Category: My Blog

AC Repair Phoenix

Air Conditioning Repair In Phoenix AZ

phoenix hvac

Hey everyone, sorry it’s been so long since I last posted something on my blog. The holidays were crazy busy with all the kids and everything going on. Plus we have a pretty big extended family, so the travel and making the rounds was not only time consuming but it wore us down pretty bad. Everyone in the house got sick and this virus going around Phoenix right now is lasting about 2 weeks on average. Also, if you haven’t been receiving the newsletters, email me and I’ll add your address. I have been doing a lot more email letters as it’s just a little more convenient than logging into the website each time I want to communicate with you girls.

Okay, intro is out of the way and I want to dive into something that is very important to me and my family here in Arizona. Last summer we had some issues with our air conditioning unit and multiple bids to repair it and felt disappointed that everyone seemed to want us to take out a second mortgage to replace some of the parts there were apparently going out. They wanted to replace the ac compressor and some of the electrical components, I can’t remember the exact terminology used, but it was a capacitor or something.

phoenix ac repair

We changed the air filters, re-filled the freon, and had our duct work sealed by an energy efficient contractor here in the valley. The issue wasn’t the the AC unit wasn’t working, it just didn’t seem to cool the house down until the sun set. It maintained a constant temperature of about 76 during the day, and then would drop into the 60’s during the evening. That may seem like a comfortable temperature, but 76 during the day is still pretty warm for the interior of the home. We wanted this to be functioning 100% before the hot Arizona summer arrives and temperatures average 100 degrees or more in Phoenix. We decided to do it right after the holidays, and it was a strategic move, and something we knew was going to be an expense coming out of an already expensive holiday season. But we figured since it was winter, service calls may have been slow, and companies would be willing to work on our AC unit because of that. Not sure if it worked, but the price we paid was executable in the end.

We called around the Valley and received multiple quotes for AC repair in Phoenix and settled on an HVAC company we felt was honest and forthcoming with the true condition of our AC unit. I am a firm believer in “you get what you pay for” and I’m not afraid to pay a little extra coin for quality, especially when it impacts the comfort of my family during the hot summer months. I ended up speaking to a woman named Janah at (https://morehartac.com/) in Phoenix. From the first point of contact, to when the technician came out and inspected our AC unit, I knew it was more than a business to them. I can sniff out BS from a mile away, and the sincere nature in which they communicated with me from the beginning really made me feel good about the decision. Fixing your AC unit can be costly, and nobody wants to be ripped off. The techs at Morehart AC came in and did an amazing job getting our unit serviced before the hot summer months.

The true test will come in July when Arizona starts heating up into the triple digits and the soles of your shoes begin to melt on the sidewalk. Right now it feels ice cold, but we will know for sure just how well the AC is pumping cool air when the sun is beating down on the rooftop mid day and I’m stuck inside with the two babies. I’ll update this blog post during the summer months and let you all know how it performs.

Parenting Sleep Tip: Ditch the Gadgets and Get the Help!

“Sleep while you can! You won’t sleep again once baby arrives!”

How many times have you heard that? If you’re a parent, chances are you heard it at least a thousand times in the weeks and months before your child was born. And as soon as your little one arrived, chances are everyone started asking, “are they a good sleeper?”

It’s enough to give anyone a complex!

And have you noticed that the makers of baby gear have figured out that sleep is one of the biggest concerns new parents have? I can’t turn around without bumping into a new product that claims to make baby sleep longer, better, quicker, deeper, or some other magical claim. From swaddles to noise machines, big expensive gadgets to books. It doesn’t matter, there are a million products designed to solve a million sleep problems.
But what if we’ve been looking at sleep all wrong?

I’m not talking developmentally. We’ve talked about the myths of sleep training before and we know that sleep can change depending on the age and stage a child is at. What I am talking about is the stuff. Of course there are tools and tricks that help us sleep, but which ones are legitimately helpful and which ones are just dollar signs in disguise?

I wanted to know so I reached out to our sleep coach, Rosalee Lahaie Hera of Baby Sleep Love and we very quickly realized that not only do most of these gadgets not work (either in the short-term, or in the long-term), some of them are just outright dangerous!

Safety First

One of the most important things for parents to know is that how a product is marketed is extremely important. In Canada, the only approved, safe-sleep surfaces are labeled “crib”, “bassinet”, or “cradle”. In the United States, “play yard”, or what we call a pack’n’play is also safety tested.

Any product that does not call itself one of those things has not been safety tested or evaluated for safe sleep by Health Canada.

Unfortunately, that means all those fancy “soothe your baby to sleep” baby beds, “sleepers”, rock and plays, and cosleepers are not safe sleep surfaces. And in addition to being potentially unsafe, these beds are only meant to last a few months! Babies grow quickly and by four months most infants have outgrown many of these products.  Leaving babies in these gadgets after they have outgrown them can make them even more unsafe.

Okay, but sleep deprivation is real and tired parents are looking for solutions, right?

Right. The thing is, gadgets aren’t actually solving your problem anyway! Not in the long-term at least. While you might get a few immediate weeks of relief, before long your child’s sleep is going to shift (four month “sleep regression” anyone?) and now your baby is too old for that wonderful, expensive, sleeper bed and they don’t know how to put themselves to sleep.

So what do you do?

Take all the money you would have spent on fancy machines and lights and beds and everything else, and put it toward building a support team for the entire family. It is possible to create healthy sleep habits and hygiene right from birth! Use a doula to help you become familiar with your baby’s normal sleep patterns.  If that isn’t working or you want more help with sleep, working with a sleep coach to create an individualized sleep plan for your baby and your family can create the life-long healthy sleep habits and skills your baby needs.

By hiring expert help, you are learning the skills you need to support your baby both now and in the future.

Like so many other things in life, the experiences are so much more valuable than the things.

 

Meaghan Grant works with families to explore their options and help them to discover their own strength through pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. She is a Certified Labour Doula, Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator, and Postpartum Placenta Specialist. As co-owner of Toronto Family Doulas, Hamilton Family Doulas, and Family Doulas of Ottawa, she is committed to providing judgement-free support of all birth and parenting choices.

Winter Baby Car Seat Safety

With the arrival of the winter season, parents are tempted to bundle up their babies as thickly as possible in order to keep them snug and warm. The warmth factor can interfere with the safety factor of the baby car seat. The problem is that this is not the best idea if you are planning to put a baby in a car seat with a five-point harness. The reason is that the harness system then serves to hold the coat in place and not the baby. This defeats the whole safety purpose of the car seat.

Unfortunately, rescue workers and police report seeing empty coats strapped safely into baby car seats. This proves that the impact of a crash can cause a baby to “fly” out of the coat. The fact that bulky winter coats can sabotage your baby’s security in a car is a well known fact and that is why it is often included as an important warning in most manufacturers’ car seat manuals.

Whenever possible, it is best to not have your baby wear a coat at all once placed in their seat. However, coats can be a necessary evil in frigid parts of Canada. Your baby’s winter clothing should never interfere with the proper tightness and position of the clips and harness.

Dressing your baby with only the warmth factor in mind is not being conscientious of the impact on the safety factor of the car seat. To check if your baby’s coat is too bulky, place your baby in a coat and then put them in their seat and tighten the straps as you normally would. Then without loosening the harness straps take your baby out of the seat and remove the coat. Put the baby back in the seat and then look at the gap between your baby’s body and the straps. If you can fit in more than one finger at shoulder bone level, your baby would not have been strapped in securely in the seat with their winter coat on.

One trick is to take off your baby’s coat and put them in the baby seat and tighten the harness and then put the coat on your baby backwards. For colder weather, you should also keep an extra throw or blanket in the car to cover the entire seat with the baby so they don’t get cold. With the use of blankets you also have the option of simply removing or replacing them according to the change of the car’s interior temperatures. Babies in large coats can sometimes become too warm and start to perspire and if taken into cold temperatures immediately they can catch a chill which is undesirable.

Instead of bulky winter coats many parents are opting to dress their babies in thin performance fleece. This is also called polar fleece. It is warm, comfortable and very soft and does not add the kind of bulk that big puffy snowsuits can which would compromise the security of your car seat.

Despite the niftiness of this clothing, the ideal is still to have as much of your baby’s spine meeting the back of the car seat so that the shock of any impact is spread over the entire body and not just a certain point.

Whether your baby is wearing a coat or not, the retainer or chest clip should always be positioned between the nipples and armpits. This ensures that your child does not fly out of the seat. You should also not allow any gaps between the baby’s groin area and the harness.

To warm or not to warm, that is the question. Whether or not your engine needs warming in winter is a discussion for car gurus but for your baby’s safety and comfort it is a preferable choice. Without a remote starter it requires effort but it can make scraping snow easier if you also leave your window defrost on. The best option to keep your loved one warm and safe is to adequately warm up your vehicle, dress them in quality fleece, place a blanket to cover your baby after they are strapped in or flip their warmer thicker coats around. Then they will be “snug as a bug in a rug” and safely secured in their car seat.

Mohammad Bhorat is the owner and operator of Baby Car Seat Installers located in Markham, Ontario. He is a certified Car Seat Installation Technician. Mohammad offers free car seat inspections. Visit www.carseatinstallers.com.

Edgy Dresses

Girls Night Out At A Club In Baltimore

Hey everyone! If you are here from my last email blast, thanks for subscribing! If you randomly stumbled across my blog – thanks for stopping by!

sexy dress I bought for the clubSo last month I went to Baltimore to visit my bestie who used to live out here in Arizona, we attended FIDM in San Diego together and are now all grown up with families. It’s so fun getting together with friends from the past that you went to college with, but it’s a little scary how fast time goes by.

Prior to my departure, I spent the week packing and getting my wardrobe together, I couldn’t show up to her place with lame clothes so it took me a bit to pull out some old club wear and get things in order. There were a few problems I came across, one was that those amazing dresses I used to wear just didn’t fit me as well as they once did, and the other was that they were a little dated. I really wasn’t worried, I had budgeted to buy some new dresses as we had planned to go out a few nights for cocktails and appetizers. I thought about running over to Nordstrom Rack to find some clearance dresses but didn’t want to deal with the traffic and hassle of rummaging through leftover dresses. I was looking for an edgy dress, something that would fit the older me well, but would make me feel like a younger version of me.

I ran to a few local boutique shops around town but couldn’t find any dresses that really jumped out at me, I was starting to panic a little because the clock was counting down and my flight to Baltimore was creeping up on me like some loser in the club looking to get my number. I called my friend out of desperation and asked her where she was currently getting edgy dresses from, club wear, things that I haven’t purchased in a long time. I was surprised to hear her say that she had the same problem and had been scrambling to find something sexy and edgy that fit her thirties body. She went on to say that she had ordered a sexy, edgy dress from an online retailer at www.edgycouture.com and that the dress shipped quick and fit perfectly. Considering that she also went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, I took her word a little more serious than I would most of my other gal pals. I placed the order a week out and received my edgy looking dress the day before I flew out. The risk here was that if the dress didn’t fit, I would either have to go to the Rack or wait until I got to Baltimore and shop there (which wouldn’t have been the end of the world). The dress fit like a glove accentuated my curves and made me feel sexy as hell. I was extremely thrilled about this trip now!

edgy club in Baltimore Overall the trip was a massive success. We had a girls night out with some of her co-workers at the Mosaic club in Baltimore where I rocked my Edgy Couture dress like a 21-year-old rock star! The rest of the week we were hurting pretty bad from the liquor we consumed that night. She had people over for dinner all week, co-workers and random friends she has made since living in Baltimore. What a fantastic time we had, I wanted to get this posted for those of you that read my blog and may have found yourself in a similar predicament at some point in recent months. Not sure I will have much use for the dress now that I am back home in mom mode, but if I have a chance to hit up Scottsdale in the coming months, you better believe I’ll have the edgiest dress of all!

Trying Pure CBD Oil For The First Time

Pure CBD Oil Really Worked For Me

cbd oils for tension relief

I am usually pretty skeptical when it comes to buying into the latest craze, there are diets that surface that all my girls rave about, workout routines that are the end all for weight loss, and carbonated probiotic drinks that guarantee to keep you healthy during flu season.

When my mother-in-law started using CBD Oils for her fibromyalgia, we had a long talk about it. I was super skeptical, I had not heard enough about CBD to have an educated discussion about it with her, I just knew that it came from the cannabis plant and I was hesitant about her using it. She insisted though that she had felt relief from using the product and wanted me to try it for my tension headaches. As a mom that is constantly on the go, shuttling kids around, and busy at home, I suffer from tension headaches. Friday nights is fine, a glass of wine usually relaxes me enough to relieve the strain in my neck, but Monday through Thursday it’s just not something I can do and still function all day.

I bought 750MG of pure CBD oil from Medicinal Essentials to start out, a few drops a day is what was recommended to me by my mother in law and so I figured I would start there. I started by taking a droplet full in the morning when I woke, in the afternoon around lunch time, and again about an hour before bed. At first I wasn’t sure if it was doing anything, then I CBD Tincturerealized that the time the kids got home from school I was pretty tension free. Again, being skeptical, I made the excuse that it wasn’t the CBD oil providing relief for my tension headaches, it was just a better day. Well, I followed the same dosage schedule and found the results to be similar. For me, a glass of wine is never enough, I’m a full bottle girl and that usually is enough to relieve me of most of life tensions. With the CBD Oils I decided to take a little more than my mother in law had suggested, she is a little older and is usually more sensitive to things. OMG! I increased the dosage amount to six full droplets, that was double what I had been taking. The sense of calm that came over me was unreal, and my mind was completely clear and normal. I had reservations about CBD, I thought that there may be a chance that it could get me high, but there is no THC in pure CBD Oil.

So much for my skepticism, I’m a new fan of CBD oil and will continue using it until I have a reason to stop. Anything that is plant based from the earth and relieves pain and discomfort without impacting my mind is welcome into my life. So many of the muscle relaxers I have been prescribed for tension relief just left me feeling groggy with a cloudy mind. That was not the case with CBD Oil, it brought relief to my neck and shoulders without the nasty side effects you get from prescription meds. I have since told my mother in law that she needs to up her dose also to get even better results, she didn’t think twice. I bet we both take 6 full droplets daily.

I love cbd oils

One last thing before I check out of here, I would approve of a small trace amount of THC in mine. I’m not gonna lie, me and my husband have smoked weed at every concert we have attended, I like the vibe when the music is on and the sun is out. A small trace amount in my CBD Oil would be the perfect combination for this girl, and if you live in a state that has legalized marijuana for recreational use, you should be able to find yourself some edibles with a nice CBD to THC ratio that is perfect for mellowing out, but doesn’t launch your mind to the moon and back. Thanks for swinging by, if you have thought about using CBD oils I would consider just doing it. It’s legal in most parts of the country, and can be shipped to your home. It’s worth it. Bye!

Chemistry Supplies

Does Target Sell Chemistry Dye?

dyes used in chemistry I already know the answer to this one, it’s no! What in the hell is chemistry dye? School starts in August here in Arizona and one of the kids is taking Chemistry… yay! Another topic I know nothing about, nor does anyone living under our roof! So when my son came home after the first week of school and said he needed some chemistry supplies so that he could run some experiments at home. I thought that sounded normal, we could go get a beaker, a lighter, some goggles, and a lab coat and he could do chemistry stuff in the backyard. Come to find out, that is not what he had in mind, nor is it even what kids these days are doing in the science lab. Not that I’m some expert, not sure I paid attention much in science, but I know enough to be dangerous at science trivia (not really).

So he brings me this list of stuff he needs and I have no clue what I am even looking at, seriously, who has ever hear of Alexa Fluor 488, Alexa Fluor 594, carboxyfluorescein, NHS-Fluorescein, alexa fluor 488 phalloidin, 5-carboxyfluorescein, carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester, Alexa Fluor 488 NHS Ester, nhs-fluorescein pierce, and fluorescein nhs ester???? What the hell does that stuff even mean? When he handed me the list I thought they might be ingredients to make a nuclear bomb or something, I was not about to buy any of it until I spoke to his chemistry teacher. I sent the chemistry teacher an email and replied pretty quick (I love the Kyrene School District). Turns out that fancy list of dyes he needs for experiments are just dyes. Like something you would dye your shirt with I guess? Once I started calling around I realized real quick that nobody knew what these chemistry dyes were. I dug around further and found a website (https://fluoroprobes.com/) that sells this stuff.

After looking at the price tag on some of these chemistry dyes, I reached back out to the teacher to discuss alternate options. He replied back that the purchase wasn’t mandatory and that my son was just doing it for extra credit. Sorry Charlie, not dropping $500 on a bunch of chemistry dye so you can get some extra credit! He’s going to need to find another way to do it that doesn’t cost me a bunch of money! Chemistry is beyond me, and dropping 5 bills on chemistry dyes is not in my budget at the moment.

Health And Wellness Tips For Expecting Moms

Every expecting mother hopes and prays that after nine months they will be delivering a healthy and strong baby. It’s vital to eat well, practice appropriate exercises, tend to one’s mental health, and practice self-care. There are a lot of considerations related to preparing your home for your baby, but it is of the utmost importance to make sure you and your baby are healthy and ready for the birth and everything that comes after.

Good health starts with good eating habits. It’s called an eating habit because consuming certain types of food becomes an effortless and regular part of your life once you’re used to it. Shifting eating patterns might take a little time, but you’ll find it’s easy to avoid craving junk and processed foods packed with sugar, salt, and preservatives once they’re out of your system. These foods are all addictive and you can break the habit. Gaining weight is a normal part of pregnancy and it’s important to not be too hard on yourself. However, giving into cravings every time isn’t wise, either. There’s always a healthier version of what you want that will satisfy. Be sure to eat lots of plant-based foods like veggies, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Definitely check which foods to avoid while pregnant!

Expecting mothers need to stay active to maintain their health as well as baby’s. This will also aid with stress-reduction, mood-boosting, blood circulation, and quality of sleep. Swimming, prenatal yoga, and walking are wonderful activities that won’t put too much strain on you. Always check with a doctor before starting or changing any exercise regime. Jumping into something new after you have been sedentary for awhile has an increased risk of injury for everyone, regardless of a baby in the belly.

Seek advice from your doctors, other medical practitioners, and certified herbalists regularly. Access experts in pregnancy who are up-to-date with their research and practices. When you purchase books, look at the credentials of the author and take their advice with a grain of salt. Ask friends and family about their anecdotal experiences with help for every day care and what they found worked and didn’t. If you don’t know any parents, a local baby and parenting trade show is an excellent place to meet and talk to other parents and expecting mothers about their stories and fears. To learn about The Baby Show which is a biannual trade show with top brands, handcrafted and artisanal products, and seminars with top industry experts, follow that link. A trade show has everything that you need to prepare for baby and pick up some health and wellness tips for yourself. Check out classes that are offered at your community centre or local college, as well.

Keep a close eye on any changes in your health, contact your doctor, or call an ambulance if you suspect anything might be wrong. Sudden swelling of joints, difficulties breathing, leaking of fluid, bleeding, constant and unrelenting nausea, and vomiting are some signs that something could be wrong. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Call a cab or get a friend to drive you to a hospital if you’re suffering. It is likely unsafe to get behind the wheel.

Expecting a child is an exciting and stressful time all at once. Make sure to take care of yourself with healthy eating, exercise, and by seeking advice and learning opportunities in your community.

Finding A Plumber In Toronto

Our Toronto Air BnB Shower Drain Ordeal

air bnb rental

Hey everyone, I wanted to share this experience we had at an Air BnB in Toronto over the summer. I have been meaning to post more about our summer adventures, but have been busy with getting the kids ready to go back to school and life stuff.

We took a trip up north to Toronto, Canada this summer to explore the great outdoors and check out some of the local attractions in Toronto. I was amazed at how clean everything was up there, driving through the states there just seems to be more trash and litter scattered about that we took notice and were impressed with the cleanliness of the area. museum in torontoWe got ourselves an Air BnB for the week and started our adventure at the Royal Ontario Museum. The museum was full of culture and nature exhibits, we all enjoyed our time there (including the kids) which was a major bonus for us. The next day we headed out and explored High Park and hiked through the trails there, it was absolutely stunning, the landscapes and natural beauty that exist there are stunning. Wish I was a better photographer. A day spent hiking through High Park requires a nice warm shower and a glass of wine. We got back to the Air BnB and everyone proceeded to get cleaned up when I heard my daughter yelling obnoxiously through the bathroom door that the shower wasn’t draining. She’s a bit of a drama queen, so I took the yelling with a grain of salt as I went to investigate what all the drama was about. Honestly, I had assumed she stepped on the drain plug and closed it off but that wasn’t the case.

Time To Call A Plumber

This shower drain was seriously clogged, and she was standing on 6 inches of water which had her completely grossed out. Fortunately there was another shower in the master bedroom that she was able to use, but I didn’t want her getting too comfortable in there because the two of us sharing a bathroom is a recipe for disaster, besides we were paying for trying to unclog bathroom draina two bathrooms at the Air BnB and the shower drains should be working. My husband tried unclogging the drain with a coat hanger but was also grossed out and that led to an unsuccessful attempt at getting the drain to open up. We didn’t know if there was a year worth of hair stuck down there, a kids bath toy, or what…. we just needed the drain unclogged asap! We reached out to the property owner but didn’t get a call back in any reasonable amount of time. I wasn’t going to wait for this guy to call me back before I reached out to a local plumber to get this drain fixed. I jumped on my trusty smartphone and started my search, and this was almost as much about getting my daughter out of my bathroom as it was about fixing the drain. I found a plumber in Toronto that had the availability to get out to the property that day and fix the drain.

Later that afternoon he showed up with some liquid concoction like Drano Fluid and a drano fluid massive snake. He dumped a gallon of the liquid Drano in the drain, waited 1o minutes then ran the snake down the drain and through the plumbing. The clump of hair and debris that was removed from the drain was enough to make me want to vomit. I didn’t let my daughter see what was pulled from the drain because she probably wouldn’t have taken another shower in there. After the plumber removed the clog, water drained perfectly.  Before I let her back in the shower though, I bleached the heck out of it.

After the drain fiasco, we were back in business for the week. The rest of the Air BnB held up fine with all of us living there. The washer and dryer functioned fine, BBQ had enough propane, dishwasher worked, and they had the place stocked with plenty of amenities to keep us busy in the evenings.

Bellwood's brewery in Toronto

After a few days exploring the city, museums, restaurants, and of course, some local breweries (http://www.bellwoodsbrewery.com/) Bellwoods Brewery was our favorite. We decided it was time to get some sunshine and lounge by the water. We ventured out to the Toronto Island park where we lounged by the water for the day, swam, and hiked around. After a day of swimming and lounging around on the beach, we were all thankful to return to the Air BnB and take warm showers, thankfully the guest shower was draining properly or I would have had another drama moment on my hands!

All in all, the trip was fun. Toronto is absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to return. The Air BnB was a decent place except for the plumbing issue. The city itself was really nice and the tourist attractions offered plenty for us to explore. Next time we visit Canada, we want to head over to Victoria, there is the Victoria Clipper we can take to Seattle for the day, we want to take a ride on that and also the Butchart Gardens we want to explore.

I also came across this video for unclogging drains.

Solar Water Heater Repair

Getting Our Solar Water Heater Repaired Was A Must!

solar water heater repairIf you live in Arizona there is a good chance you have converted some of your home’s utilities to solar. When you drive through Arizona it’s common to see the rooftops of homes covered in solar panels. Well, we have yet to convert our power supply to solar, but last year my husband bought into the idea of converting over to a solar hot water heater. You wouldn’t think that in AZ we would need a hot water heater during the summer, I mean seriously, is there any cold water anywhere around here other than in the fridge? Even when I take cold showers during the summer, the water isn’t necessarily cold, it’s just cooler than the hot water. When it comes to laundry and dishes, we are still in need of hot water during the summer months. Going solar with a hot water tank made sense, the sun is always shining here and we can always afford to save a few bucks on our SRP bill. So when my husband converted to the solar water heater, we were both enthused about the idea. It was also a bit of an introduction to solar for us, we know we want to eventually convert our power to solar, but have yet to really make the move. We are still not sure if we are staying in this home for the next few years. We both want to move, get a larger piece of land, and get out of the city. If that were the case and we could make that move, we would definitely buy a home with solar panels in a heartbeat. Anyway, this water heater was our introduction to solar and we have absolutely loved it. Last week the kids went back to school, here in Arizona schools start back up in August, this meant consecutive showers being taken first thing in the morning from all of us. Well, on Wednesday we notice that the shower water wasn’t getting very warm. I prefer cooler showers, so we could have gone two months before I noticed the hot water heater being out. My daughter oddly enough takes warm showers year-round and was the first to complain. Sure enough, the solar hot water heater was not producing hot water. We knew there was enough sun, we knew it was hot as hell out, but we did not know why our solar water heater wasn’t heating the water. If you have teenage kids (especially teen girls) then you know the drama that can come from disruptive events like losing hot water.

 

Her drama alone was enough for me to jump on the phone and find someone that specialized in solar hot water heater repair. I came across http://pacificwestsolar.com/ online and gave them a call. The guy I spoke with was pretty cool, spoke to me professionally, and offered some over the phone help to troubleshoot. The problem ended up being bigger than a power reset and they came out to repair the solar portion of the water heater. Within an hour our tank was heating water again and my teenage daughter was finally able to back off on all the drama. You would have thought she hadn’t showered in two months! I went into the bathroom after she got out of the shower and the place felt like a steam room, it’s 110 degrees in Arizona, why the hell would you take a shower that hot? I don’t get it, but the solar water heater is working now and life can resume. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my site, if you found me randomly then bookmark my site for more fun blog posts. If you are here from the newsletter that went out, thanks for being a part of my micro-community, I should have more time to blog now that the kids are back in school. See you soon!

Visiting Redmond Washington

Our Drive To Redmond Washington

driving the Oregon coast

Hey everyone, sorry I have been so quiet this summer but we have been super busy traveling and getting the kids to sports camps and various events and activities. As I noted in one of my last posts we had picked up a new vehicle this year so we can travel more in comfort and more importantly we can travel safe with the kids. This summer was full of driving, but I don’t think any of it was as beautiful as our drive up to Redmond, Washington. My husband has a really good friend up there that had his first kid this year and we wanted to visit. There is also some family that lives there on his side so we wanted to make the rounds and see everyone, especially his grandmother as she is getting older. We took a scenic route and drove into San Diego and then up the PCH into Northern California, Oregon, and then Washington State. We made a few stops in Oregon where we hung out at the beaches in Seaside for a few days and enjoyed those coastal winds. The beaches up north are very different from the beaches in Southern California or even in Rocky Point where we frequent.

Visiting Seattle

former EMP museum

Once we made it into Washington State we drove straight to Seattle and visited the main attractions there. We went to the Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. We also visited the MoPOP and Pike Place Market. If you have never been to Pikes Place, you gotta go because it’s a complete experience. The fish market is amazing, and if you love fresh fish you will be in heaven here shopping for lunch or dinner. There were also little restaurants there that had amazing clam chowder, fish and chips, and fresh grilled fish plates. Pikes Place was amazing!

Visiting Redmond

inside red hook brewery

After spending some time in the city we were ready to go visit our friends in Redmond. Redmond is East of Seattle and used to be a small farming town. It’s now a tech hub thriving in one of the more expensive areas in the State. Next to Redmond is a town called Woodinville, we visited the Columbia Winery and the Redhook Brewery there. It’s like Washington States version of Napa valley. A very foodie experience with large wineries and smaller boutique wineries. There is also a Whiskey distillery there called Woodinville Whiskey. We did the tasting and my husband loved it, we grabbed a few bottles to bring back to Arizona with us.

With all the boozing out of the way it was time to visit my husbands buddy. They have the most adorable little boy with the brightest blue eyes you have ever seen. We went back to their house and the boys grilled why the girls drank wine. There were a few other families there with kids and everyone got along pretty good. No injuries and the kids played well with each other for the most part.

the mechanic that fixed the Durango

We made our rounds through Redmond, visiting various family members and old friends. It was an amazing experience for the kids to see the Great Northwest. Everything was perfect until the water pump on our 2018 Durango went out! Yes, seriously!! The water pump on the Durango went out the day before we were going to start driving back to Arizona. Fortunately my husbands buddy is a mechanic in Redmond and owns a repair shop close to where we were staying. We were able to get the car towed to the shop and they had the pump replaced that day, they did an after hours special for us. My husband was down there with them and they hung out and got it fixed. Wish we had a mechanic like that in Arizona!

I gotta admit I was a little nervous as we embarked on our drive back to Arizona, having a car part go out on you while you are traveling is not something that makes the trip less stressful. With a car full of kids, the last thing you want to do is get stranded on the side of the road somewhere. We have AAA but there are some areas on this drive home where the road stretches for hours without seeing any civilization. If the car does breakdown, I just hope it’s near a city and an on-ramp. Well, it didn’t and we made it home in one piece thankfully.

We will be hitting Vegas in a few weeks, I’ll get on here and blog about that soon. Thanks to everyone that replied to my last email, I wanted to know who was still reading these and who wasn’t. I’m glad to say that I still have almost 100 active readers so that’s enough to keep me going. 

Thank you all!! Love you!!