I've been (sorta) off-grid

We've been all over the state the past few days!

Thursday morning, our day started with a 2-hour trip to a friend's car dealership to pick out our new vehicle.

I had taken my new project along with me using some Lion Brand homespun yarn.  I had the whole skein to go and I thought it would have plenty of yarn without running out for the trip.  Ummm....... I guess I misjudged how much I could use up in that time.  So, I was given permission from Candace to work on her scarf.  It's a good thing the kids were prepared to help out dear ol' Mom :)

And, after a 3-hour chitchat with our buddy Shannon (yes, a boy)......It's official.  I am now a minivan driving Mamma!  Oh boy.  

I'm not super materialistic by any means!  I carry a little card-wallet as my purse and not an extravagant handbag.   I dress very simply;  no extravagant outfits.   I will admit though.... the black leather interior of the van looks pretty extravagant :) !  

And after about 30 minutes of driving it, I figured out the radio system (pretty much).  LOL.  Seriously!  There was more than one time during the informational show-n-tell by Shannon when I thought that this thing is a very expensive computer!  LOL.    And I am realllly liking all the options I have at my fingertips on the steering wheel!  

The most memorable moment when learning about all the gadgets and what-not from Shannon.....

Me:  Shannon, ummm....where is the odometer?

Shannon:  Amy, you see that two-one-emmm-i showing there on screen?  That's the odometer.

Me:  Wow!  21 miles!  I don't think I've even test driven a vehicle with so few miles!  Ever!

So, it now has over 400 miles on it with all the other running we've done since then!

First, it was off to pick up Cassie from her week at the University of Wisconsin - STOUT for her Science-Technology-Engineering camp.  We enjoyed an hour long graduation ceremony and chatted a bit with some of the other parents before heading out again.

We had total intentions of stopping at home only briefly to pack up clothes for the weekend and to feed the animals.  It was about 8:00 when we rolled in home, but both Paul and I were a bit groggy and under the weather, so we postponed our departure until Friday morning.

And then.........total relaxation up at the Farm!  And no surprise here.... I crocheted.

On Saturday, I put the last stitch into the simple V-stitch afghan using the Lion Brand homespun:  Painted Desert colorway.  It is sooooooooooooooo soft!  Holy moly!  

Originally, I planned to do a different pattern.  But.  One thing about this yarn.... it's not the easiest to use when it comes to being able to find your stitches.  So, the V-stitch pattern was found and used;  it only requires you to crochet into spaces and not stitches.  Perfect.

AND!  The "Super Fast and Easy Throw" pattern was teasing on my brain the entire time I was working on the V-stitch homespun afghan.  SO, Caitlyn and I went shopping for colors for her.  The red, white and blue is what she chose.   The first few rows of the pattern were slow-going, and I ended up altering it just a bit on the single-crochet rows;  I'm sc into the ch1 spaces instead of into the stitches.  I like how it enhances the gaps more, plus... it's a bit easier :)

And darn!  I just took a closer look at the pictures shown in the pattern;  now I understand the comments from some of the other ladies who said it appears that their project was two stitches off on row 3 because their rows weren't lining up correctly.  My 5-clusters aren't lining up as shown in the pictures, but I followed the pattern.  I guess I'm agreeing with all the other commenters who suggested that an error was apparent in the pattern.  Gah.  Wish I would have looked sooner.  BUT, I was, afterall, off-grid for the past few days;  I only had the pattern in my hand that I had printed off before leaving.

Oh well....know what??? Caitlyn will still like it!  And now.... it kinda looks like a wavy flag!  Cool design change, right??!?! :D

Alright!  Ummm.....

Man!  AUGUST this week already!!!!! Eye and Dentist appts the next two days;  gardening ... crocheting... yup.  More of the same I think once Wednesday hits.  Then again, maybe a road trip or two will need to be planned to break in the van a bit more :)

Happy Sunday everyone.

Out with the old...

It's time.

The yellow machine is beginning its downward death spiral into the abyss of "been there" vehicles. 

:(

205,000 miles;  we got her in 2003 when she was only 40,000 miles young.

2001 Ford Escape when we were building the house in 2003

SO....now; the decisions!!!!!

The rest of this post sounds like something out of a Car-n-Drive magazine.  If you are also a family searching for a new vehicle, by all means;  read on!  If not, continue at your own potential boredom :)

Chevy Traverse

For the past few months, we have only been looking around for Chevy Traverses.

Traverse Interior - 3rd seat (seats 7)

We know we want something with the 3rd row seat due to the girls getting older; having friends to bebop around here-there-everywhere.  Of course, with the 3rd row seat, the back row has a tendency to be a bit squished, BUT I actually sat in the back of one yesterday, and had decent leg room.  Mind you, I'm only 5'4".  However, when we had Cassie crawl in back (currently 5'6"--that girl is GROWING!!!), she also had adequate leg room.  Sitting 3-wide is a different story for any trip of distance, BUT kiddos can manage if it came to that scenario.

Traverse Storage

Even storage is adequate with all the seats available.

Traverse Storage with seats folded

Of course, even better with the seats removed (if need be.)

Traverse towing capabilities

Many of them come with AWD (all-wheel-drive);  always a nice PRO for those of us in the northern parts of the nation getting dumped on with snow for over half the year.  And the towing capabilities should make Paul happy;  no more need to have the truck pull the boat.

Everything sounds GREAT right?!?!?!?!?!

The sad reality;  the price ticket has the potential of being in our ballpark, but many of the low-mileage ones we looked at yesterday were starting to jump out of our budget :(

So, we put the mileage on yesterday traveling around from town-to-town 9AM until 4PM, stopping at any and most dealerships we saw.

GMC Acadia

Acadias were looked at as well; being so similar to the Traverses;  sadly those prices were also similar.

GMC Yukons are also an ideal consideration;  until you look at THAT price tag!!!   

And don't EVEN get me started on Suburbans!  LOL.  Noooooooooo thank you, Sir!

And THEN!..... Enter Chad from a Chevy/Chrysler dealership.

That lil' man ACTUALLLLLLLY started wheeling-n-dealing for me to consider a MiniVan.

Showed us a spiffy lil' Chrysler Town-n-Country (as spiffy as they can be, I suppose) decked out with every little add-on under the sun!

Chrysler Town & Country (trying to look bad a$$)  LOL

Showed us how this seat can fold this way;  that seat can fold that way;  the "Stow-n-Go" capabilities or to use that space under the floorboard as storage;  the roomy no-need-to-exit-vehicle to move from seat to seat if needed...

The prices are in our range

The interior space is exactly what we need

There truly are a LOT of PROS that Paul and I seriously started to consider as we continued our dealership trip.

After all was said-n-done.

We don't have a vehicle yet.

Ummm......we haven't narrowed our choices down either!  In fact, we added some. LOL

For me, the two CONS about a mini-van;  NO 4WD/AWD and NO towing capabilities (more like NOT able to pull our boat out of the water from the landings).

The PROS;  COST being #1--a 2010 standard features we looked at yesterday is waaaaaay into our budget with LOTS of room to spare.

Hohum; hohum.

NOT liking about having to choose from all of our choices now.

To be continued....

Facing reality?

My car has its own little attitude.

Lately, I don't know if it's trying to tell me it has a mind of its own; or if it simply being indecisive.

Over the past week, it seems that my car can't decide WHICH headlight it wants to actually utilize for those dusky hours.  One day, the left headlight is the only one that is shining.   The next day, the right headlight will decide to work while the left one doesn't.  Honestly, I have no clue if there is a "short" somewhere?  the bulbs aren't properly installed?  Wiring problems?  I have no clue.  I do know that since we've had it (9 years now!), the lights have always been problematic. 

So tonight....4:45....dusk literally on the horizons;  NEITHER light decides to work.  Therefore, the grocery shopping spree was postponed so I could make it home while at least a little dusk light remained.  Three miles from home, the left light flickered on after hitting a little bump.

So yeah...time to bite the bullet and realize:  It's time to CAR SHOP!