How I bought my first car

I bought my first car today. Erick has owned oodles of cars. I've posted the list before and it's still out of date, but this one is mine. I did have my name put on a title once just because I'd never had my name on one before, but it was a pain because I had to go to the license branch and stuff so I signed it back over to him.

After we bought that humongous 12-passenger van a few months ago, we decided to get rid of our two mini vans and get a motorcycle for him and a car for me. That way we would have a family vehicle and both of us would have something we could take to work and save money on gas. We've been shopping around lately--or rather, he has. His style of shopping is to spend months looking at Craigslist and Ebay and picking up the Indiana Auto & RV and look everything up on epinions and read reviews and the lists of how much gas mileage everything gets. Then he finally buys something. My style, on the other hand, is to say, "Oh, look--there's a car. Let's get that one."

So last night we were going to go look at a car he saw on Craigslist that was in Bloomington. We went there for a belated Valentine's Day date, actually, and went to Red Lobster. We were too hungry to stop on the way there and couldn't find it on the way back, and besides, everything was closed. So we decided to wait until another day to car shop.

Today we were going to go to Terre Haute to Cross Tabernacle for another one of their outpouring services. Three of our kids went to spend the night at friend's houses because the services are very long. The other three came with us. I stopped by the bank to get Erick and we went up there and pulled into the church parking lot--and it was empty. Erick suddenly remembered that it was going to be at the International House of Prayer that night. He thought he knew where it was, but when he got there the building was empty. So they must have moved.

Since we were in town, I suggested that maybe we could stop at a car lot and look at some cars. I hate to waste a trip to Terre Haute. So we drove to Vigo Dodge and looked at a car. It was pretty, but the salesman printed out how much gas mileage it got and it wasn't any better than the van. That kind of would defeat the purpose of getting a car. So we decided to keep looking. On our way back, as we were driving back down the same street we were just on, Erick said, "Hey, there's a car" and pulled over. It was a '94 green Ford Escort wagon. We looked at it and it seemed nice, so I pulled out my cell phone and called the number on the window.

The man who answered it seemed surprised when I asked him if he was the one selling the Ford Escort. He said he had just parked it there and was walking home. He was only about two blocks away, so he turned around and came back. I test drove it and really liked it. Erick still had the cash on him from yesterday, and the man still had the title in his pocket. We paid him $1600 for it and took it home tonight.

So now I have a car! Erick says that I have to do all of the insurance and title and registration stuff, though. I guess that it's probably good to learn how to do those things--I've never had to mess with it before. But I'm just so happy that I have my own little car!

So far this is the best picture I have. Jay took some while we were looking at it. They are dark, since it was dark outside, but I'll try to get better pictures once the sun comes up.

Edited to add: Here is my car in the light. Jay took a picture of it this morning. I guess it's more of a turquoise than a green.

A few pictures of the sock hop

Bruce Borders (aka Elvis) sings for the youth.

Senator John Waterman came, too.

Some of the kids pose for a photo.

The video is really dark, but you can kind of see it.

The sock hop, drama, and a new cat

Sometimes I get so busy during the school year that I can hardly find time to blog. I tend to bite off more than I can chew sometimes. I have a rule that I can't pick anything up without dropping something else first, and it helps, but sometimes the lack of margins in my life makes things too hectic.

Last Tuesday we had our sock hop at church for our youth group and it turned out really well. We had a good turnout and Elvis came to sing for the kids. (He is our state representative--the one that I was filmed in the commercial with last fall, which should be airing sometime this year.) The decorations were so cool. Besides the styrofoam cutouts, we hung LED light-up balloons and white lights all around the gym. I did take pictures and I will post them when I locate my camera.

We got a cat today, and no, I didn't drop the dog in order to get the cat. I suppose that violated my rule. But we do have mice and so I thought it would be nice to have a cat. One of the ladies at work rescues cats and then adopts them out, and so she gave us Othello. He's a big, black cat. I believe he weighs just as much as if not more than our dog. He's beautiful. (edited to add--he's 22 lbs and Shadow was 25 last time we weighed him, so I guess the dog is still bigger).

This isn't a great picture of Othello, but it will do for now. Abby took it on her iPod and sent it to Joy who posted it on Facebook and I saved it from there and uploaded it here. After I find my camera I'll take a better picture.

We also had drama practice today. I am up to nineteen students in the drama class I am teaching. I promised you pictures of the Greek masks they made, and so here you go: