Todd and I have been having quite the semester when it has come to cars. First, our car wouldn't shift out of park when we would turn it on. It kind of made it hard to go places when we were stuck in park. We ended up getting that problem taken care of by buying a $30 part and having our old landlord install it for us.
Then our car got keyed.
Now our car is having problems starting. We figured out that we need a new starter so ordered it online and went to pick it up today. We stopped at a gas station to fill up (Todd left the car running so we wouldn't get stuck there & I thought we were going to blow up). As Todd was pulling into the gas station we start hearing this grinding noise. We both knew it was bad as soon as we heard that.
We made our way to a mechanic about 1/4 mile away and asked them to take a look at our brake pads because we thought that was what was wrong with it. So they did, and they ended up giving us a quote of $950. I started crying haha. I cried before that also when I called to tell my parents something was wrong with it. So I had two little breakdowns within 10 minutes. But when I saw $950 on the paper it felt like somebody stabbed me. I just started thinking of all the money coming in and how much would go out and so many thoughts were going through my head about money. I kind of obsess over it and always worry about how much we have, which is good except for at times like these.
So the guy is showing us what is wrong with our car saying we need new brake pads (obviously), a new rotor on one side, the rotor resurfaced on the other side, and new calipers, and a brake fluid wash. The first thing Todd and I asked was about the calipers and if those really needed to be done. I told the guy we only need this car to work for another year, so we don't want to spend a ton of money on it unless it is necessary for us to drive. So he told us we didn't really
need those done. Then I asked him if one of the rotors really needed resurfaced. And he told us if we didn't mind a little squeaking then it would be safe to drive with. I said no problem we can handle squeaking just not grinding. Then I told him that my sister just got her brake pads changed and it was less expensive for her parts then what he was quoting us. He said he could give us 25% off of the parts.
So...we ended up getting the price down to $460. We did realize afterwards though that the brake fluid wash we didn't really need, but we were flustered and didn't pay close enough attention to that. We could have saved another $72.
Todd said this was a good learning experience for us that we know now that we have to get the brake pads changed and we know how to deal a little bit with mechanics now. I said to my parents, "No one ever tells me these things. How am I supposed to know to get brake pads changed?" It was so weird that there were no signs for months then all of a sudden it just started grinding!
We are not happy that we had to pay that much, but we are glad that we will be safe now and not ruin the car. Todd said he wasn't upset because we had to spend that much money, but he gets upset thinking about all of the other things we could have spent it on. Pretty much we won't eat for the next month now. Please send checks. :)
We played in the water after eating, and here are some pictures of the boys jumping for a football they were playing with (Alysha took these) :
Todd's present was Bose In Ear Headphones. He kept bugging me about them for months leading up to his birthday and saying things like, "Michelle, my birthday is coming up and shipping will probably take 3 - 5 days, so maybe you should order them soon." I surprised him (as much as I could with him knowing what he was getting) because he didn't know that I ordered them. I told him I ordered them on Monday (his bday was Saturday) and I didn't know if they would make it on time. He was bummed out that they "didn't come" but extremely happy when he found out they did! Here he is wearing them that evening after the birthday bash :
In my family we would always wake up to a decorated doorway and kitchen on our birthday. I set my alarm for 8:00 am so I could decorate, but sadly I was too tired to follow through with the getting up part. So I ended up decorating when Todd was already up. This is the final product (not bad for having no crepe paper or balloons...I had to make do with what I had because I forgot to buy stuff to actually decorate with!) 
