I can't believe it's been so long since I have updated. I apologize to my 2 readers. lol Let's see, the last time I updated was when Joe got his new car. That was over a month ago as he has already had to put his permenant plate on it. :) Life finally seemed to calm down a bit after that. Baseball had gotten underway somewhat. Signups took place and Joe was elected to the Grayson Athletic Association board of directors as the Secretary. He likes when I call him "Mr. Secretary". LOL My sister in law got married in Savannah on Feb 7th so I had a lot of shopping to do beforehand. My kids owned only jeans and t-shirts and they all needed clothes for the rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding and so did I.
I spent a solid week looking for clothes for us and finally made the final decisions and purchases the Thurs before we left (Feb 5th). As I was driving home from the mall, my van wouldn't shift gears. I knew something bad was wrong so I drove it straight to our mechanic. He drove it with me and informed me of the bad news..NEW TRANSMISSION. We just put a transmission in it 2 yrs ago and the cost of the transmission was more than what the van was worth so we knew we needed to search for a new van. Obviously, we had no time as we were leaving the very next morning for Savannah. Luckily my sister has an extra vehicle which happens to be a van so we borrowed that from her to make our trip much better. It was hard for me to enjoy my weekend as I knew what my week ahead held in looking for a van for me. We returned home Sunday late afternoon and our septic tank was messed up. We knew it was full and needed to be pumped so that's what I spent Monday doing. I waited around for the septic dudes to get here and empty the septic tank. Finally on Tuesday, I was able to go van shopping. I had to go alone as Joe couldn't take the day off. So..off I went. The first place I stopped was awful. The 2 vans I looked at were in bad shape. I then stopped at a Toyota dealership next door to the first place. They took up A LOT of my time and in the end, talked me in to driving a van home. I knew I didn't want that van and should have never driven it home but I did. That afternoon, I saw that Carmax in Kennesaw had gotten in 2 Toyota Siennas so immediately after the boys got home from school, we went up there (about an hour drive) to look at those. Luckily, Joe works about 15 mins from there and met us there. We spent 3 hrs test driving 2 vans and getting the paper work completed but in the end, I bought a 2006 Toyota Sienna. EXACTLY what I wanted! :) We had to leave it because we didn't have any way to get it home so I went the next morning with my father in law to pick it up. On the way home, the tire pressure light came on. UGH Thursday I had a lot of errands to run and it was a half day at school so I couldn't take the van back to Carmax until Friday. Friday I took the van back and they took care of it. Something about having to call Toyota to get the code to reset that light. So, I now have my van and I totally love it!
We also booked our house for Spring Break in Holden Beach, NC. :) We went there last year and had so much fun. My inlaws will be going as well as my sister in law and hopefully her boyfriend. We are all very excited about this upcoming trip.
Baseball has officially started and all 3 of the boys are on great teams with wonderful coaches! This is going to be a great season! :)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The latest news here!
WOW..it's been awhile since I have posted a blog on here. We've definantly had quite a bit going on. Can you believe that as of yesterday morning, all our Christmas decorations were still up? Thank goodness we didn't decorate outside. lol At least now I can drive down the road and think "well at least I am not still lighting the outside decorations" LOL Let's see...New Years came and went. My dad left and we finally had a weekend with no visitors and no where to go. Ample time to take down Christmas decorations but we just wanted to DO NOTHING all weekend so that was exactly what we did. School started Monday, Jan. 5th ...and not a day too soon. lol Honestly, I can't remember what happened that week but it wasn't taking the decorations down. lol
Last week I had a dr's appt on Tues and then I rejoined Curves. I am DETERMINED to get fit this year. Yeah yeah, I know. I say it every year and here I am ...still not fit. I was in gear and ready to head to my first workout on Wednesday when as I was waking the boys up for school I heard Joe desperately trying to start his car. Unfortunately that didn't happen and he ended up having to take my van to work that day. It was COLD that morning and we were thinking that maybe it wouldn't start because of the sudden drop in temperature so around lunch time, I went out and started it. It took a little bit to get it started (and me constantly pressing the accelerator) but finally it started. Once it did, white smoke flew out the back. A LOT of white smoke. LOL It was running really rough but I had to go back inside and get dressed (yep, wouldn't you know it. It started because I had my pjs on) so that I could take it straight to the mechanic's. It stayed running while I ran back inside and luckily my mother in law was able to meet me and bring me back home. Later that day, the mechanic called Joe and explained that a piston had blown and that it needed a new engine and would cost $1700 for a USED one. Joe's car is a 1995 Saturn and he bought it brand new when he graduated law school. This car is a total POS! The headliner is falling (so much so that you can barely see out the back window) and it's just plain OLD! Joe always swore he'd drive this car til it died and he officially did that. lol Joe was heading into a deposition when the mechanic called so he briefly called me about it and I immediately started looking online for cars. I finally got to talk to him afterwards and we decided it was time to "bury" the Saturn.
Thursday morning our dog had a vet appt so I borrowed the inlaw's car and took her to her appt. Joe decided to take a half day and met me at home at 11:30am so we could go look at cars. First stop was a dealership in Lilburn to drive a Toyota Rav 4. I wasn't really interested in this car as Carfax had shown it had been wrecked and had to be towed from the scene but Joe wanted to drive it anyway. We got to the dealership and the lot was so overpacked that they had cars parked in the rows..everywhere. It was INSANE how many cars they had in that lot. We drove the car and decided it was too small for our family. There was also a good bit of wind noise on the passenger side when driving at high speeds and that's the side that was wrecked so we returned it and to our surprise, the dude let us walk off the lot without even giving us his business card.
The next stop was CarMax in Norcross. We went in thinking we were only looking at a GMC Envoy or Toyotas or Hondas. We drove the Envoy and although it had all the bells and whistles that were very tempting, it was quite noisy on the expressway and the gas mileage was pretty sucky. We looking in the lot at the few Camrys and Accords that they had but decided to go inside and look at what they had at their other local locations. As we were walking by the cars inside the showroom, the dude asked if we had considered Fords. I hadn't done much research on Fords on Consumer Reports. Just knew we shouldn't get an Explorer so we told him no. He told us this was a great car (Ford Five Hundred), for a great price, with low mileage..blah blah blah. We walked over and looked in the windows. It was SPOTLESS! Absolutely gorgeous. So we got inside (Joe in the front seat..me in the back). We then decided to drive it. I don't know why but I never look at cars in the showroom because in my mind, you can't drive them but sure enough, you can. LOL It was PERFECT! Joe and I both fell in love with this car. The roomy-ness is amazing. And the quietness is amazing. So..we decided to still look at what the other locations had as far as Camrys and Accords. We found a couple of Accords and 1 Camry we wanted to drive at their Roswell location and off we went. On the way, Joe called our mechanic and asked his opinion on everything we had looked at. He was able to look in his computer and see if there were any recalls or flags on the Five Hundred for excessive problems and said everything was fine. There were 2 recalls but said he could check and see if those recalls were taken care of for us. He said that car is a great car. He also told us that the Accords think they are "all that" but in fact, the Camrys are much better. So...we decided that we would only drive the Camry once we got to the Roswell location.
We got there and drove the Camry and it was so much smaller inside. Joe knew he was still wanting the Five Hundred. We also drove a Ford Escape (because it was on Consumer Reports best pick list) but it drove so much like a truck and it was pretty small and had lots of road noise so we decided no on that one. Then that dude talked us in to driving a Taurus. It was a great deal but it just didn't have the room inside that the Five Hundred had and it sat so low to the ground. So we decided to head back to the Norcross location and buy the Five Hundred.
I honestly think the most time consuming part of our day was spent driving from Roswell back to Norcross in rush hour traffic. OY VEY!!! But..we finally got there, got the paperwork done, and finally got home ..8 hours later!
Thank GOD for my sister in law who watched our kids from the time they got home from school until 7:30pm! There is absolutely NO WAY we could have spent 8 hours car shopping and being as productive as we were if we had the kids. THANK YOU AUNT LALALA..if you read my blog. LOL
Now Joe is totally enjoying his new love. I call it Christine! ;) lol He said he actually looked forward to getting up and driving to work on Friday and even driving home. He said traffic wasn't bad coming home but thinks maybe he just didn't notice because he was on cloud 9. lol Of course I can't drive it today because he has come up with a million errands he had to run today so he's out and about right now. haha
Last week I had a dr's appt on Tues and then I rejoined Curves. I am DETERMINED to get fit this year. Yeah yeah, I know. I say it every year and here I am ...still not fit. I was in gear and ready to head to my first workout on Wednesday when as I was waking the boys up for school I heard Joe desperately trying to start his car. Unfortunately that didn't happen and he ended up having to take my van to work that day. It was COLD that morning and we were thinking that maybe it wouldn't start because of the sudden drop in temperature so around lunch time, I went out and started it. It took a little bit to get it started (and me constantly pressing the accelerator) but finally it started. Once it did, white smoke flew out the back. A LOT of white smoke. LOL It was running really rough but I had to go back inside and get dressed (yep, wouldn't you know it. It started because I had my pjs on) so that I could take it straight to the mechanic's. It stayed running while I ran back inside and luckily my mother in law was able to meet me and bring me back home. Later that day, the mechanic called Joe and explained that a piston had blown and that it needed a new engine and would cost $1700 for a USED one. Joe's car is a 1995 Saturn and he bought it brand new when he graduated law school. This car is a total POS! The headliner is falling (so much so that you can barely see out the back window) and it's just plain OLD! Joe always swore he'd drive this car til it died and he officially did that. lol Joe was heading into a deposition when the mechanic called so he briefly called me about it and I immediately started looking online for cars. I finally got to talk to him afterwards and we decided it was time to "bury" the Saturn.
Thursday morning our dog had a vet appt so I borrowed the inlaw's car and took her to her appt. Joe decided to take a half day and met me at home at 11:30am so we could go look at cars. First stop was a dealership in Lilburn to drive a Toyota Rav 4. I wasn't really interested in this car as Carfax had shown it had been wrecked and had to be towed from the scene but Joe wanted to drive it anyway. We got to the dealership and the lot was so overpacked that they had cars parked in the rows..everywhere. It was INSANE how many cars they had in that lot. We drove the car and decided it was too small for our family. There was also a good bit of wind noise on the passenger side when driving at high speeds and that's the side that was wrecked so we returned it and to our surprise, the dude let us walk off the lot without even giving us his business card.
The next stop was CarMax in Norcross. We went in thinking we were only looking at a GMC Envoy or Toyotas or Hondas. We drove the Envoy and although it had all the bells and whistles that were very tempting, it was quite noisy on the expressway and the gas mileage was pretty sucky. We looking in the lot at the few Camrys and Accords that they had but decided to go inside and look at what they had at their other local locations. As we were walking by the cars inside the showroom, the dude asked if we had considered Fords. I hadn't done much research on Fords on Consumer Reports. Just knew we shouldn't get an Explorer so we told him no. He told us this was a great car (Ford Five Hundred), for a great price, with low mileage..blah blah blah. We walked over and looked in the windows. It was SPOTLESS! Absolutely gorgeous. So we got inside (Joe in the front seat..me in the back). We then decided to drive it. I don't know why but I never look at cars in the showroom because in my mind, you can't drive them but sure enough, you can. LOL It was PERFECT! Joe and I both fell in love with this car. The roomy-ness is amazing. And the quietness is amazing. So..we decided to still look at what the other locations had as far as Camrys and Accords. We found a couple of Accords and 1 Camry we wanted to drive at their Roswell location and off we went. On the way, Joe called our mechanic and asked his opinion on everything we had looked at. He was able to look in his computer and see if there were any recalls or flags on the Five Hundred for excessive problems and said everything was fine. There were 2 recalls but said he could check and see if those recalls were taken care of for us. He said that car is a great car. He also told us that the Accords think they are "all that" but in fact, the Camrys are much better. So...we decided that we would only drive the Camry once we got to the Roswell location.
We got there and drove the Camry and it was so much smaller inside. Joe knew he was still wanting the Five Hundred. We also drove a Ford Escape (because it was on Consumer Reports best pick list) but it drove so much like a truck and it was pretty small and had lots of road noise so we decided no on that one. Then that dude talked us in to driving a Taurus. It was a great deal but it just didn't have the room inside that the Five Hundred had and it sat so low to the ground. So we decided to head back to the Norcross location and buy the Five Hundred.
I honestly think the most time consuming part of our day was spent driving from Roswell back to Norcross in rush hour traffic. OY VEY!!! But..we finally got there, got the paperwork done, and finally got home ..8 hours later!
Thank GOD for my sister in law who watched our kids from the time they got home from school until 7:30pm! There is absolutely NO WAY we could have spent 8 hours car shopping and being as productive as we were if we had the kids. THANK YOU AUNT LALALA..if you read my blog. LOL
Now Joe is totally enjoying his new love. I call it Christine! ;) lol He said he actually looked forward to getting up and driving to work on Friday and even driving home. He said traffic wasn't bad coming home but thinks maybe he just didn't notice because he was on cloud 9. lol Of course I can't drive it today because he has come up with a million errands he had to run today so he's out and about right now. haha
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Holidays and New Years with Family!
I know, I know...I haven't posted in awhile. We have been so busy with family in town since the Saturday after Christmas and life is finally getting back to normal..so I will write.
Let's begin with that Saturday..December 27th. My sister from Texas and her husband and 2 sons (ages 13 and 12) and my Dad had driven from Texas to Birmingham, Al to stay with my oldest sister and her family on Friday, Dec 26th. They got up early Saturday morning and all drove to Georgia. My dad came to my house as he was spending the week here but the others all went to my sister's house in Grayson, Ga (about 5 mins from me) and we all met up there Saturday afternoon. There was my family of 5, my dad, my sister from Texas (family of 4), my sister who lives in Grayson, Ga (family of 4), and part of my sister from Birmingham's family (4 of them) here. It gets kind of complicated as my oldest sister (the one from Birmingham) is 14 yrs older than me and technically my niece is the one with the kids who are the grand kids ages but they all come with my sister instead of my niece so we kind of link them with my sister instead of my niece. Are you lost yet? lol Anywho...my niece (my oldest sister's daughter) has 4 kids but only 2 of them came to Georgia..the other 2 stayed in Alabama where my niece also lives. So here is how me and my sisters break down... Becky (lives in Birmingham) is the oldest. Becky has 2 kids (Scott and Donna) who are in their 30's. Scott has no children but Donna has 4 kids (boys ages 3,7,10,11) Then there's Lori (lives in Texas). She has 2 boys ages 12 and 13). Then there's Kelly (lives in Grayson, Ga about 5 mins from me). She has a girl (13) and a boy (10). And last but not least, there's me and I have 3 boys (6,8,and 10). So...in all, there are 11 kids ranging in ages from 3-13 (almost 14). Ok..now that you are totally confused, on with my story.....
So Saturday we all went to Kelly's to hang out and have Christmas. The cousins all had a great time running around and playing and us sisters had a great time catching up. We played some games and just hung out. Our husbands all get along so great so they just chilled and watched football all day. lol Becky and her family were only staying that one night so we really made the best of it. My family and my dad left late that night but we were back the next day to have more fun.
Becky's family left late Sunday evening and we came home to get some rest too. Monday my family, Kelly's family, and Lori's family all met at the mall for lunch, shopping, and to see Bedtime Stories. It was a lot of fun. We got home a little after dinner and decided it was time to challenge Grandpa to some poker. Grandpa had a great time but had to concentrate on his cards and on Jacob's cards. LOL Jacob ended up winning that night.
Tuesday we were back at Kelly's to hang out all day. Wednesday I woke up with a major migraine. It was New Year's Eve and we had plans to hang out at Kelly's house all day but I couldn't get out of bed. I took the Maxalt that I take for my migraines and went back to bed but unfortunately it didn't help. I am only supposed to take 1 per day but I had to take 2 that day. We ended up at Kelly's later in the afternoon and sadly there was no drinking for me on New Years Eve this year. lol We stayed until around 2am and then headed home. The kids all slept til almost noon the next day. AMAZING!!!
Thursday we were back to my sisters to hang out and eat black-eyed peas, cornbread, and rutabagas (bleh..none for me though). We left around 8pm as Lori and her family were heading back to Birmingham the next morning and dad was heading back towards Texas the next morning so we needed to get everyone to bed in a timely manner.
Friday was a chill day for us. Dad left around 11am to head west and the boys just played and hung out the rest of the day. It was nice and peaceful. We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on laundry and some cleaning. Unfortunately we didn't do any undecorating. lol
I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a Happy New Year! Here's to a better 2009!
Let's begin with that Saturday..December 27th. My sister from Texas and her husband and 2 sons (ages 13 and 12) and my Dad had driven from Texas to Birmingham, Al to stay with my oldest sister and her family on Friday, Dec 26th. They got up early Saturday morning and all drove to Georgia. My dad came to my house as he was spending the week here but the others all went to my sister's house in Grayson, Ga (about 5 mins from me) and we all met up there Saturday afternoon. There was my family of 5, my dad, my sister from Texas (family of 4), my sister who lives in Grayson, Ga (family of 4), and part of my sister from Birmingham's family (4 of them) here. It gets kind of complicated as my oldest sister (the one from Birmingham) is 14 yrs older than me and technically my niece is the one with the kids who are the grand kids ages but they all come with my sister instead of my niece so we kind of link them with my sister instead of my niece. Are you lost yet? lol Anywho...my niece (my oldest sister's daughter) has 4 kids but only 2 of them came to Georgia..the other 2 stayed in Alabama where my niece also lives. So here is how me and my sisters break down... Becky (lives in Birmingham) is the oldest. Becky has 2 kids (Scott and Donna) who are in their 30's. Scott has no children but Donna has 4 kids (boys ages 3,7,10,11) Then there's Lori (lives in Texas). She has 2 boys ages 12 and 13). Then there's Kelly (lives in Grayson, Ga about 5 mins from me). She has a girl (13) and a boy (10). And last but not least, there's me and I have 3 boys (6,8,and 10). So...in all, there are 11 kids ranging in ages from 3-13 (almost 14). Ok..now that you are totally confused, on with my story.....
So Saturday we all went to Kelly's to hang out and have Christmas. The cousins all had a great time running around and playing and us sisters had a great time catching up. We played some games and just hung out. Our husbands all get along so great so they just chilled and watched football all day. lol Becky and her family were only staying that one night so we really made the best of it. My family and my dad left late that night but we were back the next day to have more fun.
Becky's family left late Sunday evening and we came home to get some rest too. Monday my family, Kelly's family, and Lori's family all met at the mall for lunch, shopping, and to see Bedtime Stories. It was a lot of fun. We got home a little after dinner and decided it was time to challenge Grandpa to some poker. Grandpa had a great time but had to concentrate on his cards and on Jacob's cards. LOL Jacob ended up winning that night.
Tuesday we were back at Kelly's to hang out all day. Wednesday I woke up with a major migraine. It was New Year's Eve and we had plans to hang out at Kelly's house all day but I couldn't get out of bed. I took the Maxalt that I take for my migraines and went back to bed but unfortunately it didn't help. I am only supposed to take 1 per day but I had to take 2 that day. We ended up at Kelly's later in the afternoon and sadly there was no drinking for me on New Years Eve this year. lol We stayed until around 2am and then headed home. The kids all slept til almost noon the next day. AMAZING!!!
Thursday we were back to my sisters to hang out and eat black-eyed peas, cornbread, and rutabagas (bleh..none for me though). We left around 8pm as Lori and her family were heading back to Birmingham the next morning and dad was heading back towards Texas the next morning so we needed to get everyone to bed in a timely manner.
Friday was a chill day for us. Dad left around 11am to head west and the boys just played and hung out the rest of the day. It was nice and peaceful. We spent the rest of the weekend catching up on laundry and some cleaning. Unfortunately we didn't do any undecorating. lol
I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a Happy New Year! Here's to a better 2009!
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