4th Birthday Photo Session

4th Birthday Photo Session

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Amusing Super Trooper

Snot monsters, coughing, and green eye boogs are gone -- although we were saddled with some pukes.  Even though I vowed to hang up my white coat, I lowered the dosage to half and we seem to be good with that.  Will continue for the full 10 days.

Today, we went back to the audiologist to get a new ear mold done.  When I removed her hearing aid the other night, the tube came out again and when I went to squeeze it back in (it looked rather tight), I noticed a good hole in the mold. Yeah. This one will be here by Monday, whereas the old one would've taken weeks to arrive.  Problem with that though is the cost is double the amount.  One ear mold set me back 80 friggen dollars.  That's like almost two tanks of gas in my ancient 4-Runner. 

Which leads me to my next update, my ancient 4-Runner.  I love my truck and am SO thankful I bought him used many, many, many years ago.  Shrek is 15 years old, and been with me 13 years this September.  I absolutely love him and love driving him, and love his minimal maintenance.  In Portland, my check engine light kept coming on.  I took him into my local mechanic and he said, 'hmm, I haven't seen this error code before.'  So, they googled it, and decided step #1 was to clean the part.  So, that set me back around $90.  The check-engine light returned, but he couldn't get the new part in time before we moved.  So, I have been driving around with this light coming on every five or so starts, then it goes off for five or so starts.  I decided he's driving okay, so let's milk it.  (Don't worry Dad, I signed up for AAA here!)  In any case, the other day the light came on and he started handling different.  One of the benefits of having the same vehicle so long, you're like two pea's in a pod, you know when something is different.  And like Dr. Cohen said often about Andi, 'let me know if you notice anything 'different' cuz that's reason to have her seen.'  So, awhile ago I used Yelp to find highly regarded mechanics here in town.  I swear the two scariest parts about moving is finding a good hair stylist and a good mechanic. I called them yesterday, and brought Shrek in today for an estimate.  They not only priced it cheaper than the Portland mechanic, they had the part delivered in minutes and we were on our way rather quickly.  They priced out the other big service I will need eventually (having all the gasket caps cleaned/changed) and it was considerably cheaper than my trusted Oregon mechanic.  Wowza. This place was awesome and I'm thrilled to have found it.  I can't remember the last time I was treated so well by a auto mechanic.  Well, actually I can... and back then I got a date with a hottie out of it! 

Andi's been a super trooper today.  She's chillin' with some Muppets on the iPad this minute while I spend a few hours in the office.  She has taken to repeating me, "No watching Lady Gaga! No watching Miley Cyrus!"  and starting to open her ears and mind to a lot of different music.  In the past she's been so quick to say, 'don't like this!' instead of listening to it.  Now she's asking for a lot more, and I'm trying to shove more variety at her every time we're in the car.  Yippie, super score for me.... although next she will likely start repeating my new phrases, "we're not listening to the Wiggles!  We're not listening to Barney!"  I don't know where she picked those up, but I am not amused! 



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