The Car.

Like I wrote on the last entry, we took out our power steering over Thanksgiving break. On Thursday we took the car in for a look-over. They seemed nice enough, and even had a shuttle waiting to take us home and pick us up when it was finished. With all the estimates in (sometimes our brake light doesn't work, sometimes it does, and something to do with the alignment...?), the total came to just under $2,000. And we paid $1,600 for the car. Oh, and we need new tires as well, so there's $400-$500 as well. So all the way home, we brainstormed what we were going to do-and even with our parents' and/or grandparents' help, it was still going to be a lot of money. We thought maybe we could sell it for parts and get a new used car.

Well, on the highway back to Moscow (Pullman is only 10 minutes away), Zak noticed the engine temperature gauge was close to overheating. So he pulled over to let it cool down, and called the mechanics. They said something might have fallen off or something, but they basically just didn't take responsibility for anything. Weird, since we have been driving it just fine the last two months, and then we leave it with the mechanics for six hours and...the engine is running super hot, and there are new noises coming from the hood; it sounded like there were loose bits rumbling around.

Long story short, it took us like, half and hour to get home (a drive that normally takes ten minutes), because we had to pull over every two minutes or so to let the car cool down. Zak's friend Mat came over to look it over. He told us we drove home using the battery's power, which is kind of a miracle that we made it home in the first place. The guys looked online to see if there was a way to get the power steering parts needed; Mat figured he could fix it with Zak's help. They discovered they could get all the parts needed for under $200, and decided to work on it on their mutual day off, Sunday (yesterday). Oh, and to be an even better friend, Mat lent us one of his spare cars until they get ours fixed.

So after a few stressful hours, everything turned out for us. Yesterday the guys spent a good couple of hours working on the car. They got about 80% done before I made them take a lunch break (I made them enchiladas). They had to go get a part ordered that should get here by the weekend, so once it gets in, we should have a running car again! We are so grateful to have a friend like Mat! He is really a great guy and I'm so happy that he and Zak get along so well. They were awful cute yesterday, working with all the tools and the car, Zak seemed to enjoy learning about everything.

working hard

I also decided to make some kind of delicious dessert for Mat as a thank you gift. I settled on a 'tuxedo chocolate' cake, that was absolutely fabulous. The recipe can be found by clicking on these words (I posted it on my recipe blog).

worth every bite

So all in all, we learned to not really trust mechanics (they really did seem like nice guys, but oh well), and that Mat is a really great friend, and that I can make a killer cake! Thanks again to Mat and our family who have offered their financial help. We really appreciate it.

Little Blurbs

Sorry it's been awhile since I've written. We have been figuring out work schedules and getting back into the rhythm of life post-holiday. The weather has been up and down; last week we had a huge blizzard storm that gave us a lot of snow, although since Thursday afternoon, we have seen nothing but rain and sunshine, alternating throughout the day. Now we have no more snow on the ground, and I for one am happy, because it feels almost like California winter to me!

Zak's boss from work was fired the week of Christmas. It's a pretty long and complicated story. The timing wasn't the best (not just for him, but for everyone, who had to move their Christmas plans around), and has made life pretty crazy. So Zak has been working more hours, but it hasn't been awful. I've been picking up more hours, now with school back in, I am splitting one girl's shift every Wednesday, so I'm happy to have a short little four hour shift every week. This week I had an inventory shift, which wouldn't have been SO bad, if I hadn't have been there from 9 PM to 2:20 AM. At first, it wasn't so bad, scanning labels and counting them. But then around 1, they let a fair amount of people go home, leaving the rest of us to pull off all the labeling stickers. It was frustrating, and I was working with some frustrating people, but it got done and at least I only had one of those shifts (there were three nights total of inventory).

Zak recently purchased a fantastic sweater/cardigan. Practically the best $20 impulse buy from Old Navy. It reminds me of Mr. Rogers, but it's SO Zak. He almost lives in it, when he's not at work. It's very comfortable, and now and then, he persuades me to let him wear it to work with a shirt and tie. How can I tell him no? He's too cute in it.
I recently bought an ugly/awesome velour track suit from work, because it was 10 freaking dollars. Obviously, I am never wearing it in public (because Zak won't let me, and because I think it's trashy to wear sweats outside), but I will tell you that it is dang comfy inside the house. So we have comfy clothes to lounge about it, and are happy about it.

Zak is getting his paperwork done for school and financial aid, and should have those done within the next week. We are getting together our paperwork for our complex, so that we can hopefully still live here once our lease is up in April. So, just lots of paperwork going on for us. We are taking the car in on Thursday to get it checked out. We had an accident coming home on Thanksgiving, and ended up knocking the power steering out of whack. So we have been driving around without power steering for the past two months. We've gotten used to it, so it'll be strange to have it back soon. Our tires need to be replaced, and our back lights go from working to not working, depending on what it feels like. We just need to coordinate our days off so we can get it fixed and budget accordingly.

Our good friends from Zak's work, Mat & Erika, got engaged on Christmas Eve. So I am loving helping Erika with wedding details. Much to Zak's horror, I've gotten addicted to TLC's Say Yes to the Dress show. I try to watch it when he's not around, but now and then he'll put up watching an episode with me. They are planning for an August wedding, but no concrete details as of yet. I am going dress shopping with her sometime in the next month of so, and I'm getting excited! We are so happy for them; they are the cutest couple and their wedding will be awesome.

Other than that, we are just having fun together. :)

Jenna got me this AWESOME dinosaur encyclopedia for my birthday. I spent an hour reading it.

It's been awhile since we've made pizza, and we wanted to try out my new French rolling pin Zak's family got me (it was amazing). Zak is the dough king.

our delicious pizza, with the spur-of-the-moment bread sticks Zak threw together; one side is like Italian spices, the other is a cinnamon sugar dessert, both were delicious