Heading out

We packed up our boxes of donuts and got on the road for real!

While driving out of Duck, we saw several osprey nests.

 By 10:01 a.m.  we were leaving North Carolina...

10:44 a.m. - big ships at Newport News, VA

10:45 a.m. - Going into an underwater tunnel!

10:52 a.m. - We're in the Hamptons!  This is the Hampton Coliseum. 

1:25 p.m. - We stopped for lunch at a Chipotle in Charlottsville, VA and passed the SF Hub.

3:51 p.m. - passing through the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest

3:55 p.m. - country roads are takin' us home, to the place we belong...

4:08 p.m. - We stopped at a rest stop with a beautiful lookout view

5:49 p.m. - Bridge over the Kanawha River, WV

6:33 p.m. - Waiting to be seated at Bob Evans in Hurricane, WV, where we stopped for the night.  It was a very nice spot to stop.

3 Teens in a Prius

We headed out tonight for Greenville and Annah's registration day tomorrow.  After that we have about a 1000 mile trip to the east coast.  People [Jeremy's co-workers, specifically] are amazed that we are even attempting to take a vacation with 3 teenagers in the back of a Prius.  It is pretty "cozy," but they know that if they want to go on a vacation, we will be taking this car to save a ton on gas money.  They don't complain--too much.

Here's a little video of how the trip started off...

Decisions, incidents, changes

Monday morning, Caeden decided to eat breakfast at school and had a few minutes free time.  While emptying the dishwasher, he said he thought he would go to wrestling practice that evening.  I asked him if he was sure, and he was.  He realized he misses it.  I texted Jeremy, who agreed that was awesome.  I'm so glad they will get to share that time together, and that he has this outlet for his energy!

Annah got her class ring on Tuesday. It's very pretty.

Last evening, we had errands to run after music lessons in town, so we all had dinner together and tried Red Robin for the first time.  It was very yummy, but so expensive we decided we won't be able to go back.  We enjoyed it though.  After dinner, Jeremy and Sylvia went home, and I took Caeden and Annah to Walmart to look for clothes for upcoming concerts.  We found some things, and came out of the store around 8:20 to see our car had been hit.  This cart was by it, so I'm guessing maybe the high winds sent the cart flying into the car.  At any rate, we had to go back inside and fill out an incident report and the manager took photos of the car.  Poor Pearl.

This evening, Sylvia had an appointment with Lisa for a haircut.  She has been looking forward to it since she decided to get it cut a few weeks ago.  She had 4+inches cut off, plus some layers cut in.  Lisa is so great to talk with the girls about hair products, styling, hair care, and the science behind why we do and don't do certain things to our hair. Sylvia is pretty happy with her new 'do and ready to style it herself.  

Nail in the Sidewall

Sunday morning, on our way to church, I noticed a sensor on the dashboard had come on.  Annah got out the manual, and I saw that it was the sensor indicating low tire pressure.  Since I don't know how to check tire pressure or add air to my tires, I made a mental note to ask Travis if he could help me.  I forgot to ask him until last night.  But, he was kind enough to show me how, and in the process found a nice old rusty nail in the side wall of one of my tires.  Great.  

The tire pressure was low, but it was a slow leak.  Travis filled the tire, but said that he figured it wouldn't be repairable based on where the nail was located.

Can anyone tell me how in the world you get a nail in a tire this way?!?!

I got an appointment at Evans Toyota in Fort Wayne, and my dad went with me.  (Thanks Dad!!)  Within an hour of them taking my car, I had a brand new tire.  Not really how I planned to spend the morning, or that $169, but I am really thankful the nail didn't burst my tire somewhere between our house and my parents'.   I'm thankful Travis found the nail.  And, I'm really thankful I got an appointment at Evans easily.  And, I'm thankful they had the exact tire I needed in stock.  I also got to see an "old" friend from high school and youth group who happens to work there.  

All is well.

Everyday life--my favorite kind

Today, I had a pretty quiet day to myself at home.  I prepped 18 crockpot freezer meals this morning, including chili, taco meat with beans, Italian beef, taco soup, Italian chicken, buffalo chicken, meat sauce, sesame chicken.  For now, both freezers are full, and we should have meals every night for at least a couple weeks.

Following summer, I was down to only 5 piano and 1 voice student, but I've started 4 new students in the past couple weeks.  Only 2 of my students come during the day, so Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and evenings are pretty busy around here now.  And on Mondays and Thursdays we go to town for our kids' music lessons.  So the crockpot helps us out a lot around here!

Oh, look what was delivered on Wednesday!  Our replacement rug for the living room came, and also a replacement for the rug that wasn't ruined.  I'm not sure what to do with it, but if Lowes doesn't want it back, I think it would look lovely in our bedroom!  Oh Lowes.  Goodness.

This evening, I took Sylvia to a friend's house for a sleepover.  When we dropped her off, Annah noticed Pearl was showing our highest trip mpg so far--60.8 mpg!  

Pearl the Pretty Prius

For at least a couple years, Jeremy has been researching cars that could potentially be our next.  He bought his Escort in 1998 and we knew it would need replaced soon.  Last year, when our Aztek unexpectedly died (8/31), (9/4) and wasn't worth the cost of repairing, we bought our used Avalon. (10/13), (10/24).  We hadn't planned to replace the Aztek before the Escort!  But the Escort gave us an other year!

Over the past year, Jeremy has used super glue more than once to hold things together on his car.  Today, when we met for lunch, he told me he thought something broke on it on his way there.  We were meeting to test drive two cars we were seriously considering buying, so it seemed like potentially fortuitous timing.

First, we went to the Chevy dealership and I tested the Chevy Cruz.  I really didn't want the salesman along when I test drove.  (He was nice; I just have issues about driving with other adults in the car with me.)  I was in tears asking Jeremy to try to get him not to come with us.  I felt like throwing up when the very nice man got into the backseat and I drove a car I didn't own down a road I'd never driven down.  (Seriously, these are the very things that could send me over the edge of anxiety!!)  Anyway, the Cruz was very nice, fully loaded with 10 airbags and all the fancy awesome gadgets.  A very nice car.  

Then we went to the Toyota dealership.  We had been there in April looking at Priuses and worked with a salesman named Ken.  He was there when we walked in, so we got to continue working with him today.  Right away we test drove a silver Prius 2.  Again I was nervous when Ken went along, but I knew I had to try these cars first if we were going to buy one!  

Since the Prius 2 is not fully loaded, we knew it wouldn't have electric seat adjustment, and we were a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to raise the driver's seat high enough to see out!  (Yes, I'm shrimpy and I know it.  When we got the Avalon, I drove it for about 3 months before I mentioned to Jeremy that I missed being able to see out the back like I could in the Aztek.  He explained to me that I could raise the seat UP with the electric controls, and that made all the difference! Duh, Taryn!)  I told Jeremy it might just break my heart if the seat thing was the deal-breaker on the Prius.  However, there is a handle that kind of pumps it up and it went quite high enough.  So yay!

The test drive went well, and we drove in town and on the highway, seeing the amazing MPG displayed as we drove.  With all the research and figuring Jeremy has done, we knew that the Prius would save us a lot of money in the long run.  So, we decided to buy!

Here we are with Ken the salesman and our new friend "Pearl" the Pretty Prius.  (The white color is called Blizzard Pearl, so it didn't take a lot of creativity to name her.)

Since we both had our "old" cars there, we had to figure out some juggling to get them all home.  We drove the Prius and the Avalon to church (very close by) to leave the Avalon for the weekend.  Then we went back to the dealership to pick up the Escort.  I was following Jeremy closely since the plates were taken off the Escort and put onto the Prius.  We were about a mile and a half from the dealership when he slowed in front of me.  He stopped, turned on his hazard lights, and got out.  He came back to me and said that something broke on the car and it wouldn't go!  We called a tow truck.  Guess we bought that new car just in time!  Definitely a experience we won't forget anytime soon!