It came with directions!

find your inner PIE @ quizmeme.com

Yes, I do have some spare time on my hand. And I've never had blueberry pie, so I'm not sure how I feel about my alternate pie personality.

At the grocery on Monday I decided to be adventurous and healthy and I splurged on a pomegranate. I had part of one many moons ago when I lived in Toledo, but I don't remember what I thought about it. Anyone who knows me well knows that I tend to shy away from strange foods, so this is a big step for me.

Today I followed the directions to get the arils out. The arils are like mini-grapes with seeds inside, except the arils are inside the pomegranate. Now I have a whole dish of arils that I am snacking on. I'm still out on how much I like them. They aren't gross, but some are really tart. And the edible seed inside isn't too appealing. Overall they are a 7 out of 10 on the Hugs-scale. I'm looking forward to trying them on my cereal tomorrow though.

Thanks but...

When my mom came to visit after Xander's birth she brought these awesome Turtle Bars. There is crust, a caramel layer, pecans and chocolate. Chris and I somehow made them last but eventually they were gone. Fortunately my mom promptly gave me the recipe. I've already made them twice. I had to because we shared them and I did not get my recommended dosage. So good I just melted into a happy puddle every time I had one.

I sent some along with Chris to work and waited for the compliments to pour in. When I sent in cake and cupcakes I got hordes of comments, but nothing this time. I guess because everyone had melted into happy puddles.

But this got me thinking about compliments and how I love to get them but don't take them very well. I'd like to think I've gotten better over time. In high school and college if I received a compliment I'd immediately point out how it wasn't true.

"Wow Hugs, your hair looks great today" "Ugh, I rolled out of bed and didn't have time to shower so it smells."

I think it's partially a self esteem issue (not enough) and a partially a humbleness issue (trying to hard to be). But it has been pointed out that I do this and I've realized that I don't like it when I give someone else a compliment and they immediately turn it into a negative. So I've tried to improve.

"Wow Hugs, this dinner tastes awesome" "Yeah it does, but I cooked the chicken a little too long."

Last week I introduced Xander to one of my neighbors growing up. She kept saying how adorable he is. And I would say "Thank you" and find myself about to add something, like about his infant acne. I realized that I don't want to say that about him. I don't want him growing up seeing me say thinks like that. So "Thank you" was all I said. It felt weird like there was a gaping hole after it that was supposed to be filled. But it's an improvement :) One step forward at a time.

You think you know someone

I've known my handsome husband for over seven years now, been married for four of those years. So it's always surprising when I learn something new or there is a big miscommunication. A couple of weeks ago we bought a couple of pumpkins. They were set by our front door next to the mums.

Amanda's thoughts on pumpkins: Obviously pumpkins are nice decoration, but they are meant to be carved and used as Halloween decorations.

Chris's thoughts on pumpkins: Obviously pumpkins are nice decoration, they can sit there from now all the way through Thanksgiving.

When we realized we had totally different thoughts on what to do with the pumpkins, we bickered and mocked and finally decided to get more pumpkins to carve. Chris had never carved a pumpkin before! I don't think I have either, I would draw the face I wanted on it and my Dad would carve it. The local nursery was having a sale - all you can carry for $10. We think the sales ladies were a little disappointed that Chris only picked up three.

Ukie and Dandy visited, so they each got a pumpkin, Chris and I each got a pumpkin, and of course the pumpkin diva made a return, so all of the pumpkins were used.

Suburban Living

We live in a pretty good neighborhood. Case in point, garage sales. There's at least one, if not more, every Friday and Saturday morning. I've only gotten to partake a couple of times. Today Xander and I were out for a stroll and came across one that sold baby clothes. And these are nice brands, well cared for. I spent $5.25 for 4 sleepers, 2 shirts and 4 ensemble outfits. I love saving money.

One of the weird things I've seen while walking around is televisions in the garages. I guess it's the 'man area' and putting a tv there would help pass the time being a grease monkey. But there are some large televisions in some of these garages and they are all suspended from the ceiling, like at a sports bar. It boggles my mind.

Other than that, it is really nice being in a neighborhood that has well maintained yards and families that play outside. There are already lots of Halloween decorations out, which makes me grin like a fool. When we were looking at houses in February one of the things I looked for was houses that still had Christmas decorations up (really, in February they should be down*). There is only one house I've seen around here that has done that, and it's just a little garland around the doorway.

The downside to such a great neighborhood is that the retailers are coming. Within a couple of years there will be a big complex consisting of Meijer, Home Depot and Kohl's (more to come) within ONE mile of here. I like all of those stores, but don't want them on my doorstep, darnit!

* I say this now, we'll see how fast I get mine down with a baby hollering for attention.

Of games and business

For my birthday I did receive some money and I think that I'd like to use it to expand our game selection for future Game Nights. I'm thinking Scene It would be a fun addition. I don't know anyone who has it but I have played it and it was a good time. However, there are several different editions that catch my fancy.

a) Movie edition: the basic game, maybe with a booster set (or whatever the additional questions are called.

b) Friends edition: everyone has seen some Friends episodes, if not all of them.

c) Marvel edition: ok, not really. Myself and my little brother and Rob (who I don't think will make it to Game Night) would be the only ones having fun.

d) Disney edition: for Xander down the road, but we've all seen our fair share of Disney so it could be fun.

Thoughts?

In other news, tomorrow I will be back on the job as CFO (Chief Family Officer) of the household with the added title of SAHM (Stay at Home Mom). So far I've had help, with Chris staying home and his mother as well as my Mom helping out. I feel like tomorrow is some big deciding day. Then I think about it some more and I realize every day for the next year at least. Then I get a little big overwhelmed and teary eyed. That's mostly the sleep deprivation talking though.

Forever 28!

For those who don't yet know, on Tuesday I gave birth to Alexander Robert. For the full story check out our Ringing in the New Year blog.

Friday was to be my 29th birthday. We came home from the hospital on Thursday and I barely had any sleep that night. So life is pretty topsy turvy. Still, I'd hoped to be showered with love and attention on my birthday. Ok, just some well wished "Happy Birthday!"s would have been fine. But most people forgot because it is all about the Xander love right now. And quite frankly I was not up to even going out to dinner or having a party or anything.

But that's ok. I'm not writing this to cause guilt or because I'm angry. I'm writing this because that means I never turned 29 and will be 28 forever. Boy will that get awkward for Xander when he turns 28 and three days later I'm still 28.

I so did sew

Last month I snuck off to a former coworker's house where she taught me the basics of a sewing machine. I learned to thread a bobbin and set it all up. I even made a couple of practice stitches on scrap material. But I wanted to put this knowledge to work. So this past week my mom helped me to pick out fabric. I pinned up the edges then stitched it all the way around. Wal-lah!


What on earth did I make? A sheet! For the crib!

I just know that half of you are astonished at my homemaking prowess. The other half is rolling your eyes and wondering if I just pinned the thing on. Yes, the bottom is pinned since I don't want to try elastic yet, but I assure you the sides are sewn.

I used a small zig-zag stitch. The bobbin ran out a couple of times, but I dealt with that pretty well. The big problem was that I could -not- keep it in a straight line. I'm sure this was due to it being a big piece of fabric that I let hang over the edge of the table instead of folding neatly next to the machine. Hey, it's a small table, ok? And only people who really care about straight stitches will look anyway.

My next project is to replace the curtain in Peanut's room and make a matching pillow. I have a pattern for a pillow, but I now realize that the sides need bunched which is more than I think I can handle yet. So I'll look up an easy pattern for a pillow. I'm hoping the curtain in the room will serve for me to make a rough pattern for that part.

This should get interesting. With any luck, I'll figure out enough to sew everyone something interesting for Christmas. Haha!

While the big dog is away...

Chris is gone on a business trip this week, leaving me to once again become the Crazy Cat Lady. It is so hard to behave while he is gone. I really would like to just eat pizza, drink pop and sit in front of the television. But I know that will just make me feel fat and lazy so I'm trying to stay motivated.

Part of my motivation yesterday was shopping! Hello, Labor Day sales! I was able to control myself for the most part. I used a gift certificate I'd received at Christmas (I figured holding onto it for another month was pretty pointless) and got some fancy lotions. And I found a few good deals at Old Navy. I don't care if it's September now, shorts for $0.97 are not to be passed up, especially when the only other maternity shorts I have are incredibly uncomfortable. I was even looking to buy Chris a few things, but couldn't find what I knew he'd like. Sorry handsome!

On Saturday we had a house party. It went from noon until 10, so I felt pretty popular :) We bought beer, pop, ice, burgers, hot dogs and buns. Everyone brought a covered dish or dessert. We even had a couple of Cornhole games going. It wasn't as well attended as we'd expected, so our fridge looks like we belong in college with all the beer stacked in it. Chris and I had a great time, we hope everyone that came also had a great time.

Towards the end of the party my youngest brother and his girlfriend were leaving and Chris said "hey, do you want any leftovers?" They left with four bags of food! Just a few years ago (ok, last year) it was us getting leftovers after visiting relatives! So besides the house, new car, marriage and baby-to-be, giving food to my little brother really makes me feel like an adult. Scary.

Where did that come from?

Last night I finally got some rest. And the vivid but weird dreams are back.

All I remember about the first part is that I was on some type of class trip to Somewhere. Stuff happens, don't remember what. But one guy decided to stock up on Botox while we were there. Some more stuff happens and then we find out the chaperones or police were going to conduct a raid and go through all of our things. Then it gets strange (yeah, like it's not already strange).

The guy with the Botox is all frozen faced so we accuse him of using the Botox. But he had a lot so I'm yelling at him "You didn't inject all of it did you?!?" And he's nodding yes, but just then I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and my lips are swelling! So then I'm yelling "what did you do to me??" And my lips just keep swelling and not in a pretty way, but crooked and mishapen. Then, my bottom lip springs a leak and this clear liquid starts squirting out (I know, ew!). So I start screaming "Get it out! Get it out!" I end up falling down on my hands and knees and the liquid turns colors and I just keep yelling to get it out.

I must have one mighty strong fear of Botox.

Of cakes and caps

Since no one was able to guess the last movie screen cap, I must have made it too hard. Here is the same movie, but with the easily recognizable main character.


And here are the cakes I made for the baby shower. The glitter was a disappointment, all it did was make it look a little.....moist, I guess. The first one is supposed to be a cabbage patch.


The second is just something I made up, but it looked good.


The paper portion of the Great School Condensing of 2007 is complete. There are now only 6 boxes in the basement. Now commences the computer version, where I'm trying to save and organize all of the computer files from five years. It's not bad, except the computer chair is mighty uncomfortable.

Current Score

Last week I took my fancy new car title to the BMV to update my plates for my fancy new car. Apparently it's now a one stop convenience place. I was able to:

1) Update my plates for my new car, as planned.
2) Get new registration for my car, since my birthday is next month.
3) Get a new drivers license, since my old one expires on my birthday next month. (my previous post about how it already expired was severe case of pregnancy brain)
4) Register to vote.

Ok, so that's all stuff you should be able to do there. But I just thought it was nice that they asked if I wanted to do numbers 2, 3 and 4, because some people wouldn't even mention it. Also, no social security number on the new license which means I will always be getting in trouble because I will never remember to bring my social security card with me when I need it (like at the BMV). Also I take surprisingly good license photos if I do say so. I don't even look pregnant and my hair is all shiny.

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I took Min to the vet today for her shots. She doesn't mind the cat carrier but had this completely pitiful meow the entire time the car was in motion. I figured it's good practice for when Peanut is here and just ignored it and turned the volume on the book on CD. Does that make me a bad mom already?

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If I haven't mentioned it before, I'm making my own cakes for the baby shower. Yes, plural because my hungry husband demands cake. He said he fully intends on helping to drop them off and taking a piece before he leaves. So don't be surprised if any pictures I post have a chunk of cake missing. But, just to entice everyone, edible glitter will be involved!

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For those of you keeping score at home:
- in one month I will be 29
- in two months I will be a mother and responsible for not screwing up a new life
No pressure on either account.

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Name that movie! I had a couple of screen shots to choose from and picked the harder one this time. I saw the library has this and was extremely tempted to rent it. But the school project isn't done yet so it will have to wait.

School days

So August means getting ready for the new school year to begin. As a teacher I would have begun my Countdown of Doom to when school starts (how many weekends do I have left?) but not this year! So instead of counting down, I'm watching commercials and missing the opportunities to buy new supplies and thinking about what a waste it is that I can't have students do the population growth simulation with Skittles.

However, it has been a long term project for me to clean up and organize and weed out all of my teacher things. This includes, but is not limited to, notes from four different subjects (six if you count Basic Algebra and Honors Algebra 2 separate from Algebra and Algebra 2), teacher information, office supplies, class supplies and books. When we moved I had roughly 14 boxes, I think.

Since my sister has her first full time teaching gig this year, I invited her to visit and borrow what she would like. That took 4 boxes.

I got out all of my notes and tests and have the two big subjects organized. I also emptied a multitude of file folders and now have one box of empty binders. And yes, I do have issues with parting with empty binders because I Might Need Them.

So I think I'm down to six boxes. *sigh* Chris has kindly asked that I have this project down by the baby shower because he thinks I'll be too fat and lazy after that. Ok, he didn't SAY fat and lazy, but he implied it! And really, I've been only been working on it since last summer.

Instead of coming home from tutoring and diving right in, I ate and found this clip for you. It's from 'How I Met Your Mother' and I was honestly roaring with laughter when I saw it on tv. To set the scene for you, they are discussing losing their virginity because the one girl's younger sister wants to do it.

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

This is kind of a visual personality test. I just went with first instinct on some answers and on others I had a hard choice or no choice that I liked. I don't think I'm a Dreamer or a Conquerer, but I never have been good at judging myself. New Wave Puritan is a suprisingly fit description because I try to be healthy but definitely have my vices. And Love Bug is pretty accurate too.

What are you?

Weekend stuff

At the end of the last baby blog, Chris made a comment about my Scrabble skills so I had to demand a rematch. Chris and I are way too competitive, especially at Scrabble. It's probably a good thing that we've never played Scrabble on game nights with other people there to witness us taking ten minutes to consider the score vs. giving-the-other-person-a-setup aspect of every word possible. Anyway, I reached my all time high score of 400 last night so I was strutting a little.

Friday night my little brother and his girlfriend came over and hung out. We tried the new ice cream place in town which wasn't bad. We also played Euchre, and it turns out his girlfriend is also highly competitive. So that turned into an entertaining evening.

Saturday we visited my parents since Thursday was my Mom's 50th birthday. For those that don't remember, Chris and I attempted to usurp August 2nd from my mom by getting married that day. We hung out and visited my grandparents. Both of my grandmothers think I am not that big, which scares me that I might get oh so much bigger. My mom tried to reassure me that they didn't have air conditioning when they were pregnant, so they'd gain more water weight. My dad had stopped at the farmers market and bought my favorite cake, chocolate with carmel (penuche) icing and we got to take a big chunk of it home. They keep getting me cake like that and I will get huge!

What is in a name?

There is something about me that just screams "My name starts with the letter A". And invariably if someone forgets my name they come up with one of two other names.

Last night during the cake class the instructor repeatedly called me Amber. There was a large name tag on the front of my table that clearly stated "Amanda" but apparently that tag was not believable. I didn't correct her since it was the last class and I will likely never see her again.

In college I attended some campus activity that involved an icebreaker where you had to remember names. I received an enthusiastic Allison! So that turned into a running joke.

And in general if people are trying to guess/remember my name I get Amber or Allison. Really? No Jennifer, the most popular name during my birth year? I don't look like a Heidi, one of the most popular German names?

Although I do have to admit it's creepy when people guess Amanda on the first try.

Speaking of my cake class, the last one was yesterday. The instructor was 40 minutes late, so I didn't get to finish in class and managed to get it done this morning just in time for it to be cut and shipped off with Chris.
In case you can't tell, those are roses on top, not a cabbage patch, and leaves around the bottom. And it took some time for me to find the right angle to photograph the cake, because the top layer had begun to slide.

Oh, and here's a shocker. Apparently our house came with the most advanced dishwasher available on the market. I discovered this today when trying to clean all of the cake decorating supplies. I know you are shocked that we haven't used the machine in the two months we've lived here, but we tend to do them by hand. In fact there has been a standing agreement in our marriage that I do laundry and Chris does dishes. However, as CFO I am trying to take more responsibility in the dish washing arena.

So today I start to organize the massive pile of icing covered paraphernalia in the dishwasher. First I have to pull out a bunch of accessories such as baskets and clip-on thingies. Then some of the racks didn't line up and I realize that they can fold down and up. Then there is some sort of handle on each side of the top rack, still haven't figured those out. And there is a swivel bar that pins glasses in so they don't rattle, at least I'm assuming that is what it is for. I haven't even fully investigated all of the buttons on the outside. There are no knobs. Of course it really didn't help that after all of that I discovered we don't have dishwasher detergent.

Yeah, dishwashers have come a long way since I was a kid. We had four different ones at our house, one of them named Amanda.

Ta Da!

Here is but a sample of my amazing skillz at cake decorating. I used cupcakes this week so it would be easier for Chris to give them away at work. I'm so thoughtful! Plus it is easier for me to keep a few for myself because they are delicious. Both Chris and Ikkin tried to hold conversations with me as they took huge bites, so the cupcakes must be good. Here are close ups of my two favorites. What can I say, I'm proud of myself for learning something new.



Next week I learn to make a rose! They will be the tastiest roses ever!

Updating

So I've been pretty busy. I had the Wisconsin wedding the last weekend of June, the DC wedding the first weekend of July and Chris's mom visited this past weekend. So I've spend the weeks doing laundry and cleaning in preparation for or following after each of these events. I have one more event coming up, Christmas in Toledo! My college friends and I get together for a Christmas party each year. Usually it is closer to Christmas (January, February or March) but we waited this year for one of my friends to get back from China!

I wanted to make scarves for my friends this year, since I learned how to knit them in February. However, I just could not seem to focus on the knitting. So I was hoping to get at least one done and was nearly there. However during the ruckus of family visits, someone pulled out the knitting needles from the nearly finished scarf. For those not in the know, the needles should stay in! I've tried putting them back in, but about halfway through the stitches start pulling and coming apart. *sigh* I guess I can give scarves next year.

In other news, in case you haven't checked Chris's blog, I have a new Mom-Mobile! It's an '05 Malibu Maxx in silver green metallic (I looked up that color name). There's little dings in the paint and the cashmere colored interior will show dirt pretty easy, but it was a good deal and I'm happy. I'm especially enjoying the V6 engine and the keyless entry and the power windows. I'm easy to please. Now I just need a good name for it.

And finally, I am taking a cake decorating class. Last night was the second class (of four) and we had to bring in our own cake, iced and ready to decorate. My cake didn't turn out great, I didn't level it correctly and it broke apart so that after I iced it, it looked like some giant person tried to take a bite out of it. But it turns out I'm not bad at the actual decorating. :) So once I get the cake part down, I'll be impressing everyone with my stars and lines.

Due to the fact that I would eat the whole thing in one day, Chris took it to work and sent the following statements home:

T: This is really good.

J *thumbs up*

H: People who can’t bake f**k up the icing. I can tell your wife can bake.

S: This is good. And this is coming from us in level 3. (note: I'm taking level 1 decorating, some of Chris's coworkers are in level 3).

Next time I'll remember to take a picture before I ship it off to be eaten.

Wisconsin, the Adventure

So a couple of weekends ago I drove to my cousin's wedding in northern Wisconsin. On Tuesday of that week Chris was told "Tough luck, schmuck, you have to work" so I took off Wednesday night and stayed with my parents.

So Thursday the clan was up bright and early and we set off. I was in a car with my brother Mark and sister Trisha, my youngest brother couldn't make it. We listened to Trisha's music for most of the way, which consists of hip-hop/rap/r&b. Since I don't listen to this type much, I was ok with it until day 3 when I was sick of hearing the same beats overandoverandOVER. But I managed not to hurt anyone.

That night we stopped at a hotel north of Madison, WI and went to eat at the restaurant next door. When we walked in the waitress was all "Do you have reservations?" Please note that we are all in comfy clothes (read: sweats and ratty jeans) and are tired and cranky. So no, we did not. There were plenty of seats open, but we had to wait. We thought "oh, there are a bunch of cross-state bikers, maybe the tables are for them" but 25 minutes later we were seated with plenty of seating still available. Service was slow and our food was cold, so that place will fold soon I'm sure. (I should totally be a restaurant critic)

Friday we reached our destination in the early afternoon and the rest of the family was already there. We stayed in a row motel with nine rooms and all of the rooms were booked by our side or the other side of the bride's family. So we sat outside and drank. And by drank I mean everyone else had beer and asked me if I needed to sit down. Friday night there was a pre-wedding party. We had Famous Dave's Barbecue catered in and it was awesome and delicious. Just thinking of the chicken and corn muffins are making me drool a little now. And looking it up now there are a lot of them, so I'll definitely take Chris there.

Saturday morning we went to Lumberjack Pancake House and had breakfast. You could view the stands and everything that are used during the World Lumberjack Championships from our patio seats. Mark convinced Trisha that the small tree behind her was poison ivy, which pretty much shows how they both behaved. Not that I took a picture of Trisha in the morning because her hair was sticking up. And not that Trisha immediately ran outside screaming to Mom about how she was going to kill me. We're mature adults, really!

So the wedding was Saturday afternoon and I'm telling you that someone sold their soul because the weather could not have been better for a boat wedding. All of the guests were assigned to a pontoon (Mom had to have me re-assigned since Chris wasn't there, she worried about me!) and the pontoons were named after country songs. Ours was "Amarillo By Morning" and we were special because our pontoon had a CD player and we got to listen to it during the ride.

The bride and groom rode in his fishing boat (when the groom pulled up, he was fishing) along with the minister and we were off cruising across the lake back to a secluded lagoon. I'm not sure how they arranged for it not to be used, but we lassoed together and had a short ceremony. Then it was back to the docks.

That night there was a regular reception. Mark, Trisha and I were relegated to a table of college friends and spent most of the night making fun of each other. It was open bar so they had fun and I got to try my first Shirley Temple, which was not bad.

Sunday was church, a little souvenir shopping, pie eating at Norkse Nook, taking naps and ending in the going to see the Lumberjack show. That was fun to see, they showed the skills lumberjacks have by having a two team competition and they mixed in humor and history to keep it entertaining. Mmmm, lumberjacks. Chris should take up log chopping (just kidding handsome!).

Then Monday it was up early and a full day of driving all the way back to Ohio. Longest. Ride. Ever. And it didn't help that Peanut was an active little bugger. But we finally switched the music, so I survived.

Wisconsin, the teaser trailer

How do you know you are in Wisconsin?

a) The restaurant has placemats that describe fish

b) The same restaurant has a shower in the women's restroom
c) Food is described with sounds (onomatopoeia).
d) The fish museum is actually made to look like a fish. If you look closely you can see people in it's mouth.
e) Lumberjacks!and f) Your cousin gets married on a fishing boat.
More to come later!

Sunfires are mom-mobiles, right?

Included in the upcoming lifestyle changes in our household will be a new car. While my Sunfire does have all of the necessary attachments for baby seats, I will not be attempting to use them. So we've started to explore our options.

Chris and I did try several basic 4-door varieties, but I seem to like the small wagons better. Yikes, I blanch a little just typing that. Growing up we had a few station wagons, including the lovely brown one with wood trim. With 4 kids, my parents would be up front and the rest of us would fight over where to sit, either the 'middle' or the 'far back.' And of course everyone wanted to sit in the same place. We'd also take the station wagon on the yearly trip to Wisconsin. This was fun because my parents would sometimes put down all the seats and lay out sleeping bags and we'd have a big area to play in. This was way before child safety laws were invented, obviously.

Anyway, I've looked at the following so far:

Malibu Maxx: This was fun to drive, easy to maneuver and it had plenty of room in the back seat so I don't bump my head all of the time and tall people fit in there too. The ones I drove even had window roofing for the back seat.The downside seems to be it has a bigger engine than I would need, so it would use lots of gas.Pontiac Vibe: I drove this one a couple of days ago and loved it. Again, easy to handle, gas and brakes were great. Again, lots of head room and leg room in the back seat. And the engine is actually smaller than what I am used to but it still worked great for me. It's not like I'm going to be hot rodding with Peanut in the back seat. Unless some punk is just needing a beat down.I would still like to try a Mazda Protege5 and a Toyota Matrix.

And for some reason people keep pointing out Ford Taurus wagons to me. I shudder. I think it's just too wagon-esque and I'd feel like I was in 1985 again.

The tough part is that the cars I like are just a bit out of price range. But since we don't need it for a couple of months yet, I have local used car lots bookmarked and will be keeping an eagle eye out for a good deal. Hopefully it will all work out.

Suggestions and input welcome in the comments!