Stressing Out

Today as I was sitting in the living room watching TV, Sarah says to me, “Do you realize in a month I will be gone? I am really starting to get nervous.”  She then began telling me how she was stressing out about the whole move to LaCrosse.  Was she going to remember everything she needs, what if something happens and she needs me or Kris?  All I said was, “Welcome to the world of being a grown up.”  Amazing how once she starts to sit down and think about things she starts stressing out.  However, it could be a double edged sword because I don’t want to get a call two weeks in saying she hates it and is coming home.  

Sunflower Days

Kris was watching the local weekend morning news last week and saw a story for an event at a place on the west side of Madison.  There is a place there called Pope Farm Conservancy that has an event called “Sunflower Days”.  

They are a conservation area and do a few different things but apparently they plant a large, 10 acre field of sunflowers and open the farm to visitors to walk around the field to view the sunflowers, and other wildflowers they have.  It was really pretty cool.  

There were lots of people taking pictures of the flowers, little kids running around, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. all flying around on the flowers and other plants around the sunflower field.  As we were walking around, some Asian guy asked Kris and me if we would like him to take out picture next to some of the flowers.  Sure, why not.  This is what we got.  

  

Not too bad, especially since we Kris and I have very few photos of us together anymore.  I am usually taking the pictures and I find it awkward asking people to take our picture.  So this was super nice of the guy.  Overall, the people were so friendly there.  I think we’ll try and make this an annual event.  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon, outside, in the sun, and best of all, it is free.

Competition Team

When Alison got asked to join the Varsity cheer team, she was originally supposed to be an alternate.  However, her coach left the door open to move up depending on her progress with her tumbling and her attitude.  After the cheer camp that the varsity girls went to, the coaches apparently decided to revamp the squad.  They were going to formally appoint the “competition team” and the alternates, and the alternates would have the opportunity to go down and join the JV squad so that at least they could compete.  Alison said if she was going to be an alternate she would just stay on the varsity team and not compete because to go down the JV would require her to do double practices and learn two routines.  So in addition to her school schedule, she just thought it would be too much. 

Well she doesn’t have to worry about it, because Alison found out today that she made the competition team!  She is very excited, and Kris and I are very happy for her.  She has put a lot of work into making the Varsity squad, and it has paid off!  I’m not sure who else has made the competition team with her, because she had to run off and do stuff with her friends, but I am sure we’ll find out soon enough.  Congratulations Ali!

Brake Problem

We had to take Sarah’s car into the shop AGAIN today.  She has been saying the periodically her brakes haven’t been working right.  That had me worried.  One system on your car that you really want to make sure is working properly is the brake system.  ‘Cause if it isn’t… well I guess it’s pretty obvious.  So we took it in to our car guys and had them look things over.  Apparently, there isn’t a pressure problem, or a problem with the master cylinder, which would have been the first two things to consider based on the problem Sarah was describing.  So what the mechanic came up with is that she should get new rear calipers.  They are very rusty and apparently are not grabbing the rotor properly.  So now we have to decide if we want to drop another $500-$600 (minimum) into the Saturn if Sarah is going to be leaving for school in a month.  I’m not quite sure what to do, so I’ll take a few weeks to think about it.  I’m leaning toward getting it fixed, but I think I still have a little time to figure it out.

Santa Fe

Today we finally got around to getting Kris’s car fixed.  The Santa Fe needed tires and brakes.  We had it checked out a couple of weeks ago and our car guy said there was about 10% pad left on the front brakes and about 30% on the rear brakes.  Additionally, the tires needed to get replaced.  I went into my Santa Fe file to look, because I could have sworn I had put new tires on a few years ago.  But after going over the records, I was wrong.  I had actually replaced two tires about 6 years ago, and then just rotated the better of the two remaining to the rear.  The car is now 10 years old, but only has a little over 49K miles, so I guess it really was time to get the tires replaced.  So now we should be good for another ten years.