howard: "dong, where is my automobile?"

long duk dong: [laughs] "Oto-mo-biiile?"

ah ha ha ha! i love sixteen candles! whoo... good times.

anyway... ok, as some of you know dave got a new job a few months ago and about a month ago he finally got his company car. very exciting. it's a great perk that we are soooo grateful for! well we've been trying to figure out what to do with dave's car since we don't particularly need three cars now. the problem was we had more left on his loan than the car was worth. a lot more actually since he put so many miles on it driving it for his last job.

so we prayed about it, we did a ton of research, we prayed some more and we finally landed on a solution. we decided to trade in both of our cars for one new (used) one for me. then the question became which oto-mo-biiile to choose. originally i was thinking with the price of gas that i'd like to try to get something that was more fuel efficient. well apparently i'm not the only one who's had that idea lately, so the market for more fuel efficient cars is making them more expensive because everyone wants them. now the flip side, we learned, is that less fuel efficient cars are going for a steal because everyone's trying to get rid of theirs. so we did some math and learned that we could save some money on the price of a mid-size suv up front and just end up paying more for gas over time. not ideal, but i think it's gonna work for us, especially since i don't really do that much driving.

the other down size about more fuel efficient vehicles is that you make a trade off for space. i test drove both an '07 and a used '08 ford escape and i liked them, but i wasn't sure they would be big enough for our family for a good 5 to 7 years. plus as i look to expand my photography business i wanted to make sure i'd have room to haul equipment if i needed to (backdrops, lighting, etc can get kinda bulky). plus who knows, in a couple years we might need to fit a double stroller back there (no, i'm not hinting at anything!) so we thought it would be wise to find a vehicle that we wouldn't outgrow in three years and then have to lose money on the deal again by having to be upside-down on a loan again.

so after doing some more research (and praying some more) and really trying to look for a vehicle that i'd feel comfortable in and would last us for a good long while, we landed on the ford explorer. we'd been working with an awesome lady named dee at covert ford in austin and she got us a great deal on this smokey '06.

i'm really happy with it and because of how the deal went down (we prayed for open or closed doors and got open doors, we had a specific budget in mind that we stuck with and the dealer ended up giving us more for our trade-ins than we thought we could get for them... $2,500 more than carmax offered us actually) i feel really good about this vehicle. dave and i both feel like God was in this decision with us and we both have peace about it.

so i share my news of my new used car not to brag about it, but really for two reasons. one) to thank God for his guidance. we prayed that God would help us make a wise decision with our money and we believe He has. and two) we've had a few friends and family back in illinois ask us to send pictures, so here you go... they're actually the pics from the online listing.

tan interior

and i can fit lots of junk in my trunk! woot!