Well, I read this article entitled "Hybrids: Are they worth it?" in the Indy Star and found it intriguing. I think sometimes people are all for jumping on the bandwagon before they do some research (Here's a good blog post about NOT buying "organic"). I've read a couple of things/saw some pieces on t.v. about who should own a hybrid . . . they aren't for everyone. Points I found interesting:
-The Chevy Malibu hybrid only gets 2 mpg better than the regular Malibu. Is it really worth it to go hybrid? I don't think so.
-The article also discusses how long it takes to "break even"--that is how long until you recoup the initial extra cost of the vehicle (by gas savings). "But the 2008 Lexus LS600h hybrid sedan costs you $18,858 more than the gasoline version, meaning you'd have to drive it for 99.6 years to break even." Ridiculous. You'd have to be an idiot to buy the hybrid! (and now my font won't change back. grrrr.)
And now onto more personal car frustrations . . . As some of you know I was in an accident that totaled my car. So now we are on the lookout for another (and probably "mom-type") vehicle. We had kind of decided on the Saturn Outlook It's a crossover, and we liked the best of both worlds that it offered (the captains chairs and room of a mini-van, the look of an SUV). So, in preparation of finally getting our insurance check (over a month later . . .) we call up the salesman and tell him that we'd like to buy a Saturn Outlook with XY and Z features). They don't have an Outlook with those features on their lot, so here are our presented options and his response to them . . .
-There are other dealers with the Outlook we want. Can they make a dealer trade? Response: No, they don't do that. -The sales demo that the sales manager drives doesn't have quite all the features we'd like, but with a price reduction (since it's been driven) we would take it. Response: If it has under 10,000 miles it's considered "new" and therefore no price reduction. We're not going to pay full price for a care that is somewhat used and doesn't have all the options we want. -We'll just order a new '08 then. Response: They're not taking any more '08 orders. -Well, then we'll order an '09 (which has some changes Kyle likes) which won't be in until September. Can we lease a car short term until then? Response: No, they don't do short term leases. Even when we're ordering the most expensive car they sell? Nope.
So, here are our choices: 1) pick a whole new car entirely (probably the GM Acadia or the Honda Odyssey) 2) Go to Ohio to buy the Outlook we want (that's the nearest place that has one) 3) Something else we haven't thought of.
So, needless to say, we're frustrated. No wonder Saturn sales are down! I'm probably going to be out of my rental car on Tuesday and homebound until we figure this out.
On a different note . . . we tried blueberries today for the first time and someone really enjoyed them!
So some of you may be wondering if I'm still alive since it has been MONTHS since I posted. You'll be happy to know that I am indeed still alive. I need to get better about this whole blogging thing. I really do have ideas of things to write, but it rarely actually makes it to my blog. With that said, here's what I've been up to I guess.
-I had another 3 hour visit from my friends from Kirby vacuums yesterday. I literally saw people jogging down the road (I thought it was for a scavenger hunt or something) when I was bringing in my trash cans. I was planning on shutting my door and hiding out in the back of my house, but they ambushed me before I could even close the door. Then they proceeded to start their speil (which was a complete lie--they are not just handing out free samples and opening and new store). They asked me if I had heard of "Sentria". I said no, and the next thing I knew they were inside my house setting up a vacuum cleaner (without even asking if they could come in). So to end this enthralling story, just like last year about this time (when I had another visitor from Kirby) . . . 1) I still am a bad mom for letting my son crawl around on the dirt that my vacuum leaves behind. 2) I don't care about saving money (buy buying a $2,000 vacuum cleaner my carpet and furniture will last forever and I won't ever have to pay for carpet cleaning or balloon blowing uping (yes they really did blow up a balloon for me with the "inflator" tool--is that really necessary?)) 3) I don't care about preserving my home or the furnishings in it. 4) I'm giving everyone in our house allergies Yes, so according to Kirby, I'm still a bad person . . .
We went to Steve and Krista's wedding, where I think we had the most handsome young man under the age of one . . .
Micah has had curly hair since we went to Florida in April. See picture below . . .
However, we went to a pool party with our small group members and after
getting out of the pool his hair turned straight. Why? I have no
idea. I did not do anything different to his hair. Don't worry, the
curls have returned. (And no that's not a tooth--just a glistening tongue.)
Micah began crawling on Saturday. I guess he finally had enough of
laying on his belly and whining and decided to do something about it.
He just took off and now can make it across the room pretty quickly.
On Saturday he also learned how to get from his stomach to sitting up.
So now I quite often find him sitting in his crib. Learning this skill
has led to a lot less frustration on his part and my part (I no longer
have to sit him up when he gets tired of laying down).
All right. Now that I've wasted an entire naptime (as short as it was) trying to download and rotate pictures, I must attend to other things that I should have been doing.
So I always think of things to blog about, but I never seem to get around to actually blogging them. By the time I do get around to blogging I forget what it is I was going to blog about or it is now completely irrelevant.
Well, it's raining here. We're supposed to get 5" by tomorrow or something ridiculous like that. Morris Lake (a.k.a. the flooding in our front yard) is sure to resurface as it always does with the slightest bit of moisture. I'm ready for it to be spring and be warm.
I can't wait to take Micah outside. I also look forward to using my jogger instead of just running on my treadmill. I'm up to 8 miles so far. Sometimes I can't believe what I make myself do. But it's good. I'm actually looking forward to running the 13.1 miles :)
Micah is now sitting up fairly proficiently. He has also found his toes. He's a lot of fun to be around and play with (for the most part). Our library has a "baby games" program where we do fun rhymes and games and such. I think Micah likes to interact with the other babies. Micah also has officially made his internet debut as seen in the clip below. I'd like to do this more often so you can see what's going on and how he's doing, but I can't do it myself as of yet, so we'll see how often we end up posting more videos. So here it is . . . his internet/youtube debut . . .
To update on my Pizza Rolls, I ended up getting 10 boxes (15 count) for 10 cents. A penny a box. Can't beat that! Kyle's really enjoyed having them around. Today at CVS I got 5 tubes of toothpaste, a bag of York Peppermint Patties and Hershey Kisses (for you Julie!) for 62 cents. Can't really beat that either. But now I have so many tubes of toothpaste that I really shouldn't buy any more because we're pretty much set for the rest of the year (I have 9 tubes after I give Julie one). But it's so hard NOT to buy them when you can MAKE money off of them! I'm going to hit Walgreens tomorrow and hopefully get some free makeup, chapstick, and razors and maybe some other things.
In other news, I once again have failed at making bread in my breadmaker. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but I have yet to have a successful loaf. (And by successful, I'll take anything that isn't a small round loaf that weighs as much as a large rock). Maybe when mom comes next week she can show me what I'm doing wrong.
This weekend we're going to the boat show. This isn't just a boat show though . . . it's a boat, RV, outdoorsmen, fishing show. And it happens to be the largest in the midwest. Kyle is very excited about going and showing me everything that he likes/wants if we had the money. I'm happy to be able to see some of the boats I hear so much about up close and personal. But, I fear I may have a sad husband by day's end. But hey, we are now owners of a pontoon . . . that's close to a Triton Bass Boat or a Mastercraft isn't it?
I voluntarily ran 400's today. What is wrong with me? That was the most dreaded workout of all workouts during track. Maybe it's not so bad because I walk between 400's instead of jog and that I'm doing them just a wee bit slower than I did in high school, ha ha.
It's snowing today and I think it's so pretty! It's been pretty cold here, and my philosophy has always been, "If it's cold, then it might as well snow." I see no point in it being cold AND ugly and brown.
It's 9:30 and I suppose I should put away the supper dishes, huh? That's usually a good thing to do.
Happy Valentine's Day to all. It was 4 years ago today that we got engaged. Crazy huh? That's not really why I was going to write this post however.
I am training once again for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon, which means running 13.1 miles in May. I figured that I needed a little motivation to work out daily. After not having run in over a year (and a pregnancy and baby in there too), it's been a little slow getting started. I'm a lot slower and I don't have the endurance like I used to, but hopefully I'll get back in shape. This weekend I really surprised myself and was able to run 5 miles (really slowly) on our treadmill. It helps that I'm listening to a book on tape. It keeps me from watching every hundredth of a mile tick by. But don't get too impressed. I tried to run 3 miles a couple of days later and was exhausted after 1.5 miles (somewhat fortunately Micah woke up from his nap, so I was able to stop! He made a nice excuse). To this day, every time I get done with a run I crave Mr. Barthule's sports drink. When you first taste it, it doesn't taste great (not terrible, just different--a little salty and chalky), but it slowly grows on you. We used to joke that we knew you were a real runner if you liked the sports drink. Well, somewhere along the line I did get the recipe for it, but have never made it . . . until now. I finally finished off a gallon of milk so I could make a gallon of the sports drink in it (I don't know if you could make it in any other container). I had some after my run today, and let me tell you, it tasted GREAT!!! I totally quenched my craving (after 2--8 oz. glasses of it). It is further motivation to get done with my workout.
Now that I'm a couponing and sales nerd, I can usually get at least one thing free or can actually "make" money by buying it a week. Sometimes it's not really something we need (so I don't get it), but sometimes it's something great (like last week when I got "paid" 50 cents to get two packages of Dove chocolates). Just this past weekend Kyle said, "Why can't you ever get something like Pizza Rolls for free?" Well, just this week his dream came true. I haven't been to the store yet, so I don't know how it's all going to shake out (things don't usually go as planned), but I can get boxes of pizza rolls for 20 cents each (possibly even free depending on how things go) at our local Kroger. Kyle is thrilled. See . . . couponing does pay off. Thanks also to Mom and Dad whose coupons helped make it possible!
Micah the Lounging Ladies' Man:
We also have that "Ok, ok, Mom. I'll give you a cheesy smile."
