(or 5) can be all fun and games. We did manage to get some stuff done last week.
My hubby replaced the muffler on our van. Whenever anyone talks about saving money and budgeting, there is inevitably a space on the "saving money" list that mentions doing as much of the car work that you can by yourself. My hubby is pretty good at that. He's changed our oil before, changed out sparkplugs, replaced the oil pan, changed the alternator. He's done something with the brakes before. Well now he can add "change muffler" to that list.
The old muffler was so loud, I was expecting there to be some kind of huge gaping hole in it. Apparently all of the noise was caused by this crack in the seam.
I truthfully don't know much about cars. We drive ours until they die. Die, I tell ya! We learned a lot about what to do and what not to do with a Dodge mini-van in Northeast Ohio with our current vehicle. The poor thing has a new issue every time we turn around now. The poor thing is 9 years old and has been beaten down by all of the salt on the road in the Winter time. We didn't know we should have been undercoating it every year to protect all of the parts from rust. Or the body. Northeast Ohio just beats the heck out of Dodge bodies up here. For some reason Dodge just seems to be the worst. For the cost of the Dodge though, and the knowledge we have now, we still like the brand. We just know which precautions we'll take in the future if we buy a Dodge again. It has been pretty good for us until the last year.
Most of the rest of days 20 - 24 were filled with the perfect blend of chores, laziness and little things. Thursday, we came up with the Oven Baked Pepperoni Tater Tots recipe. Friday we went garage sale shopping in the morning and then some friends came over to play on Friday night. And Saturday, my hubby took the kids to a birthday party and then out again in the afternoon. I struck a bargain with him that he could go to the dropzone with his friend on Friday night if HE could take the kids to the birthday party on Saturday. On Saturday, I became a couch potato. I literally sat on the couch and watched TV all day. ALL. DAY. I can't believe it! It was the first time I've been alone in 3 weeks, which is huge for an introvert. If you're an introvert, you know how important alone time is! I should have spent the day doing crafts or reading or doing something important, but I didn't.
Yesterday on Sunday, it was cloudy and rainy looking again. I've been trying to get my hubby to go to the waterpark with us all Summer long. It just wasn't going to happen yesterday. It was 60 degrees and windy. TOO cold for a waterpark. There were some rumblings about going canoeing, but that wasn't even a good idea. I want warmth and sunshine if I'm going to be canoeing!
My hubby got the idea that he'd like to go surfing since the lake had waves from the storm, but there was a water advisory. We went to look anyway. On the way there though, we stopped downtown and went to the top of the Terminal Tower. I hate heights, but I was surprisingly fine.
Once we did finally make it to the lake, this is what we saw!
I think we have all of Michigan's and Canada's wood now.
We scavenged through the driftwood to find wood to make a directional sign I've been wanting to make for years now.
After the beach, we made our way over to the pier, which was swaying. Yikes! The lake was very angry!
After the pier, we went on the search for food. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant with a salsa bar. We tried every type of salsa and had some jalapeno poppers along with our meals.
After we filled our bellies, we went for a walk on the Lake to Lake trail. If you've been around for a while, you've seen pics of this before on our blog.
So, we ended a rather laidback boring week with a little fun and adventure.