Really Random

Sometimes life is SOOOO frustrating!!

Well, just government policies and beaurocracy.  It would be incredibly boring to yammer on about it all...but it would feel so great just to complain about a few things.

Government offices are just plain inefficient. 
Not opinion--fact. 

And so much waste of taxpayer time and money. (it's like they know it too...and seem to enjoy it)
 
Example #1267: Window clerk no. 4 walked 15 feet away to use a phone (a corded phone, with said cord needing to be hopped over by those that walked by) to call Window clerk no. 7 who was sitting 3 chairs away, originally.  I wish I was making this up.  I have tons of examples from this past week alone...it's bringing on a stress headache.


The Gateway Clean Air Program is a bunch of bunk, and just a sham to make money. (Kinda like when a road is built, but then completely torn down and redesigned 2 years later.  Really?  You didn't think about it the first time?)

Even before our current fiasco, I totally believed this.  Don't get me wrong--I love the Earth and the human race, and want them to stick around for a long time.  But the program itself needs a lot of revisions to be effective, without needless cost to citizens.

Need an example?  Gladly! :)

So our Jeep Cherokee has a microscopic leak in the fuel evaporation system.  Microscopic.
And this microscopic hole is keeping the Jeep from passing the emissions test, because it is coding the Check Engine light and the computer.

A microscopic hole that has absolutely NO effect on the Jeep's exhaust, emissions, or even overall performance.

However, the GVIP has decided that if the Check Engine light is on for any reason, it can't pass.

Soooo how much money does it take to find this microscopic hole that does not have any effect on our Jeep's emissions?

Well.  Let's see.  The average auto serviceman has to completely flush the fuel lines and take apart the fuel evaporation system to find the microscopic hole...which is a lot of labor hours...and if they find it at all...should set us back $300-$400 at the minimum.

To find a microcopic hole that doesn't effect our Jeep's emissions.

Grrrrrr.  It's just frustrating.  Because it's uneccesarily making our lives harder.  We can't renew the plates on that Jeep until it all gets fixed...and it's making life a little crazy trying to get 3 people to 2, sometimes 3 different places at the same time.

Okay, enough of the grumbling.  Just needed to vent.  And really, I need to look at the positives to stay sane and most importantly--be so very grateful for what we have.  People have survived on a lot less, and we truly have been blessed with so much.  Too much. 

How about an update on Maverick?  Because you know, he never gets talked about on here. :)

Well, he LOVES his cousin Noa.  Like, they are the bestest of best buds.  Granted they've only known eachother for almost a year...but I can already tell they are totally going to be those cousins that you think are brothers until they tell you otherwise.

Noa came over to hang out last night, and had the grandest of adventures with Mav.  I tried getting a few pictures of them wearing fireman helmets, riding Mav's bike together, etc.  But couldn't quite get a good shot.  This was the best one, and even then its blurry.  They're just too wiggly and my lighting is just too bad at night.

We also rearranged Mav's room into a more big boy room.  With every "baby" thing we moved to the basement...the more my heart wrenched, ha!  It was mostly out of necessity.  He has a ton of new toys from his birthday and Christmas, so we purged his toybox.  I kept holding up all these little soft toys and said, "Remember when he couldn't even grasp it?"  Sniffle sniffle!

Also, he kept climbing his changing table and jumping off it...giving me a heart attack. We weren't using it as a changing table anymore, so we just needed to figure out where to put all the stuff we were keeping on it.  We moved his little blue sofa from the living room into his room, where the changing table was.

We scooted his bed over to the corner to make room for the little toy shelf that was also crowding our living room.  In case you are wondering, Mav likes to put those boppy pillows there so he can lands on them when he jumps off the bed.  At least he is being cautious? (!)  Sigh.

This corner used to have the bookshelf and 3 plastic shelves (like the black one in the first picture holding diaper supplies) where the toybox is now (the toybox used to be crowded next to his bed).  The black plastic shelves was our storage system for Mav's clothes...but that only works well with tiny baby clothes.  So now all of his clothes are hung in the closet.  Like a big boy.  Sniffle sniffle.

I am bummed I had to move his wall map decal so high, but that little stinker kept peeling it off and it has torn in a couple spots.  I'll keep it up there until he is old enough to peel & stick the states on like it was designed. :) 

Our basement is now overtaken with baby stuff, ha!  We're hoping that someday we'll get to use it again, but its nice to know that should God have other plans for us, there are lots of people out there who could use it.