Life is Expensive
This black friday I had my hopes set on this:
Cool, right? Well - yes, and no. I do really, really love our new Toyota Rav4, but was geared up to spend around $800 this week, not so much the more than $800 a new car costs. I should also mention that I have been saving for the past 3 months for my big tv purchase and had finally saved $750 this week when our money pit Buick Rendezvous finally decided enough was enough and decided it only wanted to drive to Clarksburg West Virginia, not Morgantown...another hour down the road. So needless to say there will be no big fancy tv in my house this Christmas season, (boo hoo hoo) but hey - I can live without a tv, but I can't live without a car.
As sad as I am at the loss of my near tv purchase (and all of my financial savings!) I am grateful this Thanksgiving week for many things. Here are just a few things I've learned this week:
1. Never buy a Buick....NEVER! I actually learned this many years and thousands of dollars in repairs before this week, but wanted to pass on my knowledge to the 2 people that perhaps may read this blog. Sometimes bad choices (or purchases) haunt you for years and it is better to make the right choice in the first place than to suffer the consequences of bad choices or purchases.
2. It is hard to find a mechanic the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving during hunting season in West Virginia! Thank goodness for our GPS and cell phone - we called literally every shop in the area and finally found somebody who picked up the phone and so we had it towed there.
3. When life is tough, it can always be worse. I was reminded of this Friday night when at 12:30 am we were awoken in our hotel room by a loud fire alarm and a voice saying "there is a fire in the building...please evacuate..." Since our kids miraculously slept through it Brian went down to the lobby to see if it was a real fire or not while I got shoes, jackets, laptops, purses etc gathered just in case. It was at that moment that I realized "yes - a fire in the hotel burning all of our belongings and leaving us stranded yet again without a car would DEFFINATLEY be worse than our current situation." Luckily it was a false alarm and although we lost sleep we didn't lose more than that.
4. There are good people in the world. When our engine died on the side of the highway, we coasted down the road to the next exit. There we found 3 very nice locals who helped take a look at things, recommend good shops, etc. and offered their advice and help gratiously. Even though we ended up having it towed it was nice to know people still help people.
5. It helps to have chearleaders in your life when all the chips fall. My parents are the most optimistic people on the planet. I swear! They have a real knack for seeing any glimmer of good or positive in any situation. On our trips to WV we have had an emergency appendectomy, been there for my father's heart attack, stopped over during an especially bad move from Delaware where everything went wrong, and just last winter travelled through a blizzard and almost rolled our car off a bridge. Some may say we should never step foot in WV again - but as my parents see it, we've been blessed to be surrounded by family to support us, help us, and watch our children when we need it most.
6. Time matters. Even though we truly didn't want to have our car die in another state 5 hours from our home this week, in hindsite it all worked out. Our lives are busy, and in some ways it was nice to have 3 full days where all we really had to worry about was car shopping. We didn't have to work, schlep kids to school, or worry about the normal day to day stuff. We were blessed with the gift of time.
7. Next time you think "let's fix _____" on your car, maybe hold off a month. This is the second time we've put hundreds of dollars into a car that stopped working for good a few weeks later. Brian's old truck had 4 really nice new tires on it the day it was totalled and we had just put over $600 into our Buick last month for elective things. Life is expensive and ironic.
I could go on and on - but I really am grateful to both of our families. My kids didn't miss a beat and loved playing with cousins, going to the movies and hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house. Brian's family was also there for us and we are so grateful for their support and that they have a subscription to Consumer Reports :) I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was MUCH less eventful than mine...as it should be...but that we also remember that there is still much to be grateful for no matter what life brings.
But what I got instead was this:
As sad as I am at the loss of my near tv purchase (and all of my financial savings!) I am grateful this Thanksgiving week for many things. Here are just a few things I've learned this week:
1. Never buy a Buick....NEVER! I actually learned this many years and thousands of dollars in repairs before this week, but wanted to pass on my knowledge to the 2 people that perhaps may read this blog. Sometimes bad choices (or purchases) haunt you for years and it is better to make the right choice in the first place than to suffer the consequences of bad choices or purchases.
2. It is hard to find a mechanic the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving during hunting season in West Virginia! Thank goodness for our GPS and cell phone - we called literally every shop in the area and finally found somebody who picked up the phone and so we had it towed there.
3. When life is tough, it can always be worse. I was reminded of this Friday night when at 12:30 am we were awoken in our hotel room by a loud fire alarm and a voice saying "there is a fire in the building...please evacuate..." Since our kids miraculously slept through it Brian went down to the lobby to see if it was a real fire or not while I got shoes, jackets, laptops, purses etc gathered just in case. It was at that moment that I realized "yes - a fire in the hotel burning all of our belongings and leaving us stranded yet again without a car would DEFFINATLEY be worse than our current situation." Luckily it was a false alarm and although we lost sleep we didn't lose more than that.
4. There are good people in the world. When our engine died on the side of the highway, we coasted down the road to the next exit. There we found 3 very nice locals who helped take a look at things, recommend good shops, etc. and offered their advice and help gratiously. Even though we ended up having it towed it was nice to know people still help people.
5. It helps to have chearleaders in your life when all the chips fall. My parents are the most optimistic people on the planet. I swear! They have a real knack for seeing any glimmer of good or positive in any situation. On our trips to WV we have had an emergency appendectomy, been there for my father's heart attack, stopped over during an especially bad move from Delaware where everything went wrong, and just last winter travelled through a blizzard and almost rolled our car off a bridge. Some may say we should never step foot in WV again - but as my parents see it, we've been blessed to be surrounded by family to support us, help us, and watch our children when we need it most.
6. Time matters. Even though we truly didn't want to have our car die in another state 5 hours from our home this week, in hindsite it all worked out. Our lives are busy, and in some ways it was nice to have 3 full days where all we really had to worry about was car shopping. We didn't have to work, schlep kids to school, or worry about the normal day to day stuff. We were blessed with the gift of time.
7. Next time you think "let's fix _____" on your car, maybe hold off a month. This is the second time we've put hundreds of dollars into a car that stopped working for good a few weeks later. Brian's old truck had 4 really nice new tires on it the day it was totalled and we had just put over $600 into our Buick last month for elective things. Life is expensive and ironic.
I could go on and on - but I really am grateful to both of our families. My kids didn't miss a beat and loved playing with cousins, going to the movies and hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house. Brian's family was also there for us and we are so grateful for their support and that they have a subscription to Consumer Reports :) I hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was MUCH less eventful than mine...as it should be...but that we also remember that there is still much to be grateful for no matter what life brings.
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