If the norm is to increase your car size as you add children, then I guess I just swim against the current. While mini vans definitely have their benefits, I opted for another kind of mini . . . a COOPER! The sporty race car blood runs thick in our family and I just couldn't help myself. My great grandpa was a professional midget builder, his sassy daughter (grandma) raced them. Once upon a time she ran her sporty
GTO up a telephone pole street racing. Her sister married a professional race car driver, Bob Hendrix, who held the world record for a time in rail cars and speed boats. Grandma has had a sleek supra and a tricked out
Mercedes, uncle Shad is on his third Ferrari and has owned every other fast moving vehicle under the sun. So I really truly was a lost cause for a sporty little number. They sing to me.
So what series of events led me to the Stevenson Lexus in Frederick yesterday where I left with a 2003 silver Mini Coop in mint condition with only 28,000 miles on it . . . well . . .
Since January we've been tracking our spending and realized that I drop over $400 a month on gas! I've been driving our Jeep Commander (another sweet ride in a completely different way) which has tons of room for kids and stuff but guzzles gas like any self respecting beast of an SUV would. So with me driving across town to mom and dads, and down to Castle Rock a few times a week I was really draining the monthly budget. Our little Mitsubishi Lancer was a nice little racer but it had over 140,000 miles on it and needed some serious work. It didn't make sense to pour thousands of dollars into it when it was only worth a couple grand on a good day. So we started the search for a new ride. We crunched the numbers, figured out the price range that made sense, and waded through a sea of boring sedans. When we found a used mini in the mix my heart leaped with joy. I was now on a mission. I would save the monthly gas budget and do it in style!
My mini is not only magically delicious, it's super practical. I can have my cake and eat it too with this little baby. It gets 37 miles to the gallon on the highway, is one of the top 10 ranked cars for safety in it's class (safer than the Lancer), has curtain side airbags to protect my little ones, has anti lock brakes, and is built by the car making geniuses at BMW. On the frivolous and fun side of things, its two sunroofs stretch across the entire length of the top (this is Eva's favorite feature - she watched the moon all the way home), it has luscious leather, chrome everywhere, and is more spacious inside than you can imagine. As a mater of fact, in the Lancer, with Mia's car seat behind the driver, David's knees touched the dash . . . in my MINI, they don't. It has a nice little trunk that is large enough for an umbrella stroller and a guitar! The only bummer was that it was solid silver, nothing fancy. So to seal the deal, the salesman threw in custom black racing stripes that I'll go back and have put on in a few days. NICE!!!!!
So now I can zip around town in a sporty little car that sips gas and know that my girls are super safe. Could there be anything better. I think not. I'm so happy I think I'll write a song. A sonnet to my new love, my mini Cooper.
Today David and I took the girls on a spontaneous impromptu little outing to the zoo after church. Mia was so engaged in the exhibits this time. She's never really been that interested before, but today she squealed and pointed at everything. Her favorite stop was at the flamingo house. When we got to the anteater exhibit Eva said, "Oh I wish I had one of those things, but a baby one, that's pink, with a bow in it's hair." Yep, that's my Eva.
After Christmas Mia and I went searching for some pink totes for the play room. Mia's quite the little shopper!
Last night we took the girls to see the lights at the Chatfield Botanic Gardens. It was so so very freezing cold but they loved it. We got 3D glasses that made the lights look like snowmen which was trippy. I couldn't get over the number of lights on this absolutely huge tree. It was breath-taking!
Today is Eva's first day of preschool at Cherry Hills. She picked out her outfit all by herself. What a doll!
So last fall, I wasn't able to complete one of my classes because of pregnancy complications and took an incomplete. That gave me until the end of the spring semester to finish my final project. Well of course I procrastinated and had to cram an insane amount of work into the last four days.Today was a major major work day and I hoped Dora and Diego would keep Eva busy for a while. Not even close! She came up to the dining room and confiscated my camera. Took pictures of meworking away, of the stairs, of Dora on TV, and of the wall . . . then when that was boring she decided to color. Apparently the coloring book got boring too because when I went to check on her, she'd colored herself blue! Nice.
When Eva was a baby, I could set her down and snap pictures all day long . . . but with Mia, I find that Eva gives me about a minute before she starts getting in the mix. Cute photo ops with Mia are just plain hard to get so here is a rare peek at our little Mia baby at 11 1/2 weeks old.
