And the winner is...

We have been car shopping online and at dealers for the past 4 days. Since I'm going to work more at Chem-Dry, our schedules are completely opposite and we NEED 2 cars. It's unfortunate because we've been able to get by with 1 for so long. I don't want our insurance to go up, I don't want a car payment, but I want something reliable that wont break...so it's been tough.

We've been deciding between:




A White Toyota Corolla





A Red Toyota Tacoma




...and a Black Mazda 3



It was fun test driving cars and being sweet talked by all the car salesman. They ALMOST talked me into a few... but Chris is more level-headed and also less gullible. After the end of our car shopping he said, "Did you notice how EVERY car we were looking at was previously owned by a single, elderly person that took really good care of it"... haha no, I actually just believed them all. And perhaps they weren't lying... but still, I'm glad I have Chris there so I don't fall for everything people say, because I probably would.

So we weighed the pros and cons of each car. Did A TON of research online and read reviews and then we had an epiphany. When I was adding the numbers up and looking at the different prices of each car, I thought- "Oh, when you're buying a car-what's a couple thousand more for leather seats, a USB plug and alloy wheels." And then I realized what that couple thousand could buy, better yet- I realized what $10,000 could buy... A LOT! We could go on like TEN really nice vacations, or put that money towards a house, or pay for a small fraction of medical school haha... my mind was overflowing with all the ways I could spend 10 grand.

So we came up with Plan B. While we weighed our options...Corolla, Mazda, Tacoma... and then on Saturday afternoon we came home with this...
A blue Cobra 150. Now for those of you who know us, we've had a scooter since we got married. It was our first big purchase together. But it was only a 50cc and it was starting to slowly deteriorate and needed some money put into it. So we compromised and instead of buying a new(ish) car, we traded in our old scooter and got a new one. I didn't anticipate it being hard to give up, but it was. As we drove away, Chris got really sad. He missed our old scooter and we talked about how it was our first big purchase we made together. It served us well and we loved it...but it was time for an upgrade.
The new one is LOTS faster and hopefully we will be able to make it up the big hill by our house at faster than 10 miles per hour. haha- when people were late for school, they HATED being behind us. But then some people just laughed. Anyways, Christopher is planning on riding this scooter all through the winter! He is very brave... and we'll see how it does with the snow, but luckily his work and school are only a few miles away so if he bundles up tight, he should be ok. I sure think he's tough though!! But for right now, Logan is still rather warm. It was 85 degrees and sunny today- I love it. Plus when we move somewhere for med. school- most likely Texas or North Carolina, then our scooter will still be put to good use in the warm weather :)

Even though we just spent money, I feel like we saved money and it feels really good. I think we made the right choice. It was fun thinking about driving a nice car... but I'm just glad we still have 1 car that's reliable and has no car payment. I think we're pretty lucky. And nothing beats the wind blowing through my hair on a brand new scooter!