His and Hers

A month and a half ago both of our cars drowned in the Great Flood of 2013...not to be confused with the great flood of '09 or '11.

We never lost our cars before. Water was at least a foot higher this time. We found out the hard way that only my car (damn cute little Audi A4 Convertable- RIP) had rental car coverage.

Whatever...we played pioneer once again and shared 1 car. I drove Tim to the Metra in the am and picked him up from the choo choo after work.

About 10 days after State Farm towed my car away, they declared it totaled and gave me a quote . You then get 7 days more on the rental car once you are quoted..thats bullshit!

We kept the rental and Tim started to work his magic

My Tim has an incredible gift when it comes to fixing and knowing how things work...this also applies to the auto industry.

Tim found our recently deceased cars online. He knows every cars worth. He spends 1-3 months searching everywhere for an old car that looks and runs like new for rediculously low prices. That allows us to have great cars wothout payments

He could not find my same Audi, but did find me a  beautiful BMW 330 CI Convertible for less than what SF gave me for my Audi. Holy smokes my car is fast! Not that I need that in a car, but I spend most of my week driving on the highway. With the convertible I don't feel like I live in traffic...Pop in a CD, but down the top and soak up the sun.

Tim wanted the same car that he had, now he got that for a steal so we knew we'd have to pay up. Insurance gave him $1900 more than what he paid for his other car.

After a solid month of searching day in and day out he found the beauty above in Milwaukee...it came from Texas, so no snow or salt.

He took the Amtrak from downtown to WI and drove her home.

We both have new BMW's...a fine automobile and we again have ZERO payments!

We did have to go check out some cars and didn't get them for whatever reason...My worst nightmare I might add. Tim can look and test drive a car and know whats wrong....people can be shady.

It helps that Tim can do the majority of maintenance on the cars himself...saves us a ton of money
Both our new cars are 2001's

We are recovering from the flood. The lower level is cleaned. We are leaving the laundry room gutted, may slap paneling up, but no insulation or drywal/cemant board. The bottom 4 feet of the family room is gutted, Tim will slap up paneling (bottom have of room only)...cheep and easy to pull off and toss next time we flood.  The air, hot water heater, and washer came back on. We bought a new dryer and are dragging our heals on having someone come out to quote the furnace (I think just the computer panel needs to be replaced)

This time we didn't lose as many personal items, because we brought a lot of stuff up prior to the rain

Not a bad way to earn your driving hours (I just hopped out to take picture) TJ will get his licence in November

My little Mechanic

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He who rebuilds the engine and gets it running should be able to drive the car. I'm going to be honest, it's a little unsettling to see you child underneath a car even if it just to replace a fuel filter

Cal taking her for a spin...not only can he drive, but this is a stick shift car. He goes down the block  turns around, comes back down and pulls into a neighbors driveway and makes a 3 point turn without killing the engine

My new bauble

I got a new car!!!
I GOT A NEW CAR!!!
We finally had to send Bessie aka "the Clampett mobile" to the farm.

HOW FREAKING CUTE IS SHE?

My new ride has turbo and one button to activate the power convertible top.

No more pulling over on 294, 3 or 4 times to restart the van because the transmission would get stuck in a low gear. It went from 0-45pmh in 3 min...no more right lane for me. Will my IDOT men miss me? Just think i'll never have to bang the key with my ipass box in order to turn the key to start the engine again
I can throw away my laminated cheat sheet for parking attendants....maybe that's why they always directed to me to my car instead of bringing it to me 

No more keeping bottles of steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid, antifreeze and oil in the back of the van at all times. Everything leaked, snow melted right away on the black stain.
 I suppose now we can redo the driveway

black stain from Bessie

My little sand gnat

My little Karrick is now up to 45lbs 18% in weight and 48% in height so we are closing the gap. His cheek bones don't stick out and he has a tiny...and I mean tiny layer of chub that only I can notice

The Junior AA (7 yo) Sand Gnats finally began their game season. They are pretty darn cute and the coaches are pretty good. They take an honest interest in teaching the kids baseball.

Something about the look on Karricks face makes me smile

Love this, we had a man on 2nd and 3rd base. 3rd runs toward home but catcher and pitcher are ready to tag him so he's dodging back and forth, meanwhile 2nd base is now also heading towards home and he joins in on the dodge.

Some how both boys safety tag home plate...It's possible they may have run out of the baseline, but in AA the score is not kept....oh but the kids keep score in their heads

New car

 Last Friday Tim's car died...I mean died, no fixing it dead. We have had one of those weeks where we go from one place to another everyday from sun up to sun down, with 1 car. Tim found our new (used) 740 BMW for a steal! I drove him to pick it up, we plopped down cash and drove away. A perfect end to a long, busy and somewhat frustrating week

WE OWN A BMW !!!!!!

Daylight