I got a new car!!!

Well hello. I bet you think I forgot about my blog, didn't you. Well, I didn't. Our lives have just grown kind of boring and predictable, which after that year we had we are so greatful for! I think that I will keep the blog around whenever something really interesting happens, and then I will email you to let you know that I have a post. Does that work?

Well...something of note has happened. We FINALLY got a new car!!! We quickly saw after we moved to Colorado that my car was just not up to snuff. I am not good at handling it in ice and snow which we have a lot of here in Colorado, so we knew that we needed to do this. (My car was a Nissan Sentra. It was front wheel drive and light weight. Other people may be able to make a car like that work out here, but not me.) Anyhoo, I decided it was time to "look." I knew that I wanted a smaller SUV with 4 wheel drive and ABS. I liked the looks of the Jeep Liberty or the Honda CRV. I had driven a CRV, but not a Liberty. We went out and braved the used car lots and drive some different cars. We had no intention of actually buying anything. Our hope was to wait a few months to save some good money for a down payment so our payments wouldn't be too high. We got the full court press from the sales guys. We learned a lot after we went to the first used car lot. They busted out the sales manager on us and were doing their best "what's it going to take to put you in this car today" thing. We got a little freaked out and left. By the end of the day we had our game face on. We ended up at this one dealership. We really kinda liked the looks of this blue Ford Escape (pictured above). It was a 2001, had 60,000 miles on it, had all the extra bells and whistles...leather seats, sunroof, fancy stereo with 6-disk CD changer, etc. It was a good price which was even better. I was so proud of myself in how I negotiated. I honestly didn't care if I got the car or not. I know that there are a million more like it out there, and more salesment than anything that are ready to cut me a deal so I will buy it. I knew what I wanted, and I held out until I got it. Chris and I kept laughing thinking about that one Jerry Seinfeld episode where George helps Jerry buy a car, where George kept saying things like "I want that T-Shirt or I'M WALKING AWAY!!!" Every time our sales guy went off to go ask his manager if he could give us what we wanted, we would look at each other, whisper "...or I'M WALKING AWAY!!!" and crack up. We ended up with a 12 month warranty, they bought my Nissan even though I lost the title to it (have to go to the DMV this week to replace it), I got them to give me bluebook for it without even inspecting it (which there are some MAJOR problems with it), and we made them throw in a trailer hitch so we can put a bike rack on it among other things. Go me!!! Chris thought I was nuts. Either way we ended up with a great car. I feel a lot safer in it. We went up to Woodland Park today to my parent's house. It had snowed up there. I was SO AMAZED at the difference. It was so much more stable and powerful. Buying that car was absolutely the right thing to do. We are so excited, and are having fun getting all of my crap set up and organized in it.