well, we finally did it. i was anti new car forever, until my van broke down three times this year (you know its bad when triple A sends you a formal letter saying you used up your free towing for the year). i have driven it nonstop for seven years, commuting to work, up and down mountains...never giving it much thought, a jiffy lube oil change here and there and thats it. when it finally broke down, the dealership it was towed to said they had no record of it in their computers, uh, yeah! it has never had a problem, thats why. now mix in chris' new job with a one hour each way daily commute in his truck and we are paying half a paycheck in gas each month.
so what to do? get a hybrid we can share, thats what! it makes sense, it will be driven by the one with the longest commute and on weekends we can carpool around on errands to give the other cars a rest, hey it's family time! my van will be getting a much needed tune up next week and won't have to get me to torrance,beverly hills, santa monica...anymore. it will be retired to hauling craft supplies to camp fire meetings and zipping kids back and forth to school, a well deserved rest. and for anyone who has never driven a hybrid before (yes we got a HYBRID!!) it is like driving a space ship with all the cool gadgets, bells, and whistles. the 15 year, 150,000 mile warranty on the batteries is pretty nice too (oh and the $2100 tax credit will be nice when i get slaughtered at my accountants next year at tax time).
i drove it for the first time last night to our Winging Ceremony, the end of the year ceremony for my bluebirds. it was great to see all the kids and parents in our grade level sing songs and share their favorite events of the year. i was one of the first to talk and mentioned having Lynne Cox talk with us as the highlight of our year for me. i was nervous so that was all i said, several other leaders were quick like me. then a couple leaders got up and read a list (i am not talking a short list either!) of all the things their group had done for the community. these little first graders were standing there while the leaders each read about lemonade sales and garage sales benefiting homeless people, vets, orphans, handicapped kids, animals and on and on the lists went. yikes! i looked at my co-leader kathleen and we both said we need to get our act together next year on community service (something i already was thinking). it was very inspiring to hear what these groups had done and my parents and i joked together after the ceremony that we could have said our "margarita party parent meeting" had been a highlight too! oops! oh well, this year is almost over and we did a great job too!
the girls spot the new car in the driveway
50 miles to the gallon, my kind of car!!! lizzie likes it too.
How wonderful that you got a hybrid! Congrats!
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