Car TroubleEighteen weeks now and I have been feeling movement every day during the last week! Not very strong yet, but definitely there! Looking forward to feeling more and more of it now, it is just such a wonderful feeling! I am still tired, but I think it is letting up a little bit. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking of my part? :-) I feel much better foodwise though, I am cooking nice meals every night again, and I am almost not sick anymore at all, unless I try to drink tea with fruit taste. I had peach tea yesterday morning and got very nauseous after one sip! So back to normal black, green and raspberry leaf tea for me!
Tomorrow, we are going on vacation, we are going to Canada and do some camping. Last time we camped we had only three kids, so that is a while ago. We'll see how it goes this time. I still have a lot to do to get everything ready, was hoping to get the packing done today, but I don't think that will quite happen. I would like to leave early tomorrow morning, but based on past experience, I know it is more likely we will leave tomorrow night! :-) I got a new tent, should officially sleep 10 persons, so hope it will be big enough for our crew. About the car trouble. On Monday, I was running some errands and forgot about my lights, they stayed on for about 8 minutes while the motor was off. Oops! Usually that wouldn't really be a problem, but this time, my car didn't start anymore. I thought that was really quick to have the battery drained, but I didn't wonder too much about it, just looked around for help. I had only Jane and Kate with me, the other three were at karate and I was supposed to pick them up soon. Found a guy with a cigarette and an old car and asked him whether he would mind jumpstarting my car. Luckily he didn't mind and I got it driving again and was only a little too late at karate. I brushed it off as a one time occurrence. Tuesday, the car needed an oil change anyway, so Sander asked them to check the battery and they said it was fine. Yeah, right! Yesterday, I car pooled with one of the neighbors to karate. She picked up my kids and dropped them off at karate, I was supposed to pick them up afterwards, including her son. So I got into the car with Jane and Kate, turned the key and recognized the sound of a drained battery.... Not sure how it got drained, I wondered whether one of the doors hadn't been properly closed the night before and the inside lights might have caused it. But I had 4 kids waiting for me at karate and a car which didn't start. I was not happy about it! So I tried to call the neighbor with whom I car pool, but she wasn't home yet. Left her a message, tried calling the karate school that the kids would be picked up a little later, but nobody was in the office, just got the answering machine. Then got out the double stroller (which I rarely use, so I guess at least I am getting some use out of it because of this :-), put Jane and Kate in and walked over to the neighbor's house (about one block away). I thought maybe she was outside and hadn't heard the phone. Just when I arrived there, she came out of the house, had just gotten the message and was going to pick up the kids. So I parked my stroller and waited for them. At night, the girls did NOT go to sleep easily, and I did, so I ended up being ready to drive around with the car at 1am or so. Sander jumpstarted it, and I took it out for a drive. Not much exciting happening around here at that time, it was pretty boring, but I wanted to charge the battery. I hoped this would have solved our problems. This morning, Tara needed to go to gymnastics and I got everybody in the car in time. Turned the key and NOTHING! This was getting old really fast! Another jumpstart (I asked Sander to stay home till I had left, and I am glad I did), and off to gymnastics. Let the car run while I dropped off Tara. Usually we watch for about half an hour, but not today! When she was inside, I drove the car to our local car parts store, parked it and bought the highest end battery they had for my car! So tired of all the jumpstarting! I asked them to put it in for me, and they were happy to help me. It must have helped that I was clearly pregnant and had four little kids running around me :-) Then it turned out that this one did not fit, and we needed another one! So I am glad I asked them to put it in, since otherwise I haven't found out until we were at home. That is, if the car would have started at all. Holding my breath, turning the key, and IT WORKED!!!! And it kept working today, but I still don't really believe it. We figured it could have been three things:
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It has been a quiet week here, apart from the car trouble. The only camp still going on
is Tara's gymnastics camp, just on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I found a leotard for her in the thrift store
(she wore shorts and a t-shirt before) and she is very happy with it! Her own 'lenocard!' :-) She has been wearing
it around the house almost continuously the last few days and has been demonstrating gymnastics and karate
movements to me. It is hilarious to watch :-)
We also do karate every day and she is not too happy that she can't go to karate in her leotard, but is willing
to change into her karate clothes when I insist. The picture shows her in her new leotard, playing with Cees, Tim,
and Kate in the sand box (or should we call it water box? :-) She is holding the hose, ready to put in more water!
