Jett and Lexi, Steven, Nick, Bekah, Leah and Natalie come for a visit, 2018 April General Conference, Easter, Trip to Oklahoma for spring Break, Car breaks down!

Jett and Lexi came over to play

We had fun moving to dance-dance to revolution videos on Youtube

Our Oklahoma family arrived in town on Friday

On Saturday, we got to go to Salt Lake City for Conference.  Unfortunately we did not quite make it in and ended up listening to it outside on the temple grounds.  It was a nice day so that turned out to be fabulous!

Tim brought Luke up and we met at the Tabernacle.  

Luke came with us and Tim met Brian for the Priesthood session of conference

Wendy and Allen hosted the Stout Easter party again this year.  It was an extra fun treat to see Wendy's new sewing room!  She designed it and Allen built it.  So beautiful!

We had an Easter egg hunt here at home for May and Lincoln who were so excited to find eggs

Amy got asked to her senior prom...Blake!

Steven, Nick, Natalie, Bekah and Leah were here for Easter so we had Uncle John, Aunt Gretchen, Amy, Jimmy, Zoe, Finch, Ellis, Mark, Tova, Sophie, Annie Grace, Jonathan, and David and Uncle David over for dinner.  We had turkey, roasted veggies, cantaloupe, grapes, and ice cream for dessert  this year.

It was Bekah's birthday so we celebrated with a brownie chocolate chip cake, ice skating and a trip to roll with it for ice cream!

The next morning, we took off to Oklahoma for Spring Break.

There is a cute Mexican restaurant in Seminole and the girls and I enjoyed an evening out.

It was the neatest thing to be with Grandma.  We took her to Logan's baptism, sat outside on the porch catching up and had fun seeing all the cousins, aunts and uncles there.

My sister, Linda came over a few times to play the piano for us and for mom.  Her playing always leaves me in tears - it is moving!

I love it when my sister Linda plays the piano!

Turning lemons into lemonade!

My children, Amy (18 yrs) and Luke (16 yrs) had Spring Break from April 2-6.  Luke has severe autism, doesn’t read or write or have friends and after years of speech therapy, only says a few words.  He love to ride in the car and he’s had a bad yelling problem for the past 8 months. My mother’s health is not well, and she was put on hospice, so we decided to visit her in seminole, Oklahoma from April 2-6 (Spring Break).

My sister, Carol Cook has breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy on March 13th.  She had a doctor’s appointment at the Cancer Treatment Centers in Tulsa, Oklahoma On Wednesday, April 4th, and I told her I would drive her to the appointment.  On the way, my check engine light came on. I pulled into a McDonalds in Stroud and the car locked up and smoke started coming out from underneath the hood. I looked around and about two buildings down, there was a sign that said, “Stroud Auto Repair.”

I walked over and got Larry who came with his auto checking device.  He plugged it in and said, “Bad news, your engine has gone out and there could be other things like the radiator.”  My sister called her son to take her to the appointment and I decided to stay with the car to take care of it since it was still business hours.  I called my husband in Utah and he did a quick check and said he could get an engine for 1300.00, or he said, we could leave the car in Oklahoma and buy another one.  I told him I was going to talk to the auto repair shop.

I went in to talk to Larry at Stroud Auto Repair.  He did a quick search and said he could get a used engine by Monday for 800.00 that had 30,000-45,000 miles on it.  He said he had been in business for 29 years, that he could get it installed for me by the middle of next week, that it would be his top priority.  He gave me his business card that said the auto repair shop could repair about 10 things, cars, bikes, etc. and at the end, it said...everything. He said people break down near his shop and he doesn’t gouge them, he takes pride in his work.  I didn’t want to spend the last days with my mother looking for a new car, etc. so I made a quick decision to have Larry fix our car. He said he could give me an estimate that it wouldn’t go over, that with everything including a new radiator, it would total $2, 384.16, and that if it didn’t need a radiator, it would be less.  I said it probably would need a radiator and that I wanted to order the engine right away so it would get there on time for him to get it installed quickly. Right then, on April 4th, I paid $1364.16 to get the new engine.

On Friday, April 6th, Larry called first thing in the morning and said, “Bad news, the engine won’t arrive until next Friday unless we pay an express fee of $259.00 to get it here by Monday or Tuesday.”  At that point, I needed to get back to Utah for work and get my kids back to school, my son Luke was confused about our car being gone. He loves to ride in the car, so we frequently just drive around with him.  He was yelling “GRAY CAR,” over and over. Larry said if we put a rush on the engine, he could get it installed by Wednesday so I said go ahead and we will pay the $259.00 fee to get it rushed here.

The next Monday, April 9th I called and the engine had arrived.  He said he would get right on it and get it installed by Wednesday.  On Wednesday I told Luke we were going home, I began gathering our things to go.  Larry called around noon and said that the engine had more places to connect than our old engine had and it was taking him a bit longer, but he said not to worry that he could for sure have it done by Thursday, April 12th.  Thursday morning, I packed our things and we loaded it into my brother’s pickup at 11:00 am (he would be taking us to get our car). Luke was yelling, “GRAY CAR-GO HOME,” over and over and I told him we were going home and to get in the truck.  It was a cool day, so I let him sit out there for four hours since my parents house is in the country a mile away from neighbors and Luke loves to go for rides.

In the afternoon, I called Larry and he said that we were first time customers and that he had many longer term customers that he needed to help, he said the car might not be done by Thursday, but it would be done for sure on Friday.  We brought our bags back in from my brother’s pickup and Luke was very upset. He kept yelling “GRAY CAR-GO HOME.” We spent that night grabbing a few things from our bags which became very disorganized. The next morning on Friday, April 6th we packed up again, I called Larry who said the car would be fixed that day, we loaded our bags in my brother’s pick-up.  Luke was yelling”GRAY CAR-GO HOME,” over and over, I told him to get in the pickup. I called Larry and told him we were coming to pick up the car and would be meeting my sister Carol at the McDonalds to say goodbye. She was coming back from another appointment at the Cancer Treatment Center in Tulsa where as it turned out, they told her the tissue they tested from the mastectomy was more aggressive and that she would need to have chemotherapy and would lose her hair.

We were about to leave for Stroud when at 3:00 pm, a severe tornado warning alert came in on our cell phones, the sky darkened quickly and hail started coming down and then torrents of rain. I opened the door and as you know, they say a tornado sounds like a train going by and that’s what it sounded like.  I looked at my poor mother and decided we would just ride it out.

The storm passed, and then Amy, Luke and I got in my brother’s pickup and he took us to Stroud to get our car.  I met my sister at the McDonalds and said goodbye. At 5:00 pm closing time I went in to see Larry who said that the car was running, and to just watch the dashboard lights.  I told him I was getting ready to drive home 1200 miles right then and he gave me his personal cell phone number and said to be sure and call him when we got home and I promised I would.  Amy, Luke and I got in the car and drove West on I-40 and then at about 8:00 pm, it was dark by then and the maintenance light came on. I had Amy call my husband who was in Utah and he said since it was after hours, to find a auto parts store and ask them to check the light.  We found one and were heading for the exit when the check engine light came on. We got off on the exit and the car was smoking. My husband called Larry who said to turn the heater on to cool down the engine which we did. My husband called Justin Slaughter at Haines & Son Wrecker Service 2623 W. Broadway, Elk City, OK 73644 Phone: 580-225-4191. Justin opened the hood and with a flashlight he told us the antifreeze had boiled out.  He said to try and start the car which we did and it wouldn’t start. Justin said we could leave the car there over the weekend, but had to move it on Monday or it would be towed. Luke was upset and we were trying to calm him down and me down. He gave us the names and numbers of 4 auto repair shops.

Then I called my sister Linda Hardy who lives in Midwest City and she drove to Elk city to pick us up.  We drove back to her place arriving after midnight and slept there. We got up early and Linda drove us to the OKC airport where we rented a one way car to drive home.  When we got in the rental, Luke started crying huge tears, yelling “GRAY CAR-GO HOME!” I told Amy we had to calm him down so we said, “Luke we really are going home this time-HOORAY!”  Finally he realized we were going home and I told Amy to take a picture of his cute bright smile.

Monday morning, April 16th, we called Justin and had him tow the car to A-5 Auto Repair who couldn’t get to it for a week and we ended up not using them.  We did pay Justin $70.00 for the towing fee and I have the receipt. We texted Larry who said the labor was under warranty and he would take care of us 110% and not to worry. We mostly texted from that point on so the communications are recorded for examination.

On April 27th, it had been over three weeks since our car quit working and I had politely and objectively communicated many times with Larry and wanted to get our car back, so I Googled “Consumer Protection” and “Better Business Bureau” and it said that in a business dealing you obtain goods or services for a payment and when something goes wrong and you don’t get the service for what you paid that you should clearly state to the business what you want to resolve the issue-refund, and that you shouldn’t let it drag on for months, after the warranty, etc., so I wrote Larry and requested a refund of the $2,568.16 so that I could have the car repaired at another auto shop.  He quickly spiraled and said he would not refund our money, that it was completely my fault for driving the car without checking the gages, that he would impound our car and charge us rental fees for storing it on his place and that I should think carefully about asking for a refund because it would get bad for me. At that point I decided not to engage with his hostility and to let it go...

Update:

The car is still in Oklahoma at Uncle Billy' house as of August 1, 2018.
Todd will be home next month and we will see if it is a project that he would like to tackle.
Grandma Choate is doing remarkably well and Aunt Carol just finished chemo and a couple of operations. Looks like she's on the mend!

I had fun taking pictures of family pictures while I was there and a few from my mission so long ago.