Lancelot Acres

Our week so far...a field trip, deflux, a new car, a funny story...

Well, this week has definitely been busy.  I'm ready for a nice relaxing stay-home day.  I'm not sure when that might happen.

Lilli had a field trip on Tuesday and we had a great time.  I went along and we had so much fun.  We went to an apple orchard in Kalamazoo/Richmond called Gull Meadow Farms.  The kids were able to take a wagon ride and pick apples (eating an apple on the ride), then came back for cider and donuts.  Then they played in mazes and labyrinths.  Strolled the pumpkin lane with scenes created with pumpkins, then picked out a pumpkin on their way back to the bus.  It was a really nice time.

Then we headed for an outdoor park in Oshtemo where the kids ate lunch and played for 2+ hours. 

All three first grade classes went along, so there were about 55-60 kids there, plus parents and teachers.

Lauren spent the day with my parents.  My mom was nice enough to come get her and take Lilli and I to the school so I wouldn't have to leave the farm truck there all day.  It also saved me a trip to their house.  I will never say anything bad about the farm truck, it's a great truck, but it does use quite a bit of gasoline.

I rode with another parent and I'm so glad that I did!  Her daughter has Kidney Reflux too (like Lauren), and just had a procedure done in March, called kidney 'deflux'.  They go in and inject something that blocks the hole causing the problems. 

I am calling our ped for a referral tomorrow.  We hope to request this procedure for Lauren.  As it stands, she's been on a DAILY antibiotic since 9 months (she'll be 2 years old on the 23rd of this month).  She has to STAY on the DAILY antibiotic until she outgrows the condition, or until we have a 'corrective' procedure done.  This procedure is done as outpatient, with fairly few after-effects.  I hope to get right in for a consult with this Dr.  He's out of Grand Rapids.  I pray that it can help our Lauren.  I just hate the thought of giving her these meds every single day for years on end.  PLUS having that awful test done each year.  That test sucks.  :( 

I'll post an update when I hear from the Dr.

In car news...

My Honda blew up last weekend and Lance has been telling me for months that we wouldn't be putting any more money into it, so we had to go car shopping.  We set a $3000.00 limit and went out to see what we could find.  We looked a bit Monday evening with the girls, and then Tuesday evening my mom watched the girls while Lance and I went looking.  Car shopping gives me a headache and I was begging him to just put the $3000 into the Honda and get it running for me.  LOL. 

The very last car we looked at was a 1987.  We didn't even take down the phone number because it was so old.  Then on the way home we discussed it and came to the conclusion that the 1987 might not be a bad deal if it was well taken care of. 

They wanted $1300 for it, we offered $1000 and we ended up paying $1100. 

It's a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra.  It's in great shape for being so old.  The same guy has owned it since it was new.  He is retired and doesn't go out much.  He only drove it in his immediate town, when he drove it at all.  It has 54,000 miles on it.  Original miles.  Isn't that crazy?

I told Lance I'd probably burn it up in the first month because it isn't used to being driven.  LOL  He said I'd probably just burn the carbon out from it's lack of use.

Another funny story (we are probably the only people that these things happen too...).

I went out to the Honda today to get the registration form so I could transfer the plates from the Honda to the new car.  I dig out the registration and it had expired in June of 2008.  I thought Lance must have forgot to put the new registration into the Honda when he put the new tags on this year.  So I start to call him and I walk around to the back of the Honda...and guess what?  Yup.  The tags on the Honda expired in June 2008.  I've been driving on expired tags since June.  I had no idea.  I am so glad that I didn't get pulled over! 

Then I get to thinking about it, so I walk over to his Dodge pickup.  Yup, they were expired too.  So HE'S been driving on expired tags too.  Then, with much trepidation, I walk up to the loyal and extremely faithful farm truck.  There it is, the only LEGAL vehicle in our driveway.  LOL.  Go figure.  Lance had waited until a later time to get those tags because we weren't driving it in June and didn't have insurance on it yet (you need proof of insurance to get the tags).  We generally only insure it in the winter months, but it's been most of the year this year.

SO.  What happened?  We have no idea.  We are fairly certain that he went to the Sec of State.  We think it's all paid for, but that they sent the tags to our physical addy (we don't have a mailbox) instead of our PO Box, so maybe it was returned to them (this has happened A LOT).  Now we normally would have caught something like this, but his dad passed away in late May, and our tags expired in early June, so we had a lot going on and it just slipped our minds (obviously). 

Anyway, we'll have to figure it out.  We need the Dodge for hauling wood.  Old Faithful can handle most of it, but we really need two trucks (one for the wood trailer and one for the trailer with the skidsteer).

So there you have it...our week so far.

Lance is working this evening, but he didn't think he'd be too long.  He had to go and do something after hours because they had to shut off the water in the building.  I don't think he's working tomorrow, and I think we are going to cut wood while Lilli is at school.

Lilli plans to spend the night with my parents tomorrow night, and come home on Saturday. 

Saturday we'll probably cut wood. 

Sunday she has her horse lesson, and then she has a friend (and her family) coming over for a visit in the early afternoon.

I'm off to bed, morning comes early around here...