Trip to Ohio with the girls

After selling our car, I hopped into the car immediately and started a girls vacation in Ohio.  Nick wasn't invited, because it would have eaten up almost all of his vacation time and it was mostly a trip for people to see our growing girls.  Before we know it, Avery will be walking and Bailey will start looking like a teenager.

We drove to Medina, Ohio and got a hotel room around 10:30pm.  I was done driving and I THOUGHT the girls were tired too.  Avery was a punk and kept me awake most of the night.  I attempted to have the baby sleep in the middle of a King sized bed between Bailey and I but she wanted to roll and giggle and hop and buzz all night long.  She was a happy little monster.

We made it to Cincinnati at lunch time the next day.  The girls swam a lot and it was pretty hot and humid the whole time.  I did a fun run with my friends Pattie and Christina where you get all dirty. 

After a few days in Cincinnati, we headed to Toledo.  In Toledo, we visited lots of friends the first day or so and Avery got a moderate fever (101ish) that prevented us from getting together with my pregnant and newborn friends.  :(  My father and I reminded ourselves that TEETHING DOES NOT CAUSE FEVERS.  However, Avery's next SIX teeth decided to come roaring through her gums at the same time.  Hmmmm. 

We stopped at a Geocaching event in Wauseon and got together with the Hernandez and Gutierrez kids. Avery had a "corrected" family birthday party in celebration of her due date when she officially turns one year old. 

It was a good 10.5 days and I'm glad we got a chance to take an extra long trip.

Here are some pictures.  (Click on the photo below to view the online album)

Ohio Trip July 2012

Awwww!

I had Bailey and Avery dress alike.  This is NOT something Bailey thinks is cute, adorable, sweet or acceptable in any way.  I had to bribe Bailey for a picture.  I was trying to get a good one and it started pouring down rain.  Good Times.

Love this one.  Complete pre-tween agony.

Selling a Car on Craigslist

I am writing this ahead of time before we have actually sold the car.  I will update it as I go.

We've always traded in our old cars getting $100 or $200 for them because we are lazy and usually have to run them Fred Flintstone style into the lot.  Since our most recent financial hiccup, we have been toying with the idea of selling a car.  After much thought and discussion, it came down to the 2004 Pontiac Vibe.  I love this car.  I love the hatchback, roof rack, fold down seats, plastic trunk.  Unfortunately, we can survive without it as long as Nick drives his company car to work.  I'm gonna miss that car but we really need to do something drastic to get back on our feet.  Here is how we sold our first car.

1.  Take it to the mechanic for NY State annual safety inspection.  FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!  Cha ching!!!  Lots of money down the toilet but it needs the sticker to be legal.  This is a bad start.

2.  Take title to DMV to make sure we can just sign it over even though it is an Ohio title.  They said it was okay.  I'm sure this will come back to bite us in the end.  Whenever I check in advance, it always ends up being crap advice.  We'll see. . .

3.  Take it to a different mechanic to have the A/C looked at because it is blowing hot air.  We want to get this fixed as long as the compressor is good.  FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!  Compressor is broken.  Estimates between $998-$1400 to get it fixed depending on if the compressor is rebuilt or new.  Bzzzzzz.  Asking price for the car just dropped $1000.  :(  Can't wait to sell a car with no A/C during the hottest summer in recent memory.

4.  Wash, vacuum and photograph car.  Three years in football mean a LOT of muddy scuff marks all over the interior of the car.  My pictures look bad.  Really bad.  I'm toying with the idea of an interior shampoo. . . The exterior photo looks great!  I ended up scrubbing the interior with a stiff brush and soap and the results were pretty good.

5.  Ask  experienced acquaintance for advice. He is a used car dealer who I am asking just for the specifics of any kind of things I need to know about selling a car in NY state.

6. I posted the car at 10:20am on July 7th.  I have a bill of sale to fill out and the title ready to sign over.  It has been 10 minutes and I haven't sold the car yet.  I posted it for $1000 more than I am expecting to sell it for. I was pretty clear when disclosing the broken A/C so I don't get any people who didn't carefully read my ad.  You can't miss it now.

2004 Pontiac Vibe-$0000
******A/C IS BROKEN. NEEDS A NEW COMPRESSOR************
87,000 miles
2 smoke free owners
Automatic Transmission
AWD
Power Windows, Locks and Cruise Control
Single Disc CD Player- display backlight is partially burned out
Roof Rack
Brakes/Rotors replaced on front July 2012. Rear brakes cleaned and adjusted July 2012
Tires in great shape. Goodyear Triple Tred driven 17,000 miles
New battery July 2012
Exterior is in excellent condition. No rust.
Interior shows normal wear but no rips or major stains.
Passed NY state safety inspection July 2012

******A/C IS BROKEN. NEEDS A NEW COMPRESSOR************

7.  First offer at 10:45am.  It was $1400 below asking price.  I didn't reply right away, but I just took a second look at it and it looks like a spammer due to bad grammar and punctuation.  You never know so I'll ignore it.  

"I would consider making your a cash offer xxxx.xx  let me know
Thanks"

8.  Ten days later I get another offer out of the blue.  I wasn't planning on relisting the car with a lower price until we get back from a trip to Ohio.  I Google the email address and it appears to be a car enthusiast in the Buffalo area.  He/she has a lot of activity on car forums and mentioned his/her zip code in one of the posts.  I reply with a counter offer which is only $200 over what he offered. Crossing my fingers. . . .

9.  Bzzzzzzz!  No dice.  They don't want to pay an extra $200.  I'm willing to accept his first offer.  TRYING not to sound too desperate.  I hate haggling.  I tried.  After waiting all day for a reply, I was sure I blew it.  Then (15 minutes before Bailey's most important baseball game of her short life), I get an email from the "spammer" email asking me to call.  I call the number with my untraceable tracphone (just in case it is a murderer) and the guy wants to meet in just over an hour.  I agree to meet him in a store parking lot near the baseball field.

10.  I cut out of the ball game for 45 minutes so this guy can inspect and test drive the heck out of our car.  He likes it.  He is clearly behind both offers.  Thinking back, he responded within minutes of me posting my ad AND raised his offer 10 days later when I ignored his first email, he must want this car.  Discussing the price was easy.  He wasn't budging from his offer and didn't try to find anything else wrong with the car to bring it down anymore.  I think we are both getting a fair price.

11.  He won't complete the deal just yet because he is hesitant about the Ohio title.  I just knew this was going to be a pain in my butt.  I have to meet with him the next day after he talks with the DMV.  This also is postponing a trip to Ohio for me which sucks.  Nick is going to be out of town and can't be here to help.  Just crossing my fingers that we don't have to have anything notarized.  I had him sign the title before he left town. 


12.  Signing the title was useless because it needs to be notarized.  I ended up driving the kids to Geneseo, NY to meet Nick while he was working to have the title notarized.  That makes 3 hours in the car with the kids already today and we haven't even started driving toward Ohio yet.  If this guy backs out, I may cry.

13.  I met the guy in the evening and we finalized the deal.  The only problem is that the guy couldn't take it.  He asked me to drive him home or if he could bring me back to my house, but I was like NO!  I wanted to hit the road to Ohio and it was already 6pm (12 hours behind schedule!)  I told him to leave it in the driveway and pick it up at his earliest convenience.  We are in Ohio and Nick came back from his trip and the car is gone and we are pleased.

14.  We just have to take the plates back to the DMV, pay the DMV for returning the plates (stupid) and then take the receipt back to our insurance company so they can cancel the car insurance.  This seems like New York State is giving us unnecessary work.

That's how not to sell a car on Craigslist I suppose.

Treasure Hunting continued

Bailey's landmark hunt through the neighborhood went well and Bailey is capable of operating our handheld GPS unit and changing various beeps and boops that even I can't figure out. 

She has satisfied most of her requirements for the Girl Scout badge so far. I'm having her go the extra mile and will be fairly proficient before she earns the badge.

Each cache contains a log book where you sign your name and some of them have trinkets for you to trade.  Some of them have nicer trinkets/coins that you can track online and move from cache to cache.  Here are the types of stuff we've found:

1.  A peanut butter jar covered with duct tape under a log in the woods. 
2.  An ammo box hidden in a rocky ledge along a river.
3.  A small mint container covered in tape on a old house foundation that has historical significance.
4.  Another peanut butter container that was spray painted.  It was in a rock wall in a garden.

This hobby seems pretty high on the scale of zero to extreme nerd, but it is pretty fun.

Despite the Nerd Factor, there are some more good things about this hobby:

1.  We get out into places we have passed countless times but have never stopped. 
2.  Bailey has definitely stepped out of her comfort zone several times. 
3.  We get to spend time together. 
4.  There are geocaches anywhere you can imagine so you can do it when you are traveling. 
5.  This is definitely good for some creative problem solving for Bailey.  We have been working on eliminating her "instant panic" mode when she is having difficulty completing a task.
6.  Girl Scout badge earned.
7. Poison Ivy identification skills.
8.  Deer poop identification skills.
9.  Bailey has been named "worst finder ever" in our house.  This could help.
10.  You get to keep score by logging your found caches online.  Bailey loves competition.

Super long dreadful baby videos

Who wants to watch my kid play in the living room?  Here you go!

Now you can watch my kid play with a wet rag I gave her to play with. She is cutting like 700 teeth right now and highly enjoyed the rag I gave her.

Treasure Hunting

I bought the badge guides for Junior Girl Scouts awhile ago and Bailey was fairly excited about the whole thing.  After seeing some die hard Girl Scouts at a large event this summer, she was pretty pumped about earning some badges on her own this summer.  Our official Girl Scout days this summer are Mondays.  Over the past few weeks, Bailey has earned the Musician Badge. She composed, researched, performed and attended a concert.  She is proud of her work. 

We sat down together to choose a 2nd badge to work on in the next few weeks.  She was picking out ones I thought were dreadful and sounded like a huge chore for both of us.  (Product Designer?? Yuck!)  Sooooo, as her Leader I basically chose the next badge to work on.  I chose Geocacher.  I think it sounds fun, outdoorsy and something her real leader would never choose for her huge 17 girl troop over the winter.

Geocaching is a modern day treasure hunt.  People all over the world hide "caches" and post the Latitude and Longitude coordinates online for other people to find.  Most of the treasure boxes have a paper log inside for you to sign.  You can leave behind trinkets to trade if you want. 

We are not natural treasure hunters. 

Attempt #1:  View coordinates on a computer map and decide that the woods didn't look THAT big.  We can look for a cache without any electronics.  Bailey wore sandals with shorts.  The woods were too thick and we brought a baby on my back.  Bzzzz.  It didn't take us long to give up.

Attempt #2:  Take Nick's iPhone and use the compass/GPS capabilities to find the same treasure from Attempt 1.  It was a hot mess.  Nick's phone wouldn't cooperate.  It got dark REALLY FAST in the woods.

Attempt #3:  This was on the way home from #2.  It was more in the open and it wasn't too dark yet.  We found nothing. 

Attempt #4:  We went back to the site of #3 another day and we find nothing again.  Grrrrrr.  

Purchase handheld GPS unit (not the car kind) online so we can really have some fun!  OH YEAH! This is going to ROCK!

GPS unit arrives a few days later and is a dud.  100% defective.  We take it to the local Eastern Mountain Sports store and they agree it is non functional and we buy a different model.

Bring GPS home and figure out how to use it for a couple days. 

Attempt #5:  Take GPS unit to a 3rd location near our house.  We tear up those woods!  We make every mistake imaginable I'm sure.  We saw deer, rabbits, cardinals and poison ivy.  We wandered back and forth and back and forth trying to make heads or tails of the GPS.  FINALLY it starts telling us we are within 10 or 20 feet of this cache and we find it!  It was a peanut butter jar covered with camouflage duct tape under a pile of sticks.  We signed the log book, sealed it back up and re hid it. Yay!  Mother-Daughter bonding moment!

Now that we have the GPS. . .  we can use the GPS . . . and we've found a cache. . . we have to jump into the badge requirements.  I just walked the neighborhood and noted the coordinates of some neighborhood landmarks/houses for Bailey to find on her own with the GPS.   I chose the school flag pole, home plate at the baseball field, her piano teacher's house, a neighbor friend's house and a random mail box.  Hopefully, Bailey can complete her hunt without completely melting down with frustration.  We'll see. . .

Broccoli

I bought some broccoli at ALDI here in Buffalo. It was from Shelby Ohio. That is where my Dad grew up. Not quite sure if it is worth an entire blog post, but it could end up being the highlight of my day.

Red Sox Update

I figured it was time for a baseball update.  Bailey's team had a 12-3 season.  All 3 of their losses were to the stinking Blue Jays putting them in 2nd place (out of 5 teams) at the end of the regular season.  Today was the first day of the playoffs and the Red Sox were playing the Dodgers which we knew were going to be a tough opponent.  They almost beat us more than once this season.  It was definitely a nail biter and it went into extra innings to break a tie.  Bailey's team won!

Bailey had a super game this afternoon.  She got 2 hits and one RBI.  She got 3 outs (in one inning!) at first base and had a few other plays as well.  Bailey did not pitch this game.  Bailey getting so many plays was quite remarkable considering that Bailey has completely lost her baseball glove.  We are 100% sure she left it after the last game after discussing it with another parent.  That parent said they found a glove but someone wrote the name "Lucy" on the tag so they left it.  If she would have flipped the tag over, it said "Bailey" but I wrote L-U-C-K-Y on the other side of the tag to make it her lucky glove.  Dang it.  Bailey played with Nick's huge glove but it seemed to suit her just fine.

Bailey's baseball pictures even came out nice this year.  Bailey has grown up a LOT since last year.