New Car

Hello again! Exciting news.

I have been looking for about 3 months for a new, four door car. I currently had a two door, 2007, Honda Civic. This was a great, reliable car that only had the problems of needing brakes replaced every 8 months, and constant checkpoint checks (hey, I thought Honda's were supposed to be cheap). The main problem was that I had 38 months left on the loan, my monthly payments were at least $475 a months, and my car insurance was $100 a month. Plus, If I plan on having children in the next 5 years, I would like to have a 4 door car that has been paid off (since babies are expensive enough). I've looked at Honda's, Toyota's, Mazda's, Dodge's, etc. I thought I found a great day in San Jose for a Mazda Tribute. Such a cute car and worth the price. While driving to San Jose on a Thursday afternoon, I found out that my car was starting to make some disturbing sounds. Not only was it making a high squeeling noise when accelerating, it was also making the familiar squeeking sound that brakes make when the brake pads are running thin. This, to me, meant that I would be paying a lot of money for car repairs in the near future. Long story short, I went all the way to San Jose Mazda just to find out that they had sold my Tribute 15 minutes before I got there. I ended up going across the street to the Subaru dealership. I have had rave reviews about Subaru's, but they were always above my price range. I was able to talk down the dealer $4k and was able to make a deal that now I save money: My loan period was only extended 6 months, I was paying a lower APR, my payments dropped over $120 a month, and my car insurance dropped $30/month. I ended up getting the 2007 Subaru Forrester (please view the picture below). I am so happy with my purchase and it will better serve me up in the mountains then my civic. I have heard many good things about Subaru and it looks like it will last me well past my 4 year loan. :)

2 months

Wow. Embarrasing. It's been two months since I've written? Some great blogger I am. Let's see if I can remember all that happened that were milestones.

Art Fair- Nick did great in the art fair. He sold many paintings and even got commissioned on new jobs. I am so proud of him.

School- I started my Bachelor degree program. Instead of having two classes every 9 week like the AA program, I have one class every 5 weeks. Aside from these short classes, we also have to do group projects with at least 3 other class mates. This is challenging because I never meet these people face to face and we are in different time zones. Also, we are from different age groups, so ego's come in to play. I had a poor encounter with one class mate that chose that his ego was more important than looking out for the best of the group. Usually, classmates change each class, but I discovered in my next class that he would most likely be in all my classes for the next 15 months. Maturity tells me to suck it up and hope I don't get the guy in my group again. I hope I can endure til I graduate in 2011.

Family- Nick's parents went to Italy for two weeks and had a great time. While they were gone, I quite enjoyed driving Nick to work every morning. The only bad mornings was when he was dealing with his sprained ankle. He was coming out of a restaurant on Sunday and he stepped off the high curb. He didn't land correctly so he twisted his ankle. The swelling and bruising started immediately. We were able to wrap and ice his foot. Now, a week later, he is able to walk on it and is slightly bruised, but it is still tender. I have been lucky enough to spend time with my parents and other family members. I love them and feel so lucky that I am able to live close to a lot of my family members. I will especially miss Rachel when she moves to Georgia! Thank goodness for free national calling charges. :)

This is the end of this post. Now to a more current day.