A rather interesting past couple of weeks

Let's see, where to begin . . .

The Big Study
A couple of weeks ago there was another crunch time for my thesis, such that I spent another weekend at the local University, more comfortably this time, though, having received guidance as to where the REALLY good study spots were. Even had a couch to sleep on, and a quilt for a cover! After a very long stretch, I got what I had to done. And then came the odd reality afterward: dealing with three kids again. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it was a bit strange having noise again after being not only at a quiet place, but a quiet place that was virtually deserted. After I got back home, it was Dad's turn to camp on campus as he crammed to get a big chunk of work done before . . .

The Big Trip
Once again, we headed out to the DC area. We took the van in for servicing before the trip, and consequently were rather dismayed when the van mysteriously began losing power every few minutes as we traveled on the interstate. After some fuse checking in West Virginia and some sleeping in Maryland, we did finally make it to our destination, thinking that perhaps we had a battery issue. The trip back was mostly okay, but again, there were a few power failures; rather disturbing. We took the van to church all right on Sunday after we got back. But then, when it was Tuesday and time for getting Amanda from school, we found out what was really going on and that we really need . . .

A Big Fix
As I went to back the car out of the garage, I found that it would not reverse. It vacillated between reversing and not reversing (mostly not), and so I took it to the shop ASAP after getting Amanda. The problem? The transmission, of course. A VERY big fix. The sort of fix that right now, we simply do not have the money for. So . . . it's been a rather quiet week, since "my" car is out of service until who knows when, and even if we wanted to try dropping Dad off at school every day, etc., we couldn't, since Mr. B makes one person too many to fit in our surviving 5 passenger car. (Love that car, by the way; drives REALLY nicely; not sure how the kids are liking being squished together in the backseat, but they survived the trip to church and back yesterday.) All this leads up to something else, however . . .

The Big Decision
So, what are we going to do about our transit situation? Most likely, we'll save up and get the van fixed. Yeah, we could probably get a different used van sooner for cheaper, but then we'd "lose" all the fixes we've put into the van we've already got. After all, if you fix enough on a used car, it eventually gets to the point of being almost new again, right? :) But, in the meantime, tomorrow is a big deciding point for Amanda. If she doesn't go back to her preschool tomorrow, she probably won't be allowed to come back at all, since it's a county Head Start program and they're supposed to let someone else have her spot if she doesn't come after so many days. She loves it, but she's been going there for almost three years now, Kindergarten is coming soon, and she gets far more education at home (did I mention she knows how to borrow? And read first grade level books?). Technically, Dad could take the van to school as long as he got there early enough to park somewhere he could pull through so that he wouldn't have to reverse; the van still goes forward just fine. And, technically, I could put Amanda in a booster in the front seat of our other car, thus making room for her plus the three boys. But here's the rub . . . then I'd actually have to do the preschool commute again, which includes unloading all three boys to go in to her classroom and get her, followed by loading them all up again, a process I thoroughly fail to enjoy. Indeed, I've been strangely pleased to lose my day time transit just to have a valid reason not to do the preschool commute. What to do, what to do . . .