Birthday, Dentist, New car

I have lots to blog about, but instead I'm sitting here frustrated because apparently I never transferred Spencer's friend b-day party pictures before I deleted them from the camera (the above picture is from his family party last Wednesday). I thought I did, but they are no where to be found. I'm still getting used to my new camera, and the whole transferring process seems rather complicated with multiple steps. So although I did see the party pictures on my computer yesterday, perhaps they were just previews and not actual transfers. Grrrr!

However, I do have a few other pictures I can post. Let's start with last Thursday: Brennan had his first ever dentist appointment. Check out that nervous smile.

He did really well, although he kept thinking he should be done. And he couldn't open his mouth very wide - it is a tiny mouth, after all. But at least he cooperated and didn't cry, so we'll call it a successful visit.

After we left the dentist (Dallin also had a cleaning), we drove another hour away to a car dealership and bought a Suburban! Dave & I have been wanting to go car shopping for awhile now, but we weren't sure exactly what we wanted and were running out of free weekends before our big trip to Utah. So I did some research last week and found one I wanted. It's a 2004, but it only has 40,000 miles on it. It's dark grey and has leather interior, a DVD system and lots of extras that I wouldn't necessarily choose but am more than happy to have. I test drove it and loved it, then I offered $3000 less than the sticker price; the guy countered with $2000 below, which I accepted. Then he offered me "a couple hundred" to trade in the van, and I told him I was hoping to get $1000 for it and would rather just donate it to someone who needed it. I asked him if I could park it there until Dave and I could pick it up later, and he said he'd give me $500 for it, but that was the highest he could go. I mean I know it has problems, but come on. So I said no, and he came back with $1000. I didn't realize I was negotiating with him, but apparently I was. So I agreed and happily left it behind. Dallin and Brennan did extremely well hanging out at the dealership for 3 hours, and I was so happy driving the car home I actually laughed out loud. Dave loves it and is so grateful I did it all on my own so he wouldn't have to deal with it. I'm so thankful we were prompted to wait last year when we came very close to buying something new, which we would have had to finance because we had just spent all our savings on Dave's car. We went through a long hot summer without A/C and dealt with increasing electrical and transmission problems throughout the year, which makes me appreciate this car even more - the working clock and radio, windows that go down and up, and a working keyless entry. Meanwhile, we were able to save up and pay for most of it in cash. Yay!

The DMV

One of the most pleasant surprises we had when we moved here was the friendliness of the DMV, of all places. Growing up in Maryland, I had learned to dread and avoid the DMV at all costs. Lines were always long, workers were beyond rude, and nothing was ever accomplished in just one visit. In contrast the people who work at the DMV around here are nice, happy, and laid back. We've had to go there several times in two different towns, and each time we leave amazed at how pleasant the experience was. In preparation to sell our Saturn today, we located our title - still from WV (we never got it transferred), along with our current registration. But we were concerned when we saw that the registration card says "Not transferrable - No title provided" written on it. So I called the 1-800 number for the DMV (on the white board of things I need to do today but didn't want to), and the guy said I had to apply for a new title, which could take several weeks, before I could sell it. So I woke up Brennan from his nap and braced myself to figure it out at the DMV. The line was short and moved quickly. The man told me I did NOT have to get a new title. He gave me a bill of sale form and said that's all I would need, along with the old title, to sell the car. I was in and out of there in 15 minutes and it turns out we can still sell the car today. I just like nice people. They make life so much more pleasant.

Car Wash

The boys helped Dave wash the Saturn yesterday. We're selling it to a family in the Spanish Branch that lives 15 miles away. The branch president has been picking them up for church and driving them back home every week.

Tyler & Dallin got a tad wet in the process.

Good thing Brennan never figured out how to turn the hose on.

"Spray us, mom!" So I did.

Have you thanked a nurse today?

This is National Nurse's Week. So if you have a doctor's appointment this week, make sure you thank your nurse. Dave said the nurses were a tad disgruntled yesterday because all the hospital gave them was 1 helium balloon for all of them to share. He took his nurses breakfast this morning. The two Mexican nurses he works with on Tuesdays love these particular breakfast burritos from a small town Dave passes on his way to work, so he picked those up. He's so thoughtful.

As of today, we're putting the van search on hold. Even though we got an amazing quote for a new Odyssey (practically the same price for a used one but with much lower interest - the dealers are hard up right now), I just don't want to have such a high car payment. We drive the van so little and wonder how many more miles we can get out of our Montana, even with its transmission problems. Dave called the mechanic this morning and he agreed he would just drive it 'till it dies, since we would get so little for it the way it is anyway. Now we can work on actively saving for the next van so we can get a much lower payment when we do bite the bullet and buy one. Yesterday I spent all afternoon scrubbing our van inside and out in preparation for trading it in today. It looks so nice now I don't want to get rid of it.

Arrrg!

Tyler has just about the most expressive face I've ever seen. It's a small face, but it's all features.

My life is being consumed with choosing a new van. This week I have spent countless hours searching for titles, perusing the internet, and test driving vans with Brennan while everyone was at school/work. It's all very exciting, but a bit exhausting. It doesn't help that I'm still catching up from our trip to Utah last week (unfortunately no house cleaning fairies came while we were gone), and on top of it all I've had a terrible cold that is just about over now except for a nagging cough that keeps me up all night. Last night I slept on the couch so that I could sleep sitting up a bit plus not keep Dave up all night, as I had been doing the previous couple of nights.

We went on a fabulous date last night. (Are all the married couples out there going on weekly dates?? We've been doing much better since Kristen moved here with 2 babysitters we can call last minute). We had dinner at an old inn downtown we've been wanting to go to for awhile. We shared a rib eye steak, which was delicious, and as usual, there was plenty of food for both of us. Dave said it was the best steak he's had in this town, and there was no wait, which is amazing for a Friday night. The upstairs was the lounge, which sounded quite crowded. But downstairs was the more formal restaurant with live music. We could watch the busy downtown on one side of windows and beautiful gardens on the other - it's actually where we took our family Christmas picture last year. We got the Bananas Foster for dessert, which my friend has been bugging me to try forever. She'll be happy when she hears we ordered it and loved it. They saute butter and brown sugar right in front of you, then add bananas and pecans and top it off with some kind of alcohol, which makes quite a display as it all burns off - we're talking lots of flames that make all the other diners turn and ask, "What's that?!" Then they pour it all over vanilla ice cream. It was quite delicious. When we got home we watched a very funny French movie called The Dinner Game. I find all kinds of fun things on Netflix.

Have a wonderful Sabath day tomorrow. I have everyone's shirts ironed and boys bathed, so I'm in good shape.

New Car

We bought a new car yesterday! Our Saturn has been a wonderful car for us, but after 10 years and over 200,000 miles, it was time to replace it. The engine still works fine, but the body is just falling apart. The roof leaks, the AC doesn't work, the side mirror is falling off (that would be my fault - I ran it into the side of the garage), and it makes a lot of noise. We almost replaced it last year when it failed smog. We figured it wasn't worth putting money into still. But we didn't have enough money to buy another car at the time, so we would have had to get a loan. When we prayed about it we felt like we should pay the $500 to fix it and then start saving up for another car. So that's what we did, and we're glad we waited.

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After a month of researching, reading Consumer Reports, test driving cars and searching the internet, we found this 2006 Mazda 3 through Craig's list. The owner lived just 30 miles away. She was a super nice, reliable owner who kept impecable records. It is a 5-speed, which is a lot of fun to drive. The only problem is that it's hard not to speed. Thank goodness for cruise control.