It May Be The End Of The Road For This Puppy!

Meet van!
(Some of you already know van)

Meet 1990 Dodge Cara VAN! Meet van that we bought in June of 2004. Meet van that's pretty dirty right now as you can see from the photo. oops....I'll get right on that next week lol. Meet van that gave us much relief when we got to obtain it with cold hard cash! Meet van that doesn't require monthly payments. Meet van that seats our whole family plus somebody's buddy. Meet van that was in excellent condition and very clean because the owners had no kids at home and they took EXCELLENT care and maintained it regularly. And most of all......from MY mouth to YOUR ears.............The van that let me quite driving THIS!!!!!!

No doubt....this Jeep ROCKS! And this baby is a mean machine. That's why daddy won't give it up. Even though the sale of it would give me a fat savings base for some decent freakin furniture. Oh well...mom don't win those kind of battles in this house. K so as most of you know, we don't spend a lot of money on material things. And it's NOT because I don't want stuff...don't get me wrong here. I'm very frugal and practical when it comes to large purchases, but what I wouldn't give for something updated to sit on in my house. lol I'll keep my fingers crossed. Neva give up.....Neva give up! The time may be sooner than I think.

Now last year I recieved some awesome training from my dearest friend in the whole wide world!! I whipped my money managing into shape more than ever before. Wheew....finally some progress. What I wouldn't give for a 2nd course and a tightening of the reigns pep talk. I'll check into that one. In the meantime, we're hangin in here doing our thing.........paying bills, playing taxi, doing homework and living day by day like the rest of the world.

There's always a surprise to deal with though right? Lately as I've been driving my no debt van around, it seems to seize at times when I press on the gas. This is WHILE I'm driving down the road. I push on the gas and it doesn't seem to feed it when I do. It seizes for a few seconds then it's fine after that. The other night Alex and I were in line to get out onto a very busy road in our city. I sat there in idle mode of course and as I tried to inch up to occomodate the crawling traffic line, the van just revved and didn't move with me as I pushed on the gas. I panicked.....threw it into park, then back to drive mode. Tried it again. NO luck. Then I tried a few other moves and no luck there either. Finally, after a HUGE jerk (like when you're learning to drive a stick shift?) it worked again. Off we went and I was much relieved when it didn't seize up while zooming into the turn lane so that I could begin to merge over into the fast scary moving traffic.

Then there's this............

A large puddle of fluid underneath as it sits in no-drive mode in the driveway. I've spilled oil a couple of times as I've added more without a funnel. (good news...I finally bought one Saturday) But this isn't that, at least I don't think so. I think that dried up by now. And of course I haven't crawled under there to feel it. When I went out this morning to take the boys to school, I saw the puddle but continued to get in and start it. NO luck! Dead! Tick tick tick is all she wrote. As this is staying true to form lately, the battery has needed a jump. Usually it's been because kids don't close doors securely enough and the lights inside kill the battery. This time, the doors were all snug. Hmmmm, this bites!! So I quickly called a couple of my friends in the neighborhood and the boys managed to get to school anyway. So I call daddy to explain the problem. "I'll have to take a look at it when I get home". "Well should I get it jump started again dear" I asked. "Probably not.....until I can see what's going on." Ooook good thing the cupboards are bare and I need to go to the store huh? lol

Although I secretly pray that this may be the ticket to a new vehicle and maybe soooomeone around here will concede to freeing up some unnecessary tied up funds (ah...hem) It most likely will end up as it always does:

Me frugal + Tied up funds = This puppy is good for another 10!

And so it continues here at the den............Press on pilgrims!

Finally a food for thought.
This comes from my "The Power of Positive thinking" calendar that I bought for 2007. I love it!

January's caption states...........

Talk, actually speak, to the health forces within yourself. Standing straight and tall say, "I affirm the presence within me of creative forces; I hereby yield myself in confidence to their health-giving effect."