My dad is the greatest!!!!!

I took this picture as my dad was heading up the stairs so he didn't know it was coming but I had to brag a bit about what a great dad I have.

He is probably one of the most "handiest" guys I know. I remember when Craig and I had only been married a few years and something was broken that Craig couldn't fix. In frustration Craig blurted out..."I am not Bob Lim" I realized then that I had to be patient with the fact that I had not married someone like my dad that either he knew how to fix it or he'd figure out a way too. But over the years Craig certainly had become more handy and a wonderful help.



I'm really grateful that my dad has been only a phone call away and I can call when the car might not be working right or he can tell us how might be the best way to go about fixing something or even can tell the kids how something works. He recently came to the rescue when our car had a major flat tire on the highway even though he couldn't solve one of the problems he brought all the other necessary tools to get the job done. Thanks dad your the best!

Funny things you see while out and about

Kyla and I wondered if this mess happen to this car while the guy driving the car was in the mall or was someone too lazy to clean it off? It looked a lot worse in real life.
















Is it legal to have all those things on your antenna? Funny thing is I saw this car just a few weeks ago(Kyla took the picture this summer)























My sister posted on her blog that one of her fears is a big logging truck on the freeway, wondering just how safe is passing one of them and what are the chances of all those logs coming off the truck. I too have thought the same thing since I also saw that quite often growing up in the Pacific NW. We'll this sight was just about as scary at first. I was relieved when I realize it was a truck towing another truck, but I really think they should have turned it around.























This is NOT a very good picture but I had never noticed it until a friend of mine from Lynden pointed it out. It says-"Welcome to Yakima, the Palms Springs of Washington" My question is, "Has the person or the people that wanted to put this sign up ever even been to Palms Springs?" I must admit I have never been to Palm Springs but I've seen pictures and it is gorgeous!....I have been to Yakima several times and well Yakima is not like Palm Springs....I wonder if this has really helped the tourism of Yakima. We really only like to stop for gas or Miners Burgers in Yakima.

Gingerbread houses

Not sure if they got more candy on the houses or in their tummies. Unfortunately for the houses none of them survived the flat tire incident the next day. They got moved around too much and most of them ended up in crumbs on the floor of the Suburban

Driving home

First off the pictures are in the wrong order and with my lack of blogging skills I don't know how to move them.

This was our trip home that turned out to be a 11 hour trip instead of the 6 hours that we had hoped for.

We were just 30 miles away from my parents house and we looking at the sky and all of the wind turbines, I was about to grab the camera because with the fog and they snow it looked really cool up on the hill. Then we heard the loudest bang.....I looked at the back tire and told Craig it was flat. When we stopped it was more then flat it was shredded. I've always thought when I've seen those tire pieces on the side of the road it had to have come from one of those big rigs. I guess I was wrong it can happen to any tire. At this point we had to partly unload the back of the car to get to the jack, we had our own stuff for the 5 of use plus we were taking my 2 nephews and a niece with us and extra's that my parents sent with us to take home. We found the jack only to realize it wouldn't fit under the car because it was so low with the tire shredded. Things went from bad to worse when we realize the part that lowers our spare tire was missing. We finally got someone to stop with a Chevy model only have his part to lower the tire was broken. I called my dad thank goodness he was home. He gathered his tools and headed out.

In the mean time about it was cold only about 20 degress and I had 5 kids that couldn't sit in the car. They just had to wait it out with the rest of us. After about 2 hours my dad arrived along with the state patrol. While waiting Craig had been trying to get the lug nuts off and only 4 of the six would come off. When the state patrolman showed up his first response was "You are going to have to get this rig towed, it can't be blocking my highway" I knew if it came to that would we not be going home till the next day. Craig convinced him to let us try and then even flagged someone down with the right part to get to our spare tire. The man also only lived 2 miles down the road and when we couldn't get the 2 other lug nuts off he went and got a blow torch. Even with the torch on nut refused to budge and they had to melt off the entire screw.

After a very cold 4 hours they got the spare on...thanks to my dad for bringing a portable compressor and filling up the tire we were on our way. We made it safely home although we still had a problem with our lights on our trailer but it was a easier and quicker fix. Lesson learned make sure you have all parts to fixing a flat tire before a long trip and I think I'm going to have a emergency kit in my car!

More car pictures

Thank goodness Mackenzie and I had bought some long socks at the store the day before because it was cold!

Lessson learned..be kind to those you go to school with!

So when the state patrolman came I let Craig do the talking and stayed out of it. At this point I was frustrated, on the verge of tears and freezing! Kaden came up to me and said, "The patrolman said he went to school with you." I asked Kaden if he was sure because he sure didn't look familiar to me. After a while I finally went up and asked his first name. It was Ron Nordman....I could vaguely remember him. I went back to the car and began thinking and then it dawned on me I had gone to elementary school with him but he had moved to another school and went to a different middle school. In the mean time his last name had changed and our Senior year in pottery class he told us who he was. I did go back and ask him if he was who I was thinking of and it was. His dad had owned a local mini store called Mikes Short Stop that we would often get candy on the way home from in jr. high. I really think because of knowing him he was kind enough to let us work longer on the car and didn't have us immediately tow the car. Thanks Ron!