Brad's Birthday Post

I'm just now getting around to sharing pics from Brads because celebrations! We had a quiet family party at home, and he enjoyed his favorite meal--grilled hamburgers-- and favorite cake--orange jello cake. He got some nice presents from us, and a couple of cards in the mail from family. 

He requested an mp3 player and Bluetooth speaker that he could take to summer camp, so he had fun learning how to use those and put his music on them.

We just got back from camp last night, so check back soon on pics from that! I leave for my next adventure on Monday.

Cars: Dead, New, and Sold

Life has been full of transition for us! Some planned, some not so planned. I want to start off by saying my reliable little Suzy has passed on and will be joining the Fowler salvage yard soon. I bought her in 2008 when she was only 3 years old. She was the first car I ever financed, the first car that had a warranty, and the most fun one to drive for all 8 years that I had her. She was just under 160,000 miles and running great when out of the blue last Saturday she started making a knocking noise on my way to work. I called Nick and told him about it so he could check it out when I got home. He tinkered around and took it for a test drive with Jacob while I did yard work. Next thing I know, a strange truck pulled up in the driveway and out got Nick with Jacob in his carseat......I said "Where's my car?" Turns out the engine blew while he was driving and he had to abandon it to get home. Thankfully some nice people took pity on him walking down the road with a baby and brought him home. He went back later with his truck and towed it home.

There is no hope of fixing it. My plans were to drive it until we sold our house, then sell it and use that money to put down on a newer car after moving. Yeah.....that didn't happen. It kills me that it happened so quickly and now the car is worthless. We have a lot of memories in this car. We brought both of our babies home in it, countless drives in the country to see family, thousands of trips to and from work. I will truly miss her!

The next crisis was that I needed a car!! There was no way we were going to get by with one car and I would have to start looking immediately. We hit the dealerships Monday and found a great catch at Fowler Honda. I knew I wanted an import that was only a few years old, and I ended up choosing a '13 Honda Civic with low miles and warranty. I haven't decided on a name yet, but she's pretty fancy!

In other car news...we are saying goodbye to the '57 Chevy project car that has been in our garage for the last 2 1/2 years! We had good intentions of fully restoring it and selling it as a finished hot rod, but money and free time got tight so we settled on selling it as is and breaking even with our investment. After being relisted a few times on Ebay we sold it this week to a buyer in Texas who is picking it up soon.

We are very glad to see it move on so that we can focus our efforts on other things around the house. Plus the added garage space will be very nice! Our house is now for sale, but that's a post for another day....

The New Addition

The Bentley that we bought a little while ago is all done and has been on eBay for a few days. The auction ends tomorrow so we have been keeping our eye out for the next project to flip! We have looked at a few cars but they were all duds. Until this one!

It is a 1968 Mustang GT in great condition! We got a really good deal on it and were able to drive it home. Our plan is to buy a Super Snake kit to put on the body then get it painted gun-metal grey with black stripes. Here is a pic of the *hopeful* end product:

We actually used to have a '68 Mustang in the past and Nick put a similar kit on it. He is completely able to do it all himself. We will have a shop paint it, but he can do the stripes. But we won't be doing anything until the Bentley sells! That was my only stipulation. So for now, both of our cars are out of the garage and in the driveway...

Here is a pic of my boys playing in bed one morning...

And here is another plain shirt of Brad's that I thought up some embroidery for...

That's about it for now! Say a prayer that the Bentley sells tomorrow! We are having a fun little Halloween party tomorrow evening so I will be busy cooking all day while the boys carve a jack-o-lantern!

Our New Toy

This is a 1930 Bentley (kit car) that we bought on Wednesday! No it is not a permanent addition to our family. This was purchased to fix up and flip! Nick has such a nack for that kind of thing that I gave him free reign with our savings account...he assures me this one is a gem!

It looks great, drives great, and has a clean title---all very hard things to come by with an old car! He won't need to do much to it before it's ready to go. I recommended placing an ad for people to rent it for photo props!

As for Bradley...well he thinks this is his new toy. He absolutely loves it and helped Nick "work" on it all day today. As soon as he got up and went downstairs, he ran to the back door and wanted to go out to the garage to sit in it! We have been taking him for little rides down the street to our local park and he does great.

Other than this, I have been busy crafting away for my first fall craft show of the year. It is one week from Saturday and I have 80% of my projects done. I had a few days off in a row this week so I took advantage of it!

I added onesie dresses to my stock for the first time, so hopefully they sell good. They are priced cheap and look adorable, so usually that works in my favor! I placed them in my online shop also for those who are interested...

A New Camera and a New Baby

Do you recall the camera that I ordered with my points from work? Well I got it in the mail a few weeks ago and finally sat down to figure it out and get the memory card set up. Here is my first batch of pictures:

The boys chilling by the pool

Cuddles watching me surf the web.

Bubba playing

Yesterday we ventured out into the 114 degree weather to Shawnee to see our good friends who just had a baby on the 29th. They also have a newly-walking one year old so I baked them a meal and took them food and diapers! We spent a few hours talking, laughing, corralling the babies, and changing diapers!

Holding a newborn is MUCH different than holding a 2 year old! I had forgotten how to do it!

The two Sphynx kitties--Tessie and Luna.

Nick loves the kitties and the kitties love Nick.

Jet giving Brad some love smacks as I try to get a picture of both of them together.

One of Brad's perches when we go over there--the toy bin.

Rachel holding her precious new little girl Tinley.

The three boys--James, Brad, and Nick--hanging out on the couch.

Brad shimmied himself into the walker then got stuck!

Jet wearing the new outfit that I made for her birthday! Isn't she a cutie!?

We had a great time over there as always and finally left so that they could all get some more rest. I remember those days of no sleep! Rachel and I won't be working together anymore unfortunately since she is on maternity leave and this is my last weekend at OU. I'm sure we will be making more trips out there and meeting for family meals!

On the way home it was so ungodly hot that we had to get Brad out of his carseat, take his dripping-with-sweat clothes off and cool him off in front of the air conditioner. GRRR! I am so completely over the weather here. Done.

Maiden Voyage!

After 3 months of hardcore restoration work, Nick could finally take his '50 Chevy out for more than just a test drive around the block.

It doesn't have seatbelts yet, so I followed him with little boy in my car! He watched daddy drive in front of us the whole way.

We took the back roads until we are sure it is okay to take on the highway. It did great and he got all of the stares!

He stopped at his grandparent's house in the city to trim some hedges while Brad and I went to my mom's house to hang out. She had a girlfriend over and they both oo'ed and awed at Brad and his adorability! I fed him dinner and watched him chase the dogs around. Nick came back after a bit and we grabbed some yummy Chinese food for dinner. Then he went out and saw some friends in the city and we headed home after that!

Mom and I went to a fairly new bookstore in the city yesterday, and it was great! I picked up several books--all for under $5--and I can't wait to read them. Two of them are big movies, and one is about raising a toddler. Another is a present for my MIL. They also buy used books, so I need to go through my bookcase...