18 months old

Joshua is now 18 months old, and we all know what that means: NURSERY!!



This past Sunday was his first day going to nursery all by himself. The week before, Adam went in and stayed with him for the two hours, and Joshua didn't have any problems at all. He loves playing with the toys, and this week as soon as he saw them, he ran in the room and started playing. He didn't care if we were there with him or not. During sharing time in Primary when I didn't have to play the piano, I would sneak a peak at him through the windows in the nursery door, and he was doing fine, playing with toys and trying to find kids to play with him. I had a big parenting moment as I saw his future flash before my eyes as I thought about all the life experiences he is going to go through all throughout his life, starting now, as he makes friends and learns how to socialize with kids. I thought about all the lessons he is going to have to learn on his own, without me there, like the acceptance and (sometimes) rejection from his peers and how to deal with it all. It tugged at my heart to know he's going to be hurt sometimes, but I know it's necessary for him to grow and learn and be a better person. It just all became reality as I stood there, peeking into the nursery. I hope I can be a good parent and prepare him for the challenges of life.

Anyway, here are a few recent pictures of our little 18-month-old.





A couple weeks ago I hosted a baby shower at our house for my cousin's wife. Joshua loves playing with the leftover balloons. Hours of entertainment!







Joshua likes playing with his little magna-doodle thingy. (Actually, it's Adam's toy that he got a few years ago to try and keep himself entertained during church.) He's getting the hang of holding the stylus and scribbling.

It is so much fun to watch him learn and process new information. You can almost see the wheels turning in that big noggin' of his. He's a cutie, and we love him!!

Update From Transmissionville

I finally got an answer from the guy at the repair shop about replacing my transmission. Apparently, it is hard to get transmissions for 2003 Corollas because they are in very high demand. What does that mean? It means that a whole lot of people with 2003 Corollas are having this same issue, and there aren't enough replacement transmissions to go around. I found a support forum full of people with 2003 Corollas with manual transmissions with the exact same problem I am having. Many of them talk about how they have contacted Toyota, but Toyota refuses to do anything about it. They will not admit that there is a design or manufacturing flaw in the manual transmissions of 2003 Corollas that is causing a large number of them to fail at comparatively low mileage.

So now I get to try to track down a replacement transmission for my car. Luckily, I have a brother who is an excellent mechanic that is willing to do the actual labor of swapping out the transmission. This will save us literally hundreds of dollars. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any easy way of getting my hands on a new, used, or rebuilt transmission for a 2003 Corolla.

If you have any hookups or know of a way to get a replacement 5-Speed transmission for my car, please let me know.

Horrible News For Any Car Owner

Ugh. Just ugh. The transmission in our 2003 Toyota Corolla (with only 121,000 miles on it) is quickly dying. It started making an alarming noise in fifth gear after our second big road trip this summer, and that noise has progressed through fourth, third, and now second gear.

I took it to a mechanic's shop yesterday on the way home from work and had one of the guys there take it for a spin to hear the noise. He came back about five minutes later and said, "Yeah, your transmission is going. It needs to be replaced. How many miles do you have on this? 121,000? Really? Toyotas usually last WAY longer than that."

When we had the clutch replaced a few months ago, my brother (who did the replacing) expressed amazement that the thing even worked after taking it out and looking at it. He asked if I rest my foot on the clutch pedal while driving or something else that would cause that inordinate amount of clutch wear. Nope, I don't, and neither does Lisa.

I guess this is one of the hazards of buying a used car. You have no idea how the people who had it before you treated it. Obviously, the person that had this car before us had no idea how to drive a manual. Otherwise, the clutch wouldn't have been in such bad shape and the transmission would not be dying now.

Anyway, awesome. Now I am going to have to pay about $1000 to replace my dying transmission with a used or possibly rebuilt one that hopefully won't die any time soon. Unfortunately, these are apparently a little tough to come by. The shop owner has been trying to track down a transmission to put in my car, but so far has had no luck.

So I am driving to my full time job each day hoping the transmission doesn't give out on the freeway, and tonight I will have to park this car and use the gas guzzling Jeep Cherokee to deliver pizzas. This sucks. I hate being poor.

Why am I not surprised?

A little disgusted, maybe, but not really surprised.

Living a couple blocks away from Walmart, I end up going there at least twice a week. Today when Joshua and I went on a milk run, I was greeted by a huge Christmas tree as we enter the store and all the Christmas stuff was up all around the store. I sighed.

I enjoy celebrating Christmas as much as the next person, but I enjoy celebrating Christmas AFTER Thanksgiving, not THE MINUTE Halloween is over. It just irks me that Thanksgiving is glossed over or disregarded completely for the more marketable holiday of Christmas. It starts earlier every year, and the commercialization of the holiday really gets to me.

Trick-or-Treat

We had a pretty low-key, but fun, Halloween this year. Adam had to work, so I went to my parents' house for the evening. Joshua got a Tigger costume for Christmas last year from his Grandma Hansen. It barely fit him, and because he was so wiggly when I put it on him, I didn't even get the snaps around the crotch area snapped up. My brother Kevin and his family came over, too, and after dinner Kevin, Brandie, and I took the four grandkids out trick-or-treating around my parents' neighborhood.



Taylor (ballerina witch), Brooklynn (regular ballerina), Ryan (Eeyore), and Joshua (Tigger).



Aren't they the cutest boys ever?



Trick-or-treating sounds like fun until you are out with toddlers who can't keep up with the big girls and you end up having to carry them most of the time. It didn't help that we chose to go to the hilly part of the neighborhood with steep driveways and lots of steps instead of the flat part of the neighborhood. Joshua still had fun, though. He didn't quite get the concept and instead tried to go in the houses when the people opened the door. He succeeded one time, but luckily it was a neighbor we knew from when we were growing up.



When we got back to my parents' house, he realized his bucket was full of candy and thought that was pretty cool.



Ryan and Joshua had fun pilfering through the girls' piles of candy.

All in all, we had a good time and a pretty successful first time trick-or-treating.