Big News (and Other Stuff)!

We're still 2 weeks away from our ultrasound, so no "baby news" yet...but we do have big things happening around here!

If you've seen the "What to Expect When You're Expecting" movie (or even the trailer for it), you've seen one of my favorite lines...it's when the "dudes group" is talking about one them them "just looking" at houses with their wife.  Well, yesterday we went out to "test sit" in a couple of cars we had narrowed our own search for a second "baby safe" vehicle down to.  The plan was to go out to the Kia dealership ("way out" in Liberty Lake...about a 20 mile drive from the house) and try on the Kia Soul...if you have every car shopped with an extremely tall person (or short person), you know the "test sit" well...said "tall person" gets in to see if they can manage to even squeeze their body into the vehicle to try and take a test drive!

We did this in 2006 as well when "we" bought our Freestyle.  You spend hours and hours and hours pouring over car websites, reading reviews and the like (mainly I just look at the options).  Then, you find a dealership close to you that has any variety of the cars you think you like.  In 2006, we hit every dealership in Bend...three times at least looking for cars that "fit" Garrick!  His first choice was a Scion xA (the small car)...he couldn't get his entire body in the car, let alone behind the wheel!  The xB was a little better, but still cramped his legs so bad he couldn't even test drive the thing.  This is when being 6'6" really sucks...especially if you're two-thirds leg!  We eventually settled on the Freestyle after a salesman at the Ford dealership suggested he try sitting in it...we had been there so many times and were really getting discouraged by what was available in "our" price range!  It was a perfect fit!  So, we ended up with the Freestyle.

Now, fast forward to 2012...here we are with the Freestyle (still a good car/SUV, but it does need a little work on it), paid in full...it's ours!  We also have the Nissan pickup, a tiny 2 seat truck with no power steering, it's a stick shift (so Garrick can't drive it), no air bags...totally not baby safe!  So, we go to the Kia dealership...Garrick sits in one of the Kia Souls...he fits!  I check out the LATCH system in the back seats, they're awesome!  So, we go for a test drive...it's a great little car!  Even better...they have one in Alien Green that was just delivered last night and isn't even on the lot yet (still all wrapped up in plastic)!  We hem and haw for a bit, but the plan was to not buy a car under any circumstances today.  But, we go ahead and see what kind of payments we'd have on this car because it is in our final two picks for a new vehicle.  By using the old pickup as a trade in (sight unseen) and putting a little down, the payments would be right in the ballpark we are looking to spend (awesome). 

So, we bought it!  Not the one we test drove...the one that was still sitting, wrapped in plastic, with 11 miles on it, that is Alien Green!  Yeah...remember back there when Garrick said we wouldn't be buying a car today....he kinda lied!  So, I'm now driving the Ford Freestyle and he's driving this little beauty...except for the times when I'll be taking long road trips, like next month when I go pick up one of the boys for their "annual" summer trip to visit us.  This car gets about twice as good gas mileage, so I'll take it for the 400+ mile one-way trip.  It also has SirusXM radio too, which is just awesome on long car rides.

In other news...I already made a whole post about the vet trip yesterday afternoon, I'm not looking forward to that call from the vet though!  We know Rosie will need antibiotics and pain killers when she has her teeth worked on and the vet wants to do that ASAP before the infection in her gums spreads to anywhere else.

Since yesterday during the day was so busy (we left the house at 8am and only made a few very brief "potty stops" back home until after 7pm), we spent the evening quietly surfing the web and playing video games.  Well, I "surfed" and Garrick played Diablo 3.  I found myself clicking from blog to blog looking at some pretty inventive ways to do things around the house  (someone turned an empty 2L soda bottle into a sprinkler)!  In my wandering, I came across Patchwork Radicals...or at least a post from the blog!  I have made Yogurt cheese before and it turned out pretty yummy, but very tangy (like a super soft cream cheese).  What I ran across was her recipe for making fresh cheese using nothing but Milk, Vinegar, and a little salt (if you want a harder cheese)!  I'm going out this weekend to buy a small thing of whole milk to try this recipe out with (I'm not tracking down the only raw milk supplier in town, store bought will just have to "do")...she doesn't specify whole milk, but I think it'll turn out yummier using whole!  I already have cheesecloth (and those nice tight woven tea towels), so I'm set to go as soon as I get the milk!

Also in my "travels" around the internet...I found my way to comparing food dehydrators...this is one of those appliances I absolutely love!  My grandmother has two or three of them that I would love to get my hands on one day, but I don't see that ever happening.  What I would really love to have is an Excalibur Food dehydrator, this is the mother of all dehydrators (and "only" $250 at Best Buy...)! 

But, for one-fifth the price, I settled on a Nesco Snackmaster FD-60 ($59, plus tax at Best Buy...$55 at WalMart, plus tax).  I ended up ordering one for myself from Best Buy because we have a Best Buy credit account and a "reward" card there as well, might as well get the points and save a few bucks on something else down the road, right?!  This one has a dial to adjust the temp to fit the food you are drying (low heat for herbs and such, up to 155 degrees for making meat jerky) and the reviews are just awesome on it.  WalMart does have "cheaper" dehydrators, but the $35 model had horrible reviews, the only good one I saw was from someone who gave it away as a gift and hadn't heard anything negative from the person she gave it to!  I like this one in theory so far too...I can add trays (up to another 4, I believe) and get extra fruit leather trays or meat screens if I need them.  Mainly, my big push for one right now is my Sugar Bush (Stevia plant)!  It is growing out of control right now and I need to dry it before I can make the liquid sweetener from it!  IF this works well enough, I can see the extract being very handy when we go back on the low-carb diet at the end of this year (after baby is here)!  For the summer though...I see lots of Strawberries, Blueberries, and the like going in the dehydrator!  These are semi-low-carb fruits that I'll still be able to use in limited quantities later on too!

Well, time to get something done around here...no rest for the wicked this long holiday weekend!