The Wednesday Write-Up

-The kids and I are missing summer break. Getting up early and getting back into a routine has been a challenge. Greta starts four year old preschool next week and it's three days a week this year. I'll have some free time to myself soon which I'm looking forward to. She got to go meet the other kids in her preschool class at the open house and all the little girls are about as shy as she is so we had a play date yesterday with them to get the girls warmed up to each other before school starts. They had a blast. She's excited about school which makes me a happy mom. We are going to miss our summer ice cream breaks. This was one with Alex and Abby.

-We took the Ford Edge on our trip to New Mexico and it did great for the most part. We did encounter an issue where it decided to loose power while driving. Sean pushed on the gas pedal and nothing happened. Luckily this happened on the outing to the lake and the road had no traffic. We pulled over, turned it off and let it sit, started it up and it worked fine. It was a little disconcerting, but it didn't happen again for the whole trip home. Then I went to get groceries the day after we got home and it did it again while I was on the dirt roads. Bummer. So Sean deducted that it was a throttle body issue and would probably be covered under the power train warranty. Wrong, apparently the throttle body is part of the fuel delivery system and is not covered under warranty. So my handy husband ordered the part and installed it in under an hour. Thanks Sean!

-We are finally getting the traditional summer heat we are used to....but have been lucky enough to miss out on most of the summer. It's dog gone hot. In fact, it's too hot to have dogs outside. We have three indoor dogs right now and I think it's going to be a new tradition. The neighbor behind us decided to buy a cannon (I wish I was kidding) and he fires it off at least once or twice a week. I suppose I could be grateful it's not daily because it is so LOUD. If I'm outside it's defining and if you are inside the house it makes the whole house shake. Our setter, who is terrified of normal gunfire, just about kills herself trying to find a way inside. She proceeded to break one of our windows in the process a couple of weeks ago. So, yeah.....they are now inside dogs. Which is fine, the stress level with never knowing when or if she'll go nuts is lower with her indoors. I should send our cannon owning redneck neighbor the bill for the broken window. The joys of living in the country.