Dirty Diaper Syndrome =/: our little vacation. =]

wow it's been a while. the reason? i went to see my family! :]

we went down wednesday night. it was all good, except for at the end the car wasnt shifting right going up hills & when we got there, it was smoking! =/ i'll explain why later.. so, anyways, it was absolutely awesome to see my family again! danita's getting so big! it's insane to see that's she's almost a teenager. i still kind of remember my mom being pregnant with her & the day of her birth [my memory's really bad because of my ptc, but i can remember parts]. she now has a fish, snail, & rabbit. :] plus, a neighborhood pony, but that's a whole other story...

delicia's living with my parents again for the time being, to save money because she's getting engaged this summer! :] it's awesome. her boyfriend is keith, a nice guy from what i've met of him, and they seem really happy so that's all that matters. the only problem i have is that i dont think i'm going to make it to the proposal & i really did want to. :[

my parents are doing great too. except my dad's not doing so well medically with his diabetes. :[ i really hope his doctors find a way to get it under control soon.

so i dont have enough time to write about everything, but here's some highlights of the visit:

thursday we all went to get our pictures taken professionally. even though we werent sure if they were going to, mom & dad ended up going with us. we got some great pictures! :] i can't wait to see the results...i'll have them framed & hung as soon as we get them!

we also went to see a house up there [since we're being forced by oakview to move this summer]. unfortunately, it wasnt quite big enough, but fay is always buying more, so maybe we'll find one in a future visit. for now, we're really seriously considering the one on dauphin street & plan to call about it asap to make sure it's still available, plus meet with the landlady again to fill out an application. so far, since we've been home, i havent been able to get ahold of her. =/

my mom had gotten a TON of toys for steve. on thursday night we went for a walk with my mom & sisters and tried out one of them: it's a little red car with a handle we can push. he LOVES it! :] he laughed so much the whole time we pushed him & even tonight we used it again & got the same response. :]

on friday night we went to see my grandmother. she's still doing good. :] it's been awhile since she saw steve, so it was nice to let her see him & how much he's changed. plus, i miss her too. :P oh and she just bought a new plasma tv... cory's so jealous! :]

we brought the car to gary [a local mechanic] on thursday & picked it up friday. he said the smoke was from oil leaking & luckily, he repaired that. but it'll still smoke until all the oil burns off the exhaust. it's not really a concern anymore, though, since he repaired it. the real problem is the transmission. there's a seal on the transmission that apparently goes bad quite often on taurus's. he said repairing that seal would require taking the whole transmission out [a 4-5 hundred dollar deal at least!] and in the meantime, the best thing to do would be a filter of some sort. unfortunately, he couldnt get a filter until monday & we couldnt wait that long. =/ until that's fixed, the transmission fluid will keep leaking & risk damaging the transmission & stranding us when the transmission dies. but luckily, the transmission at this point seems to still be doing okay so far & wasnt damaged yet from when we did run it on low/no fluid. but we're not driving it until we can fix that seal & when we did [coming home] we stopped every 20-40 miles & checked the fluid level, keeping it up so the transmission wasnt damaged. ::sigh:: it's always something. :[

anyways, steve's getting fussy, so i've got to hurry. here's some pictures: