Musical cars has come to an end and I have such a cool job. Ain't life grand!

All washed up and ready to go home with us.

Cam and Kay are so excited about their new "super car".

Look how pretty.

First I would like to say that as much as I have enjoyed playing musical cars with all of my family members I am quite happy to see it end. We have all been trading cars and borrowing from each other when ever a random vehicle would break down. Our cars seem to break down a lot. I guess we are just unlucky that way. I won't go into all the details (I don't think I can even keep up with the chain of events). I will just say that the latest car we have been using (once belonging to my sister Sarah) had the engine burn up after the oil change place messed up the filter. They owned up to the mistake and paid to have a new engine put in. The place that put in the new engine messed it up and that engine burned up as well. So on Saturday we lost the car again so that they could put in yet another new engine they are shipping in from Texas.

In the meantime we have been struggling with getting everyone where they need to be. So today I wanted to go look at cars. I had done my research online and decided on a Kia Rhondo. It liked the red one with grey interior and I didn't care much about the options as long as it had the 3rd row seat and air conditioning. It is like a minivan, station wagon, SUV all rolled into one. You get the space to seat 7 like an SUV but much better gas mileage and easier to park. Even though it resembles a van it has regular doors not the sliding ones. It is lower to the ground like a station wagon but much cooler looking. The best part is it got great ratings on ease of use for families, it is very safe with a 5 star crash test rating, and it is cheap. It is the lowest priced 7 seater in the country. It also has the great 10 year 100,000 mile warranty. Wow, I sound like a commercial.

So I went to look with no intention of buying today. I wanted a used one because I think it is silly to purchase a car new. As soon as you drive it off the lot it depreciates so much it just doesn't seem worth it. As soon as we (Mom came along) pulled up the sales people were everywhere. I told them the make and model I wanted and they took me right to some used ones but they didn't have the 3rd row seat. They said they had some of the new ones with the extra seat. Yeah, but I am too cheap to buy a new car.

I decided to humor them and take a look. I test drove a brand new silver with grey interior that had 10 miles on it. Well, it was awesome, just what I wanted but the price tag said 20,000. Not what I wanted. I had hoped to get something closer to the 10,000 dollar range - a tough trick I know. We just can't afford the payments on a 20,000 car. I was ready to walk but they really wanted to sell a car. So they offered me 2,500 in rebates applied to the cost. Getting closer. Then they took off another 1,000 for customer loyalty (we purchased our dead Kia Sephia from them about 6 years ago). Then they gave us 1,000 for trading in the dead Kia.

I said that I really thought I would like a red one better. They ran off to look for one and happily came back with the news. Red with tan interior. They were able to get the cost and payments down even more. I was starting to get excited and nervous too. I might actually walk out of there with a car. They really were trying to work with me. Apparently car sales have been a little slow. So they did the credit checks and said they could make it work. The payments were 30.00 more a month than we wanted but we didn't have to put any money down. Done deal.

I called Jeff and Taylor and surprisingly they both said they liked the silver color better. The silver seemed to hide dirt better too and we all know our cars get very dirty inside and out. So in the middle of the paperwork we decided to go with the silver instead. It was the first one I looked at so I guess it was just meant to be. We got lots of extra options added in and we got the car for less than many used ones. Final price tag 15,339.50. I sure have come a long way from my first car. A green and white 1969 VW Bus I got for 500 bucks. My magic bus was fun but it never really ran much.

VW Bus. What a hippie.

I have never in my life owned a new car. It is so pretty and smells yummy. I am sure it will start to get dirty real quick but I don't care. It is perfect and it is mine. No more musical cars and wondering how to get to work. No more trying to squeeze 3 kids and 2 car seats into a tiny little car intended for no more than 2 in the back seat. No more going to the store and forgetting which car you are driving today when you come out.

Look Ma we all fit!

Ready to go on an adventure all together.

They took it back and washed it inside and out and filled the tank with gas. It's almost worth buying a car for that. Gas is so expensive. It is cleaner than it will ever be again. I plan to take pictures tomorrow in the daylight. I can't believe we have a new car. The kids are so excited. We took everyone for a ride. When we pulled off the lot the car had 23 miles on it and most of that was me test driving it.
Look, 23 miles as we drive off the lot.

On another note I am loving my job. I get paid to ride around on golf carts and giant trike bikes with some really awesome kids. Yeah, I have to do some other stuff too and sometimes the other stuff is not so fun but it all works out. Oh the places we'll go. What adventure we'll have. Isn't life grand!

My 1st day of my 1st job. I was the birthday pary hostess at McDonalds. Oddly enough I noticed that the date is Feb. 5th 1989. 18 years later to the day I started working at my current job.

Party girl. Look how far we have come.

Then

Jen trike bike gang.

Now