New Stuff & Harry Potter

When we bought our minivan 3 years ago, we planned on keeping it for a long time. But, then we had lots of problems and made the decision that we would get rid of it right before the warranty expired. We loved the van, when it worked properly, but we had bought it during the first model year and there were some kinks. Although, to be fair, we hadn't  had any issues in the past year, which is nice because we also didn't want to pass off our problems onto someone else. Regardless, we decided to stick to the plan and get rid of it just before it hit 36000 miles. We went with the newer model of the same hybrid minivan. We got a "sport" version that has red leather seats and a huge sunroof. My favorite part is the apple carplay. I love listening to podcasts or playlists and using Waze for navigation. Now, I can do it all! They gave us a really good trade-in and had some "friends and family" Labor Day sales. Plus, Thomas was able to talk them down even further. End of model year is a good time to buy! It feels gluttonous to buy a new car when the old one was only 3 years old, but I am happy with the decision (as long as we don't have any problems with this one!). Jack feels like the red seats are a little flashy, and he is all about flying under the radar lately, but everyone else thinks it is pretty boss.

Very red

We are also getting a new bed! We have had our bedframe/bedroom set for about 10 years and the mattress was around 7.5 years old. The mattress was a Tempurpedic and had a good amount of body impressions. It also wasn't quite the same after we moved. We did a lot of research, even watching YouTube mattress reviews, and decided to go with a Purple Mattress. We didn't want another memory foam type and we were able to try out the Purple at our local Macy's and really liked how it felt. We decided to go for broke and get a new bedframe as well. Which, may be kind of weird, since we are keeping the rest of our bedroom furniture, but I have hopes it will all come together. We sold our complete bed (which was still really sturdy and looked pretty good for being 10 years old) and mattress for $200 to a couple who was very happy to get it. The new stuff gets here on Monday, so we will spend a couple of nights on an air mattress and then cross our fingers that we like the new mattress. They give you 100 nights to make a determination, so if we don't like it, we can try something else. 

Opposite of the extravagant purchases, we have tried shopping at Goodwill lately. They opened a new, huge store near us and we enjoy browsing. We also donate to them, so we purge and replenish. The girls are really into clothes at the moment and it is a good, cheap way to explore style and putting things together. We have only gone a couple of times, but I definitely see it as a win/win (help environment, save money, donate our stuff to keep the cycle going). We have also found some really good books, for example, I bought Luke a bunch of Junie B Jones books for less than $1 each.

In other news, I finished the Harry Potter series (for the 2nd time). It has been fun discussing it with the kids. I am going to attempt to rank them: Okay, I can't do it. There is something I like about each of them (except maybe the Chamber of Secrets, that is my clear #7, I still like it, but not nearly as much as the others). If I had to pick a top choice, I think I would go with the The Goblet of Fire, which I find the most fun of the series, well except for the ending of course. In Deathly Hollows, I really like the ending and the big Snape reveal, but I find some of the middle portions pretty tedious. The Sorcerer's Stone is amazing because it introduces the world. I love that Harry organizes Dumbledore's Army in the Order of the Phoenix. And, I love the Prisoner of Azkaban because it introduces Sirius and Lupin and provides some needed backstory. The Half Blood Prince has amazing twists and turns and is a great set-up for the finale. So, like I said, it is hard to choose.

Now, I have promised Jack I will read The Hobbit. I can't commit to the Lord of the Rings, but it is his favorite, so maybe. He has been walking Luke to school with me and we've been doing a morning walk after (when I don't have early meetings), so it has been fun to talk about books and school with him. 

And, some random pictures from the week:

One day, I noticed Jack sitting in his Christmas pajamas while on camera for school. He quickly changed once I pointed this out.

Thomas and Anna doing "The Other Side" duet from Greatest Showman

We went to SeaWorld Friday night and this little Harbor Seal just wanted to hang out with us.

He just watched us for the longest time, it was hard to leave him.