The Dotson Bus: Elmer

Our dear old Plymouth Grand Voyager died this August. It was during a string of super hot, over 100 degree days. I remember thinking that it was time to do an oil change, as I drove in 105 heat to a blueberry picking party. The next day, when I was driving around Salem in 100 degree weather, my van overheated. I have never had that experience before! Not sure what to do, I thought I'd just let it cool down, then try again. But within 60 seconds, it was overheating again. Then I remembered that it was low on fluids. So, I dumped a few water bottles into the radiator and tried again. It looked fine at first, but then after a minute or two, it shot immediately into the red.

In hindsight, I should have stopped driving my car immediately and had it towed. I just thought it was a surface problem, and that it needed more radiator fluid. It never crossed my mind that it could be a more serious problem, and cost me my car. I had Julianna and Angel with me, and we were trying to pick up my other kids from my brother's house before a deadline.

It took me more than 30 minutes to cross just a few miles to get to the nearest Jiffy Lube. It was so dangerous stopping every 2 minutes off of a really busy road to turn the car off and let it cool down. I tried to keep to the side roads, but it was still crazy.

I felt like singing Hallelujah when I finally pulled into the Jiffy Lube, thinking my problems were over, and that once my car's oil and fluids were topped off, that I would be good to go.

Not the case!

Within minutes of looking at my van, I was told that I had a really bad Radiator leak, and that my water pump was busted. They announced they couldn't help me. I called my insurance and they contacted a towing business. To my immense dismay, we had to wait almost 2 hours just to get towed. Too bad it was lunch time and my girls were starved and grumpy. This is where my Mom expertise comes in. I managed to keep those girls happy and well-behaved, even if it drained me. The Jiffy Lube waiting room is a VERY small spot to be trapped in for 2 hours. I was so thankful that we weren't stranded on the side of the road in the heat! The air conditioning was lovely.

My insurance refused to tow my van back to my town, since there were lots of shops to choose from in Salem. This made me mad, since I wanted my trusted friends in Dallas to look at it and give me their opinion. It is always risky business to take a vehicle into an unkown fixit shop.

I chose to have the car towed to a dealership, since we'd dealt with them before and they had a reputation to maintain. The kids and I were stuck in Salem all day while Scott worked. My parents were out of town, so they couldn't help us. My sister-in-law let us stay at her place, even though she had appointments she needed to fulfill elsewhere. She even fed us lunch! My brother in law was kind enough to pick us up and rescue us that evening. So, at least we got home in time for dinner!

Unfortunately, the Dealership our van was towed to was overbooked and understaffed, so it was 2 days before they even LOOKED at our vehicle.

VERY FRUSTRATING! After the long waiting game, we got the bad news. It would cost between $1,200 and $2,400 to fix the car. Since our car wasn't even worth the needed $800 timing piece, we knew it was time for a new vehicle. We didn't know whether to cry, or celebrate.

A new vehicle is exciting, a new car payment is NOT!

THIS VAN IS SOOOO HUGE!

The license plates say ELR, so we've named it ELMER.

We originally thought we wanted a Ford Econoline. After looking at Consumer Reports, we found out that the only big van worth buying is the Chevy Express. We wanted a 12 passenger. Plenty of space, but not too big.

Vans, however, are hard to find. Not many dealerships carry them, since they are purchased by narrow audience. Ironically, we discovered that our old Plymouth Grand Voyager was rated in the top 10 worst choices for a used car. Turns out, we were driving a lemon! No wonder we had so many car repair bills!

Everyone we talked to about needing a new van referred us to a fellow in Salem who owns his own used car dealership. Scott Short's "South Commercial Auto Sales". Mr. Short specializes in trucks and SUV's, but he is willing to shop the auctions for what you want.

We had been looking online for good deals on big vans for almost a year. We knew our minivan was old and wouldn't last forever. We saw a good deal for a 2006 Chevy Express in Portland for only $12,000. By the time we called, however, it was gone. We had already been without a vehicle for a week now, and were getting desperate to get our family transportation back. It's hard to go to church when you have to make 2 trips in a Sedan. And it's not worth the trouble to try and go anywhere else. We were all getting cabin fever from being stuck at home. Soon it would begin to interfere with my kids' activities. We HAD to get a vehicle before school started back up again!

When I called Scott Short, I found to my suprise that they happened to have exactly what we were looking for in their parking lot! We didn't have to wait for auctions, after all! * PHEW* By a mysterious coincidence, a friend of his had asked him to pick up a 15 passenger van for his family, and when he was shopping the auctions, he had the opportunity to purchase a matching pair, so he grabbed it.

The van we bought had not yet been advertised, and he hadn't even put a price tag on it. He hadn't even decided whether to sell it. He was considering keeping it for himself. It was a 2006, and in VERY good condition. The van used to be a government owned shuttle that ran 2 days a week. The engine was in perfect pristine consitions. The seats were quite bruised and beat up. That didn't bother us much, however, as we are used to kids scuffing stuff up. The best part was that he let us have it for a steal. We got it for a little over $9,000. Not too shabby!!!! We would have been happier if it was a 12 passenger, but we figured with all the homeschool field trips and activities we do, we could use the extra seats. Worst comes to worst, we could take out that back seat and enjoy some extra space!

SUPER LONG EXTENDED VERSION!

The back row extends almost to the door. We are discovering it's great for packing bodies in, but NOT stuff. I'm using baskets and boxes to place our stuff in so it's not sliding around inside like CRAZY.

We can fit my family, My sister's family AND my parents all in one vehicle! Amazing. I think it's time for some fun day trips!!! I can't wait to take it camping. I'm joking with Scott that we could just sleep in the van. ;)

The inside of our 15 passenger monster tank.

Wow, almost every kid gets their own row of seats! No more fighting...because they can't even reach eachother to poke and bother! MAGIC.

Julianna is very unhappy because she wants to watch WALL E on the portable TV screen in front of her.

Courtney, my sunshine girl, is happy!

Angel is full of enthusiasm. She loves our new van and her new safer 5-point harness car seat. Julie likes the being able to see outside the windows up high in our van, but she doesn't like it that we have NO STEREO, so I can't play any of her favorite music. Julianna gets bored in the car. I usually only let the kids have movies on long trips. Try explaining that to a screaming 2 year old who doesn't care that it takes 5 minutes to drive home. She doesn't care that we won't be past the previews by the time we pull in the driveway.

I did cave this time. I put on Wall E. Which meant when we got home, we had to take it out of the Van TV, and into our home DVD player. It was good though, because after the Triathlon, I had to PACK PACK PACK all my kids' stuff to stay at Mary's house for the week. I would much rather have taken a nap, but it was worth it to get out with Scott for 4 days of peace and quiet!

Julianna has perfected the temper tantrum yell:

"I want WALLLEEEE!"

We found out that our van is good and PRACTICAL, but it doesn't have any luxuries. It sure feels like a shuttle or a bus. It's strong, but not comfortable. The most annoying thing is that you have to YELL to be heard from one end to the other. It's also wonderful, though, because my kids can be having a party of giggling and rowdiness, and I won' t be able to tell. Christopher gave me his personal megaphone to use inside the car! (I haven't used it yet, but I'm getting tempted.)

I'm still getting used to driving it. I've hit a number of curbs! Talk about needing to take WIDE turns. It's already time to get the tires realigned. It's spooky changing lanes on the freeway, too. I'm adjusting to those huge long sides. Lots of room for blindspots. I wish I had a beeper to announce when I'm backing up. From so high up, it's hard to tell if there are people walking behind me.

Parking is a pain in the neck. It easier to get IN a parking space, however, than to get OUT of it. I think we'll be parking in the back of all the parking lots and taking a long walk in the rain rather than risk being stuck. Turning it around is another nightmare.

I'm not looking forward to driving it in the rain or snow, but it's going to be a blessing to have it. I fully expect we are going to get to use it for all kind of Church trips. The scouts have already borrowed it twice.

My kids LOVE it, especially the possibility that we can take anyone anywhere...and we are so excited to have some fun in our new Dotson Bus! I'm planning that within the next 3 years we are going to do a 4 week trip to the East Coast.

Someday soon we need to get our van a Stereo, roof rack, and towing package. Maybe after we manage to pay it off!

More Triathlon Pictures

They "tatooed"us with our number on our calves & arms, and wrote our swim heat numbers on our hands.

Lucky #133, for Laura who is 33~

Look, I'm getting smile wrinkles ;)

My First Triathlon!!!

500 meter swim! 12.5 mile bike ride! 4 mile run!!!

I just completed my first Triathlon!!!!

HURRAY!!!!

WOW! I've completed my FIRST EVER TRIATHLON!!! Here is me and my sister, all TRIUMPHANT!!!!

If you had told me, even a year ago, that I would complete a triathlon, I would have laughed at you and told you that you were crazy! I was the kid who never liked sports, didn't care for PE, and would have rather read than played at recess. Before this event, the longest I have ever run is 2 miles, the longest I have ever swam is maybe 4 laps (MAYBE!), and the longest I'd ever biked was a one-time 9 miles. (and I thought I was going to die).

I was at an educational conference in Portland, when it was announced at a church Relief Society meeting in April 2010 that they were sponsoring a women's triathlon, where every woman would be encouraged to try their best, and participate as much as they could. We were promised blessings of physical health and spiritual well-being. So I totally missed out on all the inpsiring talks at the get-g0. I didn't have their vision for what it was suppose to be. The next week, my friend Heidi called me to tell me about the triathlon. She was so excited!

But I was NOT excited. She asked me to participate...but I said, "I don't think so." I felt upset. In my mind I was shouting "NO NO NO! I can't add one more thing to the list! I don't have the time, energy, or desire to do a triathlon! That's just not me. You can't ask me! You can't make me! I was very negative about it. I told my husband that I had made up my mind NOT to do it. But he surprised me. He said,"Laura, I think that is a great idea! I will support you in this. I think you will do great and really love it." With that positive note, I felt a little better. I thought, well, if my husband can support me being gone from him and the kids, maybe I can do it! But I still wasn't sure. It was too big a commitment.

Heidi kept right on asking me, though. Heidi was so filled with love and enthusiasm, she pulled me right in. So, I caved in to the positive peer pressure, thinking..."Well, I can always back out later if I decide I can't do it." Many of my friends were enthusiastic and were setting up training schedules. For the first two months, I hardly even exercised and didn't train at all. I was too busy at home with kids and homeschooling.

When School was out, I started training a little bit. I posted earlier about my scary experiences with 2 bad migraines after swimming. It scared me REAL bad. I don't know if it was the Chlorine, or if it was because of sitting in the spa, but I had to fight off panic attacks at just the smell of Chlorine. I was so worried that a migraine would hit me out of nowhere and lay me out cold for the rest of the day. I suffered anxiety just thinking about the swimming pool. If someone mentioned "swimming" my heart would start to pound a mile a minute.

After a month, I realized that I had to overcome my fear and not allow panic to rule my life. I was avoiding the swimming part of the training, and it wasn't helping my mental health to let that continue. A scripture came to mind: 2nd Timothy, 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love, and of a sound mind" Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you, wherever you go." Fear doesn't come from God. He offers us faith, love, and confidence. I needed to trust in Him.

Even though I only swam an average of once a week instead of 3x per week like I wanted to, I eventually went from a 40 minute swim time with rests after every lap, to a 30 minute rest time with a rest after every 2 or 3 laps, down to a 20 minute swim time where I could alternate breast and back stroke....finally 2 weeks before the Triathlon, I got down to a 15 minute swim time, and I was able to swim the entire thing without stopping, doing the breast stroke all the way. I never learned the Australian craw, or how to do flip-turns...those will be skills for another year, I hope!

The Biking was REALLY hard at first! The first couple of times I went with my lady friends, I thought my legs were going to fall off! I couldn't keep up with them. The burn in my thighs was SO bad. I had to turn back early the first few times. It was really exciting, however, to see how each time I went on the bike it got easier. I got faster. My endurance increased. By the end of the summer, I felt like I could bike 50 miles. I felt like going forever and ever. A few times I was able to go running 2 miles after I got off the bike. I only got to do that twice.

I discovered that it was VERY difficult to find 2 hours for exercising everyday. I can handle one hour. But in order to train correctly, I really needed 2 hours a day and that was hard to come by. My kids had to be very tolerant. Often It was Christopher changing Julianna's stinky diaper and all the kids scrounging for their own breakfast. It would break my heart that if I happened to be home when Julianna would wake up, she'd yell in delight "Mommy's home! Mommy's Home!" As if it were a big surprise that I was actually in the house in the morning!

It was very hard for me to leave my kids to exercise. Every morning I would wake up between 5 and 5:30 a.m. I would make myself a smoothie, grab some fruit, and then exercise from 6 to 8. Once school started, I needed to get home earlier...and that was when I was suppose to be pushing it longer! Then it started getting dark in the mornings, and it was getting scary to ride bikes in the foggy rainy dark. We had to start training later and later, which was biting into my day's schedule.

Here is a group of ladies I trained with: Me, My sister, Stephanie, Heidi, and Kirsten

The swimming and biking really increased my endurance to the point where it wasn't nearly as hard to run as it used to be. I usually have to run then walk, and alternate to keep my heart rate down. But during the triathlon, my body really found a rhythm, and I was able to run pretty much the whole way.

SO.....on the day of the big Triathlon, I asked Scott to have the kids at the stadium to welcome me across the finish line. I told him to be there between 10 and 10:30, because I wasn't sure if I could run the whole way, and I was expecting to walk a good portion. In adding up the times of when I would exercise the three portions separately, I estimated that it would take me 2.5 hours to complete the triathlon.

My swim time began at 8 a.m., so I told my husband he could arrive as early as 10 to cheer me past the finish line, but not to worry about it till 1o:30.

Boy was I suprised when I finished the Triathlon in less than 2 hours!!! (In this triathlon, they didn't count transition times between events because of some location difficulties...but that's another story.)

Laura Returns, Victorious!!!

Laura, Kirsten, Mary, Nona, heidi, Stephanie, & Whitney. We are all MOMS! The theme of our triathlon was "TRI-YOUR-BEST" We all got a cute homemade medal and waterbottle as we crossed the finish line. We all got t-shirts for participating. They had a reward ceremony later, lots of fun & good feelings. Between all of us we had 25+ kids. There were lots of Grandma's in this triathlon. Some of them trained with their daughters and granddaughters. Some people did teams, like a relay race.

Here is Nona, my dear friend! We started biking from her house every morning throughout the summer. We had so many fun & uplifting talks while training. I was so nervous that after exercising with my fun ladies all summer, that I would have a hard time completing the triathlon by myself. They had strict rules: no electronic devices. And we weren't allowed to bike side by side. (for safety, of course). Nona helped encourage me through everything. I kept on telling her, If I could just be behind you the whole triathlon, I'll be fine! Well, lo and behold, I was put in Nona's Swimming lane! So we swam together, biked near to each other, and even walked together till I started RUNNING! It was a great emotional boost to have her by me most of the way. I swam at the same time as my sister, Mary Cate, but she was FAST! She swam with the ease of a mermaid and was one of the first out of the pool, while I was one of the last. The swimming was definitely the hardest part for me. In trying to swim with 5 other ladies in the same lane who were faster than me and passing me up, I thought I was going to DIE! All those feet and arms everywhere, and the water filled with air bubbles so I couldn't see where I was going. It was a difficult start. I wasn't able to do the whole thing without stopping. I still swam in only 15 minutes, but I had to stop a few times and catch my breath, and I had to do a few other strokes to rest my muscles.

The Biking was my Favorite Part! I never thought I would grow to love biking so much. At first, I found it really scary. Now, I feel like I am flying! I was passing people like crazy! It was an exhilarating experience! But the BEST PART of the whole thing, was that whenever I passed by someone coming back, they would cheer for us. (We went 6 miles one way, then doubled back on the same street on the opposite side.)

The love, joy, and enthusiasm was catching! I felt a great surge of love for all the people I was competing with. When I was running during the 5K portion, I would slow down to chat with people and encourage them, and then I would speed up again.

Every time we passed someone on the bike ride, people were calling out "Great Job!' "Way to go!" "Looking good!" "Keep it up!" "WHOOHOO!"

And so on, and so forth. We were all cheering each other on.

There were several groups of families camped out along the route with posters and signs cheering out for their loved ones. But they cheered US on, too. I can't express how fantastic that made me feel!

Many people had a favorite hymn or scripture that they sung or recited in their head, as a mantra, to keep them focused and inspired. I had a favorite song I heard when I was a teenager that I remembered and it ran through my head through the entire triathlon. It supported me and gave me strength and vision to keep going and enduring:

"My Father rules the heavens,

My Mother is a Queen.

My brother is a champion,

He's Called the King of Kings

And I was once among them,

A spirit, born of God.

Created by His Mighty Hand:

A Warrior for his cause.

I was born a winner,

A royal spirit breathes it's life in me!

I was born a winner,

Destined for Eternal Victory!

Born to Win! Born to Win!

There are a few more verses, but this verse was the one that ran through my head the whole time. There was an incredible spirit of love, sisterhood, and acceptance that was there today. There were a few people who had a hard time getting to the finish line, and we would run up to them and hold their hand, and shout encouragements. There was no dog-eat-dog competition here. No race to "win". We were all doing our best, racing against ourselves to get the best time they could for our own benefit.

So I don't have my final time scores yet. (2 more days!) But I was able to run almost the entire 4 miles (Minus 2 fast water breaks and one port-a-potty bathroom break!)

The ironic part of my great time: I missed my family by 5 minutes! I was sprinting for the finish line, and arrived at the gate, slowing down asking, "What's my time?" Because that is where they started our running time from! When they timer guys shouted to me "Don't stop now! Keep running! The finish line is down there!" And I looked to find the Finish line was on the other side of the track. I yelled "Darn!" because I had just sprinted with the last of my energy to what I THOUGHT was the end!!! The finish line looked SO far away!

Endurance, endurance, endurance.

I thought I would collapse, but I pushed myself and really ran for the finish line! It was so great! Except that I kept looking for my husband and kids, and nobody was there. However, everyone in the stadium was cheering for me, whether they knew me or not. My sister beat me by several minutes (She was a SPEEDY runner, even though she didn't run once during training! I'll do another post on that so you can hear all about her amazing health discoveries!)

It was an exhilarating experience. I will remember it for as long as I live. I feel a sense of euphoria. It was like giving birth to a baby. I planned, prepared, and worked for something wonderful that took a lot of time, effort, and pain to produce. (Without feeling sick for 9 months, haha.)

I can see why people get excited to be a part of something like this.

I would definitely like to do a Triathlon again!!!

This experience has changed me for the better. I've learned some great things about endurance, self-discipline, and health. I'm in better physical condition at the age of 33 that I have ever been in my life! I feel great!

My goal isn't to be a super-skinny athlete. My desire is to be able to "Run and not be Weary, and to Walk and not Faint". I want to be a healthy, energetic Mother who has the ability to play and be active with her children, and still has enough energy left over to work on personal hobbies. If I'm to live a long and healthy life, some minor sacrifices are worth it. If I'm to be the kind of parent who can exercise with her teenagers, and be able to run races with my future Grandkids, then I've got to be in GREAT shape now...and stay that way!

That is a goal worth exercising for!