Aubrey and the Cupcake

If you give a boy a cupcake...

The comment he was making when the memory card ran out was, "Aubrey made a mess" (which of course came out may-ess). Uh, ya think?

Please forgive the baby nudity. She was just out of the tub and trying so hard that I couldn't resist. Is it evil to seriously consider knocking her over when she tries to crawl/walk just to see if I can keep her little for just a bit longer??? It's going by way too fast.

Vista BMW Pompano Beach

You Get What You Pay For

Today I'm doing something I swore I wouldn't: I'm actually creating an entry in the hopes people will read it.

If you are considering buying a car from Vista Motors of Pompano Beach, please read this!

Now, let me preface this by saying, I'm not crazy. There aren't any snakes in my head. I'm a college educated, married mother of 2 small children. I vote Republican. I have a job. I attend church regularly. I don't drink or smoke. I don't eat fried foods. I describe myself as such in an effort to show that I'm a conservative, cautious individual.

Unfortunately, I'm married to a cheap man. I mean, a man who likes nice things but doesn't want to pay for them. This leads us to our current dilemma.

Memorial Day weekend we negotiated a deal with Vista Motors of Pompano Beach for a 2006 BMW 525i. We were able to purchase the car for a good $2,000 less than any other place we had tried. Now, we live in rural MS, so of course all of this was done via telephone and fax. It was a reasonably amicable exchange. The car was certified pre-owned, which created an image in our heads. There was some angst concerning the odor or lack thereof in the car: we wanted in writing that the car was a non-smoker car and the dealership assured us that it was, but was hesistant to put it in writing. Hmmm, we should have walked but the bait of such a deal was too good to pass. Let me list the issues for you:

1. We received the car on a Sunday afternoon. Monday while my husband was enroute to work, the check engine light came on. We had to take the car to our local dealer, an hour away, 3 times before the car was fixed. The car spent 3 weeks total in the shop. It ended up being a faulty fuel pump. The car was on the road less than 20 miles before the light came on.


2. We received the certified, pre-owned car with 1 key and no floor mats. This is the 3rd pre owned luxury auto we've purchased and it never crossed my mind that we would not receive 2 keys and a full set of new floor mats.


3. The car had an odor. Granted it was a very strong air freshener smell, but a 3 year old car that hasn't been smoked in shouldn't need such an air freshener. The dealership couldn't have known that I have a very sensitive nose to which such strong scents are highly irritating, which was one of the reasons we didn't want a previously smoked in car. We could have children with severe respiratory issues or a smoke allergy, thus making it a significant reason for not wanting a previously smoked in vehicle. Thankfully, it is only irritating and not allergenic. Still, it is a bit suspicious.


4. This is the big one--we received no paperwork for the title. I didn't thing to look for it, so I packed up our 2 small children (in the rain) and drove to the courthouse to apply for the tag, only to find that I didn't have the paperwork. The dealership has assured us that they are applying for our tag and thus we do not need the title paperwork. Wasted trip dragging an 8 month old and a 3 year old out. 2 months later we still have no tag. I've called the dealership 3 times and my husband has called twice. We've tried to be only pleasant and accommodating, but this is ridiculous. The dealership now says that there is something we need to sign at the courthouse, so now that's another trip. Why couldn't we just get the title paperwork and apply for the tag ourselves? The dealership says that it is a BMW policy that they apply for the tag but our local dealer says that they've never heard of such policy.

We now have 2 keys and new floormats, which required about 5 calls to the dealership and one call to BMW USA. The floormats, when they finally arrived, were the wrong color and I had to drive them to Jackson to exchange them. I was NOT going to ship them back to Fla and wait another 2 months for mats. We have yet to receive a tag and I'm not too certain what I'll do if this doesn't get straightened out soon.

If you see a car on the internet at Vista Motors of Pompano Beach, don't be enticed by a low sales price. You can save some money but spend hours on the phone trying to get the minimum of what you should get from BMW. It's your call, but I for one will never do it again.

Update: The tag is at the courthouse and ready for us to pick up. If I have to drive to the courthouse to pick it up, just let me apply for it outright. However, I'm thankful to be done with Vista Motors. Did I mention my husband called and the Check Engine light is on again?

Family Reunion

We are home from our family reunion in KS. Hmm, if you are asked to travel 800+ miles with 2 small children, think very thoroughly on it. We did it and survived, but barely. My kids were great and enjoyed themselves and it was wonderful to see cousins, aunties, uncles and GG again. But, if you find yourself facing several plane rides and you want to know how to prepare, here are some tips.

1. Go immediately to your family physician and tell him or her that you need some Xanax. All you have to do is tell them you are flying with your children and they should understand. Now, they may want to know if you need that in an adult or pediatric dose. I'd recommend adult.

2. Find a very confined space in your house. The inside of a kitchen cabinet should do. Crawl in there, put the baby in your lap and a carry-on bag at your feet. Sit in there at least 2 hours at a time, longer if your flight is transcontinental, or heaven forbid, overseas. If you really want to recreate and practice for your trip, put your toddler in the cabinet next to you and make sure you stay in there until he has to pee.

3. You're gonna have to go through security. Put one of your kids in the stroller and load it with the diaper bag, a car seat, and various sundry items. Pinch the other kid to make sure they are crying. Now unload the stroller with the crying kid on your hip. Slip off your shoes and get all of the stuff on your kitchen counter as fast as humanly possible. Yes, that includes folding the stroller and putting it up there too. Don't drop the baby. If you cannot perform this feat in 10 seconds you are too slow. For effect, record yourself grumbing and making impatient noises and replay it in the background as you are trying to perform the described act of God. Oh and I forgot, you have to remove your childrens' shoes and ensure that the one walking free doesn't dart off when you aren't looking.

4. Decondition the baby to having a warm bottle by slowly cooling the temperature with each feeding. She should be able to slurp down a bottle made with water from a water fountain without complaint. Asking for hot water in an airport terminal is like asking for free food. Good heavens we don't give out hot water. Breast feeding? Lucky you. Just make sure that you are used to doing it with people gawking because there certainly isn't anyplace remotely private from the time you leave your car in the parking deck until you get in the car picking you up in the airport. Now, if you don't mind nursing the baby while sitting on a commode, you are golden.

5. Invest in a good, sturdy DVD player and some headphones as well as some mindnumbing kid DVDs. No, I'm serious here. You won't regret it.

6. Just stay home. You'll thank me for that little tidbit later.

Hope these tips help.

Friends

As you can see I'm quite the prolific blogger. What can I say? I'm busy and jotting stuff down for no one to read is not on the top of my to-do list. I've made no burning discoveries in the worlds of knitting or sewing, so I can't post my tidbits. Hmmm, what to write?

My dearest friend in Magee is moving next week. It couldn't be just down the road or out of town. Oh no, she is Moving. To New Albany. Now, that's only 4 hours away but with 2 young kids it might as well be the moon. I knew it was coming: she's a Methodist Preacher's wife. Unfortunately, knowing it was coming hasn't made it hurt less. Knowing you are about to have surgery surely doesn't make that hurt less either, so I guess that's no surprise. I don't know which hurts worse, the fact that there will be no 'Knock, knock' and girlfriend time or that I have to try to explain this to a 3 year old. He will be crushed.

In an effort to do something I've reserved library books about friends moving away. I've bought craft projects for us to do together and I plan to clean out every closet in my house and chunk 3/4 of the junk I have. Darn you, Dirt Cheap. I've planned trips to visit friends and days at the pool. My employer would like to keep me on payroll too, so there goes a few hours every now and then. Surely this will be okay....

Introduction

If I wrote an autobiography it would have to debut on the Bargain Table at Books-a-Million. I have a very ordinary life. My parents were the Cleavers and I was the Beav, with the exception that I was not nearly as funny as him. I guess when you think about it, my life wasn't so ordinary (growing up) because my parents were married and quite happily. My life didn't start to get interesting until college, but even then it was unexceptional. However, it is a good life and I'm quite happy. I say all this because if you are looking for scintillating reading, this is not the place. I want a place to jot down my thoughts and discoveries in the various parts of my life. If you're looking for hints and frustrations about parenting, knitting, sewing, or the lovely life of a SAHM, you're in the right spot.
Happy Reading. Don't do it tired.