Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Fifty-Seven

Highlight of the Week

I guess you can call buying a new car a highlight?

So, we bought a new car this week! It’s been in the works for months – Derrick has probably spent a solid 40 hours just in researching – safety ratings, gas mileage, different makes & models, price ranges, interest rates, dealerships, warranties – it’s a little insane. Huge shout-out to him though because I would still just be avoiding it! He truly put a ton of work into finding the best vehicle for us and at the best price.

Not only has Derrick spent at least 40 hours in research, but he probably also spent at least 10 hours at the dealership this week alone. He’s been there every day, after work, this week. I was with him on Monday to test drive a few things, then Tuesday was negotiations, Wednesday was looking at a different car (a used version of what we test drove on Monday), and Thursday was the day he actually signed papers & brought it home!

As a little background: Derrick’s Jeep has been on it’s last leg for months. We just keep pouring money into it and fixing it. It runs for a few weeks and then something needs fixed again. So, when he got home from work last Thursday with it overheating (and smoking), he was like, that’s it – we’re getting a new car. His Jeep went into the shop on Sunday night & he took my car to work all week. Which also means that Braelynn & I have been stuck in our house all week without a way to leave. It’s been, fun.

The whole car buying process was a little stressful (if you follow me on Instagram, I posted a long stream of Instastories about our experience so far) and now I’m just thankful that it’s over! We now own a silver Mitsubishi Outlander. It’s a 2015 with 25,000 miles on it. It seats 7, so we now have the room we were lacking in our little Suzuki!

Yes, This Happened

• Braelynn came down with a terrible cold on Tuesday. When I asked her where she got it, she told me, “Uncle Cheese gave it to me.” (Uncle Cheese is my brother, Stephen) We literally spent the entire day Tuesday, on the couch, watching Sarah & Duck & snuggling. She wouldn’t let me get up for more than 5 minutes without crying, “Mommy, come snuggle me.” She still has a stuffy nose, but the first day was the worst.
• Since we didn’t have a car all week, Braelynn’s been a bit confused. Every morning she would wake up & ask if we were going anywhere that day: the store? Grandma’s house? And I explained that since Daddy’s car was broken, he had taken our car to work, so we had no car. Finally, one day, she got fed up with that answer & said, “It’s not nice that Daddy took our car, he needs to share!”
• I wrote part 4 of our love story this week – did you catch it?
• Braelynn is currently obsessed with the “If You Give A..” books – you know, the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”, “If You Give A Cat A Cupcake”, “If You Give A Moose A Muffin” books. That’s all she wants to read every day.
• One day this week, Braelynn found my wallet & she thinks it’s the most fun to empty it out. In the process of doing so, she found a penny. She looked at it and came running to me: “Mommy! There’s a trolley on the back!” Needless to say, we’re pretty excited to go to Idlewild in 10 days & ride the trolley & see Daniel Tiger!!
• My “baby” hard drive crashed this week. It was bound to happen – I’ve had it for almost 10 years. It isn’t a huge drive, but my very first wedding is on it (as well as Paul & Naomi’s wedding video, most of my Disney photos from when I worked there, and photos of Derrick & I when we were dating). So, I’ve been in the process of recovering it all week (yes, you don’t hear me wailing and crying and panicking because I had it backed up in the cloud – so no problem). Anyways, in the process of recovering all of the files, I’ve been organizing them & cleaning them up a bit: I found a bunch of video footage I recorded at Disney when I worked there. I videoed most of the shows and a few of the rides. I showed Braelynn a few of the videos (my eyes mysteriously leaked a lot while watching Wishes – the old Magic Kingdom fireworks show – not sure why that happened?) but she’s been super obsessed with the video I took of the Winnie The Pooh ride. Literally, she’s watched it at least 50 times. I take that as a sign that we need to go to Disney World – soon!

Feeling Blessed

I kind of already hinted at this, but Derrick has been super impressive this week. I mean, all the time, but specifically in relation to buying a new car. He’s done hours of research, spent so much time at the car dealership (I was having a heart-attack after being there for just 3 hours on Monday), negotiated the price down, looked into different kinds of loans, and ultimately got us a really good deal. He’s spent a ton of time this week dedicated to us getting a new car & I’m super blessed by his diligence, his dedication, and his non-complaining attitude about spending so much time at the dealership this week!