We took Bella to Urgent Care Wednesday afternoon for this horrible cough she has. They gave her some cough medicine and a decongestant and sent us on our way. My poor girl passed out in the car with her mouth wide open while we were driving down the road. I took this pic while we were stopped at a stop light. Poor girl! =/
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sick Bella =(
We took Bella to Urgent Care Wednesday afternoon for this horrible cough she has. They gave her some cough medicine and a decongestant and sent us on our way. My poor girl passed out in the car with her mouth wide open while we were driving down the road. I took this pic while we were stopped at a stop light. Poor girl! =/
My girls
Skyla NOT wanting to have her picture taken. =)
Bella is ready for bed.
I LOVE this one! She is SO cute!
I put contact paper on top of our cabinets before we painted them (they were really dusty and it was difficult to get them clean) so Bella decided to play with what was left. =)
SO much fun!Wednesday, November 17, 2010
All tricks and no treats!
Well, many of you have been praying for us without having any idea AT ALL what you were praying about. Aaron and I went through almost two weeks of pure stress. Why you ask? Because of a car!
So, those of you that know us know that we are HOT for Dave Ramsey and dumping debt! Aaron and I were blessed with Dave Ramsey's program three years ago. Samtec, the company Aaron works for, offered Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to all of their employees and their spouses for FREE! Heck yeah, let's take it! That was TOTALLY a God thing because I had been looking into the program, but it was a bit expensive for us to do it on our own. Thank you Jesus! If it hadn't been for Samtec offering us this program there is no way I would have been able to stay home with Bella and I'm sure other bad things would have happened because we weren't very smart with our money...we thought we were, but Dave told us different. So, in three years we have dumped 50k in debt! WOO HOO! We still have 33k more to go, not bad considering where we were, but not where we would like to be.
What in the world does all this have to do with a car? I know, I know...I really do have a point. We decided to sell Aaron's car so we could dump some more debt. We knew we were upside down on Aaron's car, but any amount we would be able to pay off would be fantastic! So we put Aaron's car up for sale for less than blue book value so we could make a quick sale. It sold within two weeks of us having it up for sale. We listed it on eBay, craigslist, and in the local paper. The people who bought it from us found it on eBay. They were wonderful people! We were so glad to give them a good car and our car, we brought Bella home from the hospital in, a new home.
Bye, bye little Kia that our family has outgrown. You were a good car! We knew that our buyers would be purchasing the car, but the entire process took about five days. We met them at their bank on a Saturday morning, the Saturday before Halloween. We had been looking all week for a new vehicle so we went to look at a few that day. We were all exhausted and still had to trick-or-treat that night so we decided to call it a day and head home.
We found a Dodge Durango on craigslist that we liked and was in our price range. We had the cash to pay for it and had tried to contact the owner without any luck. We were finally able to get ahold of him on Halloween (Sunday, October 31st) and drove to French Lick, IN to meet. Let's call him Ben...Ben Dover. (we will change his name in case one day I make millions of dollars from this story and he can't get any royalties from this! Here's to wishful thinking! =)
So, above is a picture of our lovely car...well, not our car exactly, but one that looks like the one we bought. I borrowed both images from the web. Thank you Yahoo! images for allowing me to borrow the images of both the Kia and the Durango. =)
Anyhow, onto our very long story. We drove to French Lick, the home of Larry Bird, in our 1998 white Nissan Altima aka The White Death (it was given this nickname because it seems as though I am always killing something in this car like a bird flying into the windshield or a squirrel running out in front of me). Picture a beautiful, sunny, and warm for October afternoon. I'm dressed in my 1950's sock hop outfit (it was Halloween after all), Aaron in the passenger seat, Garrett in the back reading a book, and Bella in her car seat chatting away. We met at a local gas station to meet Ben and look at the car. I let Aaron and Garrett test drive the car while Bella and I hung out in the parking lot. They came back, I looked at it, Aaron checked it out, we signed the title, gave Ben the cash ($3000), and drove it home. What a great day! Uhm, sure...okay....well, maybe not so much.
So I drove it home because this will now be my vehicle. Garrett was in the front seat with me and Aaron and Bella were following behind. We got home, put Bella down for a nap, relaxed for about 30 minutes, and then got ready to go to my mom's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. We took the car (aka The White Death) because the Durango (aka The Beast) had Aaron's old tags from the Kia on it. We went to my mom's, stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's, dropped by Skyla's, and then headed home. We got home and were getting all of our stuff out of the car like my AWESOME bread machine that my mom gave me! Thank you MOM! I was getting the last load out of the car when I saw a puddle underneath the Durango which, by the way, will be referred to as the beast from now on. I asked Aaron to come downstairs, which he did, and I said,"Babe, what is that?" all while pointing to the HUGE puddle that looked to me like transmission fluid underneath the beast. Now, I am no mechanic and I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I do know that oil should be dark in color (like black) and transmission fluid should be a lighter color (like red). This was most definitely red. Not a good sign is it? So, my husband being the Alpha male that he is began to beat himself up! Yes, looking back we should have waited a day or two to have the beast checked out, but we needed a car for the next day because Aaron had to be at work, I had to be at Target for orientation (that is a whole other story in itself), I had to get Skyla so she could watch Bella while I went to orientation (Skyla was on fall break), and with only one car there was no way we could make it all happen. So my fabulous husband was feeling like all of this was his fault. Not true honey! We live and we learn...and we have DEFINITELY learned from this experience!
So, we go upstairs and call Ben. Hey, he told us to call him if we had any problems so we did. Well what do you know, Ben didn't answer his phone. Aaron tried calling him three times that night and never heard back from him. Aaron decided not to go to work on Monday to deal with all the beast stuff so he talked with his boss and got the all clear. All the while we are looking at the title to the beast and realize that Ben's name is no where to be found on the title! We thought that he had already signed it, but he hadn't. It was signed by Larry who was the original owner of the beast. Oh goodness, we really don't have a good feeling about this now.
Monday morning comes and we call a tow truck to have them tow the beast to Morton's in New Albany. We LOVE Morton's! They are fantastic, honest, and reasonable! So we paid $85.00 for the tow to Morton's and let Morton's know the beast was on it's way. We told them what was going on and they said they would look at it. Well, I went on to Target for my orientation (I'm telling you that story will be next) and left Aaron here with the girls. Aaron sent me a text while I was at Target letting me know that it was only going to cost $130 to fix the beast! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! When I talked with Aaron on my way home he said that it was the transmission pan gasket (look at me, I sound like I know what I am talking about) that needed to be replaced and they had to put in 6 quarts of transmission fluid (does that tell you how big the puddle was on our garage floor?) so the cost would be $160 and would be ready on Tuesday. SWEET! When I got home I asked Aaron if Morton's looked at the beast over all to see if there was anything else that needed to be fixed and he said they didn't but he would ask them to look at it the next morning.
Tuesday morning Aaron calls Morton's and asks them to look at the beast. They said they would be glad to. Around 10:30AM Aaron calls me from work. I could tell as soon as I answered the phone that something was wrong. Now, those of you that know my husband know that he IS NOT a cusser! When we first started dating I had the mouth of someone that worked in a restaurant for many, many years, but since my honey didn't cuss I decided I shouldn't either so I stopped. Anyhow, he called, I said what's wrong, and he said,"We bought an f@*$&%*g piece of s#*t!!!!!!" Okay, tell me what's wrong. He said that Morton's started rattling off all these things that were wrong with the beast. I asked him how much it was going to cost to fix it and he said he didn't know. I told Aaron that I would call them and take care of it from there so he could go back to work. I called Morton's and spoke with the wonderful lady who works the desk. She was SO sweet! I told her who I was and asked what was wrong with the beast. She said that we needed new brakes, upper and lower ball joints, transmission flush, belts were cracking, battery service and replace cables, coolant flush, brake lights, etc. I asked her for an estimate...drum roll please...$1780! WOW! There went all the money we were going to pay on debt! So I told her to go ahead and fix it all. She said okay and that we should have the beast back no later than Friday. So, a full week with only one car...I know we can make it work. I called Aaron back to talk with him about the situation and he was a little more calm, but not much. He said he had tried calling Ben several more times while he was at work (thinking he wouldn't recognize the number and answer the phone), but no he didn't answer the phone. I knew you would be surprised by that!
Wednesday comes and Morton's calls Aaron to tell him that the beast is ready! SWEET! Two days early! I told you they were awesome! So he picks up the beast and drives it home. The good thing from this whole experience is that Morton's told us we have a REALLY good vehicle and it should last us another 100k miles! That's good because after all this we will drive into the ground!
Well now, I'm sure you thought our story would end there didn't you. Wait! Don't go away because we aren't even close to being finished yet! So, Thursday comes and when Aaron gets off work he takes the beast to the BMV in Corydon to try and get tags put on it. We knew we weren't over all of our hurdles yet. While Aaron was at the BMV he sends me a text that says,"NOT GOOD!" which I replied with,"What's wrong now?". When he left the BMV he called me and told me that the lady at the BMV looked at what he had and said that she couldn't help him. She gave him a list of things we needed to do and sent him on his way. Now, the only experience I have had with buying/selling a car from an individual were all in Indiana with Indiana titles. Remember when we told you that Ben's name wasn't anywhere on the title? Well, it was a Kentucky title. Oh joy! First thing to do on our list was to have the police department do a VIN check on the beast. At this point I was totally believing that we paid $3k for a stolen vehicle, paid $1830 to have it fixed, and were going to be out all that money with no vehicle to show for it! So Thursday evening we were on our way to the police department in Corydon when Aaron stopped in the middle of the road, backed up, and pulled into the parking lot of what used to be a First Harrison Bank in the "heart" of Crandall. I say that jokingly because if you have ever been out to our house you know that if you blink you will miss Crandall and it's population of roughly 200 people. So we pulled into the parking lot of the old bank which is now a Fraternal Order of Police where there was a sheriff's car. Aaron gets out and walks up to the sheriff who just happens to be a guy that used to work at Samtec with Aaron. Thank you Jesus! Aaron tells him the story of the beast, Kerry runs a VIN check for us, and praise the Lord it's not stolen! So Kerry signs the VIN check paper for us and we headed back home.
Next order of business, contact Larry who originally owned the beast. His name and telephone number were on the back of the title where he signed it. Oh, did I happen to mention that he signed the title in the wrong place? Which meant that technically the beast was still legally his. We just paid 3k and put an additional $1800 into a vehicle that didn't even legally belong to us! How much more craptastic can this get? Thankfully Larry was the nicest man in the world! I called him, told him he had no idea who I was, explained the situation, and he agreed to meet us in Jeffersonville at the bank where I used to work on Court Ave.
Friday, November 5th we met Larry at First Savings Bank in Jeffersonville at 4:00. He was so kind to us! He signed the title and filled out a bill of sale for us. We told Larry that the BMV also told us the title we had showed there was still a lien on the beast. He said there was no lien and he didn't have the title stating that. Super nice man! We wish we could've dealt with him from the beginning. He did tell us that Ben had only had the beast for about a week. Ben told Larry that he was going to fix the beast and flip it. Larry sold the beast to Ben for only...are you ready for this....$1000! Yeah, we got so screwed! That's why I named him Ben Dover because that's what he did to us! He flipped it all right...don't know about the fixing part though.
Final order of business, getting a title that shows there isn't a lien on the beast. Aaron called the bank listed on the title where the lien was held. They said they didn't show a lien against the beast and that they don't keep records back that far so we would need to call the courthouse. Aaron calls the number the bank gave him. He spoke to a nice young lady in the county clerks office that said the beast did not have a lien against it and that she could fax him a paper stating that! SWEET! The only hurdle that hasn't been difficult! Wait for it...it's coming. Two hours went by and Aaron never received a fax so he called them back. He spoke with another lady stating that they could not fax us a paper and that he had the wrong courthouse. We needed to call Caldwell county courthouse. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that Larry used to live in Princeton, KY which is three hours away in Western Kentucky? So Aaron calls me to tell me what is going on. I called the Caldwell County courthouse and spoke with a really nice lady that said that we would have to bring the title in to have it initialed that the lien had been released. There was no other way to do this. We were going to have to drive three hours each way to the Caldwell County courthouse to have them initial a piece of paper stating that there was not a lien against our vehicle.
Monday morning comes, Aaron has asked for a half-day off from work on Tuesday so we can make the drive to Western Kentucky. I asked Aaron to call the courthouse one more time and see if there was any way she could fax us something stating the lien had been released so that we didn't have to drive three hours each way to their location. She said (can you hear the angels singing now?),"Oh honey, you don't have to drive all the way here. You can go to any courthouse in Kentucky and they can sign off on that. Are you close to Kentucky at all?". I think I probably heard Aaron yell YES from New Albany! That Monday afternoon he drove to Louisville after work, went to the courthouse, got the title signed, and we were in the clear!
Tuesday afternoon came and Aaron decided he was still going to take a half-day. He said he wanted to make sure that he had enough time in case we needed to do anything else with the beast...did I happen to mention that was also the day Black Ops came out for xBox 360? ;-) Anyhow, he took the beast back to the Corydon BMV and was able to get it tagged without any problems! Thank you Jesus! The beast is ours, all ours!
We have learned MANY valuable lessons from this experience.
1. You shouldn't always be so trusting. I have a tendency to be very trusting and I trusted Ben. He seemed very upfront, honest, and nice. He knew a lot about the vehicle, but really he was just blowing smoke up our booties. What made me the most upset about this whole ordeal was that he knew the vehicle wasn't safe and yet he let us drive off in it with two of our three kids. How in the world can money be that important that you don't have any value for other peoples lives? That I just don't understand!
2. Always have a vehicle checked out before you buy it. I know the people who bout the Kia and who also bought my old Honda didn't have them checked out. We didn't have the white death checked out when we bought it either. Valuable lesson learned.
3. Yes we were planning on paying off some debt with the extra money we had, but thankfully we had the extra money to pay for the repairs on the beast. At least we didn't go into more debt purchasing the beast or fixing it, however we are still in the same boat we were before.
4. I love my husband more than ever and am so thankful to have him in my life! We make a good pair! We didn't fight with each other over this whole ordeal which I am even more thankful for.
5. I am utterly PARANOID now! Anytime I drive either one of our vehicles and it makes a noise I am unfamiliar with I say,"Uh oh, what was that?!". It will take a while but I know this will eventually fade.
6. We have a good vehicle that will hopefully run great for an additional 100k miles! We plan on driving the beast until the wheels fall off of it! We have more room for our kids and 4WD so we don't get stuck in the snow anymore (have you seen the road that leads to our house or our driveway? All this would make much more sense if you had.).
7. We must really be doing something right for Satan to be attacking us this much. We are trying our best to follow God's plan (the borrower is slave to the lender) and get out of debt. We will continue to trust God and know that He has a plan for us. It will all work out how it is supposed to.
Thank you for your time in reading our story of the beast. Have a wonderfully blessed day!
Proverbs 21:20
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oils, but a foolish man devours all he has."
So, those of you that know us know that we are HOT for Dave Ramsey and dumping debt! Aaron and I were blessed with Dave Ramsey's program three years ago. Samtec, the company Aaron works for, offered Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to all of their employees and their spouses for FREE! Heck yeah, let's take it! That was TOTALLY a God thing because I had been looking into the program, but it was a bit expensive for us to do it on our own. Thank you Jesus! If it hadn't been for Samtec offering us this program there is no way I would have been able to stay home with Bella and I'm sure other bad things would have happened because we weren't very smart with our money...we thought we were, but Dave told us different. So, in three years we have dumped 50k in debt! WOO HOO! We still have 33k more to go, not bad considering where we were, but not where we would like to be.
What in the world does all this have to do with a car? I know, I know...I really do have a point. We decided to sell Aaron's car so we could dump some more debt. We knew we were upside down on Aaron's car, but any amount we would be able to pay off would be fantastic! So we put Aaron's car up for sale for less than blue book value so we could make a quick sale. It sold within two weeks of us having it up for sale. We listed it on eBay, craigslist, and in the local paper. The people who bought it from us found it on eBay. They were wonderful people! We were so glad to give them a good car and our car, we brought Bella home from the hospital in, a new home.
Bye, bye little Kia that our family has outgrown. You were a good car! We knew that our buyers would be purchasing the car, but the entire process took about five days. We met them at their bank on a Saturday morning, the Saturday before Halloween. We had been looking all week for a new vehicle so we went to look at a few that day. We were all exhausted and still had to trick-or-treat that night so we decided to call it a day and head home.We found a Dodge Durango on craigslist that we liked and was in our price range. We had the cash to pay for it and had tried to contact the owner without any luck. We were finally able to get ahold of him on Halloween (Sunday, October 31st) and drove to French Lick, IN to meet. Let's call him Ben...Ben Dover. (we will change his name in case one day I make millions of dollars from this story and he can't get any royalties from this! Here's to wishful thinking! =)
So, above is a picture of our lovely car...well, not our car exactly, but one that looks like the one we bought. I borrowed both images from the web. Thank you Yahoo! images for allowing me to borrow the images of both the Kia and the Durango. =)Anyhow, onto our very long story. We drove to French Lick, the home of Larry Bird, in our 1998 white Nissan Altima aka The White Death (it was given this nickname because it seems as though I am always killing something in this car like a bird flying into the windshield or a squirrel running out in front of me). Picture a beautiful, sunny, and warm for October afternoon. I'm dressed in my 1950's sock hop outfit (it was Halloween after all), Aaron in the passenger seat, Garrett in the back reading a book, and Bella in her car seat chatting away. We met at a local gas station to meet Ben and look at the car. I let Aaron and Garrett test drive the car while Bella and I hung out in the parking lot. They came back, I looked at it, Aaron checked it out, we signed the title, gave Ben the cash ($3000), and drove it home. What a great day! Uhm, sure...okay....well, maybe not so much.
So I drove it home because this will now be my vehicle. Garrett was in the front seat with me and Aaron and Bella were following behind. We got home, put Bella down for a nap, relaxed for about 30 minutes, and then got ready to go to my mom's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. We took the car (aka The White Death) because the Durango (aka The Beast) had Aaron's old tags from the Kia on it. We went to my mom's, stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's, dropped by Skyla's, and then headed home. We got home and were getting all of our stuff out of the car like my AWESOME bread machine that my mom gave me! Thank you MOM! I was getting the last load out of the car when I saw a puddle underneath the Durango which, by the way, will be referred to as the beast from now on. I asked Aaron to come downstairs, which he did, and I said,"Babe, what is that?" all while pointing to the HUGE puddle that looked to me like transmission fluid underneath the beast. Now, I am no mechanic and I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I do know that oil should be dark in color (like black) and transmission fluid should be a lighter color (like red). This was most definitely red. Not a good sign is it? So, my husband being the Alpha male that he is began to beat himself up! Yes, looking back we should have waited a day or two to have the beast checked out, but we needed a car for the next day because Aaron had to be at work, I had to be at Target for orientation (that is a whole other story in itself), I had to get Skyla so she could watch Bella while I went to orientation (Skyla was on fall break), and with only one car there was no way we could make it all happen. So my fabulous husband was feeling like all of this was his fault. Not true honey! We live and we learn...and we have DEFINITELY learned from this experience!
So, we go upstairs and call Ben. Hey, he told us to call him if we had any problems so we did. Well what do you know, Ben didn't answer his phone. Aaron tried calling him three times that night and never heard back from him. Aaron decided not to go to work on Monday to deal with all the beast stuff so he talked with his boss and got the all clear. All the while we are looking at the title to the beast and realize that Ben's name is no where to be found on the title! We thought that he had already signed it, but he hadn't. It was signed by Larry who was the original owner of the beast. Oh goodness, we really don't have a good feeling about this now.
Monday morning comes and we call a tow truck to have them tow the beast to Morton's in New Albany. We LOVE Morton's! They are fantastic, honest, and reasonable! So we paid $85.00 for the tow to Morton's and let Morton's know the beast was on it's way. We told them what was going on and they said they would look at it. Well, I went on to Target for my orientation (I'm telling you that story will be next) and left Aaron here with the girls. Aaron sent me a text while I was at Target letting me know that it was only going to cost $130 to fix the beast! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! When I talked with Aaron on my way home he said that it was the transmission pan gasket (look at me, I sound like I know what I am talking about) that needed to be replaced and they had to put in 6 quarts of transmission fluid (does that tell you how big the puddle was on our garage floor?) so the cost would be $160 and would be ready on Tuesday. SWEET! When I got home I asked Aaron if Morton's looked at the beast over all to see if there was anything else that needed to be fixed and he said they didn't but he would ask them to look at it the next morning.
Tuesday morning Aaron calls Morton's and asks them to look at the beast. They said they would be glad to. Around 10:30AM Aaron calls me from work. I could tell as soon as I answered the phone that something was wrong. Now, those of you that know my husband know that he IS NOT a cusser! When we first started dating I had the mouth of someone that worked in a restaurant for many, many years, but since my honey didn't cuss I decided I shouldn't either so I stopped. Anyhow, he called, I said what's wrong, and he said,"We bought an f@*$&%*g piece of s#*t!!!!!!" Okay, tell me what's wrong. He said that Morton's started rattling off all these things that were wrong with the beast. I asked him how much it was going to cost to fix it and he said he didn't know. I told Aaron that I would call them and take care of it from there so he could go back to work. I called Morton's and spoke with the wonderful lady who works the desk. She was SO sweet! I told her who I was and asked what was wrong with the beast. She said that we needed new brakes, upper and lower ball joints, transmission flush, belts were cracking, battery service and replace cables, coolant flush, brake lights, etc. I asked her for an estimate...drum roll please...$1780! WOW! There went all the money we were going to pay on debt! So I told her to go ahead and fix it all. She said okay and that we should have the beast back no later than Friday. So, a full week with only one car...I know we can make it work. I called Aaron back to talk with him about the situation and he was a little more calm, but not much. He said he had tried calling Ben several more times while he was at work (thinking he wouldn't recognize the number and answer the phone), but no he didn't answer the phone. I knew you would be surprised by that!
Wednesday comes and Morton's calls Aaron to tell him that the beast is ready! SWEET! Two days early! I told you they were awesome! So he picks up the beast and drives it home. The good thing from this whole experience is that Morton's told us we have a REALLY good vehicle and it should last us another 100k miles! That's good because after all this we will drive into the ground!
Well now, I'm sure you thought our story would end there didn't you. Wait! Don't go away because we aren't even close to being finished yet! So, Thursday comes and when Aaron gets off work he takes the beast to the BMV in Corydon to try and get tags put on it. We knew we weren't over all of our hurdles yet. While Aaron was at the BMV he sends me a text that says,"NOT GOOD!" which I replied with,"What's wrong now?". When he left the BMV he called me and told me that the lady at the BMV looked at what he had and said that she couldn't help him. She gave him a list of things we needed to do and sent him on his way. Now, the only experience I have had with buying/selling a car from an individual were all in Indiana with Indiana titles. Remember when we told you that Ben's name wasn't anywhere on the title? Well, it was a Kentucky title. Oh joy! First thing to do on our list was to have the police department do a VIN check on the beast. At this point I was totally believing that we paid $3k for a stolen vehicle, paid $1830 to have it fixed, and were going to be out all that money with no vehicle to show for it! So Thursday evening we were on our way to the police department in Corydon when Aaron stopped in the middle of the road, backed up, and pulled into the parking lot of what used to be a First Harrison Bank in the "heart" of Crandall. I say that jokingly because if you have ever been out to our house you know that if you blink you will miss Crandall and it's population of roughly 200 people. So we pulled into the parking lot of the old bank which is now a Fraternal Order of Police where there was a sheriff's car. Aaron gets out and walks up to the sheriff who just happens to be a guy that used to work at Samtec with Aaron. Thank you Jesus! Aaron tells him the story of the beast, Kerry runs a VIN check for us, and praise the Lord it's not stolen! So Kerry signs the VIN check paper for us and we headed back home.
Next order of business, contact Larry who originally owned the beast. His name and telephone number were on the back of the title where he signed it. Oh, did I happen to mention that he signed the title in the wrong place? Which meant that technically the beast was still legally his. We just paid 3k and put an additional $1800 into a vehicle that didn't even legally belong to us! How much more craptastic can this get? Thankfully Larry was the nicest man in the world! I called him, told him he had no idea who I was, explained the situation, and he agreed to meet us in Jeffersonville at the bank where I used to work on Court Ave.
Friday, November 5th we met Larry at First Savings Bank in Jeffersonville at 4:00. He was so kind to us! He signed the title and filled out a bill of sale for us. We told Larry that the BMV also told us the title we had showed there was still a lien on the beast. He said there was no lien and he didn't have the title stating that. Super nice man! We wish we could've dealt with him from the beginning. He did tell us that Ben had only had the beast for about a week. Ben told Larry that he was going to fix the beast and flip it. Larry sold the beast to Ben for only...are you ready for this....$1000! Yeah, we got so screwed! That's why I named him Ben Dover because that's what he did to us! He flipped it all right...don't know about the fixing part though.
Final order of business, getting a title that shows there isn't a lien on the beast. Aaron called the bank listed on the title where the lien was held. They said they didn't show a lien against the beast and that they don't keep records back that far so we would need to call the courthouse. Aaron calls the number the bank gave him. He spoke to a nice young lady in the county clerks office that said the beast did not have a lien against it and that she could fax him a paper stating that! SWEET! The only hurdle that hasn't been difficult! Wait for it...it's coming. Two hours went by and Aaron never received a fax so he called them back. He spoke with another lady stating that they could not fax us a paper and that he had the wrong courthouse. We needed to call Caldwell county courthouse. Oh yeah, did I happen to mention that Larry used to live in Princeton, KY which is three hours away in Western Kentucky? So Aaron calls me to tell me what is going on. I called the Caldwell County courthouse and spoke with a really nice lady that said that we would have to bring the title in to have it initialed that the lien had been released. There was no other way to do this. We were going to have to drive three hours each way to the Caldwell County courthouse to have them initial a piece of paper stating that there was not a lien against our vehicle.
Monday morning comes, Aaron has asked for a half-day off from work on Tuesday so we can make the drive to Western Kentucky. I asked Aaron to call the courthouse one more time and see if there was any way she could fax us something stating the lien had been released so that we didn't have to drive three hours each way to their location. She said (can you hear the angels singing now?),"Oh honey, you don't have to drive all the way here. You can go to any courthouse in Kentucky and they can sign off on that. Are you close to Kentucky at all?". I think I probably heard Aaron yell YES from New Albany! That Monday afternoon he drove to Louisville after work, went to the courthouse, got the title signed, and we were in the clear!
Tuesday afternoon came and Aaron decided he was still going to take a half-day. He said he wanted to make sure that he had enough time in case we needed to do anything else with the beast...did I happen to mention that was also the day Black Ops came out for xBox 360? ;-) Anyhow, he took the beast back to the Corydon BMV and was able to get it tagged without any problems! Thank you Jesus! The beast is ours, all ours!
We have learned MANY valuable lessons from this experience.
1. You shouldn't always be so trusting. I have a tendency to be very trusting and I trusted Ben. He seemed very upfront, honest, and nice. He knew a lot about the vehicle, but really he was just blowing smoke up our booties. What made me the most upset about this whole ordeal was that he knew the vehicle wasn't safe and yet he let us drive off in it with two of our three kids. How in the world can money be that important that you don't have any value for other peoples lives? That I just don't understand!
2. Always have a vehicle checked out before you buy it. I know the people who bout the Kia and who also bought my old Honda didn't have them checked out. We didn't have the white death checked out when we bought it either. Valuable lesson learned.
3. Yes we were planning on paying off some debt with the extra money we had, but thankfully we had the extra money to pay for the repairs on the beast. At least we didn't go into more debt purchasing the beast or fixing it, however we are still in the same boat we were before.
4. I love my husband more than ever and am so thankful to have him in my life! We make a good pair! We didn't fight with each other over this whole ordeal which I am even more thankful for.
5. I am utterly PARANOID now! Anytime I drive either one of our vehicles and it makes a noise I am unfamiliar with I say,"Uh oh, what was that?!". It will take a while but I know this will eventually fade.
6. We have a good vehicle that will hopefully run great for an additional 100k miles! We plan on driving the beast until the wheels fall off of it! We have more room for our kids and 4WD so we don't get stuck in the snow anymore (have you seen the road that leads to our house or our driveway? All this would make much more sense if you had.).
7. We must really be doing something right for Satan to be attacking us this much. We are trying our best to follow God's plan (the borrower is slave to the lender) and get out of debt. We will continue to trust God and know that He has a plan for us. It will all work out how it is supposed to.
Thank you for your time in reading our story of the beast. Have a wonderfully blessed day!
Proverbs 21:20
"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oils, but a foolish man devours all he has."
Lost and Found
Today I have a heavy heart. About what exactly I'm not sure. Yesterday I was in a bad mood and I 'm sure my family got the bad end of the deal on that one as they always do when I end up in a bad mood. Thankfully for them my bad moods don't occur too often. :-)
To my readers everywhere and nowhere, to those listening and those not paying any attention, this is my story at the moment. I think this truly isn't intended for anyone but God.
Over the past weeks we have FINALLY been putting some paint on our walls in our house! WOO HOO! It really feels all warm and cozy in here now. =) We have lived here almost FIVE years and had not, until recently, painted any room in our house. We painted the basement when I was pregnant with Bella. It was our first painting job and we have consequently asked for more paint for Christmas because we didn't do a very good job and it needs repainted! Then we painted Bella's room. What better time to paint than when she wasn't in it yet. Once school let out this summer we have been on a painting spree. You can read my previous post about us buying paint and why we have been painting everything in our home to understand why now. Anyhow, the point is I was tired and hungry (A VERY BAD combo with me) when Aaron came home. I was annoyed, frustrated, and tired. I wanted him to go ahead and start painting the moment he walked in the door. Let's get this done and get our house back in order! That's all I kept thinking. I know, he needs some down time too when he comes home so the better part of me that is more considerate started to kick in. I didn't say anything about wanting him to start right away and let him do what he needed to. I tried my best to be loving even though I was in a bad mood and annoyed at the same time. It obviously didn't work out so well. I realized that Satan was working hard on me while I was trying to get the rest of the bathroom ready to paint. All I wanted him (meaning Aaron) to do was paint the bedroom and the bathroom without taking into consideration how his day was and what he needed. Satan was filling my head and my heart with thoughts of,"he doesn't appreciate all you do around here. He goes to work all day and then goes out with his friends to play cards or to a game while you are home with the kids...when was the last time you were out with your friends? If he really loves you then why doesn't he take you out on a date that he planned?" BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!! I realized that Satan was sitting on my shoulder, filling my head with all this CRAP, and hardening my heart. I know my husband appreciates me and all I do, I know he doesn't get to go out with friends very often and I am SO thankful when he does, and our date nights have been few and far between with all we have had going on lately so how could either one of us plan a night out. SHEESH! GO AWAY!!!!!!! (Btw...I love you Aaron McKim! I'm sorry :-( for allowing Satan in my head to make me think those horrible things.)
So Bella and I went downstairs to hang out while Aaron painted some of the bathroom and bedroom. It's a pretty big job and I didn't think he would be able to finish it all in one night. My husband is amazing and I am SO thankful that he will paint (because I STINK at it!) especially after he has worked all day. We are almost finished painting babe!
So here I am today, with a heavy heart. Why I'm not sure exactly. Maybe my heart is heavy because I feel as though I failed my husband by allowing Satan to put those HORRIBLE thoughts in my head. Aaron and I both talked about and prayed about this last year. We knew me staying home to be with Bella instead of going back to teaching would be difficult. I just didn't think that Satan was going to try and attack me/us this much. It takes me back to the Women's Retreat I went on in September. Priscilla Shirer talked about the interrupted life. I can most definitely say that my life has been interrupted! She stated that,"The interrupted life is the SIGNIFICANT life!" WOW! Does that mean that my life is significant because I listened to God and allowed him to interrupt my life? I LOVED teaching, however I couldn't justify going to work every day to teach 25 kids of people whom I really don't know while someone else was getting to teach my little girl. Yes the money was nice, but the stress I brought home with those 25 kids every day was heavy! I also learned from Priscilla that I can be doing GREAT things with my life, but if it's not what God wants me to be doing it's not where I should be. I don't want to have a messed up want to, I want to do what God wants for my life. I know that God is setting me up for a story that will blow me away! I think I just need some extra prayer that God's voice will speak loud and clear to me, so much so that I won't be able to hear Satan anywhere! One of the last things I took away from Priscilla was that,"When God places an ABNORMAL calling on your life, it is because HE has abnormal RESULTS HE wants to produce THROUGH YOU!" I have a lot of things that I want to do, some that I feel I should do, and others that I don't know what to do with.
I pray, God please hear my prayer, that God will open my eyes and my heart to His will for my life. I don't want to have a messed up want to! I want to do God's will for my life, not my own. If that means staying in debt longer than we had hoped then I will trust you God because you know what is best for my life! God please open the doors that you want to open and slam shut the doors that I need to stay away from. Please make it obvious to me what your want to is for my life! It is in your beautiful Son's name that I ask and pray all these things. A-MEN!
PS
I knew I needed to sit down to have some quiet time with God. I asked him to show me a verse that would help me today. God is amazing!
Luke 12:31
"Seek the Kingdom of God above ALL else and HE will give you EVERYTHING you need."
To my readers everywhere and nowhere, to those listening and those not paying any attention, this is my story at the moment. I think this truly isn't intended for anyone but God.
Over the past weeks we have FINALLY been putting some paint on our walls in our house! WOO HOO! It really feels all warm and cozy in here now. =) We have lived here almost FIVE years and had not, until recently, painted any room in our house. We painted the basement when I was pregnant with Bella. It was our first painting job and we have consequently asked for more paint for Christmas because we didn't do a very good job and it needs repainted! Then we painted Bella's room. What better time to paint than when she wasn't in it yet. Once school let out this summer we have been on a painting spree. You can read my previous post about us buying paint and why we have been painting everything in our home to understand why now. Anyhow, the point is I was tired and hungry (A VERY BAD combo with me) when Aaron came home. I was annoyed, frustrated, and tired. I wanted him to go ahead and start painting the moment he walked in the door. Let's get this done and get our house back in order! That's all I kept thinking. I know, he needs some down time too when he comes home so the better part of me that is more considerate started to kick in. I didn't say anything about wanting him to start right away and let him do what he needed to. I tried my best to be loving even though I was in a bad mood and annoyed at the same time. It obviously didn't work out so well. I realized that Satan was working hard on me while I was trying to get the rest of the bathroom ready to paint. All I wanted him (meaning Aaron) to do was paint the bedroom and the bathroom without taking into consideration how his day was and what he needed. Satan was filling my head and my heart with thoughts of,"he doesn't appreciate all you do around here. He goes to work all day and then goes out with his friends to play cards or to a game while you are home with the kids...when was the last time you were out with your friends? If he really loves you then why doesn't he take you out on a date that he planned?" BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!! I realized that Satan was sitting on my shoulder, filling my head with all this CRAP, and hardening my heart. I know my husband appreciates me and all I do, I know he doesn't get to go out with friends very often and I am SO thankful when he does, and our date nights have been few and far between with all we have had going on lately so how could either one of us plan a night out. SHEESH! GO AWAY!!!!!!! (Btw...I love you Aaron McKim! I'm sorry :-( for allowing Satan in my head to make me think those horrible things.)
So Bella and I went downstairs to hang out while Aaron painted some of the bathroom and bedroom. It's a pretty big job and I didn't think he would be able to finish it all in one night. My husband is amazing and I am SO thankful that he will paint (because I STINK at it!) especially after he has worked all day. We are almost finished painting babe!
So here I am today, with a heavy heart. Why I'm not sure exactly. Maybe my heart is heavy because I feel as though I failed my husband by allowing Satan to put those HORRIBLE thoughts in my head. Aaron and I both talked about and prayed about this last year. We knew me staying home to be with Bella instead of going back to teaching would be difficult. I just didn't think that Satan was going to try and attack me/us this much. It takes me back to the Women's Retreat I went on in September. Priscilla Shirer talked about the interrupted life. I can most definitely say that my life has been interrupted! She stated that,"The interrupted life is the SIGNIFICANT life!" WOW! Does that mean that my life is significant because I listened to God and allowed him to interrupt my life? I LOVED teaching, however I couldn't justify going to work every day to teach 25 kids of people whom I really don't know while someone else was getting to teach my little girl. Yes the money was nice, but the stress I brought home with those 25 kids every day was heavy! I also learned from Priscilla that I can be doing GREAT things with my life, but if it's not what God wants me to be doing it's not where I should be. I don't want to have a messed up want to, I want to do what God wants for my life. I know that God is setting me up for a story that will blow me away! I think I just need some extra prayer that God's voice will speak loud and clear to me, so much so that I won't be able to hear Satan anywhere! One of the last things I took away from Priscilla was that,"When God places an ABNORMAL calling on your life, it is because HE has abnormal RESULTS HE wants to produce THROUGH YOU!" I have a lot of things that I want to do, some that I feel I should do, and others that I don't know what to do with.
I pray, God please hear my prayer, that God will open my eyes and my heart to His will for my life. I don't want to have a messed up want to! I want to do God's will for my life, not my own. If that means staying in debt longer than we had hoped then I will trust you God because you know what is best for my life! God please open the doors that you want to open and slam shut the doors that I need to stay away from. Please make it obvious to me what your want to is for my life! It is in your beautiful Son's name that I ask and pray all these things. A-MEN!
PS
I knew I needed to sit down to have some quiet time with God. I asked him to show me a verse that would help me today. God is amazing!
Luke 12:31
"Seek the Kingdom of God above ALL else and HE will give you EVERYTHING you need."
Monday, November 15, 2010
A day in the life...
Of a stay-at-home mom! Most days we have a LOT of fun! On this particular day I was unsure because instead of Bella waking up at 8:30 or 9:00 she woke up at 5:30AM! That's right! I said 5:30AM! Oh goodness! I was hoping for a two nap kinda day...it didn't quite work out that way! She took ONLY A ONE HOUR NAP THE ENTIRE DAY!!!!!!! Watch how our day progresses...
6:00AM hanging out in mom and dad's bed watching some cartoons.
6:00AM hanging out in mom and dad's bed watching some cartoons.
Her make-shift desk (she LOVES IT) so she can color (and mommy can clean the carpets)
CHEESE! (Still happy at the moment...pre-one-hour nap)
Here mommom...color with me!
This was the final meltdown of the day. She was mad at me because she wanted to climb up in the chair and play on the computer. She had been up there earlier and wouldn't sit down so I made her get down because I didn't want her to fall and hurt herself. She obviously wasn't very happy with me.
Full blown tantrum!
After our VERY long day of ups and downs I really wanted a glass (or maybe even the entire bottle of this), but Aaron was at the UofL game so....
I had this instead since I was home all by my lonsesome...because at 8:00 at night Bella was STILL awake! Oh time change...how I loathe you!Btw...I have been in MAJOR need of a massage since this day! So, anyone who would like to buy one for me and give it to me tomorrow that would be fantastic! Thanks in advance for your help! ;-)
Kitchen Project
Well, before it's all over and done with you are all going to know what our entire house looks like! =) I'm not sure if I've shared this with you or not, but Sears paint is THE BEST PAINT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!! Unfortunately Sears is doing away with paint. They have gotten rid of it at the Green Tree Mall in Clarksville, the Oxmoor Mall in Louisville, and now the ONLY place around here you can buy it is at the Jefferson Mall in Louisville. It's a bit of a drive for us but TOTALLY worth it! We bought 10 gallons of paint (enough for the rest of the house) for roughly $155.00! It would have cost us that much just to paint our living room with any other brand of paint! Sears is SO awesome that you can paint with only ONE coat! That's right, I said ONE coat! And NO we DID NOT use primer! When we moved into our house almost five years ago they had put a flat primer type paint on all the walls so our walls really didn't need it. Yes the kitchen is red and has only ONE coat of paint on the walls except for one section of a wall and one wall. For some reason the paint didn't go on as well on those walls so they got two coats, but the rest have only ONE! I love Sears paint and am SO sad they are getting rid of it.
Before pics
After Pics
Before pics
After Pics
Halloween
This year Halloween was on a Sunday. Well, we were the only county in the area to trick-or-treat on Saturday night. We bought ALL kinds of candy expecting more trick-or-treaters than normal and it backfired. We had LESS than normal. So we ended up with ALL kinds of candy left over! Anyhow, we had fun so I guess that's what matters most.
Me being scary with Garrett's mask on.
Me being scary with Garrett's mask on. 
Our Jack-O-Lantern
Garrett and Mason trading candy
I thought this was a cool pic
Mollie and Carli aka Supergirl and a princess
Skyla and me aka some rockin' '80's girls!
Our kiddos
Aaron in his costume! =) I love you babe!
Garrett's SCALP is STILL stained from this!
I had to rock out the wig!
Garrett's rockin' out the mullet wig!
She's '80's alright!
Bella was walking around in my shoes and so was Skyla therefore Garrett felt the need to try on some heels too. He kept asking me how in the world I walked in those things! Too funny! =)
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