Thursday, May 28, 2009
Post War Lesson In Action
Tuesday, post MDFHM, the kids were interested in playing a board game. Game of choice: RISK. That's right. The two hour or more game filled with conquest and stratagem was their first pick. Mind you Tiago asked for me to get down the horsey and shooting game, but close enough. Hopefully, some day soon we can play a game (mission style) as a family after our War Lesson. 
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Snuggie has Nothing on Us
Have you ever heard of people who do a little impulse buying late at night while watching reruns? I am sure some of you have been in such a predicament while viewing the ever helpful Snuggie. Now such spending might seem understandable when you are up late and synapses in the brain are misfiring, but 10 am impulse buying is a little out of control.
We have been consistently checking and rechecking the used Odyssey market. We watched many "great" deals be grabbed by other buyers because they were up in Dallas and we were not. So, the other day while I was perusing the internet, I got a genius idea. I would buy a one way ticket to Dallas and drive our dream van back home. The flight was steep for such a short distance ($140) but cheaper then paying the shipping cost ($300-500) and be stuck with a possible dud. I talked it over with Fernando and he offered to go in my stead. After a few phone calls, Fernando got ready for his whirlwind adventure.
Sadly, during his 1 hour flight, 2 of our potential dream cars were sold and others up and disappeared. Never fear. The best one was still available. Unfortunately, when Fernando test drove the vehicle it felt funny. Plus it was equipped with PAX tires which wasn't as phenomenal to us as the dealer would like us to believe. Although they promise to never go flat, eventually the tread goes and you have a hefty bill to replace such tires. Fernando tried to get the dealer to replace the fancy tires with plain old tires, but that required switching out the whole component including the axle and rims.
Finally, after we both realized that used cars were not for us, Fernando decided to try the new car route. By this time it is 7pm and he still has a good 5 hour drive home. He wheeled and dealed as best he could, but the dealer felt confident that Fernando was ready to buy at any cost. This is what he brought home:
The car is beautiful and is loaded with all the things we wanted (a more). I feel so bad that I didn't just buy the car down here. There are plenty of new Odysseys around here. The process did eliminate the "what If" clause of finding a better used car deal then buying new. Still, the moral of the story is. . .wait. It will be ok if you just think things through before you purchase. Because, although we got a pretty good deal for the van, the cost in time, energy, and effort from Fernando who is barely surviving in the land of the living (yeah, he's on night float again) was more then I was willing to pay.
We have been consistently checking and rechecking the used Odyssey market. We watched many "great" deals be grabbed by other buyers because they were up in Dallas and we were not. So, the other day while I was perusing the internet, I got a genius idea. I would buy a one way ticket to Dallas and drive our dream van back home. The flight was steep for such a short distance ($140) but cheaper then paying the shipping cost ($300-500) and be stuck with a possible dud. I talked it over with Fernando and he offered to go in my stead. After a few phone calls, Fernando got ready for his whirlwind adventure.
Sadly, during his 1 hour flight, 2 of our potential dream cars were sold and others up and disappeared. Never fear. The best one was still available. Unfortunately, when Fernando test drove the vehicle it felt funny. Plus it was equipped with PAX tires which wasn't as phenomenal to us as the dealer would like us to believe. Although they promise to never go flat, eventually the tread goes and you have a hefty bill to replace such tires. Fernando tried to get the dealer to replace the fancy tires with plain old tires, but that required switching out the whole component including the axle and rims.
Finally, after we both realized that used cars were not for us, Fernando decided to try the new car route. By this time it is 7pm and he still has a good 5 hour drive home. He wheeled and dealed as best he could, but the dealer felt confident that Fernando was ready to buy at any cost. This is what he brought home:
The car is beautiful and is loaded with all the things we wanted (a more). I feel so bad that I didn't just buy the car down here. There are plenty of new Odysseys around here. The process did eliminate the "what If" clause of finding a better used car deal then buying new. Still, the moral of the story is. . .wait. It will be ok if you just think things through before you purchase. Because, although we got a pretty good deal for the van, the cost in time, energy, and effort from Fernando who is barely surviving in the land of the living (yeah, he's on night float again) was more then I was willing to pay.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day Family Home Morning
On significant holidays, we try to teach the kids about why we are celebrating on that day. It's nice that MOST non religious holidays are observed on Monday making for an easy FHE lesson. Today was no exception. I decided to teach the kids about war starting from the beginning. Plus, to make sure we could have Fernando join us, it technically was FHM (family home morning). I kind of wish that I would have thought about this idea before the day I was giving it because I think I could have made it a little more coherent and condensed. So, I am throwing the "lesson" out there for anyone to help mold it into a better creation for next veteran like holiday.
Opening song was I Lived in Heaven which gives a good brief overview of the war in Heaven. The kids have been learning it in Primary this year so we didn't need to take the time to teach it. We then flushed the song ideas out so the kids understood what happened (as best as we know and could explain). Fernando read a scripture about Michael and the Dragon which made the kids excited. Too bad Mia was like "look, I'm a dragon" then made all these dragon noises. Normally, who cares and cute for being a dragon. Still cute, but we had to explain who the dragon was and why he didn't belong in heaven.
We then talked about how the war still continues today. Heavenly Father's children who had faith in Jesus Christ chose to come down to earth to learn and grow. Here on earth we would still have the chance to choose to follow Heavenly Father's plan or not. To help in this battle, Heavenly Father has warned us to put on our armor. We explained what armor was (again, previous discussions about the Armor of God made this one a review) and why it was important to wear.
Visual support came in the form of Narnia battle scene (pre gruesomeness that is. I thought the kids might be a little scared but they wanted more. We didn't show any more and promised that they could watch it if we read the book first. I figured that would take us a couple years to finish.) We also watched the CES video presentation of the Whole Armor of God. This is a short little segment that overlays a group of Renassance looking soldiers with a group of high school students. The soldiers see some water and begin to take off their armor unaware of some enemies following them through the forest. The high school kids are asked to a bad party. I think it was a little over their heads but it was good reinforcements. The next movie was Band of Brothers that retells the stories from recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans who fought in WWII. Even with our editing DVD player (really worth the $45 plus $7 membership fees) we could only show about 1 minute. To lighten the mood we popped in My Dog Skip to show how excited people were to enlist in the Army to fight.
Closing song: We taught the chorus of We are All Enlisted while we marched around.
Yeah, it was a lot to swallow. Good thing our little warriors had so time to play after all that heavy war talk. With a chance to swim with some friends at their pool, and a little late night (6:30-8pm) Sea World trip, it was a great Memorial Day.
Opening song was I Lived in Heaven which gives a good brief overview of the war in Heaven. The kids have been learning it in Primary this year so we didn't need to take the time to teach it. We then flushed the song ideas out so the kids understood what happened (as best as we know and could explain). Fernando read a scripture about Michael and the Dragon which made the kids excited. Too bad Mia was like "look, I'm a dragon" then made all these dragon noises. Normally, who cares and cute for being a dragon. Still cute, but we had to explain who the dragon was and why he didn't belong in heaven.
We then talked about how the war still continues today. Heavenly Father's children who had faith in Jesus Christ chose to come down to earth to learn and grow. Here on earth we would still have the chance to choose to follow Heavenly Father's plan or not. To help in this battle, Heavenly Father has warned us to put on our armor. We explained what armor was (again, previous discussions about the Armor of God made this one a review) and why it was important to wear.
Visual support came in the form of Narnia battle scene (pre gruesomeness that is. I thought the kids might be a little scared but they wanted more. We didn't show any more and promised that they could watch it if we read the book first. I figured that would take us a couple years to finish.) We also watched the CES video presentation of the Whole Armor of God. This is a short little segment that overlays a group of Renassance looking soldiers with a group of high school students. The soldiers see some water and begin to take off their armor unaware of some enemies following them through the forest. The high school kids are asked to a bad party. I think it was a little over their heads but it was good reinforcements. The next movie was Band of Brothers that retells the stories from recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans who fought in WWII. Even with our editing DVD player (really worth the $45 plus $7 membership fees) we could only show about 1 minute. To lighten the mood we popped in My Dog Skip to show how excited people were to enlist in the Army to fight.
Closing song: We taught the chorus of We are All Enlisted while we marched around.
Yeah, it was a lot to swallow. Good thing our little warriors had so time to play after all that heavy war talk. With a chance to swim with some friends at their pool, and a little late night (6:30-8pm) Sea World trip, it was a great Memorial Day.
Craigslist--Hit or Miss
I have often heard of fantastic deals people find on craigslist. These stories frustrate me since I have never had such success. All that changed the other day when we were about to go out and plunk down $50 on some standard mini trampoline. I decided to try my luck and check craigslist before we went conventional. Low and behold, we found not only a mini trampoline, but one that had a bar (normal store $100 and up). On top of that, the trampoline was cleverly decorated with a little frog and words "Jump Zone". All such amazingness at the delicious price of $20. Sold to the savvy shopper.
The only down fall to the whole adventure is that my civic's trunk wasn't really big enough for the trampoline to fit. Neither the seller or I had the tools necessary to disassemble the thing. Thanks to the near by Schlotzsky's Deli we met at, we unscrewed the thing which was no small task considering the tight pull of the trampoline. I slipped it into the trunk, paid the lady, and went home. Reassembly was much more tricky, but we finally have a mini energy using device for our kids (and us) to enjoy.
The only down fall to the whole adventure is that my civic's trunk wasn't really big enough for the trampoline to fit. Neither the seller or I had the tools necessary to disassemble the thing. Thanks to the near by Schlotzsky's Deli we met at, we unscrewed the thing which was no small task considering the tight pull of the trampoline. I slipped it into the trunk, paid the lady, and went home. Reassembly was much more tricky, but we finally have a mini energy using device for our kids (and us) to enjoy.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
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