Potpourri

Well, the sad news from our lives is that my 2-year-old is giving up naps. Sigh. I know I should be grateful they lasted this long (Tyler stopped napping at 24 months), but I sure had hoped we'd reach three years old with them. Now when I put her into her room for naptime, she plays. Yesterday Winnie the Pooh came out with sparkly shoes on his feet. I'm sure Christopher Robin would have saved the poor bear had he been around ...

My mom's surgery went well and she's almost completely healed. Her eyes looked something terrible when she was first done, which scared Zachary and Shayla. (Tyler just thought it looked cool that his grandma looked like she'd been in a fight with a sumo wrestler.) One of her stitches was hanging down below her eye for a while, and a lady in the temple told her that her fake eyelash was falling off. Oops. People are so helpful ...

I guess I should apologize if I offended any neighbors with my complaining about my car being junk. If you wonder why I should apologize to my neighbors for complaining about MY car, I'll explain. You see, within half a block of my house in any direction (okay, excluding north), there are four other silver Dodge Grand Caravans. There are even more in the houses in between that are Caravans of different colors, and others with minivans of different makes and models. But what are the chances of having FIVE of the exact same car within about 5 houses from us in various directions? Craziness. That's why I had to get an antennae ball on my car (sorcerer Mickey) so my kids would know WHICH silver minivan is theirs.

So let's change the subject from bad cars to good cars. I know I've mentioned Paul's awesome Toyota. We bought it back in 2001 and it just had its first repair (other than one belt being replaced years ago). He decided to check out its gas mileage, which he'd never done, and found that his car is getting 37.5 miles per gallon. Not bad, eh?

Anyone else notice that even Cheerios are expensive lately? What's up with that? I mean, can you get any more plain of a cereal?!?

I finished my online traffic school. I'm just now getting over the nightmare of all the pictures it showed to me of various accidents. Really, is graphic material supposed to help me focus more on the road? Anyway, one part that made me laugh (to the point I had to write it down so I could quote it accurately) was, "Do your part to make your next traffic stop safe and pleasant for everyone involved!" Uh, how exactly is getting a ticket pleasant in ANY way for me? If you want to make it even the slightest bit pleasant for me, then serve the citation with a candy bar! (Reese's Crispy Crunchy bar, if you please.) I'm not sure exactly how to make it pleasant for everyone involved if I'm receiving a ticket. Anyone found it pleasant to be cited?

And I'll end with some great news: I looked into Liz's advice of just lowering my car insurance's deductible to $100 to get free windshields whenever we need them. (Glass companies waive the $100 fee, and it isn't counted as a claim on your insurance.) Well, I checked into it, and it does cost more -- just over $2 more per month for BOTH cars to be lowered to that amount! I can't believe it's so small!!! Especially with Utah's new law, I'd encourage you all to check into it. I only wish the advice came four windshields ago ... today's bill was $170. Ouch! Of course, now that we have the lower deductible I expect no cracks for years to come. But that's okay -- it will take me four years to spend as much in extra insurance as it did for that ONE windshield ... and as I mentioned, this was the fifth one we've replaced in just three years. I'll probably cheer next time I get a crack that needs replacing ...

Anyway, I think my random thoughts have ended. I guess I'll go get in some "organized" thinking ...