10 months and rambling

This is what he looks like most of the time - something in his mouth!

10 months
The mister turned 10 months today. He is really starting to develop such a fun happy personality. He is a pretty good little guy. He happily plays with himself and his toys all day long. He is finally starting to like to read books with me. He likes to boogie down with his mama and wrestle with his papa. He jabbers all day long and loves to put all things in his mouth. He takes about 4 or 5 steps and is so proud of himself.
His favorite foods are: yogurt, cheese, sweet potatoes, pureed meats, bananas, yogurt melts, and puffs. He wants to be an independent eater but still needs a little help. He got his first two teeth on his 5th month birthday and then nothing again until today. He has his next two teeth popping through - poor little guy.

Today we walked down to the beach and dropped Rick's clothes off at the cleaners. We walked around the fabric store looking for fun ideas. In the afternoon we headed out again. This time with the park in mind. However, the park we went too didn't have swings so wasn't so fun.

Rambing. On our way to the park we crossed the Park St. bridge and we saw a ton of crew teams out rowing. It made me MISS the days when I was on a masters team rowing out of the Stanford boat house. I LOVE rowing and miss it. I can't believe there is a team a block away from me and I am not a part of it. When I first moved here to Oakland a block from the water, I couldn't join the team because Rick and I were going into the city around 5:30 in the morning. Teams typically practice from 5:00am - 7:00am so there was no way I could make it to work on time. Now that I don't work, I have a little one to keep my eye on. Some day I will join another crew team.



Thinking of my crew days brought me back to reminiscing of the past. i passed by some cool old cars on Park St. in the shop and thought about my car history. I have always been a car girl. I got it from my dad who is also a lover of cars. Back in the day, I use to know all about cars, makes and models and how much horsepower different cars had. These days the thought of cars hasn't passed through my head much. I grew up going to car shows with my dad and every summer we went to the car races which is still a tradition of ours to this day.

I learned how to drive when I was 12 years old. My dad taught me how to drive his red Toyota 4x4 truck which was a stick shift. Yes, that is right, I knew how to drive stick when I was just 12. Every Sunday afternoon we would go up to the hills behind our house on a Sunday drive. My dad would let me drive up in the mountains where no one was around.

On September 11, 1991 my mom picked me up from school and took me down to the DMV for my driver's test. Of course I passed, I had been driving for years at that point. I headed back to school in the mini van with my driver's license. In high school I drove around in an Aerostar mini van. It was a pretty nice one. It had a computer that told you how many miles you had left until you were going to run out of gas. Can you believe they had that way back then? I loved the mini van. I could pile tons of people in the car and we drove it all around. Of course, I was the designated driver during those years of my life. Thanks to the mini van, I'm sure there are a lot of people still alive today. My senior year, four friends and I took that mini van down to LA for a week for spring break. It was the week when the Rodney King riots were taking place. In fact we couldn't even stay at the hotel that we booked because it was vandalized. We cruised all over LA in that van.

In 1993, my first year in college at Rick's college, I left the mini van at home. I mean really you don't need a car in Rexburg, Idaho. However, my second year, the mini van came with me and it was great. We took so many road trips with that van. We piled our snowboards in several times a week, went 4 wheeling and camping in it (yes, it handled pretty well, we finished our camp trip with weeds coming out all over the place.) and even took it to the sand dunes. Although, I did have to have someone tow me out when I got stuck.

After I graduated from Ricks in 1995 I headed to Provo, Utah. I traded the mini van in. I bought my very first car when I was just 19 years old. I bought a burgundy Ford Explorer. I thought I was pretty cool. I had my own 4 wheel drive. It was a lemon. I guess when you are a young 19 year old girl and you walk into a dealership in Salt Lake City all by yourself to buy a car the salesperson gets a smile on their face knowing they can sell you a lemon. A month after having that car it broke down and I made the dealership pay for it. It took me a few months of fighting them about it and calling the owner everyday but I finally got my way. I gave up the Ford Explorer in 1998 when I entered the MTC.

When I returned from my mission I had no car and no money. My dad was kind enough to buy me a very old white Mazda. It was in pretty good shape considering it's age. It had plastic seats with purple fur seat covers. It was from the 80's I think. It was so old it had a push button AM only stereo. I learned the words to a lot of Barry Manalow songs while owning that car. I call this car my humbling car. Meaning, it humbled me. It was functional but not cute at all. I used it to get me from school and back and to run errands. It was not a social car for me. No picking up on cute Provo boys in that car.

In 2000 I graduated from college and moved back to California. I got my job at ChefsBest (back then called American Tasting Insitute). I sold the white Mazda and bought a red A4 Audio, 2.8 Quattro all wheel drive. It was nice. It was fast, black leather seats with butt warmers, moon roof, and a cd player. I have always been a truck or SUV girl so this was my first car that I actually liked. It was pretty good looking. I cruised around in this car for a year or two. It was a money pit. Premium gas, always breaking down and costing a fortune to fix. I put thousands of dollars into fixing that car. Finally one day the engine light was actually turned off and nothing seemed to be wrong so I got rid of it.

I traded the red Audio in for a brand new black 2002 Nissan XTerra. I loved the looks of the new XTerra. This was a very reliable car and very cheap to maintain. To this day I still regret selling this car (I sold it to a friend for a very cheap price). At the time I was trying to be responsible so I decided to buy the one without 4 wheel drive, it was $10,000 cheaper. I thought I was making a good decision but it was my only regret with that car and ultimately why I sold it. I had the XTerra for about 4 years which is a pretty long time for me to have the same car.

A few years after having the XTerra I decided I needed 4 wheel drive and a bigger engine. I was going to the lake often and had to borrow my parents SUV to pull the boat. I needed my own vehicle to pull the boat. I needed a V8. I bought a Jeep Grande Cherokee. I got a good deal on it. It was my toy/fun car. It was old but still in nice shape. It had leather interior, pulled the boat, and handled well while 4 wheeling. I got it for such a good deal that I didn't really care what happened to it, if it rolled, it rolled no biggie. It was kind of nice having two cars. When one was out of gas you just hopped in the other.

I then got a Lexus 450 SUV with a V8 for my work car. I loved this car. It drove so smoothly, had a 6 disc cd player and a moon roof. It sat seven and was fancy. The great thing about this car was it was free. At this point I now had 3 cars, and ALL SUV's. The Lexus I used to commute to the city with, the XTerra I used on the weekends, it was a cheap car to drive around, and the Jeep I used for fun, pulling my boat and 4 wheeling.

I went from 3 cars down to one after a few years. I gave the Lexus back, sold the XTerra to a friend and traded the Jeep in for my current car - the Land Rover. Of course I still needed the V8 to pull the boat and wanted 4 wheel drive for the Sierra mountains so I picked the LR. The LR is a tough car. It is like a tank. It handles very well for 4 wheeling. I have taken it out several times and have only had one 4x4 accident due to a bad spot. It's been to Moab and all over the Sierra's. I have had the LR for over 5 years now which means I have had it longer than any other car. The warranty just ran up a few months ago. It is VERY expensive to fix but to my surprise it hasn't broken down very often (in fact Rick's Subaru has broken down more than the LR) It is also a gas hog. It takes premium gas and gets about 15 miles to the gallon and when pulling a boat about 10. That's brutal especially when the gas prices where up to almost 5 bucks a few summers ago. It was costing me $100 to fill up the tank. Luckily, the gas prices are a little better now. I think it would be fun to keep this car for Athen when he turns 16. I am sure a 16 year old boy would love an old LR. I know I wished my parents had saved some of their old cars for me. My mom drove around in a mustang and my dad had a porche. If only...I have a feeling it isn't going to last for Athen, the poor boy.

What car do I see in my future? I see one for sure but other than that I don't know. I for sure see a red 1967 912 Porche. It is a classic. Porche's are my very favorite cars. I have been close to buying one years ago when I was single but I think the only one I see in my future is the 912 that will be passed down to me. They only made them for a few years before they introduced the 911s. Other than that, I don't know. I am a truck and SUV girl but maybe someday I will be a mini van owner again. I'm not against it but I'm not really excited either. As for cars, maybe Rick will drive around in a car.

I do still love vehicles!

I warned you in the heading of this post that I would be rambling.