Our new arrival

It's been a long time coming, but we finally added a new member to the family.
We are proud to announce the new arrival of the Rossiter family. She's a definite beauty, although I realize that we are a biased. But, she's shiny, a metallic grey, new and all ours--actually, she's technically Jon's, so I'm not financially responsible for her, although I'm sure I'll wind up writing the checks each month LOL. Anyway, here's a photo:
NOT THE ACTUAL CAR--that photo is coming soon; it's dark out, after all!!!

Told ya that she's purty...hee hee She's a 2006 Saturn Ion 2

I gotta give Jon credit: he ran the last Saturn he owned into the ground, almost literally. His car was 13 years old and he fought tooth and nail to keep her around as long as possible. However, the clutch finally gave and the only way he could shift the car was doing a modified Flintstones routine of rolling the car, getting up or down to a certain speed and yanking the stick shift into the proper gear.

Unfortunately, we don't live near a Saturn dealer; the closest is about 30 miles away. So, we convoyed down to Westbrook, me following him to make sure his car just didn't keel over on the Turnpike. As soon as we turned into the dealer lot, our beloved Saturn gasped her last breath.

We had the girls with us, because I knew it would take a while to get things done down there. I love Jon, but he's not the most decisive person in the world. He also has some sort of disorder where is not able to estimate time very well. "Itlll only take about two hours," he claimed. I'm not sure what the precise conversion is between real time and his time (which I joke is EET: Electrical Engineering Time), but after being married to this wonderful man for almost 10 years, I know that it's about a 2:1 ratio.

Time of arrival: 12:30pm. Time of departure: 4:00pm.

That's right, folks. I hit the nail on the head.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely Jon's fault that there was such a delay. There is all the paperwork, getting the car prepped (I swear, I didn't know that they had to wash, wax, clean a brand new car that only has 6 miles on it!), there was a little thing with a seal that had to be fixed, which then led to another one being replaced, etc.

Still, it was worth it. The car is a winner. I sat in it for about 5 minutes right before we left and I had to drive my car back to Auburn. The girls, of course, dropped me and my "old" car like a hot potato. At one time, my car was "sooo cool". But, no sooner than the ink dried on the agreement, Cailyn cried, "I'm riding in the new car!!!" I should have felt rejected--yeah, I wasn't really. Maybe now my Grand Am can go back to being "my baby" and not Kiddie Central all the time. Again, in the interest of fairness, I do give Jon credit for allowing the kids in the car, period. Hell, on the way down to the dealership, Erin had to eat her lunch, since we picked her up before her lunch time at preschool.

Let me give you a little hint: Chef Boyardee Ravioli in a thermos and the back seat of a car--not the best combination.

But, it was my car, so it was all ok. I'm sure that the people at Jon's office didn't hear my little monologue of obsenities as I bolted out of the car, in the plant parking lot, and wipe up the browish-red mess that quickly oozed onto my seat. I'm not even sure what I did wipe it up with, so I guess I should go back there and take a peek before too long.

Food will be banned from Jon's car, I'm sure. Never let it be said that I don't teach my family valuable lessons.

All in all, like any new addition to a family, there was a little pushing, a little screaming, a lot of waiting and it was all worth it in the end.