I Need a New Vehicle

Spring is right around the corner! The snow is melting and it's been raining here for a couple of days. The other day my hubby reminded me that the air conditioning isn't working in my vehicle. It's funny how you forget about things like that in the middle of the winter! I'm so glad I stumbled across this great website for getting estimates online for head gasket. Since I know next to nothing about how much a car repair should cost, and my husband knows even less :), it's great to have a resource where you can double check to make sure you're not being overcharged.

It's so easy at Ford Explorer. I clicked on our make of vehicle and then hit "Get Estimate". On the next page I gave more specifics about what type of van we have (model, year) and then clicked on the type of repair we had done. The site asks for your zip code, so I typed it in and it gave me an estimate of what that particular repair should cost at the dealership and also at a local shop. How great is that!

Since our vehicle is eleven years old and we're not planning to get a new car anytime soon, I'm sure I'll be using Los Angeles auto repair a lot so we can budget for the work that we need done!

Wordless Wednesday

Our School Gala is coming up

I am the co-chair for our school's annual gala - the largest fundraiser of the year. It's a lot of fun but a lot of work too! This year we've decided to ask the classrooms to submit projects or baskets that the class has worked on. Some of the projects are really fun -

One of the 8th grade classes is putting together a scrapbook of all of their years at the school

One of the 2nd grade classes is making a cookie jar and putting in cookie recipes that the kids bring from home

The 5th grade classes are embroidering quilt blocks and making two quilts

Missy's 4th grade class all brought in bags of their favorite chocolate. Then they did a writing assignment describing their favorite chocolate. I made a scrapbook that has a picture of each kid and his/her writing and a little clear envelope that says what their favorite chocolate is.

We usually raise about $45,000 each year at the gala! I hope we do that well this year!

Remodeling

Today I had a contractor come over to talk about finishing our basement!! We built our house 8 years ago and have had an unfinished basement. Buddy is starting high school next year and since we live really close to the high school, I have a feeling a bunch of his friends might be hanging out at our house. I really don't want them in my family room and kitchen!

If money were no object (ha ha) we'd put a small kitchen down there, built ins and a bathroom with shower. What I'm hoping is that we can at least afford to finish the walls and ceiling and put carpet in, but the other stuff sure would be nice!!