Car problems to start the year off

I think it was about three weeks ago today, we drove the boys to the church for scouts. James said how it smelled like gas. He soon realized that we had a gas leak. So we didn't drive the Suburban anymore. My mom and Darlad allowed us to use their Excursion while our car is down. So that Friday James and I went to Wal-Mart to replace a front tire that he was afraid would blow. On Saturday we got everyone ready to make the two hour trip to get the Excursion. When James went out to start the van, at about 11:00 a.m., he saw that the van had a flat tire in the back. It takes about thirty minutes to get the tired air up. We head to Joplin to go to Sam's Club to get it fixed. We get to the west side of Joplin and the tire is flat. We go to Casey's to use their free air. Their air is frozen. We drive across the road to another station and they do not have air. James called his dad, and Steve comes and rescues us. They have an air compressor. After about five minutes we were on our way again.

We arrive at Sam's. I take the children in and James parks the car. We learn that Sam's can't fix the tire today. Their air compressor is frozen. I forgot to tell you that this is when the weather was the coldest ever. My wonderful husband didn't leave until things were taken care of. He arranges for us to go to Wal-Mart and have our tire fixed. So off to Wal-Mart we go.

The nice people at Wal-Mart told us it would be about an hour and a half. We decide to go eat lunch at Wendy's, so we walk down the hill and have lunch. Our time was not up so we went to Academy Sports and looked around. I told James that I would walk up the hill, and get the van and come back and get him and the kids.

When I got back to Wal-Mart the nice man tells me that the hole is in the sidewall and they cannot fix it. I call James and tell him, and him and the children head up the hill. Long story short, James and the boys go to Sam's and get a new tire, and bring the new tire back so that the men at Wal-Mart can put it back on.

We wanted to be home for dinner. We spent over five hours getting our tire fixed. Guess what, we didn't make it home for dinner. My mom was so kind to make us dinner. We got to Cassville around 7:00 p.m. We visited for awhile and had dinner. Our suppose to be short trip to Cassville ended up being all day and we got home about 12:00 a.m.

The next week we went and got the trailer from Steve so we could get our Suburban to his shop. Thanks to Steve, THANK YOU STEVE, our Suburban is now fixed. I don't understand all that was wrong and it is wrong of me to even attempt to tell you something that I don't know the slightest bit about, so I won't. I am sure that in the near future we will have to drive the Excursion back to Cassville to return it when we get our Suburban. I am just grateful that it wasn't as bad as we first thought it would be. And I am thankful for all of you that have helped in our time of need. THANK YOU FROM THE HUGHLETTS

Turkey Fryer

James has been wanting a fryer to fry turkeys in for awhile now. He finally bought one that was on sale. Last week he came home from work with a turkey. He asked what I wanted to do with it and I told him we should fry it. So in the refrigerator it went. Last night he finally got around to frying it. He also fried a chicken.
The turkey was good. It cooked a few minutes too long but it was moist. The chicken wasn't done the first time he took it out. He put it in and cooked it a few minutes longer and out came a pretty fried chicken. I will cut it up and use it for something. We had a good experience with the first frying at the Hughlett House.
I am excited to try it again.

Progresso Soup Deal

I love getting a great deal. Well I scored one last week on Progresso Soup. I had just printed off three coupons for $1.10 off three cans of soup. Well guess what, our local Country Mart had them on sale for $1.00, only a select few. They no longer take internet coupons, so off to Wal-Mart we went with our coupons and ad in hand. James and the boys picked out 10 cans of soup. When we went to check out the CSM let us do this one time. Because it had select varieties on the ad they will only match the ones in the picture. So our cans of soup went from $1.50 a can to $1.00 a can. Then with our coupons they went down even more. The cashier only scanned two coupons in the end so we paid $7.80 for 10 cans of soup. We saved $7.20. That means that we paid $0.78 per can. If we would have had our other coupon we would have paid $0.67 per can. I think we did great on this one.
I am trying to keep track of how much we save using coupons and ad matching this year. I don't know how long it will last but I will try and keep you posted on some of our great deals that we get.

It is COLD

It has been cold here for a few days. Ok, maybe two weeks. The snow from Christmas has not melted. Tomorrow the high is only going to be about 4 degrees. We spent two days putting up plastic on the windows on the west, north, and east sides of the house. We have cut boards and plastic and took our time covering up the windows. I am grateful for this. It has truly helped with the cold drafts.
The children have enjoyed sledding. They put a board up from the cellar to the ground and put snow on it. I don't have to take them to town. They sled as far as they can. One might end up in the rose bush. I haven't heard yet. I had to call James and Carl in today. They went out to change the pigs and chickens water and decided to stay out and sled. Their cheeks were cold. They don't realize how cold it really is outside.
I have decided that I don't mind the snow. I don't mind because it feels as though our life has slowed down a little. At night as we drive down the road you can look out over the fields and see the field. Sometimes you can see deer. The other day when we were driving to town the kids and I saw an eagle in a field. We were excited. I tried to get James to turn around.
During this weather I have realized my appreciation to the pioneers. I can't imagine moving in the bitter cold and dealing with their trials. I am grateful that I don't have to do that. I am glad that I have a warm home, and a car that I can drive where I need to go.

Update

I wanted to blog about the train trip that we took. I have put it off, and put it off and now we are into the new year. So I will update and not do individual posts.

Train Ride:
Part of our Christmas gift from my mom was a train ride. We boarded in Seligman MO, and went to Rogers AR. For those that know Isaiah loves trains. We had so much fun. We did get some great pictures that I wanted to post but I never got around to it. On the way down Mrs. Clause sat with us and the children drilled her with questions. On the way back from Rogers the children got a goody bag with an apple and some other snacks and a juice.

Christmas:
This year we went to the Hughlett's on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed visiting there for a couple of hours. Grandma and Grandpa gave the children blankets. We spent Christmas at mom's house this year. We got to her house before the bad weather came. We were blessed with a white Christmas. It was beautiful. We stayed up until 4:00 a.m. getting everything done, and visiting. Adalyn was up until 1:00. When the children woke up they were really excited. This year the idea was that everyone would make something for another person. It was really hard coming up with something to make. But when all was said and done it turned out wonderful. We got to talk to Devin. He is doing really good. We all talked for a few minutes and passed the phone. He sounded really happy. I really enjoyed the simplicity of this Christmas.

New Years:
We stayed home and did nothing this year. Well I really can't say that. We went to Joplin and filled up our Suburban, got the last of the Wendy's frosties, and did some shopping. We were home by 11:00 p.m. and stayed up to watch the ball fall. The older I get the less I care about it. I was glad to spend the day with my family.

Adalyn is sick:
Adalyn has a respiratory infection. The poor child is miserable. She is wheezing and wants to be held all the time. I took her to Urgent Care today and the doctor gave her a script to help her get better. A few more days of breathing treatments and medicine and she should be doing better.

Christmas break:
I have enjoyed the time with my family, but as usual I am ready to get back to a routine. We have enjoyed our time together, and were able to do some fun things. We have played some games, and gone to Joplin., and slept in. We went sledding, played in the snow and spent time inside do to the cold weather. We have enjoyed James cooking, hot chocolate, and Christmas candy. But like I said I am ready to get back to a routine. The children have things to do that do not include playing games on the computer or watching a movie. It will be along time until the next break and I am sure that I will be ready for that one.