Wednesday night we got paid. Thursday night we found a van on Craigslist.com that we really liked and was a great deal. Friday I drove up to St. Louis and bought it! It is a 2003 Honda Odyssey. We really wanted a big SUV but I finally did the math and it was going to cost us $66 more a month in gas and $11 more a month for insurance. We could afford that, but then we'd have to save less for retirement and kids college. We decided to get practical and get a minivan again.
We are glad we did. It gets as good as (or maybe a little better) gas mileage as our old van, has more room, and of course it is newer. Smoother, quieter, leather heated seats, CD, cassette, DVD, etc. We do miss our 6-disc CD changer from our Mercury, and I think it's sound system is higher quality than the Honda's, but overall it's a great car.
Earlier that day I went to the bank and withdrew [$500 less than the asking price] in cash! It was pretty fun getting that much cash out of the bank. They gave it to me in $50 dollar bills and it was quite a tall stack. When I got home I showed it to Clark and said, "See Clark, this is how much money it takes to buy a car. We worked and saved a long time to get all this money." When we paid for the car, Clark and Cal were with me, the dealer's wife was counting out the money and Clark said, "we worked really hard for that money!" I'm glad he said so, because it's true.
Yesterday we went back to St. Louis to go to the temple. While Ruth was in the temple I took the kids to the temple annex and while we were in there Clark saw a lady giving her kids Gushers and of course said he wanted some. It reminded me that I needed to go to the store to get Ruth her Valentine's day present. I hadn't forgotten, but I hadn't realized the obvious good opportunity I had to get it while Ruth was in temple. So, I took all the kids to Walmart . I bought them some Gushers and Ruth some treats for Valentine's day. We each had a budget of $5.00 She said she went 0.15 over, so I went about 0.15 under (although I didn't really plan it that way). Well, if you count the Gushers I went way over, but I wasn't counting them. While I was at Walmart all the kids had to go to the bathroom. That was quite the adventure.
On the way home we picked up our old van at the dealership so we could bring it home. Our original plan was to trade it in, but I think it's more valuble to us than it's actually worth. If that makes any sense. I think it's probably only worth$1000-1500, but it works fine and if we take out the middle row and move the third row up it can be our little "truck" or utility van. We also stopped by Borders where we spent a $40.00 gift card that my mom gave us so that we could buy some books for the kids for Valentine's day. Before we left St. Louis we stopped at Little Caesar's for dinner. It was really good! One pizza and two bags of bread sticks for just under $10.00! Can't beat it!
Today church went pretty well. Ruth gave the kids their books after breakfast and of course Ruth and I each saw what we had given each other for Valentine's day. Ruth made me a candy bouquet and I made a little heart thing with some almond joys and propped it up against a bag of Lindor chocolates.
I was supposed to teach the lesson in Priesthood, but there was a miss-communication and somebody else had prepared a lesson as well. I said something, but the other guy seemed ready to teach the lesson and didn't mind. I'll teach next week.
Elden slept for almost 2 hours of church! That sure made it easy. The girls did fine in nursery too and didn't have any accidents at church. This evening I'm going to knock on the door and deliver some little treats to the kids and run away. It should be fun. Then we're going to listen to a conference talk.
Well, time to go. Clark has been wanting me to play with him and I told him I would when my alarm went off and it just did.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Journal entry for first week in February 2010
This last week I took leave so that I could be home with Ruth while we potty-trained Shanna and Haley. It was actually a pretty relaxing week! We had some crazy moments with both having to go to the bathroom at the same time and messy moments too, but in the end I think they're getting the hang of it.
I was going to go home teaching last Monday but I couldn't get a hold of Bryan so I canceled. As it turned out his cell phone was dead and he was in town and available! Grrr. Oh well, we'll get it done one way or another.
On Wednesday Ruth took Elden to get some shots and that afternoon I interviewed a couple of people for work. This will be my first time having to hire somebody. I'm a little nervous about it. I don't want to waste the tax-payer's money, nor do I want to bring imbalance to our small clinic that already employs four other women. That night I had to go to a "mandatory" meeting for active duty health care providers. The new DCCS just wanted to get us all together and tell us what he expects of us and what we should expect of him.
Friday Ruth and I watched Harry Potty and the Half Blood Prince, which we borrowed from the Taylor's.
Saturday morning I met up with about 10 other guys and we helped a lady in our ward move out of her house. Ruth had to be at a baby shower for Sarah Clark at 11:00 so I came home a little early from the move so that I could watch the kids. They were really good for me.
When Ruth got home we got ready and went to Rolla to go to their big indoor pool with the Skinner's and the Phillip's. It was pretty fun. We really had to keep an eye on Shanna. She has no fear of the water. Clark, Cal, and Haley are the opposite. In fact, Clark and Cal need to take swimming lessons soon - this summer if possible.
I've been looking at mt. bikes and vehicles online A LOT these past few weeks. This week we'll have enough to make an offer on a car if we find one we like in our price range. Currently we're looking at Honda Odyssey's, Suburbans (or Yukon XL's), and Ford Expeditions. They all have their own pros and cons. The ones we look at online seem to go fast so I'm not sure if any of the ones we like today will even be around next weekend when we're ready to actually buy something.
The bike for Ruth (and the trailers for the girls, Cal, and Elden) will have to wait until this Springs. I've found a lot on Ebay and mtbr.com that are really good, so I'm hopping there will still be some really good ones in a month or two.
I was going to go home teaching last Monday but I couldn't get a hold of Bryan so I canceled. As it turned out his cell phone was dead and he was in town and available! Grrr. Oh well, we'll get it done one way or another.
On Wednesday Ruth took Elden to get some shots and that afternoon I interviewed a couple of people for work. This will be my first time having to hire somebody. I'm a little nervous about it. I don't want to waste the tax-payer's money, nor do I want to bring imbalance to our small clinic that already employs four other women. That night I had to go to a "mandatory" meeting for active duty health care providers. The new DCCS just wanted to get us all together and tell us what he expects of us and what we should expect of him.
Friday Ruth and I watched Harry Potty and the Half Blood Prince, which we borrowed from the Taylor's.
Saturday morning I met up with about 10 other guys and we helped a lady in our ward move out of her house. Ruth had to be at a baby shower for Sarah Clark at 11:00 so I came home a little early from the move so that I could watch the kids. They were really good for me.
When Ruth got home we got ready and went to Rolla to go to their big indoor pool with the Skinner's and the Phillip's. It was pretty fun. We really had to keep an eye on Shanna. She has no fear of the water. Clark, Cal, and Haley are the opposite. In fact, Clark and Cal need to take swimming lessons soon - this summer if possible.
I've been looking at mt. bikes and vehicles online A LOT these past few weeks. This week we'll have enough to make an offer on a car if we find one we like in our price range. Currently we're looking at Honda Odyssey's, Suburbans (or Yukon XL's), and Ford Expeditions. They all have their own pros and cons. The ones we look at online seem to go fast so I'm not sure if any of the ones we like today will even be around next weekend when we're ready to actually buy something.
The bike for Ruth (and the trailers for the girls, Cal, and Elden) will have to wait until this Springs. I've found a lot on Ebay and mtbr.com that are really good, so I'm hopping there will still be some really good ones in a month or two.
How We Got the Piano!
I found our 1910 Kingsbury Cable Co. Piano on a local classifieds website. They wanted $50.00 for it. That was the easy part. The hard part was arranging the whole thing and getting it from it's old home to ours.
We borrowed a flatbed trailer from a member in the Ward that I picked up the night before and hooked up to our minivan. Fianlly, that trailer hitch we bought in Memphis came in handy.
Bryan Stout came with me to Rolla and Tom Schell and two of his friends met me there. They owner also had a friend to help (which totaled 6 people). When I stopped to pick up Bryan we noticed that one of the rear wheels was about to fall off!! I looked at it and all 5 lug nuts were loose! I just tightened them down and it seemed fine.
We picked it up without incident and when we got here I even backed the trailer into our driveway without any major problems. I was down four helpers, so I found some good backs in my neighborhood: Jeff Taylor, James Cantrell, Pat Polman, and Ed.
Anyway, I'm thankful we were able to get it and for all those willing to help us move it. Moving pianos is never an easy task.
Now, we just REALLY need to get it tuned! Oh, and we need a piano bench or stool for it too.
We borrowed a flatbed trailer from a member in the Ward that I picked up the night before and hooked up to our minivan. Fianlly, that trailer hitch we bought in Memphis came in handy.
Bryan Stout came with me to Rolla and Tom Schell and two of his friends met me there. They owner also had a friend to help (which totaled 6 people). When I stopped to pick up Bryan we noticed that one of the rear wheels was about to fall off!! I looked at it and all 5 lug nuts were loose! I just tightened them down and it seemed fine.
We picked it up without incident and when we got here I even backed the trailer into our driveway without any major problems. I was down four helpers, so I found some good backs in my neighborhood: Jeff Taylor, James Cantrell, Pat Polman, and Ed.
Anyway, I'm thankful we were able to get it and for all those willing to help us move it. Moving pianos is never an easy task.
Now, we just REALLY need to get it tuned! Oh, and we need a piano bench or stool for it too.
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