Here are some pictures from the lovely day.
The funny part is Wes came straight from a 24 hour call to the church to bless our Everest. Luckily he managed to give him the right name and to give a great blessing!
6 years ago
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Everest was blessed May 29th
Baby Everest Spencer Johnson was blessed by his father, Steven Wesley Johnson, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Oak View Ward (which is part of the Omaha Papillion Stake) on May 29, 2011. The blessing was beautifully done and we were happy to have my (Beckee) parents here with us (Stephen and Rochelle Enderton) as well as my sister Melanie and brother Spencer and my niece Kyara. In the circle was our bishopric (Bishop Bruce Louthan, Brother Tim Young, Brother Thomas), (A stake coucelor), Wes, my dad, and Brother Matt Beck.
Here are some pictures from the lovely day.
Here are some pictures from the lovely day.
Vacation (?) in Utah...and beyond...aka, how I bought a van.
Wowsa! What a week...As you can tell, I have been absent from the blog (and from home) for about 3 weeks. I intended to be out of town for about 2 weeks, but apparently someone upstairs had a different plan for me.
I left for Utah to visit my family on June 1 right after the kids got out of school. My plan was to drive (with my mom's help-thanks mom) to Utah and visit with the kids until Wes flew out the evening of the 7th. We were then leaving the 8th to drive to Scottsdale Arizona to check out the new digs (we are moving there next year at this time). We were staying there until the 10th when we were going to drive over to Lake Powell for half the day then move on to the Ranch in Southern Utah with my husband's family. We were staying there until Tuesday the 14th, then back to Salt Lake where Wes had a flight home on the 15th. I then planned to leave Friday the 17th and drive to Cheyenne, WY, then continue on to Omaha on the 18th so we would be home with Wes for Father's Day on the 19th.
As we drove west on the 1st, we went through a huge hail storm near mile marker 224 in Nebraska. It was terrible and scary and we pulled over at a rest stop. After about 10 minutes or so, it lightened up a bit so we continued on. It picked back up and was so bad that I could not see the car in front of me (my mom was driving her car home as it turned out and I had my sister Melanie in the car with me). In the 2 cars we had the following people: Mom's car had Mom Spence, Solace and Kyara, and I had me, Melanie, and my other 4 kids. Mom called about 10 seconds into being back on the freeway to say she had to pull off because Solaces blanket was stuck in the door and the hail/wind was rushing through the car. I said "great, I am pulling off too because I cannot see the car in front of me." We hoped we were at the same exit, and as it turned out, we were (she was in fact the car in front of me that I could not see). At exit 222 in Cozad we pulled off and into a Burger King parking lot.
We tried to wait out the storm in our cars/vans for about 30 minutes and as each minute passed, I felt more and more that we needed to leave the cars and get in the Burger King. I was met with resistance as no one wanted to run out in the storm (which was flooding the parking before our eyes). Finally after about 30 minutes I told Melanie to get my kids out and run in the store while I went and got Mom and the kids from her car. We ran the 10 feet into the BK and were all soaked to the bone in that short time. As soon as we got in, the tornado sirens went off and we were sent into a women's room with 40 of our closest (stranger) friends, including a whole girls softball team. It was crazy, and apparently a tornado went right by us (other adults stood out in the main eating area and took pictures while I hunkered down by the potties with my kiddos. It was quite an experience and we spent some time in and out of there with the sirens going on and off.
When we finally got out and finished our drive to Cheyenne that day it had taken us all day...we could have gotten to SLC on a better weather day in the time it took. I have never been happy to see Wyoming before that night. Luckily the next day of travel proved rather uneventful, and I thought I was done with the bad adventures for the trip...
After the drive, all went as planned all the way through Wesley's flight home. We played and visited and hung out with family. We enjoyed being with the folks that love us! Wes came into town, and we drove down to check out the new digz in Scottsdale (I feel trunky to move there now). We had a leisurely drive down to the ranch from Scottsdale, stopping for half a day in Lake Powell. We went to the ranch (adventures of the ranch and pictures will be in a separate post). Then we returned to SLC, saw more family that we have loved and missed, then got Wes back on a flight home to return to work.
Shortly after he landed for his lay over in Denver, my van broke down and overheated majorly in Salt Lake. I had it towed to the place Wes has brought cars to since he started driving. My van was old and we had driven it into the ground and I had a bad feeling about this...(It is a 2000 Chevrolet Venture).
The next morning the call from the shop came, and it was bad news...lots of major things wrong, and let just say it boiled down to this...my van was dead and NOT worth fixing. So, here I was stuck in Utah with no way home, which begs the question of what to do, and how to afford to do it!
So, I ask you this...how does one stay frugal and get the best deal in a crunch? I NEEDED to get home, but how? Let me tell you what I did (and I will preface it by saying I am sure I could have saved more money than I did, but I think I did pretty well all things considered).
My biggest tip for staying frugal, even in a crunch, is this: Take the time to do your homework-SOOO worth it! I realized quickly that nothing I had going on at home needed to be done emergent-ly, so I took a day to do some homework. I researched my options-flying home with the kids, renting a van to go home or buying a new van in Utah and driving home. After discussions with Wes and other family members, a few quick internet searches and some phone calls, I knew I needed to just figure out how to accomplish the third option: Buy a new van.
So, the work began...researching new and used vans of all makes and models and looking to see what I could find. (Thanks to all my Facebook friends that helped me with an impromptu focus groups where you all shared your opinions of your vans with me! It was much appreciated!!)
I did not know how to get financed when the money maker of the family was in a different state...Thank goodness Cody, Wes's brother-in-law works for a bank in Utah and was able to tell me what I needed to do to most easily make this work (thank you Cody). Also, in my research I realized that for my needs and my current financial situation, I needed to find a reliable used van.
After a day of research, I set to work last Friday getting preapproved for a loan, and looking for the available, reliable used van of my dreams. I am sorry to those readers that are not religious, but I need to tell you that here is where I believe prayers were answered and a miracle occurred in my life. On Thursday as I was researching, I searched for Used vans in the area over and over and found nothing that I thought I could afford that would be reliable. So, I prayed...a lot...all night and I asked to find a reliable van for less than $10,000 that was going to last for at least 3 years. I had a whole list of things that this van would ideally have-I wanted a Honda Odyssey if possible. I wanted lots of features that I thought I would NEVER find that I had in my dead van-like an entertainment system, like power doors, like a CD player. Nothing remotely like this was anywhere online that I could find on Thursday.
I learned on Friday that my husband's best friend owns a Used car dealership in Salt Lake and headed over there on Friday morning thinking this would be the answer to my prayers. I was wrong-they had no minivans. (Though if you want a muscle car or a sweet ride sports car-do not go anywhere else in SLC).
So, I went back to work and did another internet search. HERE IS THE MIRACLE: The first search I did popped up with a van that had everything I asked for (except a bit more mileage that I wanted). EVERYTHING else and more was included with this van-it was a 2002 Honda Odyssey with a few minor cosmetic issues (cracking leather on the arm of the drivers seat, and a tiny ding in the side that looks like another car door dinged it when it opened-tiny). And it was well within the range of money I wanted to pay! AND it runs like a beauty AND (amazingly enough) comes with a warranty from the dealership-not factory, but dealership for an additional 100,000 miles or 5 years (whichever comes first)...WHAT?!
To make an already too long story shorter, I will just skip some details of that day and tell you I bought this van! JOY! It took until Sunday morning for my insurance to kick in and I still had to deal with the broken van and get it off the mechanics lot on Saturday, so I planned to leave on Sunday.
My dad helped me get the dead van back to his house where it will sit until I get it donated (donating and taking the tax deductions was a better deal than the trade in value for us). That was a stressful 15 minutes getting it home as it died and died more...There were other stresses-I had to go buy 3 of those skinnier booster seats to make them fit easier in the new van, and had to buy a 5 point harness car seat for my Kindle since her car seat was built in to the other van.
So, I thought the nightmare was over and I would at last be returning home, many days late at this point. Sunday morning Stefanie (my sister-in-law) and I set out with the kids to go home. 22 Miles from Evanston, Solace's seat belt broke-YES broke. Apparently I could not leave Utah Sunday after all...
So, we returned to Salt Lake where there were people that love us to help us figure out this next part of the saga. My dad looked at the seat belt and fixed it, but we wanted to get a replacement to make sure it would not come out again like in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming or something. Stefanie had her friend who does collision repair for a living check it out as well. We all came to the same conclusion that it seems ok but I should probably get it replaced to be safe. Remember though, this is Utah on a Sunday so nothing was open.
So, I went to church, heard my mom give an excellent relief society lesson on families, then tried to relax for the day since there was nothing to do about the van until Monday. My aunt Mary was having a short birthday party for her daughter and asked me to take the kids up to it (Happy 12th Lina). I decided to go, and while there, my other aunt Kris who owns a Honda, told me that Honda has a lifetime guarantee on safety features (read seat belts) even if you are not the first owner! WHAT?! REALLY?! Yes, I found out Monday morning that it is true (Thanks Kris).
Monday I took the van to the dealer and they fixed the seat belt (for free) and we were finally able to leave for home around noon Monday. We (Stefanie and I with the kids-thanks Stefanie) drove to Cheyenne and stayed overnight at the Little America (it was the best deal) and I splurged on room service (at that point I did not want to take the kids out of the room again until we were driving home the next morning-not a good deal, but it was fantastically good food and a relaxing thing for me after all the stress).
Tuesday morning, we got in the van to get home and made it a mere 2 miles before the throwing up began...I won't go into that, but let me say, it was a lot longer drive home that anticipated with more stops that we wanted to make...let me tell you this though...no throw up got in the new van-we managed to keep it in buckets and on the side of the road (sorry I-80).
So, here I am at home...with a new van that I am loving...(pictures coming soon)...As far a frugality goes, I did OK (well except the room service). I did not buy a car out of my means to pay off, and I feel I got a good deal. I probably could have talked the dealer down on the price a bit, but the stress of it all made it not worth the possibility of losing the van (which BTW 3 other people were trying to buy from the dealer that day as well)...
And now we are Home and have been for like 3 1/2 days. After all the time and effort spent trying to get back home, I was grateful to be here and have enjoyed being home. But now I am back to normal life and I miss my family again! Maybe someday home will be near our families, but until then, I will do a better job of updating you on the blog!
And the exciting news for us is that we get to live near some family for the next year as Jessica and Bret have now moved to Omaha! Welcome! They will be sick and darn tired of us when we drive out on our way to AZ in a year because I am WAY too excited to have family nearby!!
I left for Utah to visit my family on June 1 right after the kids got out of school. My plan was to drive (with my mom's help-thanks mom) to Utah and visit with the kids until Wes flew out the evening of the 7th. We were then leaving the 8th to drive to Scottsdale Arizona to check out the new digs (we are moving there next year at this time). We were staying there until the 10th when we were going to drive over to Lake Powell for half the day then move on to the Ranch in Southern Utah with my husband's family. We were staying there until Tuesday the 14th, then back to Salt Lake where Wes had a flight home on the 15th. I then planned to leave Friday the 17th and drive to Cheyenne, WY, then continue on to Omaha on the 18th so we would be home with Wes for Father's Day on the 19th.
As we drove west on the 1st, we went through a huge hail storm near mile marker 224 in Nebraska. It was terrible and scary and we pulled over at a rest stop. After about 10 minutes or so, it lightened up a bit so we continued on. It picked back up and was so bad that I could not see the car in front of me (my mom was driving her car home as it turned out and I had my sister Melanie in the car with me). In the 2 cars we had the following people: Mom's car had Mom Spence, Solace and Kyara, and I had me, Melanie, and my other 4 kids. Mom called about 10 seconds into being back on the freeway to say she had to pull off because Solaces blanket was stuck in the door and the hail/wind was rushing through the car. I said "great, I am pulling off too because I cannot see the car in front of me." We hoped we were at the same exit, and as it turned out, we were (she was in fact the car in front of me that I could not see). At exit 222 in Cozad we pulled off and into a Burger King parking lot.
We tried to wait out the storm in our cars/vans for about 30 minutes and as each minute passed, I felt more and more that we needed to leave the cars and get in the Burger King. I was met with resistance as no one wanted to run out in the storm (which was flooding the parking before our eyes). Finally after about 30 minutes I told Melanie to get my kids out and run in the store while I went and got Mom and the kids from her car. We ran the 10 feet into the BK and were all soaked to the bone in that short time. As soon as we got in, the tornado sirens went off and we were sent into a women's room with 40 of our closest (stranger) friends, including a whole girls softball team. It was crazy, and apparently a tornado went right by us (other adults stood out in the main eating area and took pictures while I hunkered down by the potties with my kiddos. It was quite an experience and we spent some time in and out of there with the sirens going on and off.
When we finally got out and finished our drive to Cheyenne that day it had taken us all day...we could have gotten to SLC on a better weather day in the time it took. I have never been happy to see Wyoming before that night. Luckily the next day of travel proved rather uneventful, and I thought I was done with the bad adventures for the trip...
After the drive, all went as planned all the way through Wesley's flight home. We played and visited and hung out with family. We enjoyed being with the folks that love us! Wes came into town, and we drove down to check out the new digz in Scottsdale (I feel trunky to move there now). We had a leisurely drive down to the ranch from Scottsdale, stopping for half a day in Lake Powell. We went to the ranch (adventures of the ranch and pictures will be in a separate post). Then we returned to SLC, saw more family that we have loved and missed, then got Wes back on a flight home to return to work.
Shortly after he landed for his lay over in Denver, my van broke down and overheated majorly in Salt Lake. I had it towed to the place Wes has brought cars to since he started driving. My van was old and we had driven it into the ground and I had a bad feeling about this...(It is a 2000 Chevrolet Venture).
The next morning the call from the shop came, and it was bad news...lots of major things wrong, and let just say it boiled down to this...my van was dead and NOT worth fixing. So, here I was stuck in Utah with no way home, which begs the question of what to do, and how to afford to do it!
So, I ask you this...how does one stay frugal and get the best deal in a crunch? I NEEDED to get home, but how? Let me tell you what I did (and I will preface it by saying I am sure I could have saved more money than I did, but I think I did pretty well all things considered).
My biggest tip for staying frugal, even in a crunch, is this: Take the time to do your homework-SOOO worth it! I realized quickly that nothing I had going on at home needed to be done emergent-ly, so I took a day to do some homework. I researched my options-flying home with the kids, renting a van to go home or buying a new van in Utah and driving home. After discussions with Wes and other family members, a few quick internet searches and some phone calls, I knew I needed to just figure out how to accomplish the third option: Buy a new van.
So, the work began...researching new and used vans of all makes and models and looking to see what I could find. (Thanks to all my Facebook friends that helped me with an impromptu focus groups where you all shared your opinions of your vans with me! It was much appreciated!!)
I did not know how to get financed when the money maker of the family was in a different state...Thank goodness Cody, Wes's brother-in-law works for a bank in Utah and was able to tell me what I needed to do to most easily make this work (thank you Cody). Also, in my research I realized that for my needs and my current financial situation, I needed to find a reliable used van.
After a day of research, I set to work last Friday getting preapproved for a loan, and looking for the available, reliable used van of my dreams. I am sorry to those readers that are not religious, but I need to tell you that here is where I believe prayers were answered and a miracle occurred in my life. On Thursday as I was researching, I searched for Used vans in the area over and over and found nothing that I thought I could afford that would be reliable. So, I prayed...a lot...all night and I asked to find a reliable van for less than $10,000 that was going to last for at least 3 years. I had a whole list of things that this van would ideally have-I wanted a Honda Odyssey if possible. I wanted lots of features that I thought I would NEVER find that I had in my dead van-like an entertainment system, like power doors, like a CD player. Nothing remotely like this was anywhere online that I could find on Thursday.
I learned on Friday that my husband's best friend owns a Used car dealership in Salt Lake and headed over there on Friday morning thinking this would be the answer to my prayers. I was wrong-they had no minivans. (Though if you want a muscle car or a sweet ride sports car-do not go anywhere else in SLC).
So, I went back to work and did another internet search. HERE IS THE MIRACLE: The first search I did popped up with a van that had everything I asked for (except a bit more mileage that I wanted). EVERYTHING else and more was included with this van-it was a 2002 Honda Odyssey with a few minor cosmetic issues (cracking leather on the arm of the drivers seat, and a tiny ding in the side that looks like another car door dinged it when it opened-tiny). And it was well within the range of money I wanted to pay! AND it runs like a beauty AND (amazingly enough) comes with a warranty from the dealership-not factory, but dealership for an additional 100,000 miles or 5 years (whichever comes first)...WHAT?!
To make an already too long story shorter, I will just skip some details of that day and tell you I bought this van! JOY! It took until Sunday morning for my insurance to kick in and I still had to deal with the broken van and get it off the mechanics lot on Saturday, so I planned to leave on Sunday.
My dad helped me get the dead van back to his house where it will sit until I get it donated (donating and taking the tax deductions was a better deal than the trade in value for us). That was a stressful 15 minutes getting it home as it died and died more...There were other stresses-I had to go buy 3 of those skinnier booster seats to make them fit easier in the new van, and had to buy a 5 point harness car seat for my Kindle since her car seat was built in to the other van.
So, I thought the nightmare was over and I would at last be returning home, many days late at this point. Sunday morning Stefanie (my sister-in-law) and I set out with the kids to go home. 22 Miles from Evanston, Solace's seat belt broke-YES broke. Apparently I could not leave Utah Sunday after all...
So, we returned to Salt Lake where there were people that love us to help us figure out this next part of the saga. My dad looked at the seat belt and fixed it, but we wanted to get a replacement to make sure it would not come out again like in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming or something. Stefanie had her friend who does collision repair for a living check it out as well. We all came to the same conclusion that it seems ok but I should probably get it replaced to be safe. Remember though, this is Utah on a Sunday so nothing was open.
So, I went to church, heard my mom give an excellent relief society lesson on families, then tried to relax for the day since there was nothing to do about the van until Monday. My aunt Mary was having a short birthday party for her daughter and asked me to take the kids up to it (Happy 12th Lina). I decided to go, and while there, my other aunt Kris who owns a Honda, told me that Honda has a lifetime guarantee on safety features (read seat belts) even if you are not the first owner! WHAT?! REALLY?! Yes, I found out Monday morning that it is true (Thanks Kris).
Monday I took the van to the dealer and they fixed the seat belt (for free) and we were finally able to leave for home around noon Monday. We (Stefanie and I with the kids-thanks Stefanie) drove to Cheyenne and stayed overnight at the Little America (it was the best deal) and I splurged on room service (at that point I did not want to take the kids out of the room again until we were driving home the next morning-not a good deal, but it was fantastically good food and a relaxing thing for me after all the stress).
Tuesday morning, we got in the van to get home and made it a mere 2 miles before the throwing up began...I won't go into that, but let me say, it was a lot longer drive home that anticipated with more stops that we wanted to make...let me tell you this though...no throw up got in the new van-we managed to keep it in buckets and on the side of the road (sorry I-80).
So, here I am at home...with a new van that I am loving...(pictures coming soon)...As far a frugality goes, I did OK (well except the room service). I did not buy a car out of my means to pay off, and I feel I got a good deal. I probably could have talked the dealer down on the price a bit, but the stress of it all made it not worth the possibility of losing the van (which BTW 3 other people were trying to buy from the dealer that day as well)...
And now we are Home and have been for like 3 1/2 days. After all the time and effort spent trying to get back home, I was grateful to be here and have enjoyed being home. But now I am back to normal life and I miss my family again! Maybe someday home will be near our families, but until then, I will do a better job of updating you on the blog!
And the exciting news for us is that we get to live near some family for the next year as Jessica and Bret have now moved to Omaha! Welcome! They will be sick and darn tired of us when we drive out on our way to AZ in a year because I am WAY too excited to have family nearby!!
Back in action?!
I just want to throw out there that I know I am like a year behind and I have much to post in pictures and stories. I also want to note that I feel like this blog needs to take priority over my deals blog (though I have many obligations to companies there that make me spend quite a lot of time on it). I have a lot of catching up to do on both blogs right now, and the reason for that is the craziness of the last few weeks. I posted about this on my deals blog but it is really aboutme and the family and our adventures in Utah, so I will post here the story of the last few weeks with some more details than my deals blog and let youknow what we have been up to. Then I promise I will get some pictures up here as well in the next day or two! Hope some of you are still out there wondering what the Johnsons have been up to!!
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