Ode to a Minivan

Well, we got the news, and our dear sweet Accord was totaled in the "slide off" from last week. When I first got the call from our insurance adjuster, I must admit that I was a little bit sad, for two reasons.

First, that car (the beater that it was) was a great car. It has been good to us and I will miss it, giant dent on the side and all.

Second, I was a tiny bit sad because I realized that now I am going to be a minivan mom! Women I made fun of for so many of my single years! And now I'm one of them!

This self-pity didn't last long, though. Because I came to this conclusion-- I am proud to be a mother, and I am proud to drive a minivan! I can't wait for our family of 3 to turn into a family of 4. This van that we are going to buy is going to make it so much easier to tow two kids around. And it's got some rockin' features, like keyless entry (hooray!), tinted windows, and trunk space for whatever size double stroller I choose! Best of all, it fits into our budget, which is a must.

So yes, as of Tuesday I will be a minivan momma, and I can't wait.

Here is a picture of the kind of van we are going to get.

From My View

Hello Everyone, I just wanted to give another perspective on the incident with the car the other night. Looking back it was a bad idea to go out. Although it was not snowing at the time we forgot to take into account that nothing ever melts here in Iowa. Anyways, as we were driving to our destination the cars in front of us hit the brakes pretty hard allowing others to merge on to the freeway. There was ample room between us and the car in front, but as I gently applied the brake I lost command of the ship. I let off the brake and tried to slide back into our lane, we almost got control, but then a couple of over corrections later we pirouetted (Sara describes it as spinning out of control) into the curb and up the side of the embankment then back down. After the initial scare and making sure everybody was alright, I thought "press on" and I tried to get back onto the freeway and to the restaurant, but the Honda had other ideas. I did not inspect the car fully, I thought some other poor soul could lose control as we did and slam right into me, but I did take a quick look and saw the back left tire at about a 45 degree angle. We decided to call for help. They couldn't tow that night because of the weather conditions. The police officer told us to wait until the tow ban was over and then call for a tow. We waited out the tow ban, picking up a rental in the mean time, and drove out to our car to see the damages and make sure it was still there. Of course it wasn't. The DOT had it towed so they could plow. We called about 6 different police stations until we found the car. Sara went and tried to strong arm the impound company, but no luck. We eventually worked things out and the car was towed to the body shop. It is currently awaiting inspection by the insurance adjuster. We went to check it out today. It already had some hefty body damage from a little hit and run by a school bus (that is for another post), and the new damage looks fairly severe as well. We will see what they say. Anyways I will post a little video to show you all the damage. Hope I helped to clear things up. We are so glad everyone is OK because if the circumstances were a little different the situation could have been pretty bad. Ryan

My New Favorite Recipe

I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about the bread recipe I mentioned in my previous post. Well, here it is, and it is the easiest bread recipe I have ever used. I have never been good at making bread but since I became a S.A.H.M. I have tried my best to improve. This recipe makes it easy.

Amish White Bread

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

* 1/3 cup white sugar

* 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

* 1/4 cup vegetable oil

* 6 cups bread flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth (I use a Kitchenaid mixer and let it knead the dough for me for about 10 minutes). Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, which is a fabulous website for thousands of different recipes. I adjusted the ingredients a little bit so the bread wasn't so sweet. Here's the original if you want to check it out.

By the way, we are still waiting to find out the damage to our little red car. Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and showed their concern. We have such great family and friends!

A Little More than a Fender Bender

I have to preface this post with saying that, just like my sister, I had plans to post a new bread recipe that I love (great minds think alike, right Allie?). That will have to wait because I have more pressing news to blog about this morning.

Last night we were in a little car accident. Can you call it a car accident if no other cars are involved? If not, we were in a freeway lamp post accident (Moms, no one was hurt, and we were all wearing our seat belts). First of all, we never should have been out on the roads last night. It was way too slippery, we just didn't figure that out until it was a little to late.

Here's a little recap of what happened. We decided to go get some dinner to celebrate Ryan's day off of school (he had been hulled up in our room studying most of the day. Soon after we got on the freeway, a bunch of cars in front of us all started slamming on their breaks. We did the same thing and immediately spun out of control, across all three lanes of traffic, doing a complete 360 degree turn until we hit the snow bank and then the lamp post. I, of course, was screaming my guts out as everything happened in super-slow motion. Luckily, thanks to the snowbank, by the time we hit the lamp post we weren't going very fast. Everyone was fine, including Isaac and baby #2. Our car is a different story. She didn't make it out unharmed. We are currently waiting to hear about the damages (luckily we have full coverage). I must admit that part of me (a very small part) is secretly hoping she is totaled so I can get that minivan I've been dreaming about (I know,I never thought those words would come out of my mouth, but two kids and a student budget did it for me).

We feel so blessed and lucky that no one was hurt. There is no logical explanation as to why we didn't hit 5 or 6 other cars in that accident. It was the end of the day; traffic was heavy. It could have been a lot worse. It probably should have been a lot worse. Luckily we have some great friends out here, and two of them came and picked us up and brought us home.

There is some good news. Our nephew, Carson, is doing a geography project in his 1st grade class. Part of his assignment was to mail a picture of himself to someone and have them take pictures of different landmarks and experiences throughout the day. He chose to send his picture to us...in Iowa. I didn't think there was anything exciting to document in Iowa at the end of January. Looks like I was wrong. Now Carson can tell his class he was in a lamp post accident in the Midwest amidst subzero temperatures. What could be more exciting than that?

Not Unless I Have to

In the past few months I have had three different friends tell me three different childbirth experiences that all freaked me out. "Why," you might ask? I will tell you why. All three planned on getting an epidural and all three had to go natural--they HAD to because their babies decided to come into this world super-fast and drugs just weren't an option. I talked to a friend today who had her baby yesterday--just 7 minutes after she arrived at the hospital. 7 MINUTES! I prefer the 29 hours that Isaac took to grace us with his presence.

Because of these disturbing stories I have decided that I need to educate myself a little bit. I am in no way implying that I WANT to have a baby without drugs, or that I plan to have a baby without drugs(a standing ovation for all you women out there who have done it, by the way), but I figure I better be as prepared as possible in case baby #2 has an agenda of her own.

I've heard good things about this book: Any other suggestions?