Month From Hell

August has been a really rough month for us financially. With of course getting the kids ready for school, we also had Claire's birthday party last weekend, and car problems to top it off. Bryan and I had foolishly believed a party at home would be less expensive then the regular Chuck E Cheese or skating rink party. Boy were we ever wrong! After renting the moonwalk, the tables and chairs, buying snacks, hot dogs, drinks, etc we were well over 200.00. Never again we both said. And although it was a huge success and lots of fun was had by all, it was just bank account draining. That doesn't even begin to cover all of the cleaning and party preparations that fell upon Bryan and my shoulders. Sunday morning when we both woke up, it was like a huge sigh of relief to know that it was over and the house was still standing.

While all of this was going on, my car had started over heating last week. It started off in stages where I just had to make sure to add water every time I drove somewhere. But then by last Wednesday, I poured water into the water reservoir only to watch it all pour right out onto the street. I barely made it to Bryan's work and we took it over to Pep Boys, the closest mechanic shop to where we were. 350.00 later we had a new water pump and a new thermostat. Thinking how it could have been much worse we took the car that home evening with a small smile on our faces. But then Friday I noticed that no matter how much driving I did, the temperature gauge never got off the Cold mark. What the hell?? You take it in for one thing and the bastards broke something else!! Back to Pep Boys I went with my receipt and an hour later, as I was still sitting there with no news, Bryan came in on his lunch break. We switched cars so I could go and pick up the kids from daycare and finish last minute party shopping. That evening Bryan called me to come and pick him up. Seems the boys at Pep Shop had to replace some lever that they swore was broke when I brought the car in which was enabling the car to read the temperature sensor. Funny, it worked when I brought it to them the first time. They would not give us my car back without paying another 150.00, BUT, they were giving us a deal 9according to them) because they didn't charge us for the diagnostics blah blah blah they had to do. We didn't have the money so end the end, we had to borrow it from my father (thanks Dad) to get my car back to us. My dad went down there with Bryan on Saturday to make sure Pep Boys knew how pissed off he was. Needless to say, I am making sure I make my Dad proud by telling friends and family (you guys) not to shop at Pep Boys, like Dad asked me to.

I have some real cute pictures from Claire's party I will put up asap! Hope you all have a great day!