What a weekend! Fathers and sons and a new car...

We had a crazy end of the week/weekend and it's nice to wrap up the madness with a day of worship and service at church followed up by a delicious dinner and relaxation at the Carter home. I'll post more information later, but the Ford Focus finally died, despite having pumped in about $1,000 in the past few weeks trying to keep her alive (we really DID NOT want a car payment and we also don't want to have Sarah work more than one shift per week at the hospital which, fortunately, she won't have to). It bit the dust as I was driving to Redlands from work on Thursday afternoon. I think the breakdown was precipitated by my trying to do some jury rigging to keep her alive so I was even more upset by the fact that it felt like my fault to some degree. I had to have Sarah and her mom meet me up there to get it towed and I hate maki her bring the kids when it means parking on the side of the freeway, etc. After hearing about the fate of "Farina" (the little Focus that could) and a lot of research, thought and prayer, we decided to purchase a new vehicle. This was not an easy choice and we would not have made it if it had meant having two car payments. Although our goal is NO car payments, that is going to have to wait a few more years!

We've been looking at Honda Odyssey EX mini-vans for months and without even a test drive, we chose that as our next vehicle. This, of course, is a choice primarily fueled by the fact that we have two children and plan on growing our family in the future. Also, nothing on he market (save perhaps the GMC Acadia) has the same cargo volume and passenger space (it aseats 8 although only 6 adults comfortably in my opinion) and still gets relatively good gas mileage (18/26). We looked at used cars and financing options and finally decided to purchase with something new. We wish we were in the same position as Sarah's grandparents, Bob and Carole, who made ONE payment when they purchased their 2008 Honda CRV recently but- as we all know-it takes nearly a lifetime for most folks to be in such a position so we're OK with our decision. Anyway, it's a great time to buy a new vehicle because many manufacturers produced too many new vehicles in the face of rising gas prices and the "recession" which has, at least in the minds of many, become a true economic slump. We ended up dealing with the fleet manager so there was absolutely NO haggling. In fact, we got the price over the phone/internet and ended up paying around 5K below the sticker price.

Now that our transportation woes are out of the way, we can refocus on what matters most which is, of course, our relationship with one another and our children. I had a great time with Carter up in Big Bear on Friday evening and Saturday morning. He loved hiking around the campsite and is quite the little hiker! He made it up and down some steep and rocky spots and I had to make sure he didn't jump off any cliffs! We also had the opportunity to take some boys up who didn't have fathers attending the event which was a pleasant experience for both them and us. Although I didn't sleep well in the a-frame tent because of the cold and notwithstanding the fact that my wake up call was Carter's voice saying, "Daddy, I just peed!" as he lay in his sleeping bag, I had a great time. Being out there amongst the massive trees and rocks helped me focus on nature and, therefore, existence and those things are what help me find the energy and will power to move forward in service to God, my family and everyone else.

We hope you all enjoyed this weekend and we look forward to hearing from you and reading about your own goings on.