Drivers, Cars, Kids, School. . . Updates. . . .

Big T finally got his driver's license.   Between my schedule and his classes we had a hard time getting everything together.  He had his license for several days before he even wanted to drive anywhere.  He did talk to the school about his parking pass so, he will be able to drive to school and then ride the bus to his school and that will save us on gas.
I was chomping at the bit to get my license when I was sixteen but, neither of my boys have been very excited about it.  Big T did get his license before Sprat though, Sprat was seventeen before he got his license.  My kids are not the only ones that have not gotten their license as soon as they turned sixteen.  I have heard many of my friends  talk about their kids not getting their license right at sixteen either.
You all know Sprat took my little raspberry to Boston so, Big T will be getting Sprat's little blackberry to drive.  I took it and washed it and tried to clean it up a little before we headed out to the DMV.  I was a little embarrassed at how dirty the car was, it really needs a deep clean.  I may take it somewhere and have it detailed later.
Now that we have another driver, it seems we are getting closer to an empty nest.  The boys do not depend on us to take them here and there and they are becoming more and more independent, like young adults.  I am excited to think about an empty nest, the hubbs and I spending quality time together and traveling.  Planning the college tour to Florida and all of our little side trips we took sort of got me excited at the fact that we would be able to do this just the two of us if a few years. 
I really enjoyed our trip to St Lucia, WI that was also a little glimpse at what empty nesting might look like for us. I have always wanted to go to Italy and I would love to go back to Germany and Switzerland.  The hubbs is not that keen on traveling but I think I could talk him in to those trips.
Stay tuned as our College  tours are just beginning and Lax season is getting started.

Photos to Round Out the Week. . . .

Sprat serving Lovefeast before he heads back to shool

Broiled Figs with cream cheese and balsamic vinegar

Yummmm!!! 

Big T on the second day of school, I missed that first day picture 

Last but certainly not least Mama's new glide ride. the retro Thunderbird. 

Sprat will be taking my not so old car to school and this is my new ride.  

School and Cars, Boys and Cars, Moms and Cars . . . .

First day of Junior year.   Yayyy, the hubbs and I had our traditional celebrate the kids going back to school date.   Big T drove to school, still trying to get his hours, with the hubbs.  I worked a half shift last night so they let me sleep in a little so no pictures of first day of school.   The hubbs and I had our traditional back to school breakfast out and  then we drove to pick up my new wheels.  Yep, Mama is getting her very own wheels. I have not had a car that was my very own since before we were married.  I have always had what would pull the boat and what would haul the kids and all their gear.  The hubbs always had a company car so what ever I drove had to cover everything else.  Now that Sprat is in college and I am not hauling everyone to baseball, football and everything in between I can try and find my very own car.  I am so excited.
I have been on a heated search for Sprat a car and have not found anything that fits my pocketbook or my specifications for my kiddo to have.  I did, however, find a neat little gem for myself.  It is more than I wanted to spend on Sprat but less than I had anticipated spending for me.   So, Sprat is getting my not so old car to take to school.   I am not very happy about that but I am pretty psyched about my little T Bird.
The hubbs and I are debt  free except the house and plan on staying that way so, my specs on cars had a whole lot to do with cost and mileage even for myself.  I have been pounding the internet looking for cars for Sprat and on one last ditch effort on tip from a friend I found my little T Bird.  I guess I am in my mid-life crisis.  Since I was a little girl, I have always secretly wanted a convertible and this little T Bird just fell in my lap. 
Sprat is over the moon about getting my car and Big T is happy to have Sprat's first car.  We just have to get Big T a license.  A few more hours to go on his supervised driving and he will be there. 
Stay tuned:  School, Cars, College, Boys, and girlfriends. . . . . . . . . .

Car Shopping . . . but no car payments. . . .

I absolutely detest shopping for a car.  The last two vehicles we purchased were from a car rental company that sells their cars after they are no longer renting them.  Very pleased with our purchases from a quality and a cost standpoint.  You guys know how much I love Dave Ramsey and these vehicles fall into the DR category. 
Sprat is going to need a car this next year at school, Big T gets his car in August. Sprat's new school is a little further out of the city than that first school and the new school allows sophomores to have cars on campus. No, he does not get to pick out what he wants, he will take what we pick out and be happy.  We are now shopping reliable used cars and I have gone back to the rental place.  I have been hawking this website and the lot since it is close to us.  They used to carry a lot of the vehicle I am looking for for Sprat and now they do not have any from this manufacturer. I  am a little bummed and so I have ventured out to the local car lots.  Big mistake, car lots are awful, they want to sell you more car than you want or can afford.  In my case they are trying to sell me more than I want to afford.  I have a dollar amount I am going to spend and I am not going over that for any reason.  I am sticking to my DR plan.  I am not borrowing money to buy this car, we did not borrow to buy the other two and I am not going to for this one either.  Whewww!! It feels good too say that, I will not go into debt for this. 
I will share a little secret too, I am having a little mid - life crisis around this car shopping.  I have found a car that I want and again I have been hawking car websites and such looking for the best deal.  I have had to put that on the back burner till we can get Sprat something to drive but I am still shopping for me.  This will put my mid - life crisis on hold for just a bit because I will not go into debt for my mid-life crisis.  NO more debt for this family!!
Stay tuned for my car shopping adventure.

Oh My Poor Deprived Children. . . How Did They Survive Childhood. . .

My children think they are the most deprived things in the world.  I love it, I have made it my goal to deprive them of everything I can think of.  Heeheehee!!  Not really but, that is what they believe at their very core.  I will never forget when Sprat was in middle school and all of his friends had the latest iphones and poor little deprived Sprat did not have a phone at all.  I am polishing my mean mommy crown as I type this morning.  I know that some kids do need phones and I get that but, at this particular time I was not working and the boys were either at school or at home with me so there was no need for a cell phone for them.  That same year as I was buying school supplies preparing for the August back to school fun, I found this cute little eraser made to look like a smart phone.  You know where my devious mind is going don't you?  I decided to have a little fun with the boy.  I found a box and wrapped up the eraser phone and had it sitting at his place at the dinner table that night.  I think this was his eighth grade year maybe.  Needless to say he was not amused at my humor.   He did finally get a phone, he got a flip phone his freshman year of high school.  He was too embarrassed to carry it so I cut off the service and he did not have a phone again.  He did eventually get a phone his sophomore year because he had his license and I thought he needed a way to get in touch with us if something happened with the car.  He did not get an iphone either and I still have not heard the end of that.  I do not like i products and I will not buy them.   I still have not heard the end of that one especially since  Big T got a cell phone (not an iphone) in his seventh grade year.  He only got one because that was when I went back to work and he would be coming home by himself.  I needed to be able to get in touch with him if I got called in to work and his ride home changed.   Most recently we have had issues with the boys having a car.  Big T will start driving more regularly this Summer and Sprat is going to have to have a car to back to school in September.  Their big question is who gets what car?  Sprat thinks he is getting my car and Big T is getting his old car.  Which is partly correct but, we have not made the decision on that just yet.   While we were at mom's for Easter my brother in law had one of his cars, a cute little BMW, I am sure you can hear my wheels turning.   I asked if we could borrow it for a picture, Big T got in and I snapped a few pictures of him behind the wheel.  Yes, I sent one to Sprat at school via text, no caption just Big T behind the wheel of this sweet little BMW.  Again, I polish my mean mommy crown.  It did not take long to get that return text of "Who is that?"  I replied with, Big T is getting this and you get to take your little blackberry to MA since it has front wheel drive it will do better in the snow.  He replied with, "that does not seem to add up."  This went on for a few hours, he really thought Big T was getting a BMW and he was going to keep his car.  My kids are so gullible some times.  That Sprat even thought I would buy them anything that was better than what I was driving just makes me want to laugh and laugh.
He will never let me forget that Big T got a phone in seventh grade and he did not get one till he was a sophomore in high school.  I keep telling him it was a need based decision.  Loving your kids does not mean bending to their every whim.  Sometimes, it means saying no and meaning it. 
Stay tuned the Boy is on his way home for the Summer, the garden is growing, herbs are growing and I am about to get knee deep in making stuff with my herbs. 

Vehicles Fixed and Back Home. . . and More. .. .

Finally got our truck back that I wrecked hitting the deer on my birthday and got my beautiful earrings back after having the posts changed, and I had a few days off to recoup from a busy work week.  I love my earrings they are so pretty but I think my hubby cheated.  He gave them to me for my Birthday and then gave them to me fixed on Valentine's Day.  I think he might have pulled a fast one on me.  LOL!!  Nahh we do not go in for BIG expensive things for V day any more.  I think we have gown out of that and I am quite fine with that too.  The truck looks great, what I could see of it in the dark, our insurance paid for it since the deer was low on cash.  It ended up costing a lot more than anyone had anticipated, I tell you what when I wreck a vehicle it is done.   I was relieved that I did not get points on my insurance though, two wrecks in three months eeeeek!!!  I think my next vehicle should be a TANK, I was just about side swiped again on the way home from work last night. Speaking of getting a new car; Sprat is excited because Big T will be getting his license soon, we hope anyway, and he will be getting my car and Big T will get his car.  Now these will not be theirs to keep but to use while they are under our roof or at least till they are out of college.  It is what my folks did for me and I feel I should be able to do the same for my kids.  This way you know that they are in reliable and safe vehicles, I would shudder to think what they would drive if they had to pay for or pick it out.  I remember my first car was passed from my mom to my sister and then to me kinda like how the boys will be in a few short months.  I am not real happy about Sprat getting my car, my car is nice and I really like it but I guess this way I can get a new something maybe that Tank I was talking about earlier.
I have been looking at cars for a while trying to decide what I would want if I had MY choice.  I have never really had a choice.  When we bought the blackberry Sprats first care and the car Big T will inherit strictly on safety and gas mileage and we needed something quick, we bought it when gas was upwards of $4 per gal.  We parked our Expedition at that time and it was strictly for hauling stuff.  Sprat and I shared the blackberry until I got my job and need a car of my own, LOL!!  Again, I need something that was reliable and good on gas and we needed it fairly quickly so I did not get the car that I wanted, I got what was there.  I did get my color though, I got a reddish car.  I have since fallen in love with my car, it drives great and gets great gas mileage.  It has some perks that I did not get on the blackberry but purely by happenstance.  MY car this time will truly be MY car, nobody else will get this one so, I am going to pick out what I want.  I am not buying rushed or whatever they have on the lot which is what happened the last two times.  Do not get the wrong impression here, whatever I buy will be a good deal and it will just be and new to me.  I am way over the buying the brand new car thing.   I am really and truly going to get something for ME.  LOL!! 
Stay tuned, I have not started test driving yet, I have just been window/internet shopping so far.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bank. .. .

Yesterday was just like any other day, well not really, the hubbs let me sleep in after a whirl wind of working day and then night.  He is a sweetie, I think I will keep him.  He went off to work and Big T went off to school, Sprat still sleeping and me still in the bed.  I decided I needed to get up and get moving and Sprat needed to get up too, he has a LOT of packing to do before he heads back to school next week. I started laundry and made my breakfast smoothie.  Have I told you about my smoothies?  I cannot remember if I have shared that or not.  I have been making smoothies with a nurti bullet.  I use fresh pineapple, frozen blueberries, frozen cherries, fresh banana, a piece of ginger and coconut water.  This is the best smoothie, I usually have some left over and I drink that around bedtime if Sprat doesn't get to it first.  He likes my smoothies too.
I finally get ready and I am off to the bank and a few other errands for the day.  I am driving the hubbs truck because my car is in the shop.  I was the victim of a hit and run on the highway right before Thanksgiving.  I am on my way now to get things done.   All of a sudden, it came out of nowhere, yep a deer.  I have been down this road so many times and have seen the deer and was able to stop and let them cross.  Today was not that day, this thing came barreling across the road at me and I could not avoid it.  I hate that feeling of hitting something, this is the second one I have hit in my lifetime.  Things like this usually only happen to me when the hubbs is out of town, I guess I should consider myself lucky that he was in town for this.  I was quite shook up after this and I pulled over to call my hubbs, a trooper, and my insurance agent and to check on the truck.  I sat there feeling stupid and tears streaming down my face thinking how dumb I was.  When I get scared or upset I cry, I have no control over it and I was very upset and shaken up after hitting that deer.  Physically I was fine but emotionally I was pretty bad off.  The front end of the truck was pretty bad too.  The trooper was very nice and very helpful and of course my insurance agent is also the best in the world.   While on the phone with my agent he suggested I take the truck to the shop where my car was being repaired and that my car was ready and I could pick it up and leave the truck.  I was thankful for that we were down to one car.  In the process of dropping the truck off and trying to pick up my car the hubbs phone rings and it is Sprat and he had locked himself out of the house.  He had called from our neighbors house and thankful for our neighbors because Sprat did not know his daddy's cell phone number by heart.  Before we could get the car we had to come home and let Sprat in the house and turn around and go back to get my car. 
Now let's round out the day with a very nice dinner with my three favorite men and oh by the way Happy Birthday to me!!  Yep that deer did a number on my Birthday and I won't tell you how old I am but it was a milestone birthday for me.  Ughhhhhh!!!

College, What do Boys Need to Pack. . .

So we are three for three on acceptance and each offered scholarships.  Sprat's first choice offered a little better deal and has many opportunities.   He has decided on his first choice and so begins the filling out of all the paperwork.  I have been looking at what a boy needs to pack for college, those lists are hard to find.  What to pack and how to decorate for girls are all over the place.   It is much harder to find lists for what boys might need for college.  Sprat does not drink coffee per say, so he will not need a coffee maker.  It seems I know more about what he will not need than what he will need. 
We recently dealt with a dead battery in Sprat's car, I do declare that kids today do not know how to deal with adversity.  Maybe it is just my kids, but I am pretty sure there are others dealing with this same thing.  Some days I feel as though I have done too much for my kids, they have not struggled for things.  I guess I should really thank my Dad for letting me drive a big ole piece a junk, that first car I drove left me stranded on more than one occasion and brace yourselves this was before cell phones......  I should preface this with the fact that the first vehicle I learned to drive was in fact a pick up truck, mine was a real truck.  It was not some souped up, jacked up, big tired piece of junk you see girls driving these days.  Mine was in fact my Dad's pick up truck.  It was beat up but, it was mine to drive when I needed it and I was darn glad to have it.   There were kids in my high school that drove a lot nicer cars than I did but my Dad taught me a really good lesson.  You work and earn your own wheels if you want to drive anything nicer.  The truck never let me down, the car I later drove did leave me on several occasions.  I drove the truck until I learned how to drive a straight drive.  I have to thank my Dad for that too, not many girls in my high school drove straight drives or even knew how.  I unloaded all of this on you to tell you about the battery fiasco with Sprat.
Sprat came in one evening and mentioned right before he was going to bed that by the way, his car had been hard to start these last couple of days.  The hubbs went out and he was able to start it.  He said it was a little sluggish and that the next morning I should go out and listen to him start it so that I would know what to tell the guys at the shop.  Well it is pretty easy to describe silence, yep you guessed it the little black berry would not start.  With great hesitation and reluctance I gave my eighteen year old the keys to MY car.  Ughhhhh, what was I thinking????  With glee in his eyes that I have not seen since he was probably eight years old Christmas morning, he took my car to school. 
It was indeed time for a new battery.  The way they put batteries in these cars these days are so crazy that the average person or even the Auto Zone cannot replace it.  I had to go to my mechanic to get it replaced and they had to special order it from the dealership.  Ughhhh.   Finally at three o'clock I had the new battery and all was good with the black berry.  I prayed that all would be as good with my car when Sprat got home with it.  I got text from him periodically through the day how nice my car was and how great it drove, all I could think of was that song by the Beach Boys, "Fun, Fun, Fun"  if you do not know the lyrics google them. 
With this anecdote, I will share what I picked up to add to Sprat's packing list for college. 
I bought him a kit that has jumper cables, gloves, bandages, and a head lamp to leave in his car.  I have a first aid kit that I made up for each of us to have one in our cars, just in case.
This is my wisdom for today with regard to kids, especially boys getting ready to go off to college.
Stay tuned I am sure I will figure out what he will need in his dorm before it is too late.

Kids and Cars ? ? ?

Sprat enjoyed his birthday week.  Between football games and practice, school, and life in general poor Sprat did not get an official celebration.  We celebrated with the family at the lake over the weekend and we had cake and ice cream at our house the other day.  No, he did not get a new car for his sweet sixteen.  He will not have his license for a couple months yet because he has not put in his driving time like he should have.  I am not sure if he is afraid or if he just does not care about driving.  Most of the kids he hangs out with will not get their licenses till next year and that may be part of it.
I did not get a new car when I turned sixteen, I did get to drive my moms' old car and I was pretty thrilled with that.  Some of the kids I went to school with got new cars; they got Camero, Jaguar, and even a Porche.  I drove my daddy's truck to school right after I got my license because I could not drive a straight drive.  Once I learned how to drive a straight drive I got my moms' car.   I was thrilled just to have a car to drive.  I drove moms car till I graduated college and went to work.  Once I was settled in my new job and my new apartment I started saving my money so that I could buy my first car and moms car went back to them.  I think this is how things are going to go with my kids.  They can drive what we have, and when they have a job of their own they can buy their first car.