MINE, ALL MINE

I am so thrilled today because I just made my last car payment. My little black SUV is now mine, all mine.

There are really great incentives to buy a new car right now but I have no plans to buy anything new because honestly I don’t want a car payment anymore. Plus my car isn’t even 4 years old yet, I just hit 50,000 miles and it is in great condition. We should have a few more good years of use out of this thing.

This is my second new car that I have ever bought and the first one that I have paid for in full.

Before my little black SUV I had this super cute Acura RSX-S that I just loved. I bought this new car right after I got my first job out of collage and before I had kids. The day I picked this car up from the dealer it had 3 miles on it. It was brand spanking new! I spent months working with dealers trying to get this car and got it exactly the way I wanted it. I loved this little car! It was blue, a 6 speed manual stick shift, all leather, super nice and just so much fun to drive. I had every plan to pay it off and keep it for a long time and then I had Luke.

Can I just say sporty little 2 door cars are not cohesive with kids? First, shoving Luke’s pumpkin seat between the seat and the door was a major challenge every single time. Then we stopped carrying the seat and trying to put him in it was a challenge. I always had to climb into the back seat just to get him in and out of the car. After a couple years and multiple times of me banging his little head on the ceiling of the car I decided that was enough.

Time to grow up, blah, blah, blah….and get something more practical. I needed something that was more kid friendly and 4 doors.

So I traded in my little sporty blue car for my Mercury Mariner SUV. It has all wheel drive which I love especially in the winter but other than that it is pretty plain Jane. My biggest regret was letting my husband talk me out of spending the extra money on leather seats. Instead I have tan cloth seats, did I mention the TAN part. Very, very bad choice with kids!

All in all I am happy today because I am free of car payments, I will have a few extra hundred dollars in my pocket each month and that is exciting.

Now I am just praying nothing goes wrong. No accidents, no falling apart, none of that is allowed. Trust me, my car history has not been good between totaling cars and problem cars…. Lets just say I have a bad history. But this is a history with used cars so I am hopeful with my car.

Have you had a car that you just absolutely loved?

THE FAIR

Since 2004 I have been taking Luke every summer to the county fair in August. His first trip to the fair he was 18 months old.

This is a large group trip that my mom started doing years ago with my cousin and her kids. The oldest is now 15 so this has been going on for a long time. It has grown into a really big thing. My cousins come with their kids, my brothers wives bring their kids and sometimes we have a few extras from friends. My mom and my aunt pay for all the kids ride tags, everyone's lunch, a pony ride and even a game or two. Very nice thing that they do every year.

Our big fair trip is about to happen again this year and I thought I would walk down memory lane with some of my past pics of the fair.

Luke & me on the merry-go-round

Also, notice how we match, a little parent tip, I always match my boys clothes colors and mine when we go to anything like this. It is a really great way for me to remember exactly what colors they have on.

He was so cute!

I believe these are the same cars I road on when I was a kid.
They are just so old that none of the cool lights flash and run anymore.


Moving into 2005, Luke is 2 years old.

We ride the pony's every year.

This is a very agricultural fair. The 4-H is huge and we have lots of really great animal barns. Part of our fair day is going through all the animal barns. We always get to get up close and personal with the animals. It is great!

Luke petting a cow.

Luke's favorite part is the rides.

Moving into 2006, Luke is 3 years old.

One of my all time favorite pic's of Luke.

Still riding those pony's.

Still riding the cars.

2007, Luke is 4 years old

I was 7 months pregnant on this trip & enduring the summer heat.

First year he road the pony with out mom walking beside him.
sniff, sniff....

Isn't this to cute!

I should have more photos of this year but I can only find these two.


2008, Luke 5 years old &
Thomas 1st year at the fair, 10 months old

Lets have some fun!

Thomas first marry-go-round ride, he wasn't liking it.

All the kids got to try and milk a goat.

Luke's first year he liked the mini roller coaster.
Tried a long time but he always hated this ride.

Luke has probably hit the last year for riding these rides.
Last year his cousins were getting kicked off for being to tall.

Don't forget the pony's.

Another 1st, Luke went down the slide by himself.
It is amazing what happens between age's 4 & 5.

Oh yeah! I am crazy!

Time to go home! I have had enough of this stroller.

So this year is bitter sweet for me. Luke's school starts before the fair starts this year. We always go during the week to avoid weekend crowds. So this year I am taking Thomas at noon with the rest of the gang. Luke's dad is going to pick him up from school at 3:30 and he will arrive at the fair sometime around 4. This sucks because Luke loves this part of our summer. I was a bit concerned about what I was going to do this year. Knowing Luke would have to start riding bigger kid rides and Thomas will get to experience the little kid rides, I had no idea how I was going to split myself in half. Now I will spend part of the day with Thomas and then can watch Luke when he rides with his dad.

Do you have a tradition with your kids that you have done for a long time with them?

aloha friday (DIY)

Aloha Friday

Question:

Are you a do-it-yourself (DIY) person?

Fortunately and unfortunately my husband and I are DIY’s. I am so blessed that we are able to fix, remodel and do some many things around our house. It really does save a lot of money but on the other end it is a bit of a curse. I feel as though we don’t get much done and we just can’t bring ourselves to pay someone when we know we can do it ourselves. The problem is we can do it but don’t always have the time. Blessing or a curse, I am just not sure.

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.

POWERED UP!

Power wheels are really fun!

But they are not meant to be driven
in MOM's GARDEN!

Visit Angie at 7 Clown Circus for more great Wordful Wednesday post.

Potty Training Thomas

A few months ago I decided to start the process of potty training Thomas in steps. My friend Jenn at T-Rex Mom & Dad tales wrote a really great post a while back about potty training and it gave me some great ideas especially since her son is right around the same age as mine.

Step one: peeing in the potty first thing after we wake up in the morning.

At first it took him about 10 minutes or so to do anything in the potty. Now he pees every morning in the potty with in a couple minutes. The funny part is he will pee but he doesn’t fully empty his bladder. He is just so excited that he has done it that he jumps up all happy but we don’t have a lot of pee in the potty yet. We cheer and then I sit him back down on his potty and he finishes.

This has become so routine in our mornings now that 5 out of 7 mornings he will wake up with a dry diaper and for a child so young to hold it all night is really impressive. Especially for a child that drinks a lot at night. This has cut my diapers a good amount. Before he would be wet when he wakes, then I change him and we would go through two more diapers before we would leave the house in the morning. That is 3 diapers per day that I am saving just from this one simple step.

Step Two: the rest of the day. We are not doing so well here.

Recently I took all my pre-fold cloth diapers and cut them up and I made these little pockets to go in the front of his underwear.


My sewing isn’t very pretty but it does the trick. I then put Thomas in big boy underwear and we add a little pocket to help absorb any large pee messes that he might make. Now the underwear and his shorts do end up a little wet but nothing like the mess with out the pocket.

I love the little pockets but Thomas doesn’t seem to care that he is wet and he won’t tell me he has peed his big boy pants. I find this interesting considering when he pees in a diaper he brings me a new one and tells me he has peed. KIDS!

One of my biggest challenges has been when we do sit on the potty through out the day. He will sit for a while and play with his little ball toy. I have also tried the seat on the toilet but he just doesn’t seem to like it. I read a lot of kids don’t like it if they can’t have their feet on the ground.

The problem here is he doesn’t want a diaper or underwear put back on him.

Once he starts getting up I try to dress him. He freaks out and yells “POTTY” and runs back to it and sits. I think this is a game for him and it will go on for an hour or more if I let it. He will sit just a short time and then he is up and playing.

The getting up is not good because he will happily pee all over my floor if I don’t keep him on the potty. Believe me this has happened more times than I care to count. (Thank goodness for minimal carpet)

Thomas can throw a big fit to get dressed again if he does not pee in the potty but if he pees he is happy and will comply with getting dressed. This makes it hard because I don’t want to deny the request to go potty but we have made our effort and time is up.

I am not on a mission to make this happen over night. I am taking baby steps and trying to figure out what works. So far the morning has been a success and that thrills me and with time we will figure out the rest.

If any of you have any tips or tricks I would love to hear them. I know every child is different so how we do with one might be totally different with the other. I already know this because of potty training Luke and now trying with Thomas.