Cars, kids, trips. Oh my!

Sarah's car may finally be fixed.  Hyundai wanted to do what is called under the Better Business Bureaus terms a "final repair" before things moved into arbitration.

She dropped the car off at the service center at the dealership near school (which in my opinion is better than the one near us). They had the car for over 2 weeks and weren't able to duplicate the problem - because it occurs randomly. But finally (and thankfully!) they tried again on the day we wanted to pick it up and all the warning lights came on and it wouldn't go out of park. They were able to get the codes from the warning lights and noticed that after the lights went out the codes were clearing themselves out which was part of the problem and maybe why they weren't believing that there was an issue because they could never see any codes. (Although it does state in the paperwork that the codes were in the code history but I don't know how any of this car stuff works so maybe it's hard to see in the history??)

After reviewing all this data with the Field Service Engineer, they replaced the Body Control Module, the Front View Camera (which had been placed twice before) and the Review View Camera.  And now we are all hoping (and I'm praying) that his car is finally fixed from this problem ever happening again.

Sarah's roommate had to bring her home for Spring Break which started on March 1st and then I drove her back to Concord a few days later to pick it up when it was ready.  And oddly enough, as we were both getting ready to head back home, I started MY car and some warning lights came on. Will the fun never end? 

I googled the warning lights and it said not to drive too far with those lights on so I took my car to the Honda dealership in Concord (a 5 minute drive from where we were versus an hour drive home) and left it with them and then Sarah drove me home. This past Saturday Dan drove me back to Concord and we picked up the car and hopefully we will have no more problems with any cars anytime soon!  

How's that for a very boring update?   

It was so nice to have Sarah home for a week.  Well, technically it wasn't quite a week because once her car was ready she went to Raleigh to hangout with her boyfriend and the rest of the Basement that was home for Spring Break.  And Dan was home as well so it was just so nice!

And then, to make me super happy, Dan's trip back to Charleston was postponed wo when  Peter came home for his Spring Break  there was a glorious 36 hour period where WE WERE ALL HOME TOGETHER!  I was so thankful for this 36 hours together because it wasn't looking like we were all going to be home at the same time.

I was asked to work that weekend and I said NO!  All my people are going to be home and I really want to be there with them to enjoy it.  Someone asked what we were going to do. My response was, "Absolutely nothing.  I just want to look around my family room and see that we are all together." 

And that's pretty much what we did.  We went to Mass Saturday evening, then went out to dinner, and then came home and watched a movie together.  And when I went to bed that night, I slept better than I had in weeks.  There is something so nice just knowing where everyone is...and especially when they are all only a few feet from me.  :)

Sarah's doing well and enjoying sorority life.  Here's a cute picture of her with her pledge class on Bid Day.

 And another picture because why not?

She is really enjoying getting to know all of these girls.  She's been having lunch and coffee dates with the older girls to get to know them before she gets assigned her Big Sister.  She's been attending all the meetings and working on the routine for the Air Band Competition which will be in April.  It's a huge show where all the sororities and fraternities on campus compete.  She's pretty excited about that and I think it will be fun to watch!  

She's also been joining the girls at the sorority house for weekly viewings of the Bachelor and later this week is her first date function.  Joe is coming in to town for that since he is on spring break now.  Shegot a new dress from Amazon and she's super excited.  

It took her a year and a half but I think she's finding her groove now.  All work and homework was wearing thin on my social girl.  I never thought I'd have two kids in Greek life but they both seem to be thriving so what do I know!?

Last week Peter went to a Hurricanes game with a friend.  He was excited because they got beer in a hockey stick.

After he sent this picture he texted me, "Don't worry. We're Ubering home."  

He will be heading to Las Vegas with Cal, the guy in the picture above and 3 other friends, and Cal's parents on Thursday morning for a long weekend of gambling and Vegas fun.  It's a tradition in Cal's family that when you turn 21 you get to go to Vegas.  Peter is beyond excited about this trip.  He has visions of making a lot of money at the Roulette table.  HA!   We all know that's not going to happen.

And speaking of trips, in May we will all be going to Italy for a week.  I am currently in the planning stages but we will be spending 3 nights in Amalfi and 4 nights in Rome.  I am so excited to see Italy but I'm more excited to get to spend this time with my family.  We are squeezing it in right as school is out for both kids and right before they start working for the summer. 

My original plan was to go to Rome with just Dan and do a pilgrimage type trip with The Catholic Traveler.  But then I realized that our time together for trips with just the four of us is running out so I scrapped that plan and invited the kids and am hoping and praying that we have a wonderful time relaxing and exploring together. If anyone has any recommendations for Rome or Amalfi, please let  me know.