Good bye Scout, Hello Jet!

So, as many of you have found out, Jerry and I recently utilized the Cash for Clunkers program and purchased ourselves a BRAND NEW CAR!!! We thought for sure that it would be years (more like 15) before we were able to do that, but after saving, saving, saving, and saving some more, we paid off a brand new vehicle on the spot. And so, after being with me for 6 faithful years, I sadly had to say goodbye to my trusty 4Runner, Scout.

As much as I would have LOVED to buy another 4 wheel drive vehicle, paying off a brand new car is better than going into debt on something that can wait a few years (see mom and dad-aren't you PROUD?!?!;)).

And so, I'd like to introduce everyone to our brand new Honda Civic LX, 4 cylinder, manual transmission vehicle...ladies and gentlemen, Jet.

I don't care, Jerry, if you don't believe in naming cars. I do, and I drive it the most, so there. I believe in the long run, if you name your car, you'll treat it a little better, and it'll be good to you. So there you have it folks...the newest member of our family.

In other related news-seeing as how we purchased Jet the day before my birthday-we went to my parents just after purchase to celebrate my b-day and my dad's that was going to happen when he was out of the town. (Mine's the 15th-his the 18th.) We had a great time. On Saturday I decided that I'd rather chill out at home with a great barbequed meal than go someplace fancy. So, we grilled some steak and veggies and had a fabuloso dinner. Jerry whipped up a delicious fun-fetti cake. My dad decided to help decorate....

Clearly the logical choice after failing out of cake decorating was to go to law school...it was his only option left.....and yes, I turned 26-represented at the top by two and six candles...

I appreciate the effort and love that went into this though! I love you Jer and dad!

Hershey!

So we had a great time on our trip to Hershey Park on the first weekend of August. We didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few-mostly of the kid.

Here she is on her very first solo amusement park ride. She had a ball-it was the little kiddie ride that's hot air balloons. She went on it about three time before our trip was over.

She also seems to be quite the little daredevil. She made Jerry go on this ride with her, which goes surprisingly fast! It also had a joy stick at the front of the space ship that controls it going up and down-Jer wanted it down, she was all about going up!

I'm quite lucky I got this shot.

Of course she went on the swings. They're her favorite!

She also insisted on going on the carosel several times. It was fun though.

For the first time ever, we got our caricature drawn. Misha was not a happy camper at the time, so the fact that he was able to capture her so completely from the one or two times that she smiled was quite good! He also kept saying while he was drawing me that it looked like I was a presidential candidate. I said yeah, my campaign would be "Grow up, go to school, and get a good job with health insurance benefits. Sorry, the welfare system is closed." He he. All in all it was a really fun trip.

Happy Birthday!

To me! Okay, so it was Saturday, but who cares?!?




Yes! That's right! Jerry got me a Nikon D5000 for my birthday!!!! My camera actually came with Tamron lenses, not Nikon ones, but the reviews have been fairly similar, and I think will be great for what I'm planning on doing with it for my little side hobby. I LOVE it. I'm still a bit intimidated by it, but I took a picture this morning that if you asked me turned out pretty darn good.



Look at how beautiful my little girl is! It kills me. This isn't quite as sharp as it appears on the camera, or when downloaded to my computer, but it still gives you somewhat of an idea....

Hope everyone's good out there-we went to Hershey Park a couple of weeks ago, I'll be posting pictures soon.