Car Problems

So far the end of March and the beginning of April have been interesting. It has been a month of car trama for me. It all started with a hefty sized speeding ticket I received probably about 5 weeks ago. I was on my way to take one the kids to the doctor, and was going 66 in a 50. Now let me just explain that everyone speeds on this road, but apparently the police officer decided the mom in the old minivan deserved the ticket. So I sucked it up, paid my fine and am going to attend traffic school. If only I had stopped there. Probably 3 weeks after that, I was in an accident. It was my fault and I got another ticket, for failing to yeild. It was a pure accident and I was just so thankful me or the kids weren't injured. And only if it had stopped there. The accident totalled the van, (which was a total blessing in disguise, because we got a lot more for it than we thought.) So last week I was at the auto shop in my rental car cleaning out the van, since we had to hand it over. Well...it is hard to explain what happened. Basically there were these poles, and cement blocks, and a very tight spot, and you can guess the rest. I clipped the rental cars bumper on the cement block that I couldn't see in my mirror and pulled half of it off of the car. :( It was a sad sad sad day for me. I was hysterical, and so humilitated. Needless to say these last few weeks have not been my most shining moments. Chris was very understanding of the first two "incidents" but by the 3rd, he wasn't quite as understanding (which is totally understandable.)

Well, it just so happened that the rental car incident occured about 2 hours before we were supposed to leave for Dallas to look for a new vehicle. I ended up getting a new rental car, and went home to face my angry husbands wrath, and we started a very silent drive to Dallas. About a quarter of the way there we started talking again, and by the time we got there, we were almost laughing about the ridiculousness of our current situation (almost, but not quite laughing yet...) We ended up finding a great car. It is a 2005 Nissan X-terra, and we love it! It has really low miles and is super clean and we got a really good price. We almost feel like we are driving a brand new car, which is a pleasant change after driving my old van for the past few years.

We ended up having a great time in Dallas. We hadn't made a reservation for a hotel, and didn't start looking for one until about 8 in the evening, but found a nice place for a really great price (yeah for military discounts!) plus the guy working at the counter was feeling generous and upgraded us to a suite with a kitchen and living room and bedroom. It was great. We ordered a pizza from room service and all watched America's Funniest Home Videos. It was a really fun night, and a much needed happy note on a bad day. For those of you who are family and haven't yet heard the rental car story, it is because I have only just now started talking about it. I was too embarassed. :)

So hear is a picture of our new car, that I am VERY cautiously driving. I also included a picture of the front of the house, just so those of you haven't seen where we live could!