What a great...and really difficult day?!

So, do you want the good news, or the bad news first? Let's start with the good!
Nastia is amazing as always! My voice is still in and out, so I decided not to teach school today. Lauren and Nastia went outside with a large dry-erase board and decided to do school on their own. It was so cute! Nastia would write math problems for Lauren and then in the blue squares to the right of each problem she would put a check mark if they were correct, or an X if they were wrong. They sat out there for a long time!
This afternoon Lauren got out her dolls and I was surprised to see Nastia playing with them. She has been right at her age level for maturity, which we were not expecting, and know that most 12 year olds would not play with dolls, but I was happy to see her enjoy it. And she didn't really play with them the way Lauren did. It was almost as though she just wanted to do it because she had never had the chance before. It was really special to see her live out a period of life as a little girl that perhaps she missed.
Tonight she had a lot of fun playing outside, but the fun had to end because everyone was dirty and sweaty and needed baths! Roger's mom came over as I was getting the little boys in bed, so she did my dishes for me (Isn't that wonderful?!), and then all of us girls sat at the table and played Uno. It was a lot of fun.
When it was time for the girls to go to bed I sent Lauren to brush her teeth and walked Nastia into her room for goodnight kisses. Lauren and Nastia switched beds last night, so Nastia climbed up to the top bunk, snuggled in, swept her bangs off her forehead and waited for her kiss. So sweet! I went to get Lauren, so she could get to bed and she took off running into the room, and up the ladder to the top bunkbed as fast as she could and right on top of Nastia. She was stunned, and shocked, and wondering what in the world was going on until she realized that was Nastia beneath her. We all laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face. It was hilarious to see Lauren's and Nastia's expressions of shock!
And then the bad...It has nothing to do with Nastia! Aren't you happy to hear that? Our van has been having problems the past few weeks and has been in the shop twice. If you read my last post you may remember that we barely made it home last night. So, the van went to a different shop today...and then it was bad...the engine is burned up. The van is 12 years old, so it is not worth it to replace the engine. We need a new van. We were not expecting this right now, but God knows our need, and we trust that He will direct us to the perfect van for our family. Still, I'm a little bummed. And then, this afternoon I noticed that hot air was coming from the vents in our house. Yes...you may have guessed it...something was wrong with our air conditioner...again. We just got something fixed on it last month, so this was very frustrating to have something else go wrong. I had a good cry and a little "woe is me pity party" this afternoon, but I got over it, the air conditioner is fixed...almost $400 later...we will find a new van...and life will go on. It is what it is.