Vehicle Trouble of 2017

January 2017 - blue mini van gets hit while parked at Austin's school
March 2017 - got money from insurance for the van
March 2017 - bought a 2007 Chrysler Sebring - got the smoke smell out
May 2017 - realized that the green Saturn teenager car had a bent frame from when Jill hit a curb when she slid down the junior high hill in December. We put new tires on, got a new tire rim and still had trouble so we realized the frame was bent. Took it to the salvage yard, and the nice man gave us $75.  Bought another Saturn teenager car - silver this time
August 2017 - Letting Jill take the Sebring to Utah to college. Took it in a couple days before we left to get the oil changed. Needs new brakes. Can you fit us in? We are leaving on Tuesday. Check.
October 2017 - In June they told me we needed to fix the transfer case seal in the Yukon. A week before we left, I took the Yukon in to fix the transfer case seal fixed. Go to Utah to watch Jill's college rodeo and go to General Conference. Transfer case seal comes out on our way through Pocatello. Left the Yukon there for the weekend. Warranty covered the transfer case seal and a whole new transfer case.Tender mercy in disguise.
October 2017 - Jill calls to tell us she has been in a car accident. She is okay but the car is not. Jill borrowed Rachelle's old Ford Explorer for a few weeks. Doug helps her shop for and buy a new truck. Tender mercy.

October 2017 - Austin takes the Yukon to help Joe Saville in Saskatachewan. The transmission went out on their way. They could still go, but only 30 miles per hour. They started home, but Austin had me find a flatbed trailer and come and meet them. Ryan Olsen said I could borrow his. He hooked it up, changed one of the tires, and then that tire was flat by the time I got to the gas station. The tender mercy of the day was that Bob Wilson pulled into the gas station at the same time.  He put the first tire back on, and I was on my way. I met them in Foremost. We loaded the Yukon and were on our way. We dropped the Yukon off at Rick's Auto.

October 2017 - We took the Saturn to Julia's farewell in Taber since it was the only working car. The check engine light came on while we were driving home. It needed a new thermostat for the cooling fan.
November 2017 - One night I got the truck stuck in our driveway because it was so slick. It took 1.5 hours to get it out with a pretty good job tearing up the grass in the yard. Then I took the truck to buy some salt to melt the driveway.  I decided to stop and fill it up with gas - in a diesel truck. I realized what I was doing after I put in about 20 liters. I called Austin. Then I sat down on the curb and cried. Luckily I didn't start it. Paul Sloan came and towed the truck to Rick's Auto. They drained it the next day, and no damage was done.

We decided to buy a new car, so Austin and I went to Lethbridge shopping. We found an Acadia that was in good condition and had low kilometers. We applied for financing and came back home. The next day after fasting and praying about it, we decided to fix the Yukon instead. New transmission: $3,000.  We decided for now we were going to take our chance and have faith that it will last another year or two instead of going into more debt.

November 2017 - We decided to finally get new tires for the truck. They have been bald for more than a year. We needed to drive the truck to Edmonton, so we bought new tires.

November 2017 - Jill's new truck that she bought came with 2 weeks of insurance, and we have been working on finding her new insurance. The quotes we were getting were between $385 and $525. That was not even possible for her or for us to afford. The day before she was coming home for Thanksgiving, she still didn't have insurance. She called to sign up for the $385 option, and they said it is actually $525 because you are a foreign driver. I called our insurance here, and she suggested I try calling All State Insurance. Tender mercy. After 50 minutes on the phone, we had a policy in place for Jill for $196 per month. I was so thankful and slightly worried that it was too good to be true and that something else would go wrong. So far so good!

We are thankful for cars to drive. We wear them out because we go a lot of places. Maybe we should just ride our horses or hitchhike instead.

Hanna ~ Sadie Hawkins Dance

Hanna asked Mitch Olsen to the Sadies Hawkins Dance at the high school. The dance is a girls choice dance, and the theme was the 1920s.

Hanna posted goofy pictures of Mitch all around his bedroom to ask him to the dance. He came and put up streamers around her bedroom with 2 bags of all-dressed chips that said, "I am so excited to  get All Dressed to go to Sadies with you."

Hanna rented a dress from the theater in town. She went with a fun group of kids who made pizza at Haylie Holland's house before the dance.

Hanna has the honor of having her dad at the school dances since he is the principal. Lucy and Carly also went with him to take money at the door. Carly danced the night away in the hallway. She says she can't wait for high school.

Hanna is lucky she ended up getting to go to the dance. She had a pain in her right side that started on Saturday night. On Monday morning when she said she didn't want to go to school, I decided to take her to the doctor to see if it was appendicitis. 

Here is my notes while we were killing time in the hospital:

Monday, November 6 

Hanna would not get off the couch to go to school

Pain in her right abdomen 

Decide to go to Cardston Emergency Room after we drop off kids for school.

Please rate your pain, one being a bee sting and 10 being child labour.   Hanna had to think about it because bee stings actually hurt. #7

Wait half hour - talk to Dr. Leavitt

Blood test - Hanna's first ever

Wait 2.5 hours for them to decide to send us to Lethbridge to get an ultrasound. 

Hanna wants to build a fort in her hospital room. I wanted to play Hide the Thimble.

Drink two glasses of water on the way so your bladder  will be full. Only drank one. Got in the hospital and had to go the bathroom right now before  we even made it to the ultrasound room. So I made her drink a little more. 

Never fear the bladder was completely full. Check the ovaries, the kidneys, and the appendix. 

Hold on while the radiologist checks it. 

Couldn't wait much longer- had to go. Everything looks ok.

Radiologist calls Dr. Leavitt. Sending us to ER to talk to surgeon.

Hanna's locker is stuck. 3 workers can't get it open. Call maintenance. Send Hanna to ER in her hospital gown. Lock was stuck in my water bottle. 

Had to move the truck twice so I wouldn't get a parking ticket.

3.5 hours so far waiting for surgeon 

Hanna hasn't eaten for 10.5 hours 

Hanna keeps saying this is lit.

So finally the surgeon came in after 4 hours and said that she didn't look like she was having an appendicitis. Then he showed us where the appendix is. The pain is not right there. An inch or two lower. Probably something to do with her female system. Pain should go away after a while. Appendicitis is faster moving infection that comes with fever and nausea, etc.

Well, we were glad she didn't need surgery, but still don't really know what is wrong.  The pain is still there but she functions. Hopefully it will go away really soon.

Halloween

 Hanna was a basketball player - Carly Little Red Riding Hood - Lucy was Flo from the Progressive Insurance commercials. Carly was wearing Grandma Nunn's red cape from Nauvoo.
I went to watch the costume parade at the elementary school.

Our ward had a trunk-or-treat at the church parking lot. Then Austin and Hanna went to watch a volleyball game at the school. Lucy went to do trick-or-treating for a food drive for the junior high. So that left Carly and I to go trick-or-treating. I asked her if she wanted to find some friends to go with. She said, no, I just want you to take me. So I did. We went to a few more houses in Leavitt and then a few in town. 

Jill went to see the cousins dressed up in their Halloween costumes.

Stake Conference

Have you ever done something really hard, and you thought why am I doing this? This summer my family and other families from the high school decided to climb chief mountain. The day finally came. We crossed the border at 7 o’clock, and we got to the trail to hike around the mountain at 8 o’clock. After Mr. Sloan took a picture of all 28 of us, we started up the trail. The teenagers walked way faster than the parents. Our first stop was at the side of Chief Mountain.  After a snack, we climbed on some rocks and hills.  Finally, we made it to the back where the shale is. 

We were having a snack and looking at how far up the shale goes. I was sitting by my dad, and I told him that the night before we had climbed Chief Mountain, I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father and asked Him if I was strong enough to climb Chief Mountain.  And a couple minutes later, the Holy Ghost said, “Trust in Heavenly Father, and you will make it.”

We started up the shale.  At first it wasn’t too bad. After a while, the rocks got more slippery, so me and my dad went 100 steps and then took a break. Pretty soon we were doing 50 steps and taking a break. It was getting harder and harder. We were about two-thirds up the shale, and finally we said big rock to big rock. About the 4^th big sitting rock, I started to cry. I thought I couldn’t do it. My dad was right behind me.  He sat down and told me, “Look how far we’ve made it. We can’t quit now.”  We had some water and began to climb again. While we were climbing to the next big rock, the thought “Trust in the Lord” came to my mind, and so I tried hard to trust. Finally we got off the shale and onto some shelf-like steps with rocks.

After about 15 more minutes, I sat down behind a rock and started to cry again.  When my dad got to where I was, he said, “We are almost to the top. We have to finish now.”  We still had some more climbing to do, but we made it to the top. I felt the Holy Ghost in my mind telling me you did it.

We ate lunch on top of Chief Mountain and took some beautiful pictures of the view and headed down. Going back down the shale wasn’t easy, but it was kind of fun to slide down, except for a couple people that fell.

I am thankful that I did it. And now I know I can do hard things. Prayer is important for many reasons, like when you need help with doing hard things. Always ask for help if you need it from the people around you because I bet they will always help you.

A primary song that I like says, “Heavenly Father, are you really there? And do you hear and answer every child’s prayer? Some say that heaven is far away. But I feel you close around me as I pray. Pray, He is there. Speak, he is listening. You are His child. His love now surrounds you.”

In Moroni 10:5 it says, “And by the power of the Holy Ghost, ye me know the truth of all things.”

I know the church is true and I know Heavenly Father will help you when ever you need it..I know he has a wonderful plan for you. I am thankful for prayer and family and where I live. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

(Austin was called into the Stake Presidency 6 months ago. President Ferguson asked Carly to speak in Stake Conference to tell this experience. Austin also had to give 3 talks this weekend. They both did excellent!!!)

Thanksgiving - Canadian Style

We enjoyed some delicious Thanksgiving food at the Lee's house in Taber after our traditional football game in the pasture. We missed having Jill there, and next year Julia will be on her mission and Kaela will be on an island somewhere.

Jill's UVU Rodeo Days

Unexpected Adventures on our Trip to Utah

We left on our road trip Thursday afternoon after Austin was done with a mad parent at the school. We made it to Idaho Falls to stay at my parent's house a little after midnight. I knew the car wasn't quite right, but I thought maybe we needed the tires rotated or something. The next morning we visited with my parents for a little while and headed to Logan to see Jill. Right as we were going through Pocatello, the car started shaking and revving and the speedometer was shaking.  We pulled off, looked at the engine, and tried to keep going. Austin called our mechanic, Rick Olsen, and told him what was happening. He told us to pull off so we made it to the McCammon truck stop. Austin called Rick again and then FaceTimed with Rick to show him the bottom of the car. The transfer case seal that had been replaced the week before had come out. There was oil all over the bottom of our car. We needed a tow truck.  Austin started calling his friends in Logan, but we were still 1.5 hours from Logan.

I sent a Facebook message to a friend from high school that lived on my street that now lived near Pocatello, Maeli Mortensen Bastian.  She gave us the phone number of a tow truck. Rick's Auto gave us the number of a few mechanics that also used Napa AutoCare that would be able to fix the part because it was under warranty.  So the tow truck came and took our car back to Poctaello.  

Maeli came to pick us up so we could go and get her little red Toyota car that she would let us borrow for the weekend.  We are so thankful she was so willing to help us.  We had to only take the essentials since we only had half as much space as before.

We cruised along to Logan and found Jill. It was exciting to see her!  She is going to college in Orem at Utah Valley University, but the rodeo was in Logan this weekend.  We watched her goat tying run on Friday night.  She was fast, but her goat got up. Grandpa and Grandma Nunn came down for general conference also, so they came to the rodeo.  We also visited with Scott & Natalie Ward.  And my quality roommate Hilary (Price) Campbell came with her comfy chair to visit while we watched the rodeo.

We slept at Karma & Steve Albiston's house. Lucy and Carly measured to see if they were taller than Karma yet.  They provided us a great bed and breakfast hospitality. Buck & Martha joined us there, too.

 

The Saturday morning rodeo was a little rainy. 

Jill had a fan club.  A group of girls that Austin had coached in basketball at Mountain Crest decided to come and watch Jill's rodeo since she came and watched all of their games when she was little.  Amanda, Jessica, Shonnee and Nikki and their families came to watch. It was fun to see them.  They stayed for over 3 hours until it was finally time for Jill to rope. 

Jill caught her calf but it ran through the loop and kind of flipped so she got a no time.  

Les  & Hollis and their family also came to watch the rodeo.

Jill loves her rodeo team. They are quality kids.  It was fun to meet them. Austin talked to her coaches (Shane Draper & Colby Jones)for a few minutes, too.  Austin knew them both from when he was in college rodeo.   Colby  told Austin that they love having Jill. She is making their whole team better because of her drive to work and practice so hard that it is making everyone else work harder, too. That's a compliment.

We headed to Salt Lake after the rodeo. We got a hotel right next to Temple Square. Lucy and Carly went swimming (in the swimsuits we bought on clearance in Wal-Mart in Brigham City since we didn't bring swimsuits because I didn't think we would have time to swim).  

Sunday morning we got ready for  General Conference (and didn't eat the frozen breakfast burritos I bought since our hotel room didn't have a microwave. Actually I ate mine cold, but everyone else just ate strawberries and cinnamon rolls).  We had 2 extra tickets so Jill brought her two rodeo friends, Casey Ahlstrom & Sadie Fitzgerald. We needed to be in our seats by 9, and Jill called us at 8:20 and they were already at the Conference Center entrance waiting for us.  That's the Waite in her.  We were still getting ready, but we only had 2 blocks to walk, so we made it in plenty of time.

We had amazing seats.  We were in the front section near the middle. We were only a few rows behind the general authority families. We loved the music and the talks. We were sad that President Monson wasn't there because of his declining health.  They said it was the first conference he hadn't been there for 50 years.  Elder Robert D. Hales was also the only apostle not there.  He actually passed away in between sessions on Sunday.

I only got yelled at twice by police officers while we were driving in downtown Salt Lake. 

We ate lunch with Jill and headed north.  We went to Les & Hollis's house because Buck & Martha stayed there for a couple extra days and let us take their car home.  

We took Maeli's car back and then went back to Idaho Falls.  On Monday morning, Austin and I drove back to Poctaello to talk to the mechanic and get a few more things we needed out of our car. The mechanic that we ended up going to was so nice, knowledgeable and helpful.  We were lucky.  We did some paperwork to make sure the warranty would cover the repairs, and we were on our way home. My Mom met us with our kids at the freeway.

We had great roads through Montana. The three girls were thrilled to have spent most of the weekend in the backseat of tiny cars. As we were driving, Austin kept getting text messages that there was a terrible snowstorm in Cardston and that we should stop in Great Falls.  Three different cars had slid off the road through the fence at our house. Semi-trucks and tour buses had slid off the road. Cars and trucks were in the ditch everywhere.

We decided that we better stop, especially since we were in Grandma's car, and she hadn't put snow tires on yet.  We just laughed at our adventures.  We tried to make the most of it. We got a room at the Comfort Inn, went out to dinner, went to the mall, and then the girls went swimming.

We didn't think we needed an early start the next day so we could wait for the roads to be plowed and melted more. There were a few frozen ice spots that we bounced around on, but for the most part it wasn't too bad.  The snow was actually beautiful.

We were so glad to be home. Although we did have to stop before the cattle guard and walk up our driveway to get the truck because Grandma's car was not going up our driveway.

In the end, our car was fixed by Wednesday morning and Grandpa and Grandma brought it home for us.