Hello, Walter!

We considered Achmed after AJ reminded us of another favorite Dunham puppet, but we thought our new car looked more like a Walter.
The night before we bought it, we put our old car on Craigslist where someone here in Quincy (who practically lives down the street) bought it for $800. So the next day we borrowed a friend's car and went to Moses Lake to look at the Durango (also found on Craigslist), which was being offered for $4000; but after driving it and realizing we'd have to buy new tires and get some front-end work done, Tim looked the owner sternly in the face and asked how low he'd be willing to sell the car. So we bought it for $3200 and then took it to Les Schwab and spent another $1100 on tires and repairs.

We're now equipped to handle any future white winters!

Goodbye, Peanut

Poor Peanut!

Yes, we named our car after one of Jeff Dunham's puppets...

We knew its time was almost up, so we started car-shopping a few weeks ago with the intent of buying a new one as soon as we got our tax refund (which should be sometime this week, before the 31st). We just didn't know its end would fall on last night! We even skipped a trip to Costco in Wenatchee in hopes of saving up its juice for a day of car shopping, but clearly, not even that had helped.

Spacious, decent-looking and smelled like a car should, it did its job well for the price we paid for it (approx $1800).

So, what now? Tim will have to carpool with someone else to and from work for the rest of the week, just like he did last night after trying to start the car and coming to the conclusion that it wasn't going to start for us ever again. We'll probably call the bishop to ask if anyone has a car they'd be willing to let us borrow on Friday so we could drive to the bank, withdraw cash for a new car and come home with another vehicle.

Perhaps we can call the next one...Walter. Jalapeno on a Stick?

5-months-old!

She used to grab those little toys on her chair with her feet and then bring them to her hands, but now she sits up in her chair and yanks them off of their velcro straps. She's gotten a lot better at turning over, and can do it rather quickly, but she's still working on getting her arm out from under her. She scoots around now, too, so that if I lay her down in the middle of a blanket, I might come back to find her underneath the coffee table. Here are a few recent pic-ee-doos:

She's also teething, so she's been making a bunch of funny faces :P

Playing with her Lola

This was taken just a few days before Christmas, I think on the day we arrived in Kent. Finally, grandma and granddaughter get some quality time together!