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The Volvo has a Boo-Boo

8 Jun

So Andrew doesn’t even own the car for a week and someone rear-ends him while he was stopped at a red light!  No worries about Andrew – he was not hurt at all. Apparently, a guy driving a MAC truck with a flatbed trailer let off his clutch and hit the back of the Volvo.  It damaged the bumper and cracked a tail light.  $1000 to repair!  Now I know why people would always say not to hit a BMW, Volvo, Mercedes…

The guy who owns the truck totally has to pay for it.  It’s just crazy and kind of funny because Andrew has a terrible track record when it comes to cars.  (None of it is his fault he will be sure to tell you!)  He wrecked his so-new-it-was-built-for-him Chevy S10 ZR2 pickup before we made the first payment on it.  He totaled our first Chevy Malibu Maxx and now this!  We joke that every new car we get should go to me first.  So far, I’ve only wrecked one.  (Well, two if you count that rental car!)  Hopefully, I haven’t just jinxed myself!

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Is that your Volvo?

2 Jun

I will never forget the day a lady in Savannah asked me that question.  I was coming out of a gas station when I saw her checking out my Chevy Malibu Maxx.  She thought it was a Volvo because I proudly advertise for Andrew by having a “Volvo Construction Equipment” vanity license plate on the front.  It was so funny when she asked, “Is that your Volvo?” because she seemed so impressed and really liked my car – then I told her – “No, it’s a Chevy.”

Well, now we can answer that question with a “Why yes, that stunning piece of machinery is my Volvo.”  Today, Andrew traded in the good ol’ Trailblazer for this sweet ride.

Loading up the kids for our first family cruise

What’s even better about how awesome it is – it’s going to save us a quite a bit of money each month (can you believe that?!?).  It’s such a great feeling to know we’ll be saving on payments and gas!  With Andrew driving 100 miles a day sometimes it was really getting sickening.

Finding this car and making the switch was anything but easy. For the past 3 weeks Andrew’s been researching Volvos and trying to find the perfect one for him.  He’s test driven so many and I know it was getting a little frustrating because he just wanted to be able to be done with it all and be confident with his choice.  Buying a used car is probably one of the most nerve-racking things to do – what if it just falls apart as soon as you get the keys?  At least with all the hard work Andrew put into this decision – I feel pretty sure that won’t happen.  (Knock on the Volvo’s wood paneling!)

I am just so proud of my Volvo man – not only because he now drives a car that’s freakin’ cool and classy – but because he does it wearing his South Park cheesy poofs t-shirt. He’s all mine!

Is that Your Volvo?

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Were the Steaks Worth It?

19 May

Boy they were tasty but I certainly could have done without them if I would have known this was going to happen…

What did we do?!?!

We’ve been using charcoal in our old gas grill and for a few months it was working great, then a freak piece of coal escaped.  It fell from the grill on our deck and landed in the pine straw next to the house.  We did not know this happened until Andrew smelled the smoke.  He looked outside and saw the line of pine straw on fire and the side of the house being destroyed.  He grabbed the hose and went to work.  We are SO lucky that it was not worse than this but it still is unsettling.

Fried House

We are now just waiting to get it fixed. The company that originally did the siding work is supposed to send someone out to fix it either tomorrow or Monday.  Can you believe we almost burned down our house?!?!  INSANE!  I can still smell the smoke.  From here on out it’s gas grills for us!

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Growing Up So Fast

19 May

Getting Braver Every Day

Nia started taking gymnastics lessons at the Y about 5 weeks ago and tonight she got to show her stuff with all the other little gymnasts during a “meet.”  It was so adorable and I’m so excited we got to experience it.  When she first started she was a chicken liver – now, she hardly hesitates to jump from one thing to the next.  She even walked across the balance beam all by herself for two steps!  It makes me sad to see her growing up so fast but then I’m also happy about it – she’s a lot of fun and it’s neat to see the little person she’s becoming.  Also, the more she learns about growing up, the more I learn about parenting (which is actually kind of scary).

In fact, this event gave me my first real taste of worrying about my child being left out of something.  At the end of the “meet” they passed out trophies to all the kids. Well, I had noticed that they left several of the gymnasts’ names out of the programs (Nia’s was one of them), so I was already bummed that they did that (I was suffering from the whole “how dare they forget my daughter?!?!” attitude).  Because of that, I automatically started stressing that she wouldn’t get a trophy.  They went in alphabetical order so that didn’t help the situation.  I just kept watching her stare at all the other kids whose last names fell between A and U – I wondered what she was thinking…”Wow, look at their shiny trophies…I hope I get a shiny trophy too…I wonder why I haven’t yet?”  Finally, her name was called – Andrew and I relaxed and she beamed.  She was so quick to jump up and run over to collect her shiny trophy that she didn’t even pose at the top of the mat like all the other kids did.  She just grabbed it, turned around and ran to sit down and inspect it.

Daddy & Gymnast

It just feels good to see her so happy.  She loves “bynastics” (as she calls it) and I love watching her have a blast.

 

 

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Old Lady Valles

7 May

It’s hard for me to admit but I am slowly turning into my Grandma.  She was that old lady in your neighborhood who never let kids go into her yard to get their kickball and she called the neighbors living next door the “foreigners” (even though she was from Italy too) because they made her mad once.

Ok, maybe I’m not as bad yet but I’m getting there.  Specifically when it comes to one of neighbor’s punk kids and all of the cars that come and go from the house at all hours with their bass systems blaring and their engines ridiculously loud.  I know I wouldn’t care if we didn’t have kids – but we do and I don’t want them to wake up in the middle of the night because some dudes who thought they were cool had to blare their bass and rev their engines when they drop off or pick up their buddy.

I know I need to relax – I mean I’m sure I did a ton more annoying things than that when I was growing up.  It’s just now that I’m Old Lady Valles – I have to act the part!
 

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Random Frustration

23 Mar

Why can’t I just do the dishes without ending up with a soaked shirt?  It’s not like I try to dump water on myself.  Still, no matter how hard I try to stay dry, I end up drenched.  Is there some sort of dish-washing secret that could help me keep the water in the sink?  It just drives me nuts!
 

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Betrayed by Our Dog

21 Mar

Ok – I know I need to get a grip and forgive and forget already but every time our dog Joey barks now I fill up with disappointment/disgust/disbelief – feelings that are just plain silly to feel for poor old Joe-Boy.

Some Guard Dog

I can’t help it though.  He barks at NOTHING but won’t bark at the criminal jerks who broke into his dad’s car?!?!  He barks at people who are supposed to be/allowed near our house but not at those who are not?  I mean come on!  Part of my frustration is due to the fact that his bark sounds so mean and is so loud – you can hear him several streets over from ours – but it did us zip when we needed it most.

You may think I’m overreacting – maybe I am – but maybe if you had a better idea of what I witness him bark at on any given day – maybe then you could at least somewhat understand why I feel the way I do.  Here’s just a few of the things that he feels the need to let out his heart-stopping, breath-taking bark at:

  • The UPS truck that comes three to four times a week
  • The mail lady every time he sees her white truck driving down our street
  • Nothing
  • The neighborhood dogs
  • Birds flying
  • Someone’s car brakes squeaking blocks away
  • Nothing
  • Andrew when he comes home from work
  • Us when we leave the house
  • The neighbors he sees everyday coming and going from their houses
  • A doorbell/dog/cat on television
  • Nothing

He doesn’t bark at:

  • Things/people he should!

Please don’t get me wrong – I love our dog so very much.  He is a big, soft, cuddly, lovable bear of a pup and he’s super good with the kids.  It really bothers me to feel this way and I know I will get over it soon – for now though I can’t help but curse about him under my breath every time he woofs when he doesn’t need to. Nia even screams at him to be quiet when he barks!  Sometimes I even think horrible things like – someone better be trying to get in the house.  Of course I don’t really mean it – besides he wouldn’t bark at them anyway!

Part of the Fam

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Crime Update

21 Mar

Apparently, the thieves decided they didn’t want Andrew’s computer keyboard.  Yesterday, I was looking out of Nia’s window and saw something odd in our neighbor’s yard. (It looked like a purse or something.)  I ran over to check it out and there was the keyboard!

Andrew insists it wasn’t there on Monday – that we would have seen it if it was because we were all outside near the area.  He thinks maybe they came back through Monday night and tossed stuff back or something because our neighbor across the street says he found one of the things he reported stolen in his front yard too.

Odd…

Oh well – it still doesn’t change the fact that it all happened – it’s just a weird twist I guess.
 

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I Feel So Violated

19 Mar

I just can’t even believe this. How long did we live in Savannah?  A city considered to be a “high-crime” area?  NOTHING ever happened to us there.  It happened to people we knew but never to us.  Now though – we live in a small town with hardly any crime where EVERYONE is super nice and friendly and our car gets broken into while its parked in our driveway.

Apparently it happened to a lot of our neighbors.  Ours happened right under our little girl’s bedroom window.  Our big ass dog didn’t even bark.  He barks at a bird farting but not at someone breaking into Andrew’s SUV.  The SUVs alarm didn’t even go off.  Those jerks got in and then tossed stuff everywhere – you know shopping around for what they wanted to take that didn’t belong to them.

They took a keyboard he had from work and two computer cables he had for his work laptop but nothing else.  They passed up the season 4 box set of “Seinfeld” (what you don’t like to laugh jerks?) and all of Andrew’s CD’s (don’t like his taste in music?)  his Oakley sunglasses (I hope the sun damages your eyes) his radar detector (what you don’t break the law to speed?) they even left some money he had in there (apparently money isn’t worth the effort).  I understand that they took what they did because it’s probably the best thing for them them to make money off of – but why not take the rest too?  I mean, you’re already in there and I’m sure you’ll get a few bucks from some of the other stuff – especially the actual money!  It’s not that I wanted them to take all of it – I’m just trying to better understand what they did.

I just feel so violated and pissed.  I can’t even imagine how people get through something bigger than this – like a stolen car or a burglarized house or rape or armed robbery.  I feel so powerless and I just want to get back at them.  I wish we could have caught them in the act – I’m not sure how it would of all went down but I’m sure it would have surprised them and I would love to know who did this.  Just to see their faces and ask them why.  Do they get kicks out of it? Do they desperately need the money?

I know I’m probably making something bigger of this than it needs to be but I can’t help it right now.  I’m still reacting to the fact that it happened and I’m just so angry because I never thought it could happen here.  (Which is my own naive fault.) It also makes me scared because if they did that what else will they do?  Try to get in the house next?  Hopefully then that big ass dog of ours will step up and show those sharp teeth of his.  I know I certainly will.
 

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Missing: My St. Paddy’s Spirit

18 Mar

Before living in Savannah, I never really thought twice about St. Patrick’s Day. I’m a quarter Irish so I would try to pay tribute – you know, in the truest sense of the heritage, by wearing something green, a shamrock or that said “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.” I never really celebrated or anything like that though.  Then, I moved to Savannah.

I only really “partied” (translated: squeezed on River Street twice with thousands of others and tried not to get peed on here and there) and I never got to see a parade in person.  I always had to work.  I even got in a car accident on the weekend of festivities one year because I was trying to watch out for any partier-drivers. Turns out, I was the threat just getting off work. Even though I missed the live parades, I still felt a little more Irish just being in that city on that day.  I really respected and enjoyed the tradition of it all and now that I’m not there to experience it (even if it was just through the tv) I feel like I’m missing something.

I have my decorations up and I love to see all the online pictures from Savannah showing the celebrations, but it’s making me a little Savannah-sick.  It seems I left the spirit of the day back where the fountains flow a festive green.

Photo Courtesy: Savannah St. Patrick's Day Facebook

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