That new car smell & to Be Legal

So he did it. Jeff finally bought a car. A 2004 Saab 9-3 Turbo Sedan. EZ Turbo bought a turbo. Way cool. It was used (of course), but he feels he," got the best deal going in a fifty mile radius." He should have! I can't even count the hours he spent searching Craig's List at home all night long into the wee hours. And I know he was looking at work also. So here it is... A very nice car. We are all quite excited. Not as big as his Avalanche he wanted. Not as much history as the Volvo he drove Saturday. The guy, we were to call him Andre, actually came out and told him that he, "had a relationship with the Russian Mafia. Jeff never saw him actually light a cigarette, but he smoked one for the their entire thirty-five minute encounter. Jeff was not to call after 5, Andre would be working "you know". He would not tell Jeff who actually owned the car, but swore the title was clear. And Jeff was not allowed to test drive out of a specific area because the plates did not actually belong to that Volvo. I had decided if we bought the Volvo I would call it Boris. But Jeff decided it may need too much work.

So the Saab. We haven't named it yet. We drove to Hammond, IN for it, which is basically the South Side of Chicago. One of the other customers wanted to know what we were doing car shopping in that area. He actually asked, "You buyin' a cawww?" Jeff replied, "They do have them for sale here, you know." The Latino salesman, Paco, thought Jeff's comment quite quick and witty. They all enjoyed a good laugh. I guess the customer was right, we didn't quite fit in. But the car fits. Jeff of course got out of paying all and any fees. He is very excited to drive something with less than 125,000 miles, that looks good, has four matching tires, no AARP stickers, and all of the doors open. I like driving it and will be quite happy to pass off Stan the Tan Van anytime. OOOO--it has a moon roof and goes really fast. :)

AND we are almost vehicular legal. Well, not really, but kind of. Jeff called Fairview Park today and talked them down on his parking ticket. He only has to pay half, they forgive the other $200, and they won't prosecute my grandma or send her to jail. YAY! All because of that Iowa plate he never took off Forrest (just keeps runnin' and runnin') the Grand Prix. Thank goodness IF he buys the Lockport sticker he can park in the street legally. IF. The Saab also has a valid dealer plate for the next week. 1 out of 4's not bad. The van has IN, Forest has IA and IN, and Rosie the truck has MI. If only one of them was in my name maybe I would have gotten them titled. But then again, I still have my IN license. :) I forced Jeff to get his IL so we could register Phoebe for school. We're getting closer. Kind of.

Talkin' smack

Jeff was telling us how his office is having their annual chili cook off next week and was bragging, "I am going to put out my trophies with my entry."
Nicole: "I thought you only had one trophy."
Jeff: "I have a whole bunch of certificates."
Nicole:""Oh, at work?"
Jeff: "Yes."
PEANUT: "Well, I've never seen 'em."

Just like her father.

Oh yeah, her new favorite number? 2069 --spoken twenty sixty nine.
Nicole: How many apple slices do you want?
Peanut: twenty sixty nine
Nicole: How many times did you do that?
Peanut: twenty sixty nine
You get the idea. Sometimes she strays to some other large number, but mostly, it's twenty sixty nine.

Nots are good news

1. So I am NOT knocked up. Can't beat a good pregnancy scare. Wouldn't mind a fourth, but I don't want to have to give birth to it. :)
1o pounds of breech love and 3 c-sections were plenty thank you.
But the good news is I can go through with procedures to blow up my kidney stones. WOO HOO. And even better I found a good urologist. Can you believe it? I have actually liked two doctors in a row now! (him and the pediatrician) I know, crazy. And he recommended a D.O. to check all my levels before they blast me with sound, because apparently you have to have good blood for that, and I just may not. So I am going to give more blood. They took more pics of my kidneys today. Seems like I have more pics of them than my other kids recently.
2. Jeff is NOT getting a Chevy Avalanche. Turns out those are #3 on the stolen list around here and the insurance was THROUGH the roof. Oh well. The one he test drove was all dinged up from being a construction company vehicle anyway.
But the good news is that he is thinking Volvo now. OOOOO, I love a cute little European with a moon roof! Much better than an oversized American I think. Just kidding hon. So Moe, his dealer buddy, is searching Indiana for one. We'll see. Definitely better than an Old Alero or a Grand Prix with a monster parking ticket attached to it. (Especially since said car's license plate is linked to my grandma instead of my husband and they sent her a letter of intent to prosecute. But that is a whole 'nother story.)
3. Kung Fu Panda, aka Ahnka, is not going to do any organized martial arts. Too expensive.
But the good news is I did get her signed up for gymnastics and Sparkle Princess for dance through the park district. Not too outrageous. So hopefully the classes are decent.
4. Tan the Man is NOT crawling.
But the good news is he is trying to cruise around furniture and seems to get hurt doing this a lot less.

Some will be happy, some not

I changed the playlist, as you can hear. I know Cymule (love ya bro) is happily no longer doing the macarena as he sits at his desk all day. But Phebers wants to know why she has to use the arrows to find her songs. Heeheehee. Actually I was ready for the change as well.

Busy day in the N household...mopping, laundry, shoved everything in the garage onto Jeff's side so I can park in the garage (first time in 3 houses!). The kids played duplos including Tan--so cute to see him excited that he was playing with the big kids, hit golf balls at the neighbor's house, tore around on the Jeep singing Macarena and other songs at the top of their lungs into the pretend phone on the Jeep, ate some goldfish, wrote lots and lots of words. Attempted to find out about gymnastics/dance/taekwando opportunities for the girlie-os. Having trouble convincing myself I need to pay a hundred bucks a month or drive a half hour away to do this. What have I gotten myself into?

Jeff finished another class. ONE MORE and he graduates!!!! Yay for him, yay for me-- that I can rope him into some projects. :) Seriously though, I am way proud of him.

And then it will be my turn to finish my masters. hmmm

I love autumn. I am making soup and cornbread. The leaves are turning. We went for a crunching good walk so the girls could collect the colors and paste them in a book. I got out all of my favorite wool cardigans. The air smells deliciously different.

Project Runway is over. Not sure if I wanted Leeann to win or not. Liked her stuff, but not in awe as I was over Christian's fierceness last season. Anxiously awaiting Top Chef to start. I need Tivo so I can watch more than one show.

Tiger/MJ/Tank/Mr. WB

I am maybe a little bad about how many nicknames I give my kids. His new ones are Tiger (for the growling noise he constantly makes) and MJ (mini Jeff). But they all seem to fit. And he will respond to all of them so far. He prefers Mr. Wigglebuns and Tiger, he makes a face at MJ.

Whoever he is, he is such a boy. He loves this tractor, that both girls completely ignored. He rolls it back and forth on the floor and even makes noises. He adores wheels and anything that makes loud noise. His other favorite is a wooden spoon. He'll chew on it and wave it around for a good half hour. He really likes balls too. And is already figuring out the joy in annoying his sisters. He is all about feeding himself. Once he figured out this was an option, it became the only option. Our floor is a wasteland of dried up, tiny pieces of who knows what kind of food. I am not picky, I give him whatever I can think up to calm the growls. Here he is slamming back some Veggie Booty.
He is thinking about crawling. But keeps falling on his face and this makes him quite mad. So we'll see. He might skip the whole thing. But he REALLY wants that toy...especially the one a sister has. So maybe...
And here is my cutie nephew and niece, and their parents. More on that trip later. The tiger is growling.

3 for 3

So here are the long awaited haircut shots. All three of us (them on Sunday, me on Thursday) received excellent haircuts. Peanut's is an adorable, curly little bob. Jeff's is short all over--he finally believed someone that it was time for this. How long have I been encouraging this? And it looks extremely nice. And mine has never looked like this since (see the new blog pic). She spent more time drying, flat-ironing, and then teasing my hair than I spend showering, dressing, and doing my hair each morning. But it still looks quite nice. Quite pleased with ourselves. And here is Peanut with one of her new favorite hobbies. She makes tiny pictures and words and tapes them all over the house. She loves tape. We are planning to get her a case, maybe a pallet, for Christmas she goes through so much. We have started relegating her taping to certain areas of the house only though. It was out of control. And then she decided to be a bag lady and drug Phebers in on it. Yes, those are from Wal-mart. Yes, they made leg holes and made them into leotards and then danced around the yard. Did I tell you how much the new neighbors like us? JK

Macarena

Here she is doing the Month Macarena. She wanders around the house doing the dance muttering, "January, February, March, April..." I was humming the song along, but apparently they don't use the music at school. So I downloaded it to our playlist and we were all dancing to it. Tanner is especially adept at it. And then the writing and spelling. I gave both girls a bunch of old empty notebooks for drawing. But they are now writing chapter books they informed me. So they are either constantly copying words from anything in the house they can find or asking me to spell it for them. Names, foods, whatever. Frosted flakes was Annika's most recent request, Phoebe's word was everlast ( I think for batteries). What the heck? But it is awesome to see Phoebe, and Annika copying, learning so much and enjoying it!

Ups and downs for Jeffrey

So my wonderful husband has had a roller coaster week of sorts.
1. Up/down--it was his birthday on Monday, 34. Not sure how he feels, but he seems okay with it.
2. Down--I had to work. So he was stuck with Tanner, who has been sick, all by himself.
3. Up--he didn't. Vacaaaation!
4. Down--he had to work on his paper and presentation. Seems to be going okay, as long as we can keep him in the office/art room working on it.
5. Up--because I had to work we celebrated on Sunday and we grilled ribs and asparagus (yummy) and I made his favorite apple crisp. And then on Monday I made chicken soup with homemade noodles. And last night we had super nachos for the game. His tummy is very happy.
6. UP--then down--speaking of the game. He was quite pleased that the Twins forced a play-off game, but then quite sullen that they couldn't pull it off. He had wanted to get tickets, but couldn't bring himself to blow that much money on a ticket.
7. But then a major UP--GMAC bought tickets to the Cubbies play-off game tomorrow night. So he is going to Wrigley for the first time with car dealer buddies and out to eat at Pizzeria Uno (the real thing) all on The General's (General Motors that is) buck. That pleased him very much. To say he is excited is an understatement.
***As of Wednesday night***
8. DOWN DOWN DOWN---the idiots at the dealership sold the tickets. No more game, unless the Cubbies go to a game 5. He went to buy a grill--in Cook county it was $300 bucks with 10.5% sales tax. In Will county the sales tax is only 7%, but the SAME grill was $375. WHAAAAT? So now he is cranky again.