Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy Holiday!

Best $1000 I ever spent

When I was 16 I got my driver's license. Not right away as I turned 16 in March and I was still taking driver's ed. I also couldn't drive until I could get my own insurance so I had to have a job. Anyway - when that was all in place and I passed the test (the second time) I got a car. My first car was a 1972 Datsun B110. It was orange and we called it the little orange bomber. It's official name was the Little D - as it was my Dad's car and he was Big D. Well, driving a car that belongs to your parents has it's pitfalls. I was not allowed to drive their other cars as I was only insured on the Datsun. AND if I was to get in to any trouble the car was the first to go. My dad would take the car for missed classes, fallen grades, late curfew, you name it. I finally had enough of the car being taken away - in fact so had my mother. On one occasion I was grounded from the car except for going to school and back - I also had a job. My mom let me take the car to work too because she just couldn't get me all over town and back. Shhh don't tell - my dad still doesn't know. So anyway, enough of the car being taken away - I unloaded all of my belongings one day and literally threw the keys at my dad and told him I would buy my OWN DAMN CAR! Yes, that's exactly what I said. So, at 17 I had about $1000 in the bank and my mom tracked down a car for me to buy. I took my hard earned money over and made the exchange $1000 for a 1978 Datsun Pickup - it was red. This little truck got a lot of use. I bought it in 1990 and drove it for my entire senior year. I went to Ricks for my first year with no car but the second year my friend Stefani and I loaded up truck and headed to Idaho. We underestimated the amount it would cost in gas and had no money to stay in a hotel so we drove straight through. It was brutal but we made it. When I got married we were one of the few couples I knew with 2 cars. I had the truck and Stew had a little blue Mercury Tracer. I would go home and friends I had would ask if I remembered that little red truck and I would respond "you mean the one in my driveway at home?" I drove that little truck until 1999 when I sold it on July 4th. Why did I sell it? Well, I was a month away from having my second baby and there were only 2 seatbelts. Not enough room to haul two kids around. The second reason we sold it was because it didn't have A/C and my husband didn't want to drive it. So, off went the little red Truck - which I sold for $500 - and I got the Tracer and Stew bought a used Ford Ranger. Since then I've driven only 3 other cars - the Sienna I sold before we moved to England, the Toyota Picnic I drove IN England and now another Sienna. There are definitely days that I miss running around town in that little red truck though.

Just a Story

You know how you have a story, something that happened to you or someone else that makes people say REALLY? Well I was reading on another blog this morning and her story was about how she left for the weekend for a trip with friends and her parents moved while she was gone. They didn't move HER stuff, they just moved their things. Totally crazy - wouldn't you say? My story isn't that fantastic but at the time it was unbelievable to me.

Right before I left for college I was spending a lot of time with this guy Terry. He first dated my friend Cameo, as I was dating Pete. Things go as they sometimes do and relationships changed and Terry and I became good friends if nothing else. So time goes by and I go to Ricks College in Idaho, leaving behind all of my friends in California. I got a phone call one night from Cameo saying that she was pregnant and that she was unsure what she was going to do. She was a senior in highschool at the time. We talked about all sorts of things and about what her and her boyfriend were going to do. I would say a month or so went by and I made a phone call to Pete, who I mentioned above, and he wasn't home. I was chatting with his roommate and then asked if he wouldn't mind going a few doors down and seeing if Terry was home - Terry didn't have a phone and since Pete wasn't home I guess I figured it was fair game to chat with Terry. Then the shocking thing happened. Brian, the roommate, says "Terry isn't here anymore, he moved out." Okay, so that is curious. Where did he move to? "Cameo and Terry got married this weekend so he moved in with her." WHAT? Seriously, how do you leave for college and then a month later your best friend and your boyfriend get married? They didn't even call to let me know.