Creative Juices

When I worked in the 'real' world before I had children, I had to be creative every day. It was the nature of my job as an Art Director. However, once the kids started popping out, my brain cells began dying off rapidly. I believe they either came out with each placenta or with the massive amounts of hair that fell out after each pregnancy!

Now that I am done having children, I would like to get back some of the creative juices that I lost. Can you regrow brain cells? Or once you lose them, are they gone forever? Hmm. I may have to go and look that up.

This blog has been the anodyne to my "Mommy Brain Syndrome." (Oh, and by the way, I subscribed to dictionary.com's word of the day, hence the fancy word! My goal is to work the word of the day into each day's blog). It makes me think about something other than what I'm going to make for dinner or the mountain of laundry piling up.

I also mentioned a new web site the other day: www.highlowaha.com. I am totally addicted to it. The blog's premise is to share an idea each day. (She also gives away prizes)! I have gone back and read the posts that I missed and have gotten some really wonderful ideas. I am implementing one of them starting this week. From now on Sunday will be forever known in our family as "Ice Cream Sundae!" Every Sunday or "Sundae" as it is now called, we will have ice cream sundaes after dinner or maybe even for breakfast. I haven't decided that yet. I love this idea and I know my kids are going to as well. I'll be sure to take pictures and post them on "Sundae!"

On to my next topic: destiny...

In case you didn't know, I'm a big believer in it. Everything happens for a reason. Yesterday, I decided to take the kids out for ice cream. Jonah said, "Mommy, you need to get your car washed." So I did, since I am still trying to sell it. After we got ice cream, we went to Costco. Once our shopping was finished, I decided to get gas, even though I still had more than 1/4 of a tank and these days, with $4+ a gallon gas, I usually wait until I am running on fumes.

Enter Destiny...

As I was pumping the gas, a man and his wife pulled up to the pump behind me. The man noticed my "For Sale" sign and said that they were on their way to Indiana to look at a Honda Pilot! He asked me some questions about mine, took a peek inside and wrote down my phone number. He hasn't called yet, but I'm still hoping. How ironic would it be to sell my car at the very place that is responsible for the reason I am trying to sell it in the first place?

Car Buying Sucks!

I'm trying to sell my SUV (along with the rest of the country's SUV owners apparently). Good luck with that, right? It cost me $80 to fill up my tank the other day. That will last me about a week. So the way I see it, I have one of three options. Sell my car and buy something more fuel efficient, don't sell it and never go anywhere or buy a scooter and try to find a way to strap me and my three kids to it.

Although option C sounds kinda fun, I don't think I'm quite up for that challenge. And option B, well let's just say (to borrow a phrase from an old friend of mine) I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than be stuck in the house with three kids for the rest of my life. So, I decided to try to trade in my car.

I researched car options and finally decided on the one I want. A Honda Fit. It's small but I did test drive it with all three kids (and car seats) to make sure they would all fit in the Fit! It was cozy but I think it will work. All last week I spent hours upon hours on the phone with various car dealers from here to Ohio and driving all over town trying to trade in my car. Nobody wants to give me anywhere near what my car is worth.

I hate car salesman. They are so slimy (sorry if you are one or are related to one of the slime-free variety). EVERY single one that I spoke with over the phone said, "Sure, I think we can make that happen. Come on in and let's see what we can do." Of course, when I get there, it's a different story. "Well, as you know, the SUV market just isn't doing so well right now." No duh!

I guess I'm going to try to sell it myself. If you know anyone who's interested, it's a 2006 Honda Pilot LX 2WD with 38,000 miles. It is in excellent condition and very clean (yes, even with three kids). It is black and actually gets pretty good gas mileage for an SUV. So if you need an 8 passenger vehicle, it would be ideal. (Robin, any interest? You would only have to leave 2 members of your family at home! ;-)