In Virginia, kids must wait until they are AT LEAST 16 and 3 months before they can get their license, and they must have held their learner’s permit for at least nine months.  They are to complete a classroom portion of driver’s ed and 45 hours of behind the wheel practice (at least 15 of those hours needs to be at night).  After they do this, they take a behind the wheel driver’s ed class.  If they pass that, they receive their temporary license.  WHEW!

And I am behind that.  I want the kids to be responsible drivers and understand that driving is a privilege, not a right.

Roy took Joe to the DMV about a month ago, and Joe got his permit.  He was so excited!  I guess Roy was feeling generous, and he let Joe drive his car. Just down our neighborhood streets.

But, to put this into perspective, Roy LOVES his car.  I mean loves it, like if his car was a woman, he would have left me for it by now. No, I am not upset, though I tease him mercilessly about it.  He works hard. All the cars we have owned in the past have been responsible, reliable family cars.  Nothing sexy, nothing fun.  Roy did his research, and this is actually a very safe car. And it’s hot!

Roy has had his car since August, and he has waxed and washed it more in that time than he has our van, and we have had it for almost 6 years.  If he is driving it, and it rains, he pulls into the garage (which he cleaned out and completely reorganized for his car), runs into the house for his special “car towels,” and dries it.  He LOVES his car, and I love that he loves his car.

So, now you know.

Joe’s 16th birthday is on Sunday.  Our little boy is turning 16; I can’t believe it!

We were sitting down last night, watching our new favorite show (Community. Have you seen it?  If not, check it out!) when Joe comes running down stairs.

He has his most favorite possession with him (of course) his iPod touch, and he sits on the couch playing with it.

A few minutes later, he looks up, “Hey, Dad?”

“Hmm…” Roy is a bit distracted.  Hello, have you seen Community? FUNNY!

“For my birthday, can you take me out for a drive in your car?”

Roy said we would see, which usually means yes.

Joe is happy.

So, we bought the Challenger about a month ago, and I still adore this car.

It is such a sexy car.

Anyways, it has become Roy’s new ‘hobby.’  Roy tends to have rather expensive hobbies.  Mine are magazines, reading, and cross stitching (though I have not worked on my cross stitching in a few months). Not cheap mind you, but Roy’s tend to easily eclipse mine in the money department-oil painting (He made one really nice one of trees in winter and then for some reason painted over it…WHAT?), photography (I did like this one…I was able to actually buy my husband a nice gift, bought him a nice camera with my coaching money), salt water fish tanks (Beautiful to look at, but SO MUCH WORK!) and now it’s his car.

And I have to say for the first time I don’t mind so much that his ‘hobby’ is expensive, cause I love this one.  LOVE this car…

So, he has been looking at car shows in our local area.  We aren’t necessarily looking to enter our car, just to go see what other people have, maybe get some ideas or tips.  Win a raffle….

So, today we got up to go to our first one.  It was only about 15 miles from the house, held at a local high school.

“It’s gonna be funny if we get up there and have the coolest car.” I giggled.

Roy laughed, “I know, right!”

“Are we gonna buy a new car?” Hayden piped in from the back seat.

“No, honey.  HOpefully this place will just have some cool cars, and we can look at them.  Hang out for a little bit.” Roy answered him.

“OH.  Are we gonna race?”  Hayden sounded so hopeful.

I chuckled, “Nope, just gonna look at cars.”

“Oh, well ok.”

So, we pull into the school parking lot.

“Is it the right date?” I asked Roy.

“Yeah.  I’m gonna be mad if they changed the date and didn’t post it.”

So, we drive around back and find the show!

If you count four cars and about five people as a car show.

“Oh boy.  This doesn’t look promising.” I remarked.

“Oh come on!  This is weak!” Roy laughed.

“Cars, Daddy?” Dean asked from the back seat.

“You want to stop?” Roy asked me.

“NO!  We aren’t even entering, and we have the best car here!” I said.

“Yeah, let’s just go.”

So, we left.  First car show visit…total bust.

I have a huge Ford E350.  That one’s my car.  Big green beast I named Godzilla.  It needs new tires here shortly, and I was trying to price them this morning.  Looked at Costco’s website and apparently I would have to call.  So I was curious and decided to see how much tires would cost for Roy’s new car.

Now, we just bought this thing.  It’s a 2009 metallic Black Dodge Challenger SRT-8.  It’s a big, heavy sexy car.  And it’s Roy’s new baby.  He dries it by hand, cleaned out the garage (after living here for almost 8 years I think this is the first time we have routinely parked a car in the garage), and even took stuff that has been sitting in the garage for years to the dump.  Roy even joked with me that my jeans better not have metal brackets on them.  This car is his pride and joy. And I admit it… he looks really sexy driving it.

So, anyways… I am looking at tires for it, just trying to price it and get an idea.

$1300 for four!  WHAT?

“Lordy!” I walked out and said this to Addi.

“What?” Addi asked.

“Do you know how much tires for your Dad’s car cost?” I asked him.

Now, Addi is only 12.  He doesn’t know much about cars yet. “Umm… $50?”

I laughed, “Nope, try again.”

“80?”

“Nope!  Higher.”

“Higher than 80?  That’s a lot of money.  200?”

It’s funny to hear that $80 is a lot of money for a tire, “Higher.  A lot higher”

“Really?  Like maybe 600?”  I shook my head, “800?”  The look on his face was priceless.  He was simply amazed that tires could cost this much.

“Try almost 1300 for four tires!” I said.

“WHAT?  Dad should just go to Ron’s Used Tires!”

I had to laugh. Ron’s Used Tires is a small tire shop located around Virginia that “specializes” in used tires (but carry new ones too).

I couldn’t wait to tell Roy this one.  And I was right about what he would say, 

“Umm… No.  I don’t think so.”  Roy said in reply, quickly! Yep, I knew he would say that.

I’ve always been a morning person.  In high school, while my friends slept Saturday away, I was up by 8 doing my thing.  When I swam, I was up by 5, but that’s a whole other life.  Even when I stopped swimming, I got up early.  My body was programmed to get up at 5, so I tossed and turned for a bit and usually was able to fall asleep for a few more hours.  But inevitably my eyes crept open around 7:30-8, and I figure why waste the morning.

Being a morning person makes it easier for me to get up and get moving during the school year.  When I’m sick and have to drag myself out of bed (unless Roy gets up for me, but I don’t like to waste my good will on that!) mornings are rough for everyone.  I snap at the kids, I fuss at the dogs, and everyone boards the bus or drives off in a mood, similar to mine.

Corey is a big help in the morning, him being a morning person like me.  If I tell him that I’m not feeling well, he tries to help with Hayden, and that usually staves off the bad moods.

But my favorite day of the week is Saturday.  I still get up early, usually around 6:30 or 7, but since the boys don’t have to be up-alarm clocks are off, I don’t have to drag Hayden out of bed, and I can enjoy my coffee and my Harvest Peach Yogurt.  (Bought that one on accident and didn’t want to waste it-boy is it yummy!)  I can watch one of my shows in peace.  (Mommy!  I don’t want to watch this!  Can’t we watch Spongebob!)  After breakfast, I take my dog out so he can do his business, and then we come back inside and I do the dishes while he eats his breakfast.  When I am done, Shinobi (or Porkchop as Roy and the boys have taken to calling my chubby little pug) and I cuddle on the sofa for some more HGTV.  (I watch the shows on this channel all the time and yet my house STILL looks like a disaster site!)  My coffee is warm, and I love being able to finish it as the sun is coming up.

And just when I am starting to get bored I hear the pitter patter of little feet upstairs-or if it’s Roy or Corey the pitter patter of huge feet.  Time to start the rest of the day.

But Sunday…No, Sunday I let myself sleep in.

(remembered from January 2006)

Taking the boys out these days requires a 13 passenger van. I know. I know. Huge, right? We previously had an Expedition. I LOVED my truck. Called her Kong (as in King Kong).

We try to hit Costco once a month. We spend anywhere between 200-600 dollars (of course, once we spent 3500, but that was buying my husband’s dream TV). I like to stock up on meat and quick dinners for those nights when mom has just had enough.

In any event, one day back when we had Kong, we went to Costco and took all the kids with us (there were only four at the time). We are at the register, Roy is putting things up on the belt and I am herding the kids.

“That will be $329, Ma’am.”

I say what I always say to Roy and the kids after a Costco visit. “Wow, you guys are so expensive!”

“Are they all yours?” The cashier is a young woman… maybe 22, 25 tops.

“Yep, all ours! Five boys.” I say this with pride.

“Oh. You poor thing! Are you going to try for a girl?”

See, the first few hundred times I heard this, I just said… No, I’m good. Then Roy or I would joke that our youngest, either Hayden or now Dean, was the try. Now, I just smile and say, “Nope, we’re done.”

Oh. You are wondering why we need such a huge car… okay, so we pay and are walking out. The cart is full, and each of the three older boys has their arms full. I am carrying bags from other stores. We get to the car… the kids all pile in and put their seatbelts on while Roy and I start putting things away. We finally get things put up, and he and I get in. As he is pulling out of the parking lot, I turn around to look at the boys. With the exception of Hayden, who was still in a car seat at the time, each of the boys is holding something in their lap or desperately looking for someplace to place their burden. Addi in his booster seat has the bag from the bookstore. Joey has a box of frozen goods that he is trying to make room for on the floor at his feet. And Corey is looking around in vain for someplace to put a box with snacks and juice from Costco.

“Hey, Roy?”

“Yeah.”

“We need a bigger car.”

A few weeks later we started looking. We did some research, and Roy laid out my options for me.

“You can get an Excursion, a Suburban, or a big passenger van.”

“That’s it? Those are my options?”

“Yep, that’s it!”

Well, I didn’t want an Excursion because Ford was not going to be making them anymore, and everyone has a Suburban around here, so that left only one option… the passenger van it was. We didn’t have to look far, at the time gas was expensive - about $3.50 a gallon - and people didn’t want big cars. We found a Ford E350 at one of the local dealers. They gave us a better deal on a trade-in for the Expedition than we thought they would, so we did our thing and bought Godzilla. That is what I call my big green van of course.

Giant as it is, the van has served our family well. It isn’t the most plush thing out there, but there is plenty of room. For such a big van, it is a relatively smooth ride, and we have yet to run out of room during a Costco trip!

This one comes courtesy of H.  I asked him on the spur of the moment what the Question of the day should be, and this is what he told me he wanted.  I said ok, and asked him what his favorite car was then.  We saw a metallic Grey Volkswagon Bug the other day.  I told him I liked that color, and said it had a cool name, “Gunmetal.”  I think he thought that was a neat name, so it has stuck out in his head.

My dream car would probably be a Mercedes C350 Sports Sedan in Metallic Grey.  Black Leather Interior though the Almond Leather is nice as well.  It seems a relatively decent price for this type of car, so perhaps in a few years I can finagle one out of R.  We bought our Prius a few years back, and I LOVE it, but at the time he told me to get the car I wanted, and there was a BMW I liked, and a Red Mercedes as well, since I passed them up then, R likes to remind me that I had my chance.  Obviously, I will have to work a bit harder for one since I passed them up.

I also like the old muscle cars as well.  They aren’t very eco friendly, and I am sure they are gas guzzlers, but boy do some of the old Mustangs, Chargers, and Impalas look cool.