Adventures in vehicle shopping

We have been vehicle shopping... slowly.

Not being in a hurry and waiting for a deal to come along generally pays off. Also we have limited funds. That tends to make someone more patient.

I have been going online to look at our local and semi-local car dealerships to check out their inventory and see if they have what we are looking for. We knew we wanted a minivan, newer than 2002, preferably with quad seating and a CD player.

While looking online, we spent most of our time searching the lots with the best reputations. The place with the very best reputation in our area is in a tiny little town and a 20 minute drive to get there. They did have a couple that looked promising online so we headed down last weekend. The one they had sold, and the other was out on a service call.

Shucks. Call us when it comes back.

We talked to him about what we could do for trade and have been looking yet, but haven't found much. He thought the van would be back Tues. Tuesday came, and the vehicle hadn't made it back to the shop yet so he said he would give us a call.

So then comes the call today. And it's a good day, we have time to test drive it. But it was not meant to be. They can't find it.

The van is gone.

They have the title. He's asked all those who work there (he is one of the owners). No one knows what happened to it. They are embarrassed and wondering if it was stolen.

And that left us looking again.

We did find one at a huge bargain at a different dealership. 2003 Kia Sedona. Quad seating, CD player, leather seats, even a sun roof. Now I can pretend I'm cool and have a convertible as I drive my minivan.

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

This was just great! Definately worth the watch

Name that disease...

Since the illness in my house continues, I thought we could have fun with it. I will give you the background information, along with J-Bird's symptoms and we will see who can come up with what he has this time. It will be FUN!

J-Bird finished his amoxicillin on Sunday night(apparently irrelevant). Monday morning he came down with a fever of 102.7 (here starts the clues). He napped, didn't feel very well, but not REAL sick either. Tylenol helped a lot. This morning the first thing I noticed about him is that he had a rash on both sides of his face and I looked at his trunk and had some rash there too. I took his temp and it was down to 101. A couple hours later the rash is worse but the fever is down to 99.6. I took him in and got my answer of what is wrong with him this time. Here are the major clues...

-Starts as high fever. Goes down pretty quickly.

-Rash develops. This rash is known to be on the cheeks.

-A very common childhood illness.

-Normally kids get it between 3-4 years old. I guess home schooled kids may take a little longer to contract it.

It has two common names, and one technical name that I know of.

Ok, who can tell me what J-Bird has??? Come on and play along!

Did you know???

Here is some things I didn't know but I have learned in the last 8 days....





People can still get Scarlet Fever. I didn't realize this. From conversations I've had, most others didn't realize this either.





Scarlet Fever is basically a reaction to a type of Strep Throat.

Scarlet fever is caused by an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria.
The bacteria make a toxin (poison) that can cause the scarlet-colored rash from
which this illness gets its name.
Not all streptococci bacteria make this toxin and not all kids are sensitive to it. Two kids in the same family may both have strep infections, but one child (who is sensitive to the toxin) may develop the rash of scarlet fever while the other may not.

The rash reminds you of sandpaper. Fine little bumps mainly on the trunk of the body.





You also get the slapped cheek look (red cheeks, white around the mouth).





It is treated just like you treat strep.





Once the rash goes away the skin starts peeling, especially around the fingertips and toes. No pain, just peeling. For little boys this can be fun to gross his sisters out with.

At least this is our experience.