Jack of All Trades

Almost all trades.

I wish I was good at everything.  Ever.
I am a tinkerer.  It is what I do.
I am pretty good at a lot of things.  (And Awesome at others!)
But there are some things that stop me in my tracks.  Not for a lack of desire to be good at them.
Rather for a lack of time, or knowing where to begin.

My car.  My trusty ol' Jetta.
She had served me well.  Then came the day when the garage said she needed lots of work.
Since then, she hasn't been the same.
(Yes, she.  Machines and cars, like boats, are regarded as feminine, you need to treat them gently, with care and respect... and a bit of love.)
There was a noise.  They said they were fixing it, while making me terrified that if I didn't have them fix what they said was bad, that my daughter and I would be in a serious accident someday soon.

They "fixed" it.
The noise was still there.  (and other parts were broken)
The garage owner unplugged one little part, and the noise went away.  Plugged it back in, and Ta-Da, there it was again.  "But if that was actually bad, you'd have way different problems."

Tears have been shed over this matter.
Because as of this past Saturday, Jetta D would't start.  And I don't know what to do.
Google has been opened hundreds of times to look up one thing or another in the past few days.
And when I think I may be getting closer to an answer or solution, something else pops up.
So I am learning all I can from the Magic-Answer-Machine and the Owner's Manual (which is kinda sparse in information.)

Looking up codes and images and how-to's.
But when it comes down to it, I just don't know what to do.
It's not about the fact that I have loved that car, even though I have.
It's about the trouble.  The concern of if and when it works.
It's the cost.  And the problem that nothing seems like it has really been fixed, just the issue has been moved elsewhere.
I want to be able to fix my car.
Myself.  Ok, really, with help from an acquaintance who knows what he is doing.

I want to be able to take matters into my own hands
And make it better.
I am tired of paying other people to work on it with no resolve.


I want to use the information that others have set forth for me to find on Google
and be that Jack (Jill) of All Trades.
Be that tinkerer I always thought I was.

 

gift time

Babies, babies, everywhere!

Two more cousins are on their way, and it is a pretty exciting time.  There was a baby shower this past Sunday, which I was out of town for, but I sent these cute little burp cloths along to the momma.

 My mother in law has been making quilts for the new babies, and I have been using the fabric she has left to make matching burp cloths.

I just love these little owls!  

Super cute choice by my mom-in-law.  

I feel like I have been planning, well, Everything lately. 

So much so, that I have planned out Christmas gifts already.

That's not really like me to be that prepared.  

I even wrote on my calendar, counting it out.  

I have one week per person.  Oh boy.

Because, obviously, I am making the gifts.  And I am pretty darn excited about them!  I even have the "packaging" figured out.  Now I just have to get cracking, and get the materials.  (That is surely eating into my plan of "one week per person"!)

But, that is all I can say right now about those gifts.  

Moving on, over Labor Day weekend we took Lily on her first camping trip!  

Pointing: "Dat?"  "That's a tent."  "Dat?"  "Tent."  "Dat?"  "Tent."

Cutest little thing I have ever laid eyes on!

She crawled around in the dirt and mud, picking up all the grass and leaves she desired.  She played hard!  

We came home to our garden overgrown with burcucumber.  It started growing when the beans were coming in, and so I figured it was a bean, since it was crawling like one.  The wide leave should have warned me, but I thought it was just a different kind of bean than I had grown before (I tried two new types this year.) So yesterday, my husband did the research and figured out what it was, then we ripped and tore until it was (almost) all gone.  We uncovered TONS of little cherry tomatoes.  Yay!

Up next:

More garden adventures

Hopes of making some jewelry