cuties & cars

cuties:
Almost every night before I got to bed, I check Seth's diaper and take Luke to the bathroom. Usually, this helps avoid washing sheets every day. Last night, both boys were incredibly cute because they were EXACTLY how I had left them a couple hours earlier except that they were asleep.

Jason found another ipod somewhere, so Luke inherited it last night. He LOVES listening to music to fall asleep :-) I LOVE seeing him happy :-)

cars:
In general, I have an obsessive-type personality. I get obsessed about things easily. When I decided that my New Year's resolution was going to be to exercise more regularly, I made sure that no matter WHAT, I walked on the treadmill for exactly 30 minutes every single night. That lasted for almost two whole months -- until I got so sick that a doctor had to prescribe a cough med with codeine (not sick because of walking, sick because of cold season). I could barely breathe, but until that doctor gave me meds, I kept walking every night.

This obsessive-type behavior, however, does NOT carry over to my care of vehicles. When I lived at home, my parents took care of my cars (I was a very spoiled child, although I'd rather use the word "blessed"). I had a turquoise Datsun B210, a Dodge Omni, a Ford Escort, and then my first automatic transmission -- a Ford Tempo. I did absolutely no maintenance on any of those cars. I'm guessing that my dad did, but I honestly didn't pay attention. I got in the car, started it, and drove it. I'm hoping that I at least bought my own gas, but I don't really remember (this was a really long time ago!!). When Jason and I got married, we decided to put full coverage on the Tempo since we were on the phone with the insurance company anyway to change my name on the insurance and to add him onto the policy. Less than a month later, the car was stolen while we were watching a Phillies game. With the insurance check, we bought a Subaru Legacy. That's the car we drove to Alaska and continued to drive for another ten years until it was no longer dependable. And by "no longer dependable," I mean that it wouldn't start. Often. We were very thankful that right about that same time, a friend of Jason sold us his truck for $1 (although it's SO sad that he did this because his father was killed in Afghanistan and the life insurance paid for him to buy a new truck -- we're NOT thankful for the tragedy!!!) We still have that truck now about five years later.

A few months before Luke was born, Jason's boss went to a repossession auction and bought a Ford Windstar minivan with us in mind (not as a gift -- for us to buy from him). This van has been a GREAT blessing to us! It has carted us all over town now for nine years :-)

But this van is now in sad shape!! The list of problems is almost unbelievable. The electrical system is SHOT -- we've had to disconnect the power locks, the cruise control, and the headlight switch (which i have to re-attach every time i need to turn the lights on and it just dangles down from the dashboard -- pathetic!). If you super-size this picture, you might notice that the windshield is outlined with black duct tape because every time it rained, the windshield would leak. So i "fixed" it with duct tape :-) AND the whole van shakes while I'm driving it. I don't even know why because I keep procrastinating about taking it to a mechanic. We take it in for an oil change at the same time as the i.m. test requirement -- every TWO YEARS!

I'm hoping I've learned my lesson about taking care of a vehicle to make it last longer! We'll see -- I won't be holding my breath. We're buying a "new" van -- a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan.
Maybe if we take good care of this one, it'll last us fifteen years! That'll be a new record :-)