katie, ben and lucy

 Checklist for having a baby:

1. Get Pregnant…  Done.
2. Pee on a pregnancy test… Done.
3. Pee on another pregnancy test, just to be sure… Done.
4. Come up a clever way to tell the family… Done.
5. Pee on yet another pregnancy test hoping that the line will be darker this time… Done.
6. Tell the family… Done.
7. Tell the friends… Done.
8. Tell random strangers we meet on the street and at baseball games… Done.
9. Go to the doctor for lots of testing… Done.
10. Start paying the doctor lots of money… Done.
11. Gnash teeth when people older than us say things like “We only had to pay $25 when our kids were born”… Done… a lot.
12. Respond to those older people that by paying more for our baby, we will have a smarter child who smells better… Not done, but seriously considered.
13. Begin discussing all of the crap we will have to buy once we have the baby… Started.
14. Realize that we own two somewhat small hatchback cars and that when the baby comes, it will be nearly impossible to drive somewhere in one car with the baby AND the two large dogs and anything larger than a briefcase and therefore we have to go buy a much less fuel efficient Mommy-mobile that barely fits in the garage…
    …
      …
         … DONE!

So we spent the last day of our recent vacation visiting family and car shopping.  We were planning to buy a used Honda Pilot, but decided instead to take advantage of the car dealers that still have a few 2008 models on their lots.  Most are eager (desperate) to get rid of their previous year models, and we like to take advantage of eager (desperate) sales people.  So instead of a 3-year old Pilot, we got a very good deal on a brand new 7-passenger 2008 Subaru Tribeca Limited.

Hooray!  We have more debt. 

So here is the new BOB-Mobile:

• Yes, it is blue.  I am aware that it is blue.
• Yes, we knew it was blue before we bought it.  We didn’t buy it, drive it home, wake up the next day and say, “Honey, come quick, I think the car is BLUE!”
• No, we didn’t buy a blue car because we are expecting a boy.
• No, we don’t think that a baby girl will care if she is in a blue car.  Babies are happy to puke in any colored-car.
• Yes, it is a lovely shade of blue
• Yes, it would suck if it accidentally rolled into a large swimming pool and we couldn’t see it on the bottom because it’s blue.
• Yes, it does have a hand-painted pin-stripe going the length of the car that added an extra $295 to the price of the car.
• NO, we did not pay for that.  The dealership ended up taking that off of the price tag.  It is a lovely pin-stripe, but we weren’t going to pay $300 for it.

We bought a blue car because Katie didn’t want a white one and I didn’t want one that was poopy-rust-colored (Subaru calls it “Deep Bronze Metallic”).  They were sold out of most other colors.  Our options were then blue (which Katie really liked) or black (which I think is too dang hot during a Texas Summer).

Now if you are driving down the road and happen to spot a fancy looking blue Subaru Tribeca Limited with the optional 3rd row seating and an expensive looking hand-painted pin-stripe going down the side, you might ask, “Could that be the BOB-Mobile?” After all, there have to be other blue Subarus in Houston (at least six or seven ).  If you are not sure, look closely, and you’ll see the new BOB-mobile hand-painted logo:

(click on image below)

When we bought the new SUV we got rid of “my” car.  We actually traded in Katie’s 2004 Mazda 3 (also known as the rollerskate).  The car was almost paid off (1 month away).  We would have traded in “my” 2003 Toyota Matrix, but we got a much better trade-in for her car since it was newer with fewer miles.  So what was called “My Car” is now just called “The Matrix.”  Now Katie is driving the Matrix to and from work because it gets better mileage.  Since she has the Matrix during the day, I am left with BOB’s big blue baby bus.  So in a sense, we did get rid of “my” car in the trade. 

C’est la Vie. 
   And for those of you who don’t know a foreign language, that’s French for “My wife took my car.”