Saturday, February 27, 2010

Our New Baby… and Biggest Yet

As I mentioned in the previous post as well as My Musings blog, it was time for us to broaden our driving horizons.  I spent weeks, several hours a day (seriously!) doing LOTS of research and considering every detail of our needs and wants, present and possible future.

Thursday was the day.  Armed with price quotes and comparison charts, we dropped the boys off at Mom’s house and headed to our 1st dealership.  I had decided that our perfect car is the Chrysler Pacifica, and we had two 2006 Pacificas to look at.  Just to get it out of the way, we went for the less favorite one first.  It was at Hertz Car Sales.  We did the test drive and it was everything I hoped it would be.  As we tried to make our exit to check out the other Pacifica (other one had leather and a DVD player), it was discovered that Hertz had shown us a 2008 instead.  So, if they wanted our business, they had to make us an offer we couldn’t refuse.  Yada yada yada, we never made it to the 2nd dealership.

I am so in love with our car!  It is perfect for our current needs: not too big to drive around town running errands, but big enough to take to the beach, or better yet, IDAHO!  It also has room to grow in, especially if we use a car-top carrier in the future.

We had a GREAT experience buying through Hertz as well.  Although they were located in a different town, it turns out our salesman lives just a few blocks away from us and plays at the same parks, has a son I went to high school with, and knows someone from our church that we know.  Anyway, we recommend them, and don’t see any need to ever go elsewhere again.

(Only a handful of the pictures are our actual car.  Ours has no spots on the fabric.)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Good, The Bad, and The... Ugly?

The good: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my kids' wake-up routine. Everyone else's kids wake up in the 6 or 7 am hours. Here's how my mornings generally go. Around 8:30-8:45 I am awakened as I hear my boys emerge from their room, if they haven't decided to stay and play in their own room at least. They walk across the hall and start playing in the "train" room (We now keep the geotrax stuff set up in the extra room so the boys can play upstairs in the mornings and while Brian and I exercise in that room). They alternate between playing and fighting, and they don't follow all the rules. Asher, for example, will open our door and take a quick peak, or, since I'm trying to discourage that has started just knocking and calling "Mama" some times. And Brennan, who knows the rules, will sneak downstairs to get things, but he always rushes right back and doesn't linger. Basically, they just play though. And I doze. I enjoy listening to them interact. I try to guess what has happened from what I can hear, and then I get to hear how the boys handle it. Brennan definitely plays Mister Mom and will make sure Asher follows the rules as well as offers a gentle reassurance when Asher has a problem. It is a pleasure to listen to them as I "sleep" in until 9:15 or so.

The bad: Since Asher has become a proficient crib climber in the mornings, it was just a matter of time before nap times became a problem. Yesterday as Brennan and a neighbor friend were about to go upstairs to the train room, I cautioned them that Asher was napping and they needed to be quiet and so forth. They agreed and walked to the stairs where I heard Max say, "Oh hi Asher, you're awake now." A moment later Asher walked into the living room with his blanket around him and gave me a cheery "Hi Mama." I picked him right up and put him back in his crib telling him he needed to stay there. I've had no further problems yesterday or today, but we'll see. I guess he hasn't bothered with this trick yet because he's too busy standing up in his window sill and yelling at the things he sees outside. Such a turkey!

The ugly: Uh, I have no idea. My house probably. If a tornado really did come through here, my boys wouldn't notice the difference. I've been hung up on research and what-not to see if we can finally upgrade to a larger vehicle. I don't mind being poor most of the time, but man do I hate it when we try to squeeze a 5th person into our little sedan. Although it has 5 seatbelts, it really only seats 4 when two (or even 1) of those belts holds carseats. And cargo space, forget it! Anyway, each year at tax season I start getting my hopes up, but in the end make other decisions. Last year I decided to pay off our sedan and we've enjoyed a lack of car payments for a year now. But, since Brian finishes school on Monday (yes, THIS Monday), then it seems like we'll finally be ready to take that plunge. I am SOOOOOO excited. But my house, going downhill in the mean time. It's pretty ugly.

A pro on the ol' nebulizer by now. Cause of his asthma in this case? The two candles on our table during our "candlelight dinner."

Brian was invited by a coworker friend to go shooting. He had a great time and used a variety of guns. I'd give more details but I couldn't follow the foreign language of it when Brian told me all about it. Nice bullseye though, eh?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

After getting permission to eat cookies...

...which were a bribe from his substitute Sunday School teacher, Brennan told me:

"Yesssss. This is SO AWESOME! You know, you're a really great Mom."

What are the chances he'll talk like that 10 years from now?