My New Car Gets Its Own Post (But Shares It With Conner)

*Now with 3 less typos!

Michael is the King of Hair Brain ideas - like "hey, let's move to Montgomery, two hours away from our family, and then have another baby!". Sometimes, his ideas are just plain silly, other times they are absolutely bonkers and don't work out, and then there are the times his ideas only seem nutty...

A few months back, he attempted to trade my 2007 Equinox for a newer model in efforts to help GM/Chevrolet get another "American made"** car off their lot and to refinance and get a lower monthly payment for us. It almost worked... but the few extra steps it would take from the dealership to seal the deal just weren't happening - it seemed they simply weren't motivated enough to make the sale.

Then, last week, Michael received a promo from our GM card saying that instead of using our normal point value (1 point = $1) with a max of 2,000, we could use ALL of them towards any '08 or '09 vehicle on their list. On the list was my Equinox. 

We read and re-read the fine print. Absolutely NOTHING on there could technically hold us back.

When we did the math, our trade-in value plus our $5,000 in GM points was greater than the amount a new Equinox would cost minus what we owed on our current vehicle - to sum all that up for those who just saw Mandarin - we could theoretically walk away with a new car, for less monthly payments and the same amount of debt (and possibly less).

And... in short... it worked.

We traded in my white '07 Equinox, cashed in all of our GM points (thank God, I think Michael checks those things 5 times a day...) and walked away with an '09 Equinox and about $100 bucks off our monthly payments.

Sweet, right?

Totally.

My "newest" (giggle) car has Satellite Radio, which I am in love with. It also has a darker interior so... YAY! Stains less visible! OnStar is nice, seeing as Mike had it and I didn't till now... booooo... And the biggest plus aside from, well, the whole thing: NEW CAR SMELL AND NO CHOCOLATE MILK STAINS!

Score.

I know you guys are probably wanting more than just me rambling on about my new car, but this is all I have since I've been up & down (mostly up, praying and administering drugs...) ALL night with Conner who had a delirious fever. 

Apparently, he caught Chase's extra-mean strand of Strep. Around 7 last night, he started running a 103ish fever and by 7:30 he went around the house turning off all the lights. Poor baby had a light-sensitive headache (oops, sorry kid... you get it from ya momma).

I dosed him with Tylenol and Ibuprofen ALL NIGHT (every 2.5 hours, actually) and he STILL ran a 102-103 fever till 6 this morning. It was absolutely absurd. The weirdest thing was that when he did nod off for a half hour or so, he'd ramble out loud in his sleep. 

He'd yell out random things like "I want you to MOVE THAT CAR!"

or 

"I have not seen any puppy dogs!"

Even funnier?

...In Michael's sleep, he'd respond! I felt like I was witnessing a hypnotic therapy session or The Freak Circus or one of those late night comedy shows that never make any sense....

So. Yes. Tired.

Blog. Later.

**A long time "marital discussion" is my love for Honda, but how Michael refuses to buy "only American", especially for large purchases (i.e. - cars). 

My argument has been that there are multiple Honda plants in the U.S. that make cars using parts made here and employ Americans. 

Michael's argument is that GM is based in America, and therefore they HAD to be mostly made here, right? HA! He's WRONG. 

While at the Chevrolet dealership, I noticed that they changed the stickers on the cars to present what percentage of the vehicle was made in America using Americans for labor and what percentage of American-made parts were used.

My car had the highest, at 50% American labor and something around 25% in parts. It had the highest in both categories. The first car I looked at? 1% American made, American parts!! PATHETIC!

I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!