So, life, these past few days, has been full of exciting activities!
It started out with our drive to DearHubby's surprise birthday lunch on Friday. I drove our 8-cylinder, not sure how many horsepower (but lots of horsepower), Ford Mustang into the city. The tires on the car are bald, the windshield wipers were flopping around, and there was a huge rain storm going on. Needless to say, it was a white knuckle ride for me! I didn't care if everyone passed me. I had the girls in the back and I wanted to make sure I had enough room between the car in front of me and myself just in case I needed to hit the breaks. It's really easy to spin out of control in a car with bald tires and a lot of horsepower! In addition, it was hard for me to see as the windshield wipers were barely doing their job! All this was done in sacrifice for my DearHubby's 35th birthday luncheon.
I initially wanted to surprise him with a motorcycle ride, but those plans didn't work out (and it wasn't just because of the rain storm). So, the surprise lunch with some of his college buddies was the only thing I had planned for his birthday, which went very well! DearHubby had the opportunity to chat and catch up a little with their lives. It's so hard keeping in touch with old college buddies when they live at least 45 minutes away or more!
So, after that white knuckle ride, we decided to retire the old Mustang :( Actually, DearHubby had been thinking about retiring the Mustang for some time now and we finally decided that now was the right time to do so. The next morning, on DearHubby's actual birthday, we went out used car shopping. We had 3 cars lined up to look at. We didn't like the first car we saw and we believe that God even gave us a "sign" that the first car was not for us! The car was in the middle of the lot, but of all the cars in the lot, this particular car had a dead bird atop it and bird poop all over it. It, the car, that is, didn't look very promising :(
So, off we went out of state, about an hour away, to look at the second car. I needed to take care of some fussy babies, so while I did that, DearHubby went with a salesman to look at the car. About 20 minutes later, DearHubby returned and told me he liked what he saw mechanically. We both test drove it and liked the way it drove. My biggest concern was fitting 3 children in the back seat because it looked a bit small, but we thought it would just have to be a tight fit. So, we decided that this was the car we were buying. Before DearHubby went back in for price negotiations, we decided on the maximum total amount we would pay for the car.
The price negotiations went on for awhile. Since the office was up a flight of stairs, I was not able to be there with DearHubby because the girls were in their double stroller. That worked out in our favor because DearHubby had to leave the office every time he needed to talk things over with me, which allowed us to freely discuss things without feeling any pressure. It was really hard getting the salesman to lower his asking price because he just got the car as a trade-in the day before. That worked out to his favor because he could have held off until he got a better deal. After the fourth time of leaving the office, DearHubby and I were on the edge about the salesman's asking price. It was right at our maximum total. I was in tears because I didn't want us to make the wrong decision. We went to a private corner of the lot and prayed and then walked past the car one last time. On our walk, the salesman caught up with us and told DearHubby he'd give us the car for our offer, which was $600 less than what he asked for. "Happy Birthday and Happy Mother's Day!" he exclaimed.
As a side note, I think our beaten and battered looking shoes worked in our favor too. I noticed the salesman look down at our shoes a few times and then he even asked us what type of shoes we wore. If we were wearing high end, brand name shoes, I don't think the salesman would have been as merciful to us. I think by the condition of our shoes he knew we were being honest with him when we told him that the cash we had in hand was all we could afford. Yes, we paid cash for the car, but we still had to pay $200 more than we really wanted to spent. We talked the salesman down $600, but he talked us up $200. We still had the better deal :)
Oh, by the way, the car we bought was a black, 2000, Ford Focus Wagon, SE.
I was priveleged to spend my Mother's Day with all the 2 and 3 year old children in the church nursery. It was challenging and tiring, but also very interesting and fun. Though I missed out on the morning service, I felt it was very appropriate that I spent that time "mothering".
There was hurricane like weather here on Monday which forced me to stay home! Praise God for that time because I got much accomplished here! I worked until 9pm, but that freed up a lot of my time for the rest of the week to enjoy the nice weather we've had.
After our trip to the gym, the girls and I had a picnic in the park on Tuesday with DearDaughter1's best-friend. We ended that day by flying a kite in the park's field.
I had a chiropractic appointment on Wednesday morning. DearHubby and I desire to get pregnant soon and I wanted some X-rays of my spine done so that if I do have back problems in my pregnancy, the doctor has a baseline to work off of.
After my appointment, I had an awesome visit with a DearFriend on Wednesday! This friend had been in a spiritual slump for some time and was beginning to be deceived by all sorts of other worldly beliefs. She is often in my prayers and the good news is that God hears our prayers! This DearFriend has been given a new spiritual hunger for God's Word and she is very excited about it and so am I! It was a great time of fellowship because our conversation was centered about our glorious God and it was all very encouraging!
So, we come to today! When I checked the weather on Monday, is showed rain for today and I had planned to stay in to work on some tasks that really needs my attention. It turned out being a nice day, so after today's swim, I swung by Dunkin Donuts to get my free iced coffee, and then I took the girls to Chick-Fil-A. We then came home and both girls had their baths outside. We played outside until the girls' nap. Then, we just had a surprise visit from DearDaughter's friend...
It's ALL good!
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