My addiction

I've run into my first dilemma with having Hubs gone on his 6 week stay.  It happened last night after we got home from taking daughter to the doctor for a med check.  I walked over to the fridge, opened it up and.....

An empty box of Pepsi greeted me.

If you know me, you know I have this slight addiction with soda pop.  Specifically,  Pepsi although Coke will do if Pepsi is not a choice.  I love the stuff.  I specifically love it in a glass with a lot of ice or, even better, from the fountain machine at the local BP.  Mmmmm, yum.  Anyway, I thought I had one more can in there, but I didn't and all of a sudden i NEEDED a Pepsi.

Usually if Hubs were home I could convince him to run to the corner store and get a fountain pop for me. But, he isn't here and I was stuck considering what to do.  Back when we just had our daughter and Hubs was deployed at the time or stuck in Germany, it wasn't unusual for me to bundle up my infant and make a dash to the nearest Steak-N-Shake for a vanilla Pepsi.    She was up anyway, and she'd usually fall asleep in the carseat in the car on the way there and back.  It was a win-win for both of us.  Sleepy baby and a pop for mommy.

Nowadays, it's a little more effort to do that.  Now I have a six year old and a baby to haul off in the night.  Even if the baby's awake, the girl is not and there's no way I'd wake her up to haul her off to get myself a drink.  Even if I think about it before she's asleep I usually try not to take them out at night.  Plus, even if I do, she somehow thinks that if mommy gets a pop she gets something too.  Then of course there's the screaming and crying and the demands of "no fair" if she doesn't get one.

Anyway, I'm without pop this morning.  I woke up with a headache and I know it's from the lack of caffeine in my system.  I know I should be concerned, that I'm addicted and I should wean myself away from it but really.....I don't want to.  I have two Pepsi's a day.  One in the morning to get me going and another after the kiddos are asleep in bed while I'm sitting there watching TV.  I'm already planning my trip to go get one.  I really want to go run to the grocery store and get a case of it, but today it's freaking cold outside and I really don't want to have to haul the kids out in the cold.  So that leaves driving through somewhere, which will solve my immediate problem but leave me with another come tonight or tomorrow morning when I'm without again.

Sad, I know.....but we all have our vices and Pepsi is mine!

My new baby

When I graduated college I bought my first car.  It was a Ford Escape, red, with a moonroof and a 6 change CD player.  Maybe it was the fact that my hard earned money went into the purchase of the car, maybe it was the snazzy red color, the zippiness of it, the cute factor.....Whatever it was....I was in love with that car.  Well, a few years later we PCS'd to Ft Carson, Colorado.  My husband loves to car shop (what man doesn't I guess) and at the time, he was really heavy into Jeeps.  He had a Wrangler and hated Fords.  He took me to a dealer to "browse" and asked if I wanted a new car.

Do I want a new car?????  Well sure, honey bunny.  It was foreign to me to just wake up one day and decide to make a major purchase like that.  My dad is the king of Consumer Reports and in our household growing up, a purchase like that would take weeks, if not months, of researching.  So when my hubby asked me if I wanted one, the answer was yes.  That day I drove home a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

I never really liked it.  Once the newness wore off, I regretted trading in my beloved Escape.  The Cherokee had no moonroof, a single CD player, and cloth seats.  But, it was a hearty vehicle.  Trust me, that thing was driven cross country, been in accidents, dinged, etc and it just kept going.  However, I worked hard to pay it off early and I just figured I would drive it until it died.  However, it is up in miles.  and it is not fun to drive.....it's practical.

My husband goes through cars like some people go through changes in underwear.  In the 8 years we've been together he's gone through...I think 5-6 cars.  I've gone through 2.    It's kind of annoying how he trades in cars at the drop of a hat.  His latest toy is a Challenger and I told him he is not getting another car for a LONG TIME.  I hate the Challenger.  It's not family friendly.  Case in point, we all drove in it yesterday for the first time and putting the kids in the back seats was a pain.

My car is the designated family car.  Lately I'd been thinking about getting a minivan.  It suited my practicalness with the amount of seats and I'd been looking at Town and Country with the leather seats and the dvd screens in the back.  But there's just something about driving a minivan.  My mom still drives a minivan.  I'm not a soccer mom yet.  Part of me said to get a sedan because they get better gas mileage.

This week we randomly decided to drive through some lots.  We looked at the Town and Country but before we did....we stopped at Volkswagen to look at the Passats.  While there I saw it.  She was beautiful and I loved it.

2012 Volkswagon Tiguan

I love her so much.  I sat in it and said this is it.  I love the sporty feel of it and it's quite zippy.  There's actually a lot of head room in it and man oh man, I love the panoramic moonroof that goes all the way back.  It has (gasp) heated seats.  Man oh man, i'm in heaven.   The only thing lacking is the cargo room in the trunk.  But, with my Jeep Cherokee, the trunk just became a place to put more crap so this is a way to monitor my habit of stashing crap in the trunk instead of taking it into the house. 

So there ya go, my new baby.  I'm not so happy with having a car payment again, but this fits me way better than the Jeep Cherokee ever did.