Spring Formal

Orcutt Academy had a Spring Formal last night. The theme was Hollywood, and it was a Masquerade ball. We found a beautiful purple dress with black and sparkles. Then we found a purple velvet mask. We added a few things to the mask to make it totally unique. She looked stunning. She seems to have had a good time too. Of the 110 students in the school (just the freshman class this year) I think they sold something like 57 tickets. The school year has been great. We are really happy that Hannah decided to go to the Academy.

Ahhh, spring in San Francisco!

It is FREEZING here! We spent today doing all the touristy stuff... Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, Cable Cars, Fisherman's warf. It was bright, sunny, and blowing a gale! It was about 55 degrees outside, but the wind chill made it downright COLD! Tonight we had dinner with the SF branch of the Pettey Family at Buca di Beppo... yummy! Good to see Marvin and Janice, and Jonathan and Rhoda. Tomorrow we are off to Sacramento. We are having dinner with Hannah's Birthmom, Laurie on the way. Here are some of the pictures from today...

Hello Mountaineer, good bye mini van!

Well a two weeks ago, I was driving home from dropping the kids at the school. I looked down at the gauges in the car and the tempature gauge was in the HOT zone. So I pulled over, called Tim, and waited for it to cool down. We took the car into the shop and found out that the car needed a new water pump, head gasket, and radiator work... $1800.. yikes! So the big question became: Fix a car that isn't worth as much as the cost of repairs, or buy a car for at least 5 times as much as the repairs?
My Mom and Dad were on the way to visit us from Idaho the next day. Well it just so happens that my Dad LOVES to shop for a good used car. So we set him to work looking for a vehicle. We decided that we needed a car that would hold 7 people since I am always hauling kids and their friends around, BUT we really didn't want another mini van. I loved my van, don't get me wrong, but I was ready to move out of the "stroller mom" car.

We set about looking for a big SUV. We found a 2001 Ford Excursion in great shape for $8200... pretty good price... downside, it had 100,400 miles already. We thought about it... but couldn't see buying a car with that many miles.. especially since Fords need a new transmission before 120,000 miles (most times anyway).
We looked at all the car lots in town. We found some, but they were either too high mileage or they were not in great shape. We looked on car trader.com for SUV's within 100 miles of us. We found a 2002 Toyota Sequoia 2 hours south of here with 70,000 miles for $10,800. We tried to set up a time to go see it. We couldn't get together with the seller until Sunday. We also found a 2003 Tahoe 1 hour north of here. Saturday, We drove up to see it. Didn't like the Tahoe, but found a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. This car is an step up from a ford explorer. It was CLEAN! And I mean REALLY CLEAN! It had leather, power everything, and a third seat for the teenagers I am always carting around. It had 66,000 miles. AND it was lower than $10000 which was our upper budget limit.
So now the hard part... do we leave and go see the Sequoia on Sunday.. and hope that ,if the Sequoia turns out not to be our car, that the Mountaineer would still be there on Monday? Or do we buy the Mountaineer and just not look at the Sequoia? Is "A bird in the hand" really "worth 2 in the bush"?
So we stood there and talked it all out.

1. The Mountaineer has leather, the Sequoia cloth

2. The Mountaineer is CLEAN, the Sequoia might be.. might not tho too.

3. The Mountaineer is under our budget, the Sequoia is over.

4. The Mountaineer is a bit smaller than the Sequoia, but they both hold 7 passengers.

5. The Carfax report shows the Mountaineer has never been in an accident.. the Sequoia has been in one accident where the police were called... the owner said it was just a superficial bumper ding..

6. The Mountaineer had one owner, the Sequoia had been a lease that the present owner bought from a dealer when it had 12,000 miles.

7. The Mountaineer is a known quantity, the Sequoia looks good on paper.

8. Toyota's are known to run forever... Mercury's are "Ford Products".

9. Gas Mileage is about the same in each.

10. The Mountaineer had running boards, the Sequoia didn't.. we would have had to have some installed or I wouldn't be able to get in the car! So add another $400 to the price.

We finally decided that the sole reason we were hesitating was because the Sequoia was a Toyota and NOT a ford product that might need a new tranny at 120,000 miles. My dad pointed out that the price difference was the cost of a new tranny... so even if we needed to replace it, we weren't really out more money than buying the Toyota.

SO, we signed the papers, paid the man and drove it home!

Now what to do with the Caravan? We didn't trade it in, because we didn't want to drive it an hour and possibly not buy a car and have to drive it an hour home (needs a water pump...)

We were told by the car dealer and our mechanic to list it on Craigslist.com. So Wednesday at noon I placed the ad on Craigslist. At 12:10 a guy called to look at it (it had only been listed for 10 minutes!) and another at 12:15! By 1pm, I had sold the van and removed the listing! Wow! That was FAST! So, good bye mini van... we have enjoyed driving you these past 115,o00 miles!

Proud of my girls!

I am always proud of my girls, but this weekend I am REALLY PROUD!
Friday, Bekah receive the Student of the Month award for her classroom. This is 6 years in a row that she has been a student of the month!

Then tonight was Hannah's first high school formal dance. She worked really hard with the ASB on decorations and planning. They were down there last night and again today decorating. We had gotten her a beautiful dress in Fresno (see post below) and she LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! Here are pictures I snapped in the living room.. bad lighting and dark, I will post the professional dance pictures when we get them back, but wanted to share.

GO SPARTANS!!!!

As most of you know (if you read my blog, you know anyway) that Hannah is at a brand new charter high school this year. That means that everything they do is a "first" almost. Hannah has been playing on the girls soccer team. It has been a rough season so far. First, there are only enough players to play most games. We are lucky if we have a sub. Then they are playing teams that have at least Sophomores on them. Some teams we play have juniors and seniors on the team as well. We have no home games, because we didn't have CIF sanctioned goals (we do now, so next season we can have home games.). The team has been working really hard. Practicing every day, really getting to know each other, etc. They had 2 games before the Christmas break, they lost them both 5-1. Then they practiced all during the break and last saturday played their 3rd game. They lost 8-1. Still they weren't getting too concerned. Heck the school wasn't even planning on offering soccer, but the kids went out to their classmates and recruited players so they could field a team! They are just happy to be playing!

Well, today started off as a "chamber of commerce" day! GORGEOUS weather! It was sunny, not windy and into the low 80's! Not bad for January. We drove out to Midland School to play their girls' team. Again we would be playing a team with all four grades on it. Midland is a rustic setting out in the hills (right across the street from the drive way to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch..) It is a boarding school that costs $35 thousand a year. The kids live in cabins that are heated with wood stoves. They have to start a fire to heat the water to take a shower. They go to school 6 days a week! So we are out there on this beautiful day, watching history! WE WON! 6-0!!!!! Hannah saw very little action as she is the only goalie and so she was on the side of the field where the ball wasn't most of the game. The 3 times it came anywhere near her, she blocked and kicked really well! Here is a picture of her in mid drop kick. Now we can say the Spartans WON!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ok, this is just a few weeks late! I just have been too busy living life to blog about it... do you believe me? You shouldn't. I am just a lazy bum!

ANYWAY, Happy new year!!!! We had a great new year's eve at the Hoffman's in Fresno. We played games and stayed up late. The girls had fun and so did the dogs! Dawn took us down to the downtown area in Fresno (not a place to be after dark... or alone!) and we went to a dress shop to look for a Formal Dress for Hannah. We found a gorgeous dress (pictures will folllow in a few weeks) and it was not too bad price wise.
Now we are home and trying to get back into the swing of school schedules. I don't like getting up early!

Christmas Highlights

Here are some pictures from Christmas.

Bekah made a gingerbread house.

The girls on Christmas morning. Before gifts were opened.
The Girls on Christmas Morning AFTER the gifts were opened. They got a Wii Guitar Hero World Tour Band kit. So they have spent hours now perfecting their drumming.

After the presents had all been removed from under the Tree, I found Kiwi there, under the tree with one of her Christmas presents. The silly dog had dragged her bed across the room to be under the tree!

The Girls with Nana. See how tall they are both getting? Or maybe Nana is shrinking. Or maybe both.

We took Kiwi to see Santa at Petsmart. She is either doing the "walk like and Egyptian" song or trying to make a speedy get away! The only thing that I cared about was it got the girls to pose with Santa.. they wouldn't do it last year.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Happy New year!