This morning after a bit of bad luck, which LaDonna and I are now calling it the curse of Art.
Sounds so vague doesn't it?
This morning after dropping off the kids at school, and trying to drive the 2 mile distance down the street to work, the van broke down.
Like dropped gears, no go, shudder and die, had to be pushed off to the side of the road, died.
One of the perks of working at the office is that I get a discount at Ventana Automotive, but even with my discount the number was just too much.
The amount to fix the van is more than what the van is worth.
The car needed a new fuel pump and filter, with towing and everything we were looking at $1000.
Yep, good bye van. The van with the mysterious oil leak and no A/C, you are being retired.
Goodbye my dreams of buying a welder for Rob and a tablet for myself.
We are now on the hunt for a used car,van, truck for $3000.
Oh and what about the curse of Art?
Last year while working at the office the truck broke down. Thankfully that cost less than $300 but the truck has not broken down at all since then. Now, this year I'm driving the van and lo and behold the van breaks down.
LaDonna has worked at the office for 4 years. Each year in June, her phone has had an untimely death due to water, always when Art is out of town.
So due to our yearly troubles we are calling it the curse of Art.
Tomorrow we will go and clean out the van and say goodbye as she is being donated.
Told you the thing isn't worth what it would cost to fix it and the auto shop will take it and call our $125 bill even.
Now I'm praying that God will provide us the best car for the $$ we have. Come on tax return, show up fast.
*Carrie*

I know the world has already rehashed the Superbowl and I'm late to the party but I just have to put in my two cents.
We headed over to my brother's house to watch the game.
Mom and Mikey were rooting for the Patri-idiots, OK I'll be nice, the Patriots and Rob and I were rooting for the Giants.
All the normal razing was going on. Mikey calling Eli, baby Manning and I was calling Brady a egotistical peacock.
I must say its the one time of the year that I don't 

want to get up even to use the bathroom because the commercials are just as good as the game.
And it was a great game.
Shortly after the second quarter started, Amanda arrived with a couple of pizza from NYPD and man were they HUGE.
I mean look at the size of that pie compared to the guys' hands. HUGE!
We chowed on pizza and moms baby shit dip.
One of the commercials actually had the guys leave to run up to the store. Rob and Mike were on their

 last beers and the commercial came on for Bud Light Platinum. Right after the half time show they went up and grabbed a six pack of bottles from the gas station. Both guys really liked the taste and agreed to forever skip regular Bud Light for the Platinum. Men.
Me, I want the blue bottles, and if you read my blog you know why.
I was telling my friend LaDonna about the beer and her step dad went out and got some and they are saving me the bottles. Love it. Oh and he likes the beer too.

Anyway, I think this is the first time we have actually run out and bought something because of
advertisement within an hour of seeing the commercial.
Madonna did a pretty good half time show but I'm in it for the game and commercials. My absolute favorite was the one for the Voice with Betty White, oh and the M&M's. I love a commercial that can make me laugh or tug at my heart strings, aka the Budweiser Clydesdale's.
And so, the kids ran around like crazy, we cheered and jeered at each others teams,  and did some crazy dances whenever the Giants did anything exciting. I'm pretty sure I held my breath those last 57 seconds waiting to see if the Pats were going to score but it didn't happen. In all honesty the Pats really didn't have their act together and you can't blame it on the fact that Gronkowski wasn't at 100%.
So back to the real world, football season is over till August and Sundays will become open to do whatever we want as a family.

*Carrie*

dang nab it, I almost did it again.
I could have sworn I blogged the other day but I must have forgotten.
Trying to stay up on things, of course it might go to hell in a hand basket because I'll be going back to work for tax season next week.

This shot looks awfully familiar but I took it yesterday. It was liked on Facebook but not well enough to put it on the news this morning.
Oh well.
Rob has been on vacation this week, and we have been running around, get little honey do jobs finished. Tuesday was his 41st birthday and one of the things that he has been wanting is something I don't think anyone would guess in a million years.
The man has wanted a YUDU on and off for the last two years. He was very bummed when I was a demonstrator that it wasn't one of the tools I received in my kit. He has talked about making shirts and all these designs are running around in his head. I think his first project is to make some shirts for our home church with our logo on them and there has already been talk about making shirts for the church when we do the Easter egg hunt.
This post is really disjointed and I'm tired so if I remember I will post again before the weekend.
*Carrie*