New Car. !!!. Wade Turns 38.

I am the new owner of a 2008 Mazda CX-9. Yay!

Yep, that came much earlier then expected. Originally we were thinking around Christmas but my dear hubby had a sneaky plan up his sleeve. ;) We went last Thursday "just looking" to "get ideas" of what we wanted when the time came. We looked at and test drove several small SUVs and crossovers. I had wanted the Volkswagen Touareg forever a few years because it is just so cute and sporty but when we went to look at one, Andrew got in the back seat and there was barely room for his legs. :( I didn't tell Wade until later because I was just too sad about it. We also looked at the Lincoln MK-X (nice on the outside but sort of cheaply made on the inside) and GMC Acadia (just didn't have all the options we wanted). We didn't go to a Volvo dealership but that was on my list. I had never heard of the CX-9 but we went to the Mazda/Acura dealership here to look at the Acura MDX. It ended up being between those two. The Acura had everything we wanted - even the heated second row seats for the kids BUT it was several thousand more and with the Mazda we got the 1.9% financing saving an additional $6,000 in interest. We just couldn't see paying $13K more for the Acura. As I told Wade, I have to have something to upgrade to next. LOL Yes, I'm being obnoxious. ;)

But after all the test driving and looking on Thursday, Wade started researching hard that night and the next day. We went to Greeneville on Saturday to see the red copper mica color on the CX-9 like I wanted. It was a demo so we didn't want it but Wade had found two in Knoxville. We drove on there to see what they would let us buy them for. It was news to me, let me tell ya! At this point Wade had told me maybe by the end of June I would have one but when he found out about the 1.9% financing ending the first of June and coupled with the fact that there weren't many left with everything we wanted (loaded!!) in that color, he moved things along. Ultimately, our dealership here beat the prices in Knoxville getting us the car at invoice which we were satisfied with plus the other things we wanted added at invoice. They found the color we wanted with the options in SC and picked it up yesterday.

The kids said goodbye to the van this morning on the way to school. The van that has drove us on many vacations, took Andrew home from the hospital (Wade had it expedited and had just got it the night before after we had ordered it a month earlier), faithfully drove us to and from school and church (with only one breakdown which was just a few weeks ago! LOL), etc. I looked back at Elizabeth as I was going over the list of things the van had done for us and she was rubbing the door beside her. ROFL (<-- Rolling On the Floor Laughing) We have taken good care of it and it will make a nice vehicle for some other family. It's sort of like a house when they say, "if these walls could talk". Cars are the same way. You come to really like, maybe love, the one you drive and become comfortable with it. They take you happy, sad and exciting places in life (vacations, funerals, dates, etc.). Well, I will end my sappy commentary on that now. But I will miss my van BUT look out! I will have a new COOL ride (and FAST) ride again!!! Woohoo! :)

Quick catch up!

Wade's birthday was last Sunday. He turned 38. Since we got back late from our spontaneous trip to Knoxville, I just made a batch of brownies that night. We swung by the grocery store after church and picked up some ice cream and hot fudge sauce to go on them. We had them after lunch at Daddy and Momma's. I told him I felt bad that it was his birthday and I was the one getting the big gift. I think it makes him happy to spoil me though. Love him so much!

I met with the web designer last Wednesday from Intellithought to seal the deal on starting the website for the school. Excited about getting that underway!! I signed the contract and once they get the check then they will get started. Around lunch, I met a friend from church (Robin D.) at Two Sisters Tea Room for an early lunch and then shopping trip to the new scrapbook store in Kingsport, Memory Lane. The food at the tea room was SO GOOD - gonna have to go back. Memory Lane had an awesome crop space and a lot of neat dies for the Accucut I want to take advantage of with some chipboard. ;)

Today is Giny's birthday. I found her a card last week at Walgreens. It said, "Happy Birthday" on the front and then on the inside "From one hot chiquita to another" and it played the "Chiquita Banana" song. I HAD to get it and told Wade that she is going to drive the ladies in her house crazy. Giny is Wade's aunt and she has Down's syndrome. I love that woman. She's a riot. I can just hear her now singing that song over and over. ;)

By the way, I created a new blog banner up top. On my desktop it never shows but on my laptop it does. If you don't see one then just know that I have created a pretty neat digital banner up there and you're missing out. LOL

To end my post. Some funny shots from the past week . . .

Handyman Andrew:

Andrew wanted her to shut up maybe? Those were labels I took off some storage drawers in my scrap room. (P.S. That's still in progress.)

Cowboy Andrew: (Notice his new double barrel shotgun. He spent his chore money yesterday and bought this. Redneckville at our house. LOL Elizabeth bought the ever-coveted Blendy Pens. She's in Blendy Pen heaven.)

And how MANY tubes of lip balm does a BOY need? This is most of his collection.

I am going to HAVE to write later about Elizabeth's T-CAP tests last week and her "review" of them. Too funny! Tomorrow is field trip day. We get to go to a butterfly sanctuary in NC so I'm excited! I'll have pictures to share of that later too.