and he couldn't get the old owner on the phone he went in the house and got his buddy to come out and take a look. Here is where his story became "my neighbors were in a tight spot financially when they moved so I bought this from them to help them out." He never said he was moving, just that he had too many cars, which was obvious. So things were already not matching up.

I was in the driver's seat looking for a rear window toggle switch and the hood was open so I didn't see the friend come out of the house. When I finally did get out and look around to meet the new person I almost laughed. It was a little man with no shirt and a couple of tattoos and one nipple ring. Classy! He announced that he was an ASE certified technician in 'tons of stuff' and he could tell us everything about this truck. Even though the owner told us he had only really driven it from his neighbors to his house and maybe around the block. BUT "It drives really strong!" "Oh, and the driver's window and the rear passenger window don't go down."

So after noticing a couple of things under the hood (disconnected vacuum lines, and the A/C was modified to take both R134 and R-12) they tell us to start it up, so Matt climbed into the driver's seat. He pressed the gas down once. (It was a carburetor) He turned the key. Turned over but no start. He pressed the gas down again. No start. The little ASE mechanic (I say this with a laugh because he told us he was ASE certified about four times) acted like it was Matt's fault and certainly he must have flooded it. Well we have a carbureted engine at home and usually if you 'prime' them like this it is the best way to start them.

The ASE guy couldn't stop talking the whole time we were there and had his chest puffed out like a rooster and seemed to believe he was the smartest mechanic that ever lived. He was also a pretty bad liar since we both caught onto him telling tall tales after 10 minutes of listening to him crow. "I put this thing in 4-wheel drive and it locked right in automatically, you know you can feel it in the steering wheel!" Then later he noticed the hubs and realized you did have to lock them manually from the outside before it would engage.

After the ASE guy floored and stomped and cranked away on the poor suburban he did finally get it started. It was squealing and shrieking and noisy. Somehow the kids slept through it all! And man did it stink. It was smoking from both sides of the engine. Of course ASE guy had an explanation for this and what he would do to make it better. Usually his methods involved robbing parts off of his "reliable" truck in the back yard. What a mess.

We decided after all of that we really didn't need to test drive it. I pointed out that the tabs were expired and ASE guy said he could drive it, if we wanted, he could take Matt for a ride but he would probably scare him, because he would show him what it could really do! Somehow, all within their block of the neighborhood.

Wow what an evening.

I had seen a crew cab dually on the side of hwy 12 so we ran out there to see what the price was. Matt started laughing when he read the sign. "Rolling chassis." No engine or tranny. Oh well.

Part of the fun of finding a different car is the story in finding it.

Train conversations

Tonight is the monthly model train meeting. Matt usually takes Levi. Tonight Ellie said she wanted to go too. I overheard a conversation the two kids were having this morning.

Levi: "Ellie, you get to eat cookies because they have a lot of them there"

Ellie: "Uh huh, cookies!"

Levi: "And you get to drink soda, because they have soda there too!"

Ellie: "Soda. Oh yeah, I know, I know"

Levi (whispering): "Last time Bob brought a locomotive, ask what kind of locomotive Ellie."

Ellie: "What kind co-co-mo-ive?"

Levi: "A diesel locomotive, like this mraaaaarh mraaaaah"

Ellie: "I know, I know, woooooo woooooo"

Levi: "No Ellie, that's a steam engine. This was a diesel locomotive."