STUPID CARS

So I am going to tell a story and I am sure some will be able to relate!!! In 2001 I was managing a place in Orem, UT called Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I was feeling pretty good about my position there and at the time my favorite litter sister Jessica and I were sharing a car. This was a fun little Eagle Talon that had some minor problems but no big deal. So being the generous brother that I am decided to purchase a new car and let Jess just have the Talon. I looked for about 2.5 seconds and was confident that I had found the right car for me. It was a 1997 Nissan Maxima GLE. Gold in color, black leather interior, automatic everything, Bose sound system, with chrome alloy wheels. I was in love! This car was beautiful. It ran like a champ for 4 1/2 years right up until i ROLLED it on I-80 heading to a softball tournament in Richfield. OUCHHHH! I was fine but my beautiful car that had a good 100,000 miles still left in her was totaled. I was not happy! I had one more payment until the car was payed off and was worth way more than what the bank offered me. But in desperation i took the money and bought a VW Passat. WOW.... I will NEVER do that again. This is where my car trouble really begins. I bought the car from an auction (first mistake), thought i was getting a killer deal! They told me it was a 2000 VW Passat with 64,000 miles on it for $4500. I was stoked. Bought the car on the spot!!!!!!!! Then I found out what they didn't tell me- cracked head, blown head gasket, and a bad Oxygen sensor. I was so happy because all sales are final at any auction and I had no way of getting the car home:) Right.... I WAS PEEVED!!!! So I'm stuck in SLC needing to get back to Cedar City about 300 miles south and luckily found a ride with my bishop who was up for work back to Cedar. I tow the car home, not cheap, and took it to the only place in Cedar that even works on VW's. 3 1/2 weeks and $2600 later the car was ready to run. At first the car ran great, however it didn't take long before it started acting up again:( Took it back the same place 3 separate times before they found the cause of what was wrong... Long story short it took another 2 weeks and $1500 to fix that problem, so that killer deal i thought i was getting ended up being a bust. By this time I am moved up to SLC and figuring that I have fixed just about everything you can possible fix on the car so I'm feeling pretty good right? WRONG!!!

I had a Softball tourny in Delta UT about 2 hrs south west of Salt Lake and I decided to drive. Well my good friend Jeff and Melissa's friend Kira went with us. Yeah I know you can see where this is going!!!! The drive down was fine but about 10 miles out side of Delta my check engine light comes on and my car DIES... besides being completely embarrassed I was so mad i could spit! Cynthia, Meliss's mom had to drive all the way down at 10pm to pick us up in Delta. So the problem was that the oil dip stick was broken and the place i got my oil changed filled it with way to much oil. WOW i am getting mad all over again!!!!!

That was the end for the VW and my relationship... it was over i was finished. I sold that car 1 week later, which in hind sight i maybe should have waited until I had another car picked out and ready to buy, because I sold that car just wanting so bad nothing else to go wrong before I got ride of it that I did not have an alternative mode of transportation.

This is a NOVEL sorry!!!! I obviously have some issues with this topic.

I will try to keep this section shorter. So I had to find a car fro about $4,600 because that's all I had to spend on a car without having a car payment. I jusmed at basically the first decent looking car that I thought would last at least 1 1/2 yrs. Well those who know anything about cars know that Honda's are very reliable and supposed to last forever. I bought an Acura Legend which is made by Honda. And like always at first it was a great car but SOON after my transmission went and Meliss and I struggled whether or not to even fix that but we got a killer deal ($1600) and decided to go for it figuring that we would get some good use out of the car after that fix. Man we got the car back and it shifted and ran great. Yeah for exactly 1 week! Then guess what happened???? My engine blow up... what the CRAP... can I not catch a flippin' break here. It would have been another $3000 to fix that! NO WAY... SO ends the legend of the LEGEND.

Meliss and I were not real happy about needing a new car but we also were not going to get screwed over again so we decided to just go new, something with a waranty and something reliable. Hence the 3 cars! I did however call the Kidney Foundation and they are going to be picking up the Legend in a few days!

So that ends the car trouble for the Taylor's, oh wait no it doesn't.... not 3 days after we pick up the Subaru Melissa's power steering pump goes out ($700)!!!

STUPID CARS!!!!!!!

Engagement

I can't think of a better way to spend Valentines, than helping my brother propose to his girlfriend! Thanks to the connections of my dad, Kristopher was able to pull off an incredible proposal. He had originally planned on proposing to her on the Salt Lake Temple grounds on Valentine's Day. When my dad heard of his plan, he made a comment that the Choir which he sings in, has their rehearsals Thursday nights and this one happened to fall on Valentine's Day. They practice right on temple square, and my dad thought he might be able to get something arranged with the choir to make the proposal more special. So, Justin, Daniel, Ann, my mom and I all went down to the tabernacle with a dozen red roses for Brianna, hid in the "cry room" in the back, and waited for Kristopher and Brianna to come into the tabernacle to listen to the choir rehearse while they waited for their dinner reservations. After the choir warmed up for about 20 minutes, the President of the Choir, made some opening announcements before the rehearsal got underway. In the announcements he mentioned that in order to remind everyone what Valentine's Day is all about, there are two special guests in the audience. Then he introduced Kristopher and Brianna and said, "Go ahead, Kris." Kristopher then got down on his knee in front of the whole choir and orchestra and asked Brianna to marry him. The women of the choir started gasping, and clapping, and then the whole choir and orchestra started singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" for Kristopher and Brianna. The rest of us ran out of the "cry room" with the roses and hugged them and took pictures and videos. It was such a fun way to spend Valentines. Congratulations Kristopher and Brianna!!

Happy Valentine's to my sweetie!

Waiting for the happy couple to arrive!



Hiding so they can't see us through the glass!

Engaged!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Justin plays 2nd base for the Young Guns, a softball team from Southern Utah in the Men's U triple-something-or-other league. They play about twice a month and I LOVE IT! Mainly because we get out of the snow and down to the warmer weather in St, George, Vegas, and Mesquite. Don't get me wrong, I love to watch my baby play, but 8 games of softball in a row can get a little...hmmm...well, you know. Love you babe!

Hottie

Stretchin'

Me and Ali "watching" the game

Our Friends, Todd and Jenica

Sledding and Snowboarding

The title of this blog says sledding and snowboarding, but as you can see we are not snowbarding in these pictures. Justin bought me snowbaording gear for Chirstmas and he took me to Brighton to snowbaord for the first time. He took some videos with our killer new hi-tech video camera, but its too high-tech, we can't figure out how to upload them on the computer! So all you get are dumb sledding pictures for now. Also, that is why this posting is so old. We've been trying to upload those dang videos for almost a month now! More to come...

Some pics of Justin and I sledding in Daybreak with friends from our ward. As you can see, not the best snow for sledding. We gave up after about 1/2 hour. It was so cold and the landings were narly!

Our First Christmas!

Christmas Day:

The Kids on Grandma and Grandpa Steadman's Fireplace

Kids with Grandma Annie

3 Generations!

Christmas Eve:

Annual Christmas Eve dinner! Seafood! Yum! Oh, and those hats? An English tradition. Ever since Kristopher went on his mission to England, my mom has given us 'English Poppers.' I don't know if that's their real name, but they are kind of like a firework. You pull on the ends and a treat pops out with these tissue paper crowns/hats. She makes us wear them every year. Fun.

Night Before Christmas Jammies

Just playin'. Its what we do best!

Temple Square:

Visitor's Center - Temple Square. Its been a while since I've been there. They have some awesome stuff there now! An interactive model of Jerusalem, videos of the 12 with their testimonies, etc. Good FHE activity.

Company Parties:

Justin and I got invited to a company Christmas party for a company that neither one of us belong to. Ha. My hubby is just so likeable that everyone wants him at their party! We played Yankee Swap and I got a GINORMOUS can of Steven's Hot Chocolate and Justin got some Cheerios in a glass container. Boo.

Family Parties:

Grandma Steadman reading "The Night Before Christmas" at the annual Steadman Family Christmas Party

Grandpa Steadman reading Luke 2 for the Nativity Pageant

Tabernacle Choir Chirstmas Concert:

Temple Square lights after watching my dad sing in the Mo-Tab Christmas Concert with the King's Singers


Me and my baby


Me, Justin, Ann, Daniel , Kristopher, Brianna

Silly faces. Kris, you look scary!

Memories

Well it is rainy and cold today!!! So I thought I would post a few pictures of sunshine and warmer times!!!! Daniel, Ann, Melissa, and myself went on a hike in August '07. Meliss and I had never climbed this hike before so we were excited and amazed as we approached this breath-taking scene!!!

We had so much fun and took lots of great pictures. So when it is too cold and dreary, i like to look at these pictures and remember what spring will bring.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! Feel free to visit us on your frost-filled overcast days and take a beautiful scenic sun-filled hike.

Thanks for the Giving!

What a fun weekend! We spent our first Thanksgiving as marrieds here in Utah with my family and it was so nice to have some time off work since our wedding!


On Thursday we got together with my mom's side of the family at my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. My grandma always does the cooking and we all bring a dish, but this year was a little different. My grandma was diagnosed with Leukimia right after she returned from our wedding in New York. She is undergoing harsh chemotherapy treatment right now to kick its butt, so my parents stepped in and did a lot of the cooking this year with my grandpa. I was so grateful that my grandma could come home from the hospital to be with us on Thanksgiving. She is so cute. We weren't sure we were going to be able to do the dinner there or even that she would be well enough to come, but she was determined!!! Even though her strength was weak, she was planning the dinner way in advance and even had the table set a whole month before! Loves to Grandma Annie.




My Aunt Holly made this apple pie. It was freakin' huge!

After dinner we all went to see a movie like we do every Thanksgiving. This year we saw "Dan in Real Life." This is a cute movie and I highly reccomend it. It's hysterical. Justin and I are huge fans of Steve Carrell.


Ok, so this year I did something I have never done before and have never wanted to participate in: BLACK FRIDAY!!!! Don't ask me why I had the urge to go this year, but my mom, Justin and I all decided to wake up at 3:30am and go to Kohl's and Old Navy. We had a blast! I can't believe the deals we got - 50% off almost everything and we got most of our Christmas shopping done in 2 hours! And I just want to say what an amazing husband I have. He was actually looking forward to going shopping with my mom and I! And I think he had just as much fun as we did, even though he was waiting in line most of the time while my mom and I shopped! My mom is so cute. I think she had the most fun of the three of us, laughing and exclaiming how crazy it was. She now wants to make this a new tradition!