Goodbye Shadow!

Last week was a terrible week for us as far as mechanical things went! On Tuesday, I started the dishwasher and it didn't do anything! It has been really loud for a while now. I guess we now know why! So, we had to buy a new dishwasher. The bad thing was that I had planned to go out that same day to get a Wii so I could get WiiFitPlus to lose a little more weight before having surgery in December. Needless to say, I didn't get my Wii! We did some research and couldn't find anything that would last a long time without spending a LOT of money. We went with a Bosch by the recommendation of the repair guy. We went to look at dishwashers on Tuesday and ordered it on Wednesday. Then Thursday when I was picking up Jesstine after I worked, I got a call from Stephen saying that his car wouldn't start. So, Jesstine and I went to pick him up. It was really cold the next day, so we decided to let it sit for a day and see if it would start when it warmed up on Saturday. No luck. We left it over the weekend and Stephen tried to start it again on Monday. Still no luck, so he had it towed. Just after lunch, he phoned to tell me that it was bad news. It turns out the fuel pump was going out. We then started our car search. We had talked about it all weekend and decided that we would either get a cheep car for him to take to work, a nicer car that would last him a while to take him to work but would double as a family car if needed, or just go all out and get a bigger family car that I would drive and he would drive my current car. After doing research and discussing it, we decided upon the third option. The search began. On Tuesday we stopped by CarMax and checked out a few possibilities narrowing it down to two. We had also seen a used minivan at another dealership with very little miles. We decided to go and check that out as well. We LOVED it! We decided to go talk to our bank to get some financing. After doing so, we went on Thursday to haggle. They wouldn't budge past $450 on the van! We walked out to look at the other two options at CarMax. We started walking toward the one we had in mind to test drive and beside it was a similar van that had just come in. We decided to look at it first because we liked the color better! Little did we know, we had hit the jackpot! It turned out to be what we were looking for and more! Just to make sure, we test drove it and the other car we had in mind (which was identical to the car we tried to haggle on at the other dealership). So, we came home with this:

Already has the Cowboys tag and a WSU decal!

It is a Chrysler Town and Country Touring Special Edition. It has a dark blue exterior color and a gray interior. The seats are all leather with the front seats being electric and heated. It has a DVD player with a 6 disc changer. It has power sliding doors and tailgate. It essentially has all of the bells and whistles. We were willing to give up all of the bells and whistles on our first choice if the price were right. For the same price we were willing to pay for that one, we got this one WITH the bells and whistles! We unfortunately have already had our first mishap. Just bad luck I guess. On the way home from the dealership, it was hit by a large rock and the windshield was damaged.

Stephen's car, affectionately named Shadow, was able to give us one last little benefit though. CarMax was able to give us $500 to trade Shadow in.

This post is dedicated to the memory of a car that had a good long life! Stephen will miss you Shadow! Welcome to the family Blue!

In Him,

Lacie, Stephen, and Jesstine

P.S. If you are ever in need of a used car, check out CarMax! We had great service there! They are honest, efficient and easy to work with! It was a very smooth car buying experience. They even take care of the registration for you!!!! If you live in Wichita, Neal is a good salesman to work with! He is also a childhood friend. It isn't very often that you can walk into a dealership and hug your car salesman! It isn't very often that I don't have to spell my name out for someone! I still think it would have been a pleasant experience with out knowing him. Check out CarMax!