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| | Well, we're home and alive. But the van isn't.  We got about 3 hours from home and KAPLOOEY! It wouldn't go over 45 (and we were in a 70 mph zone). It was NOT NICE. We got to a gas station and then called AAA. Then we decided that we'd just go ahead and have lunch while we waited. We had cheese sandwiches, bell pepper, and baby carrots. Yum. Then the tow truck showed up and realized we'd need a cab, too, so we waited for a cab. Finally the cab showed up, and we got taken to the nearest Ford dealership. The mechanics had all just gone to lunch (of course) so we had to wait there, too. The verdict was that it would cost $4,000+ and take 7-10 days. Eww! Jokingly, I turned to  and said "wanna see what they have on the lot?" The mechanic said "we've had people do that." Hmmmmm. We got hooked up with a salesman who showed us used Windstars, and then said that the new ones were about the same price. Eek! So we started looking at new ones. Then the financing didn't go through. My credit's shot from my previous marriage, and doesn't have any credit in the US yet. They couldn't get the Ford financing to go through at all under either of our names, or both ours together. Sooo, we looked at Mazdas. We got a 2002 Mazda MPV with dual sliding doors in Coastal Blue. Prettyyy. (Links here: 1, 2, 3, 4) This took about 8 hours, of course. That meant our nice early start was totally wasted.
So we spent the night in St. Elmo, Illinois. Heehee. My dad asked if there was a fire there, but of course, I kept thinking of that red Muppet with the annoying voice.
We finally got there the next afternoon and got to sit down on a couch with a cold glass of something to drink. Aaah. Then we left again on Friday to go to Michigan. We even got to take a case of wine coolers from Dad, on condition that we not bring any back! We succeeded by putting them on a picnic table in the middle of the action. Heehee. We had a lot of fun and managed not to get sunburned, too.
Then we spent the rest of our 2 weeks at Dad's house. We had fun in Ohio. We went to the Longaberger Homestead, to COSI, the Velvet Ice Cream mill (where we got gum on our brand new floor mats. Grr.) let's see, where else? For our anniversary we went to a Hibachi place in Columbus. It was so good. The cook was pretty funny, and very flirtatious with me. Heehee. We also went to see Men In Black II and Spider-Man. We all went to see Lilo & Stitch. Wow, that was a lot of moviegoing! When we were in MIB, Dad sneaked in and gave us a gift certificate to dinner and cards from him and from Mom. Mom's had come in the mail, so he just sneaked it to us. Heehee.
My aunt was also visiting Dad at the same time we were. We overlapped pretty nicely. She says Nate's just like Dad when he was that age, and she should know, she was like 11 at the time, and did a lot of the raising. We played cards and dominoes and Clue most evenings. We all got pretty silly as the night wore on, too, so relaxed and they all really got to know each other.  Fun Fun Fun.
Andrew was funny when it was time to come home. I went in to "squeeze the boys" (that means to make them pee) before putting them in the car for the day. Andrew waved to me and said, "Goodbye Mommy." "Ummm, I planned on taking you with me, Sweetie." "No, you leave me here at Grandpa's." "But nobody's here to stay with you." "Where's Grandma?" "She's at work, Sweetie." "Take me to work, then." "No, I'm taking you home with ME!" "Nooooo! I want to stay with Shiloh and Phoebe and Gandalf! (The dogs and cat)" Heehee. "I can't leave you here without any grownups." "Take me to work with Grandma, then." We couldn't have if we wanted to ... they both work on a military installation, and there's no way we were getting in without ID. Silly kid. Nate said it was strange to be home. He was used to Grandma and Grandpa's house. and I are just spoiled and used to being cooked for now. 
OK. Time to go out for dinner. I've missed my favorite restaurant. | | | Posted 7/12/2002 6:07 PM - 1 view - 1 comments
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