Weekend of Cars

So I am adjusting very well to my new TAN car! Well actually the boys call it a truck. I'm not sure what to call it to be honest, but I am adjusting very well. In fact...I LOVE IT!!! I am finding new gadgets all the time and I am very grateful that we have it! So here are some pictures.I must tell you all that the grill (or whatever you call that black thing) is, as we speak, being taken off. I debated it because if William wrecks again it will protect our front end, but we came to a decision and it is coming off.

Yesterday we spent the day in Indy with Williams mom and husband (aka Mama and Dave :) ) and went shopping. They had seen a store called Ride Makerz and wanted to take the boys. So we made a day of it. Its like a boys version of Build A Bear only they build CARS. It is the coolest thing I have ever seen.

First you pick out your body. Then you can pick out you own music. I forgot to take pictures of that. Oops! :) Then you decide if you want remote control and/or monster or street car. The boys opted for remote control street cars.

Then its off to pick out your tires and rims. The cars come with standard black or you can upgrade. We gave the boys a chioce. You can pick one upgrade, tires or rims. There are so many choices!! You would think you were building a real car. :) Mason choose to upgrade his tires to black and red ones. Weston choose to upgrade his rims to gold dragon ones (dragon rims on a fire truck, how cool!) and Isaac liked the black and decided to go with the standard. The cool thing is that even though they upgraded they still got the ones that came standard. So it was 2 for the price of 1...I LOVE IT!!There was a whole other row of rims that for some reason I didn't get in the picture.

Then it was off to put it together!! You could even race each other to see who could put it together the fastest. We opted out of that one.

So here's the finished products!! Weston choose to do a fire truck with the siren music..how appropriate! Which we could not talk him out of. :) And boy did he know what he was doing. He has one that can be switched out into the most things.

Isaac chose a Mustang with fire flames down the side with the rockin music.Mason chose a red Viper! He is definitely his dads child! LOL Then it was time to try them out! Yes...they let them play with them IN the store! Where do you get to do that?! While they were playing we were looking. You can buy decals, roof racks with surf boards, side pipes, underglows...you name it they have it. Its all magnetic so you can add and take away and redesign your car whenever you want. We did let Weston get some sirens for his fire truck. No fire truck is complete without sirens. :)

It was a great time!! And I have a feeling that it won't be the last. :) I'm almost done, hang in there! The post wouldn't be complete without some much needed sleeping pictures!

Thanks Mama and Dave for a GREAT DAY!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

And the color is....

TAN!!!!!!!

Can you freaking believe it?!! The inside color you ask...TAN!! The whole freaking thing is TAN!! Seats, floor boards, dash board, steering wheel and all!! Well, actually they call it Gold, but seriously call it what you want...tan, gold, cacky, beige, sandstone, etc...all the same color. I mean come on! Including the rental and this new car, that makes 4, I repeat, 4 cars in the same boring color....TAN! What kind of a color is tan anyway. Its not! Any color other than tan, is that too much to ask for? When I hung up with Matt today I forgot to ask him the color so I called him back. Now picture this ladies. I was standing in the parking lot of McAlisters when he told me. People probably thought I was nuts as I'm ranting about the color tan to my friend very loudly..."Tan, its freaking tan!". His reply, well God must want you in tan for a reason. Ha Ha your so funny! I was really playing with him I wasn't mean to him I promise. :) He's laughing at me by the way. He still thinks its funny. I, on the other hand, do not.

So I'll be sporting around town in my TAN 2003 Ford Expedition gas hog with a sunroof. hee hee :)

GOOD NEWS!!!!

WE GOT IT!!!! OK, so we don't actually have it now because it has to be cleaned up and checked out, but it is ours! We pick it up tomorrow!! So I'm going to prepare you that I am going to list everything it has. I'm not doing it to brag honest. I'm doing it to show myself the positive side of this because I have to admit that I walked off the lot a little bummed, ok alot bummed. Oh and the first person to tell me what color it is gets a Bozo Button! haha Emily, your disqualified. :)

So this is what I love about it!! And it meaning its a 2003 Ford Expedition. It only has 36,000 miles on it!! It has leather seats, 3 rows so the children will be seperated again (finally some peace and quiet haha), 6 cd player, the pedals move up so I don't have to be so close to the air bag (being short thats huge), a sunroof (which I have never had), the seats fold down into floor, 4 windows to roll down, it has an alarm button on the keyless entry, it has keyless entry, it has a middle shoulder strap seat belt for Mason to sit in the middle, a step for us short people to get into it, the handles are cool (thats a hard one to explain), it has 4 wheel drive, the tow package (so if I ever get rich enough to buy a boat I could haul one haha), heated side mirrors and the payment is $130 less than what we were paying which is HUGE!!!!!

The bad news. We don't have it yet because it still has to be cleaned up and checked out. :( Its a 2003, which we had a 2004. I was excited about the other 2003 that had over 80,000 miles so I should be ecstatic about this 2003 with only 36,000 miles. It has an older style. Meaning the body style, handles, the window buttons, speedometer, gear shift, that kind of thing. It doesn't have heated seats which is really nice with leather. It has one major scratch on the passenger side which we hope to get fixed soon and about 6 or 7 small dents around the driver side door handle for me to look at everytime I get in the truck. :) It does not have the dvd player that Mason wanted...ok alright, I wanted it too. It has 3 seats in the middle row, which could be good or bad. Good because I can hold one extra person, but bad because Mason will have to climb over the middle to get in. It doesn't have the rails on the top.

I also have to admit that as I was test driving it I didn't have very good attitude. I couldn't get past the fact that I didn't get in and it feel and smell like a new car because it hadn't been cleaned. So then it just continued with me naming the imperfections. I just had a realization as I was typing that. The truck is kinda like me. A little messy, not perfect and a little scratched up, but still amazing! If God can look past my mess, dings and scratches and still see a wonderfully made person then I should be able to look past this and realize that God is giving me this car (which I will explain more later) and it can and will do amazing things just like me. We all have imperfections and so did our van. I also realized that the bad things really aren't that bad and aren't as many as I thought they were.

Usually when I feel a little uneasy about something I know that its a bad idea. BUT!!! And thats huge! We KNOW that this truck is what God has for us. First of all I must tell you all that Matt has been the one helping us find a vehicle and he has been amazing especially putting up with me and my impatientness. :) Right after he told me it would be like finding a needle in a haystack he walks out to find it sitting right there in front of him. Seriously, now if that isn't God I'm not sure what is. It had 50,000 less miles than the bank wanted and our payments were what we asked for, it did have some of the things we asked for and some other things happened that I'm not sure I'm supposed to share yet, but was a HUGE God thing and I don't throw that saying around.

I have to say that I'm not as bummed now and I'm starting to get excited! I am thinking about getting seat covers so William doesn't make the driver seat all black with his greasy work clothes. You guys should have seen how bad the van was. When I went to clean it out I was so shocked. I don't think you realize it when you look at it everyday. We are also buying black floor mats, I don't care what he says, because he makes the floor boards greasy too with his work boots. Ok, maybe I'll buy the clear ones. :) I know it doesn't do any good to have leather seats that I love so much if you don't see them, but it also doesn't get as much wear and tear on them like clothe either but you can also see black grease easier. If anyone has any suggestions I'm so open to them.

I must tell you all before I end this that the dings and scratches probably aren't as bad as I'm making them sound. It was just a little disappointing. I know that Matt has worked hard at finding us something and feels, like us, that this is what God has for us. For crying out loud, he walked out and there it was!!

So I'm off to go shopping, window shopping that is, for accesories for our new truck! WOO HOO!!! Thank you God!!!!

Don't forget to guess the color! ;)

Seriously

Ok so you all know that I was trying to not get excited about this vehicle and things were not looking good today. So I told myself that if it hadn't happened by tonight then tomorrow I was just going to tell him that maybe we needed to try something else. Really I was at peace about it. Well...he calls me tonight and says its not going to work. Seriously, you read my mind. He told me what we needed to find and said it was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack, but he was going to work his butt off to do it. We needed something 2004 or newer, under 80,000 miles AND around $11,000 ($14,000 after our rollover) but worth enough to hold up what we are upside down on. Impossible...not to GOD! Really guys, I was okay with this surprisingly. :)

So literally 15 minutes later I get another call from him. "I found you a car." Seriously you've got to be kidding me! That quick, we have so much criteria to meet and I just hung up with you. As he was walkijng out to his car to go home they pulled up a trade in they had just taken. Get this, I'm telling you this not to brag but I am so excited that I just have to share and I truely feel like this is God (whether this is the vehicle for us or not its IS possible). It is a 2003 (not what the banks want, BUT) it ony has 30,000 miles on it AND we will also be $3500 under what we were going to finanace the first time. It also, get this, has leather seats, which I prayed for (and I know it sounds silly).

So now that you all now how much we're paying for a vehicle. :) I had a little talk with God today. I have been very nervous and on edge since last Friday. But seriously there is nothing I can do about it. Its up to him. I know that. So I told him today that this is what I would like...an SUV (I know about gas mileage but I'm just ready for something different), leather seats, not be tan (our last 3 cars have been tan) and Mason really wants a dvd player in it. I know that I don't have a right to be picky considering our situation and if I get it I will praise you and if I don't then I will still praise you. But this is what I would really like.

So whether this is the vehicle God has for us or not...he IS working in our situation even if I don't see it all the time and get really, really irritated at the whole thing. But I like to hope that tomorrow, we will be in a vehicle and not just any vehicle, but one thats right for us and one we're meant to have.

Have a great evening! :)

Keep 'em coming!

Keep those prayers coming gals. :) Things are looking on the up. We spent most our day at the dealership and we have a plan! We have found a vehicle! Here's the kicker...it has more miles than we wanted and is a year older than our last van, BUT...it's perfect. Seriously, it couldn't be more perfect. Let's just hope the bank thinks so. :) That's all the details I'm giving. haha I'm really trying not to get my hopes up and get attached because its not finalized yet, that's why I'm not releasing any more details. Listen to me sounding all formal...details haha. But if all goes well, and I'm going to be optimistic (I know what a shock) and say that its gonna! Whether we get this one or not its all gonna work out.

Seriously, I know that it probably sounds silly and so minor, but thanks so much for your prayers!

April~

Oh, and by the way Lindsay...I say seriously ALOT too! If you didn't notice. :)

"I'm not a patient kinda kid."

Mason says those words to me all the time when I tell him to be patient. Right now that is exactly how I feel. We are in the waiting process right now. The van is officially being totaled. I have to send the check to our loan company and we have filled out an application for another vehicle. There is nothing to do but wait. It is out of my hands and I don't like that. I, like Mason, am not a very patient person. I'm a control freak and I hate waiting! I also don't like change. I LOVE routine!! Right now there is nothing routine about this and its driving me crazy! I am literally a mess right now. I am really trying to give it over to God. Its really his anyway. Tomorrow we find out exactly what we can get approved for and then the search begins. We have a certain price range, interest rate and model year that we not only would like, but also kinda need to keep our payments where we want them. I am hoping tomorrow goes kinda fast because I really don't want to just sit around and wait for a call.

We definitely need some prayers in the financial area and getting the right kind of payment and a good deal on a van. Oh, and we only get to keep the rental until next Friday. We don't want to rush into any decisions about a vehicle and make a bad one, but we need this process to move along kinda quickly.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

HUGE Decision!

I got a call today from Masons speech pathologist from last year. She was wondering where Mason was attending school this year so that she could transfer his services. I told her that we had chosen to homeschool and so I figured that we would just stop his speech. She said that Mason can still receive speech at his home school which would be Earhart. For those that don't know we have had bad situations with Earhart from the minute I enrolled him in Kindergarden there to filing a transfer just in case we chose public school. The principal has not been very kind to us at all. So needless to say him receiving speech there would not be a good idea. She said that she would talk to her supervisor and see if Mason could receive his speech at Miami since our request was approved for him to attend there. I have a really close friend of mine that works there and they have a wonderful program.

So, heres my delima. GLASS, in my opinion, has not helped him much. I was very excited to not have to deal with them anymore as I would leave every meeting in tears. They really aren't even working on speech with him, its more concepts. So in my opinion it was a waste of his time to be pulled out of class for it. Since he has received it since Kindergarden up until 2nd grade he has made tremendous amount of improvement, but I'm not sure we can attribute that all to GLASS. I'm not trying to brag on myself or anything really, but I have always had a huge passion for helping him succeed and worked with him constantly! And we were truely blessed with amazing teachers that helped him thoughout the years while not making him feel like he was being singled out. For example they would turn something into a class thing when he struggled with something. It was wonderful. I really feel like its just little things he has now that need to be worked on, using the right context occasionally and a few sounds. But nothing major, really. Again I'm not trying to sound all anti-GLASS. Really I'm not.

I'm not sure taking time out of our schedule twice a week for 20 minutes is really going to do him much good. I am also afraid that the public school will get involved and we will be checked up on to make sure we're actually homeschooling. I don't want to cause a huge dramatic situation. Does that make sense? I also don't want to tell them no and then that cause them to start sending people out as well. Along with the fact that I don't want Mason to get confused on going into a school and then doing school at home. He is a very routine child and does not handle change well at all. You see why this is a HUGE decision!

So my prayer is that God will lead me to do whats best for Mason and our family and that if that is to stop services that there will be no trouble with the public schools and if it is to continue services through Miami that Mason will adjust to it well.



Side note...I had a hard enough time walking through Target today with the kids for fear that someone would ask why he wasn't in school. That was until I saw other older kids with their mom as well. It was still ackward though.