And Then There Were Two

My day-to-day life has changed.

We bought a second car!

Dan and I have been sharing one car for 8 months now -- 7 months longer than anticipated! With all the expenses that come with moving and buying and furnishing a new house, we kept saying, "Ok, maybe just one more month . . . maybe two more . . . " and then I was saying, "By Christmas FOR SURE, I need another car. I'm getting cabin-fever!" But there were just too many other things costing money and besides, Dan and I had a decent system worked out:

Twice a week, all three of us hurried and dressed ourselves for the day, chugging sloppily-made smoothies in the car (or To-Go snacks/bottles for Aiyana). After driving 20-25 minutes to drop Dan off at work, I'd drive another 20 back home and squeeze in one quick errand, whether it be Wal-mart for groceries or my frequent visits to peruse Kohls (one of the few stores open as early as 8 am). After Aiyana's morning nap, we'd eat an early lunch and take off for more errands or perhaps a quick stop at the gym. Then home for her afternoon nap, after which we might have a little time to play together before packing up and driving through the dreaded rush-hour to pick up Dan -- just in time to turn around and head back through traffic.

Yeah . . . as much as I'm proud of myself for making our situation work as long as we could, I'm so glad I can space out my errands throughout the week now. Life is more balanced! I think I'll (kind of)miss all the walking I did though. On "no-car days", Baby Girl and I would load her into our huge stroller and walk the 7 minutes to Albertsons, or 20 minutes to Target, 10 minutes to the park for play-group . . . anything within a mile-radius was fair game! I probably wouldn't have gotten to know my neighborhood so well with a car.

 Anyway, we ended up buying another Hyundai Sonata. It's not that we love duplicating our cars (we last had two Taurus' if you remember), but Dan came across an affordable deal that we couldn't refuse, and he broke his cardinal rule of never buying a brand new car off the lot. Now it rests in our garage where I take it out at least once every day almost.

As for Dan, despite missing me driving him to work (that was going to be sarcastic but we do actually miss spending that time together), work itself has drastically improved. The first couple weeks after switching mentors were still a little rocky as he made the transition. However, somehow everything is just coming back together for him. He's excited about the work he gets to do and respects his new boss, and appreciates being treated with respect, also. Oddly enough, his old boss treats him better now, too, and she still asks him to do bankruptcy work for her on occasion. Dan is baffled, but he's happy knowing he hasn't burned any bridges.

And Aiyana: my little baby is almost not a baby anymore! 11 month post coming up in a week!