Sunday, December 28, 2008

Our Christmas List

Christmas is only 2/3 of the way finished for us because we'll be going to Steve's mom's house on New Year's Eve. We've had a wonderful holiday thus far, though. It kicked off more than a week ago when we hit the road the night before a huge snowstorm hit Milwaukee. Whew! Then Steve and I joined Vicki and Jeff in Vegas for a few days before flying back to Oklahoma for Christmas.

Here are some of the highlights of our adventures, in my traditional list style.

* Jack might not remember what Santa brought him for Christmas this year, but Santa did leave him a note. In it, he told Jack that he kissed his toes while he was sleeping. Now, Jack has been playing "pretend Santa" with Anna, and he always makes her kiss his toes when she's being Santa.
* Anna fell in love with my Grandma, and it was the cutest thing in the world. Today I even asked her to name all of her grandmas, and she only named Grandma Bingham. "I can't think of the rest," she said. (Sorry other Grandmas. Don't take it personal, though.)
* My dad fired up their hot tub while we were there, and the kids LOVED going out there...sometimes even three times a day!
* We had great weather in Oklahoma. Jack even said, "It can't be Christmas. Where's the snow?"
* While I spent lots of money in Vegas with shopping, Steve was more productive and actually made a little with his gambling. Wooohooo!
* The built-in DVD player in our new van totally rocks.
* My brother, Steve, won money in Vegas, too. I'm super proud of him. My other brother....well, let's just say he didn't win.
* Jack and Anna had a blast playing with their cousin, Lockin. The three of those kids are crazy.

That's the highlights for now. We had a really great trip overall.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Car Salesmen Make Me Cringe

We're in the market to update our van these days. We travel such long distance throughout the year that we try to watch our overall mileage, which is getting up there. And we just want some cool new features like a built-in DVD (no cords!), windows that roll down in the second row and a power back door.

We happen to have great timing because the economy is down, so dealerships are cutting pretty good deals. And my parents are going to buy our current van. We're driving down there in a couple of weeks, so then we could just drive it to them!

Anyway, back to the point of my whole post. Car salesmen nauseate me. Here are my top 5 car salesmen annoyances...

1. They make lame jokes, and then you laugh just to be kind. Ugh.
2. They don't take me serious. Apparently, I have to have a man with me to buy a car because they will actually ask me when I want to come back with my husband. (They don't even know I'm married. One guy said something like that over the phone!)
3. They make stuff up on the fly. ("This car had new tires put on recently. Oh year, they are good as new.")
4. They want to talk too much and show you everything. (Like the folding rear seat is something miraculous that will make you buy it on the spot.)
5. They really aren't that thorough and ignore your questions. (I will ask very simple questions via e-mail and they glaze over them and just try to get me in the door.)

So what is it about car salesmen? How can they all share this annoying traints? And why aren't there more women?

I found this one van I really like but really don't like the salesman. We'll see how my search goes. If I can get through the salesmen, then we should be driving in a much cooler van in a couple of weeks. After all, if you drive a van, shouldn't it be much cooler?