Transmissioned

When I heard an ad on the radio the other day quoting that the average cost to replace a transmission for your car is $2,500, I laughed out loud. A couple weeks ago our big red car died, in our "new" garage. It was towed back and forth between several fix-it places until we were told it was indeed, the transmission. We were also told the price to replace ours would be right around $3,700. Now you can see why I laughed. After learning that the cost of a new transmission was significantly more than the value of our car, we started car shopping (well I guess you could call it, window, or better, screen shopping as we just looked a bunch on line) Luckily...the fix-it guy then told us that he could refurbish an old transmission for much much less. Thank you sir, we will pray that it lasts us one more year. After 2 weeks of borrowing a car and then renting one, we now have our own car back. It feels good. Sure, we haven't paid the bill yet but it feels gooder than it could have.

On a much brighter note, there have been plenty of other things to keep our little family busy. Such as this:

Happy 4th of July! We felt right at home watching them on the lawn of a Baptist church. Haylee thought the fireworks were a bit too loud, "but not the green ones."

And this:

We're still not quite sure what caused this horrible rash on almost every inch of Cambree's body and it went away after a couple days...but yes, it was quite a scare.

And the (free) zoo!

Another venture:

This is the arch, but just one, very small portion blown up. We visited but haven't gone up to the top...yet.

And this:

Our new couch!!!

Oh yes, and one of the most colorful "events" was this:

Hard to see how bad this was from the picture but let me just tell you, it was bad. My sister Mindy and her family stopped here on their drive out to Utah and we all drove up to Nauvoo to camp and see the pageant and all that. Just before we left our campsite for the pageant, Haylee was running with her cousins, tripped, and fell in such a way that her head/nose hit the bottom part of an open car door frame. Within seconds, her head seriously looked like a purple baseball had been inserted under her skin, it was that big! Just ask any one of the Saaris. Or any one of the pageant actors/missionaries who visited us before the show. One, in fact, insisted we visit the pageant medic tent. After looking in her ears/nose/eyes for BLOOD and asking me all sorts of scary questions and really bad signs to look out for, oh and for making me panic more than I already was, they let us go. Jason, my brother in law gave her a priesthood blessing right away and I am so glad he was there to do that! I was able to be a little calmer (just a bit) than I might have been. Haylee did not say a single word or acknowledge anyone's presence or anything at all (not even her beloved Jaina) for over an hour after she fell. You can imagine I was a bit worried. But then she was fine. Just like that. Wow. What a night.

Here are some more pics of the rest of our Nauvoo trip:

Mindy had the insight to request stories (from Mom) of our pioneer ancestors who lived in Nauvoo which we read while we were there. It amazed me how much learning about those real people who lived during those early days of the church made the city so real to me. It is a beautiful place with a staggeringly powerful history.

It was a such a wonderful weekend. Tired kids, tired parents, and a lot more driving than we planned on but so nice to be with family and to camp and to experience Nauvoo again. Thank you Mindy for convincing us to go and making it work. Looking back it makes me realize how much we will miss having that Saari family so close. Why do we always fail to appreciate things until after we don't have them???