Downsizing and Upgrading

OK, I am just not in the blogging mood at the moment, so there will be no elaborate stories or amusing incidents told tonight. I am sorry. But we do have some exciting news this week, so I will just lay it all on the table in a very boring, matter-of-fact way.

Monday afternoon, Matt, Bennett, and I spent five hours in a car dealership and then drove home with a brand new, 2010 Ford Edge. How did this happen? Well I will tell you...oh great, I feel a long story coming on. So much for my previous paragraph.

When we moved to Texas two years ago we had hardly any furniture and the Army said they would pay us the big bucks to move ourselves, so we said, "Lets do it." Unfortunately, I severely broke our two-passenger Dodge truck one month before we were to load up. Who knew you weren't supposed to have a truck in four-wheel drive at 70 miles per hour on dry roads? Not me. So after Matt taught me some proper truck care and shed a tear or two over his beautiful Dodge, we traded it in to a dealership for the four-door Chevy Pickup that would move us to Texas.

This purchase was obviously unplanned, so we ended up being upside-down with the truck payment from day one, and I hated it. I also hated the gas mileage we got with it, and the fact that driving that truck was like driving a blue whale. Try parking a blue whale in a seven foot wide space at Wal-Mart. Talk about nerve racking. None of these things mattered too much though, thanks to the fact that we always had a second car that was either paid off or could be turned into instant cash, and which also got much better gas mileage than the truck. And because Matt enjoys building and hauling things, having a truck was a crucial part of our lives and income.

But Matt has a career now where the only wood involved is the desk he sits behind. Building is just his hobby, we are never going to move ourselves anywhere again, and a truck with horrible gas-mileage is no longer a necessity.

So we traded it in. Actually, we traded in both our cars, since we owed on the truck and could actually make money on our Explorer, so it all evened out in the end. Here's a few pictures of our new Edge that I took from the Internet because as I said, I am not in a blogging mood and finding my camera to download pictures would require movement on my part. This is exactly what ours looks like though, so don't feel cheated.

We had a great debate in the Automax parking lot over what color we should get. I wanted silver with black cloth interior, and Matt wanted white with beige leather interior. The dealer said there was no such thing as a silver with black cloth interior, so we went with the white. Seriously, who are these Ford designers? Silver and black would look way good together...

I have actually come around to really liking Matt's choice. Anyway, I hear black anything is a bad decision for the Texas heat.

So here we are with a car that only has 300 miles on it from test-drivers. Crazy. I never thought we would be able to afford something like this, but they gave us a great deal on it, and the ironic thing is we actually save a lot of money each month because now we only have one car payment and one car to insure, instead of two.

And don't worry about the "one car" aspect. Matt takes his motorcycle to work most days, so Bennett and I have all the freedom to come and go as we please. Besides that, Matt deploys in only three months, so I guess we can share until then...maybe. :)

Which brings up another positive aspect of this car. It has a bumper to bumper warranty for three years, including the year Matt is deployed. That means I never have to worry about oil changes or breaking down or anything else my mechanic husband usually takes care of. We are all breathing a huge sigh of relief over that.

So there you go. A lot longer than originally planned (but a lot shorter than last weeks!)