The one with the updates

It's been a while since  I last updated. I actually can't believe that it has been over a month. However, with the wedding less than three months away we have been spending most weekends either meeting with our parents or planning on our own. We booked our honeymoon a few weeks ago. We will be going on a tour of Italy. We have never been to Europe, so we are really looking forward to it. We will be leaving June 24th and coming back July 3rd.

I have been nominated to attend 6th grade camp. I am somewhat looking forward to it, but I don't really want to make 4 days worth of sub plans. Several of my kids are going and they seemed happy that I was going so I think it will be a good few days.

This past week has been extremely busy. I haven't been able to get home before 530 everyday. I am glad I have a three day weekend. However, I am pretty much booked for the entire time. Hopefully, I will find sometime for relaxation.

The one with the large purchases in 2010

Happy New Year!

2010 is going to be a very big year for us. Actually, it already has been a big year for us and it has only been 2 days! New Year’s Day we decided to pick out our wedding bands. We have had this on our “to-do list” for a while so it was nice to get it taken care of. I went into looking for wedding bands thinking that it would take quite a while for us to pick things out. Boy was I wrong. I think we were in the store for about 30 minutes. We walked in, looked at rings for Scott and he found the one he liked pretty quickly. I told the lady what I was looking for and she found a few that were similar. I found one I liked and that was that. We know have wedding bands and so ends Jan. 1.

January 2nd was another BIG day for us. We have been looking at cars for a while, and decided it was time to go test drive. We had no idea what kind of day we were in for. We left the house at 1230 and went to our credit union to find out about getting a loan. We ended up having to open a joint checking account (which we were planning to do eventually). Then we were approved for our loan. We went to Ford to try out the Escape; it was now 2 o’clock. Before we left home, we had printed out an ideal car with all the things we wanted. We took a test drive and really liked driving the Escape. We sat down to discuss finances and finding a car that was similar to the one we wanted. We checked several different styles both new and old. We really wanted black interior and a steel gray color outside. We could not find one that was like this with the other things we wanted. (Apparently, people like the tan interior better) We looked at some used cars on the lot, but again we didn’t see what we were really hoping for. We found a car that was a silver-bluish-gray color (much lighter than we wanted), but had black interior and was about 10,000 less than the new car. It was in great condition. I was not as happy with it as Scott was, but eventually we determined that this was the car we were going to buy. I was still torn as too whether or not this was the right choice, but the two things I wanted were the dark outside and dark inside colors. I got one of the two and the price was much better than building a car ourselves. So in the long run we made the right decision.

So now it’s about 330. We are thinking that it will probably take about an hour or two at most to get everything finalized. We were in for a real surprise. After filling out lots of paperwork…unfortunately a few pages we had to fill out again (minor technicality since we are not yet married). We sat, and sat, and then sat some more. While waiting we were texting the parents, making some wedding plans and updating facebook. Around 6 or so we were finally called back to meet with the finance person who was going to go over all our paperwork….almost the home stretch. The lady was very helpful and went over our mountain of paperwork. We signed, and signed and signed….oh and then we signed some more…wait until we get a house…however rumor has it that cars are more paperwork…I’ll have to ask Matt…who just bought a house! So after signing everything we went to visit “Stevo.” Stevo looked and sounded like a car salesman out of the 1940’s or 50’s. Anyways, he gave us the keys, showed us the ins and outs of the car and sent us on our way.

We said good-bye to my little red car. It was a good little car. On Wednesday I filled up my tank with a 25$ gift card and this tank of gas drove me to and from my parents in Indio and then around town. I think the mileage was 375 or so and I probably had about 4 gallons left…such a good car. The highest mileage on a tank of gas that I can remember was 470 or so. I planned it right by not having to pay for that tank of gas and we got the first tank of gas in the new car free! I have high hopes that this new car will be fuel efficient, but I am pretty sure I will be a little disappointed.

We finally left the dealership around 730. We had not had much to eat and were in need of food and water. We decided to go to a sushi place by our house. Unfortunately, it was closed. So we went to another sushi place which had a 45 minute wait…ugh! So we settled on Sammy’s Woodfired pizza next door. While waiting to order a huge sundae was brought to another table. We decided we should celebrate with one too. But buy the end of the meal we decided that we would just go to Vons and get some ice cream, which in the long run will be cheaper, last longer and be less fat and calories. It was delicious! We got home around 930…what a long day. It felt like we had spent the day at Disneyland. It really wore us out.

Today is a new day…what large purchase should we make today?