Our New Addition

This is such exciting news, I can hardly stand it. In just a few short days I will be making the trip to Arizona to go pick up the newest addition to our family (drum roll please) a new-to-us car! It will be great to see family and friends. I managed to get my brother Tyler to fly home with me to help on the plane. He just came home from Afghanastan and is on leave for the month. He wanted to come visit us anyway and the timing worked perfectly. (As a side note, if anyone has any single sisters, friends etc. that are into blind dates, my brother is single, 25 years old, returned missionary and active church member who doesn't get the chance to be around a lot of girls since he is in the military).

As exciting as this new addition is, it's got me a bit worried. First of all, the roads in Jersey City, are really difficult to drive, crazy intersections, lights, and traffic. Second, it's been about two years since I have had to drive. True, I have rented a car twice in the last couple of months but those experiences didn't turn out too well.

The first time I rented the car was to go to my Ob appointment in Hackensack. Hackensack is about 16 miles away, and I had never driven. Well, I hadn't ever driven anywhere in Jersey or NY for that matter. I left an hour plus early, giving me plenty of time to find my way if I became lost. It took me two hours! That's because I made a wrong turn onto a crazy turnpike and ended up going the wrong way. Luckily, the doctors office allowed me to come in over an hour late.

The second time I rented the car was much, much worse. I got the car the day before and decided to do some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. Once again, I had never driven there but I knew the way since I'd been along on Trader Joe outings with a friend. We had rented a brand new Ford Focus. They handed over the keys and told me to enjoy and let them know what I thought since it still had that new car smell, and just 19 miles on it. As I was driving to Trader Joes I passed the entrance and started to panic (I'd never been pass the Trader Joe's, who knew what was on the other side!). After driving for about a mile I didn't see anywhere to turn around, then I saw an opening in traffic and decided to execute a U turn (are they illegal in New Jersey?). My last car the Toyota Echo, could turn on a dime and u turns were simple as the turning radius of the car was amazing, but that's what you get with a Toyota, and this was a Ford. There was a bus about a hundred yards away, I figured I had plenty of room. Well, I ended up misjudging the turning radius of the Ford. There was no way to make the U turn without either backing up or going up in the curb. Since I saw the bus behind me I decided to gun the engine and go up on the curb (I'd done this lots before with no problems...unless you think missing hubcaps is a problem). I hit the curb hard but made the turn. About a minute later I realized something was horribly wrong. Luckily there was a gas station just ahead so I pulled in. I got out of the car and saw that I had managed to blow the tire completely! I was horrified, and of course have no idea how to change a tire (that's what boyfriends and husbands are for, right?). Some nice men at the gas station put on the spare for me...and then charged me 20 bucks for their kindness! I was all shaken up after that but still went to Trader Joe's, where I lost the keys to the car while Haylie was locked inside. I found the keys, the key ring broke while I was putting away the cart, on the ground and all was well, but it was a super scary day. I'm worried things like that are going to happen all the time now!

I am glad to be getting a car. If I just had the one child I could get by for the next year or so walking everywhere, but with another one on the way, it just wasn't as doable as I would like, especially with doctor appointments. It will be nice to know I can go to the hospital with out waking up Naomi or Dawnell when the time comes.