Junebug

Hey there,

It is hard to believe we are in June! My mind is already forward-thinking, and I’m anticipating the upcoming fall. I gotta get past these next couple of months, though, and then we get back into some cooler temps.

The month started with great cool temps in the 60s and 70s. We got some great views of Mt.Hood (as is normal, but the view doesn’t get old).

Sky recently got invited to take the family to an event at All City church (part of the family of churches that New Hope is a part of). The kids wanted to go because they had basketball and other stuff. We took a trip over, and the kids even got hot dogs from it. They may have been most surprised when they got food as well.

We have been monitoring Pachy from our remote app. (Pachy=Pacifica Hybrid). The dealership had finished and moved the car to the front of their parking lot—the first real movement in nearly 3 weeks. We called up the dealership and asked for the status (this was on a Friday afternoon). They said they completed it and wanted us to pick it up on Saturday.

We already had plans on Saturday, plus the car we were in cost about $15 for every 30 miles we went. That was very expensive. We said we would come the same day to pick it up.

We were already in the car, ready to drive to Costco to fill up the gas guzzler. However, we noticed the movement maybe 5 minutes before we arrived at Costco. We put the least amount possible to get to the dealership and went on our way (I think $20 more?).

We arrived with less than 20 miles to empty. Bleh. I am glad to be done with the old vehicle and back in our hybrid. Another point of annoyance: We were driving around the entire time without a license plate and no temperature. Why? Well, this is how the dealership gives loaner cars. I was worried about being pulled over and having to explain the situation to the police, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.

We stopped on the west side of Portland to charge her up before returning home. While we let her charge (for about an hour), we went to Burger King. T-Mobile offered a Whopper Jr for free with a purchase of a dollar or more. We added the burger and an extra beef patty to the app ($1 more? check.). We had coupons to do this 3 times—one for Ara, Lijah, and Luca. Then we got Ezra some apple sauce with the last order.

Overall, that’s a pretty cheap meal.

We made our way home using only electricity. Love it.

The following week was Arabella’s 5th-grade promotion. It’s wild that she’ll now be in 6th grade. We brought along one of her friends, Sethanne.

She looked like me when she was sitting through the ceremony. She didn’t want to be up there, nor did she want to be the center of attention at all. Once everyone cle90-somethingared and we took the photos above, she returned to her usual self.

We have had a few days of relatively warm weather. One day, we got up to 90something. That is too warm. Our house was very hot inside.

Fun story: our vacuum cleaner died (2nd one in less than a year), but the last one we purchased at Costco was less than 2 months ago. We returned it to Costco and used the money to get another one. We looked up reviews and all this jazz on the one we would get. The kids watched them with us and were so excited to get the new vacuum cleaner; each one was itching to get their hands on it.

Finally, we have a photo of Arabella and me at New Hope’s Nugget Night.

Nugget night? Yeah. It was an event where parents of middle schoolers (particularly dads) were invited for a night to play games, have a Chick-fil-A dinner, and get some nuggets of advice to talk about with their kids.

What else? Last week, Arabella had Arya stay over for a night. The next day, Sethanne was over for a night. The following few days, Korina stayed at our house. One of those nights, she also invited Sethanne to stay over. When Korina was here, it was probably the roughest few nights I’ve had with anyone staying over in a long time. She was threatening self-harm. She refused to listen; she told the wife she didn’t trust or respect her. She refused to take showers. This is just a small amount, and it is all spread across 4 days. We watched her as her parents were out of town on vacation, and since Arabella and she got along so well, she begged her parents to stay with us. Well, that won’t be happening anymore.

After all of that, did we have enough? Or maybe Arabella, too? But Arabella then had Sethanne stay over a night (Friday to Saturday) – she came over immediately when we got home from the Nugget night.

Father’s Day is on Sunday. Arabella will then be leaving and going to Jacques for a week. The plan is to go to church and then head up 2ish hours north to drop her off. The following Saturday, we get her back.

No wonder time is seemingly going by so quickly! It’s been pretty crazy lately.

just Pray