I got stuffs to do. I even made myself a list, cuz I’m all sorts of forgettable…

That came out wrong.

I’m leaving it anyway.

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let y’all know that the van is not in our custody yet. We’re still ironing out the final details. But, the van is ours.

I’m trying to figure out a reasonable price to ask on our old van. The poor thing is not a pretty sight. But, we have put a chunk of change into that thing, and we’d like to recoup some of it. I realize the thing has depreciated. I’ve checked Kelly’s Bluebook, but it doesn’t take into consideration the handicap modifications.

See my dilemma? Oh well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Anyone wanna buy a not pretty, not horribly user friendly, well-loved van for… oh, … say the amount that we’re paying on the new van?

No?

Geez. Ya don’t have to be so quick about spitting out that ‘no’.

I’m sorry that I didn’t post this news right away, but I’ve been busy sorting out details. That, and before I mentioned it, I wanted to make sure it was truly possible.

I am jumping the gun a little bit, but I believe this just might work out.

We’re getting a better van!

It was all very unintentional, and still slightly unbelievable.

Remember a couple posts back when I mentioned finding a van that we believe will suite Tom’s needs perfectly?  And, how I said that I was applying for their financing with little real hope of qualifying for the full amount?

Well, I didn’t qualify for the full amount of the van.

The financing company accepted my application, and is allowing the loan to be paid off over 84 months.  I wasn’t able to make the cut for the full amount the van was listed for, so the company dropped the price $3000 to help out.

I’m freaked out.  I mean, we’ll be able to afford the payment.  But, we’ll be watching our budget very very carefully for a long time.  Loooooong time.

And, of course, I have to figure out how to pay for the licensing, the sales tax, and the inspection.

So, we’re not out of the woods yet.

But, hopefully, by the end of this month, we’ll have the van in our custody and will be continuing to make positive steps to keep and maintain the van.

I will be keeping the ChipIn for the van on the page.  If anyone has any spare change they want to throw in the jar, we’d appreciate it.  Every penny donated to our ChipIn fund will go towards paying off the long running loan.

Wanna see the van?  You can access the company’s page by clicking here.  I don’t know how long they’ll keep our van listed there.  But, hopefully by the time they take their photos of the van down, we’ll have our own photos to share!

For the longest time now, my mom has volunteered to help run our district’s Cub Scout Day Camp.  Its quite the family event for us, involving my sister and myself.  We’ve literally done this for nearly 25 years.

The day camp consists of approximately 450 cub scouts (aged 5 – 9 years old) that come to be entertained and educated in the outdoors for a whole week.  Again, it is a day camp.  The boys go home every night and come back every morning for a week. They are accompanied by their leaders and parents each day who are there to assist them with their activities and whatnot.

Each day is broken up into 5 activities, with lunch in the middle of the day.  There are approximately 20 to 25 boys in each activity at a time.  We do crafts and games and some range activites, like Archery or BB guns.  We do fishing and a wood project.  The boys run an obstacle course and go on a nature hike.

We try our hardest to work in educational qualities into our crafts or games, like sneaking in team work or maybe sliding in some science, while the kids have fun.

I’m tell you this because, this year, my sister has been designated to come up with all the activities for the boys to participate in.  And, we’re looking for some ideas.

Remembering that we have to fill about a 50 minute time span, and have to keep 20 to 25 boys occupied during that time frame, do you have any ideas for an educational craft / activity / game that maybe my sister could use for our Cub Scout Day Camp?

We try to use minimal costs while accomplishing these goals.  After we figure out what we’re doing for our activities, we attempt to get the community to help donate items to alievate cost as well.

Now, imagine yourself filling an hour with 25 youngster boys around in the hot outdoors, with minimal water and no constant source of electricity…

Ideas?

I’d like to know who in their right mind decided to get my whole household sick at the same time.  Because, being sick is no fun… but having everyone sick at the same time is just down right unenjoyable.

I am feeling better, but definitely not 100% yet.

For some reason, my sinsuses that have been leaking like a public works water line have completely dried up.  Which, sounds like it would be great.  Except, I’m extremely dry now.  Like, the back of my throat is dry… my eyes are dry…

And, no, I’ve not taken any medication in attempts to create this interesting dilemma.

I’ve been sucking down fluids like they’re going out of style because of this dryness with no major changes.  Intriguing, I must say.

Of course, whenever Tom gets sick, it has to end up being 340923 million times worse then when I’m sick.  So, we spent most of the night battling his illness.

I do feel like we may be on the upswing now.

Gosh, I sure hope so.

I could use some decent sleep.

I got a phone call tonight at about 8:30 from a number I didn’t know.  But, considering the number was shown on my caller ID, instead of being an anonymous call, I decided to answer.

The woman on the other side of the phone asks, “Is this the *insert Tom’s last name here* residence?”

Weird.

My name is on everything regarding anything, pretty much.  So, someone calling and using Tom’s last name is really odd.

So, I cautiously answer with a yes.

To which she replies, “Tom *insert Tom’s last name here*?”

Now I’m super weirded out.  I start to wonder who is stalking Tom…

Again, I reply with a drawn out, “Yeeeeees?”

Then, it all becomes clear as mud, “Hi.  A package was dropped off at our house today, but it has Tom’s name and address on it.”

“Oh?  Really?  That’s odd.”

“Yes, it is.  Especially since we live at 30___ instead of 31___.”

Huh.  The UPS driver couldn’t find the right address on the street, so he just randomly dropped it off at a neighbors house?  Strange policy.

Turns out she lives on *my street name* STREET, and I live on *my street name* DRIVE.  But, still, she lives two doors down from the number on the package.

I’m a little dumb struck.  “How’d you get our number?  This phone is listed under my last name, not his.”

The nice lady replies, “Well, dear, your phone number is on the package.”

Duh.  Eye R Smrt.

So, I ask the lady if I can run over to her house and pick up the package.  She seems almost thankful and gives me directions to her house, which, by the way, is not really near my house.  I mean, its less than 5 minutes away, I’d say.  But, we’re definitely not in the same neighborhood.

When I arrive at her house, I thank her tremendously for deciding to call and get this all worked out.  Then I laugh, “I suppose you probably have lots of people trying to find my house on your street, huh?”

If she had only known of the large parties we’ve had here, and how many people have said that they’ve taken her street instead of mine!  I’m sure, though, from now on she’ll be watching the people turning around in her driveway and thinking, “I bet they’re trying to find that Tom guy’s house.”

The package?  A surprise gift for Tom from a dear dear friend.

- Can I briefly mention to you that my head feels like it is slowly sucking itself inward and will implode, I’d say, in roughly 10 hours.  I don’t know why I chose 10 hours.  If my head were going to implode, I’d prefer it sooner than later.  I’m not one for long drawn out pain or misery.  Truly.

- I did not hear anything from the financing people today.  Which does not shock me.  Because, really, that would just be convenient.  Or, logical.  Or something like that.

- I text messaged a friend of mine that lives in St. Croix (Yes, that would be the Virgin Islands).  She said there was no way in hell that she’d consider moving back to Missouri.  Especially in the winter.  I don’t suppose I’d blame her really.

- I nearly ran out of Diet Coke tonight, and definitely didn’t feel like leaving my house would be a great idea.  Paul willingly went to the store and bought me some pop and chocolate.  He knows not to bite the hand that feeds him… or something like that.

- I feel feverish.  I’ve taken my temperature, and its not gone above 100.  Which, for me, basically means that I don’t reaaaaally have a fever.  Now, if Tom’s temperature was at 100, we’d both be unhappy.  (He runs a low temp on average.  I run higher than most normal people.)

- Can you feel when you have a fever in your eyes?  Like, I dunno, your eyelids are warmer than normal sitting on your eyeballs?  I can totally judge how much of a fever I have by my eyeballs.

- I blabber a lot more about nothing in particular when I’m sick also.  Have you noticed?  You’ve made it this far into this post?  Wow.  I’m super impressed.  I mean, I really don’t feel that I’ve given you anything worth reading… but here you are… still reading.  Crazy.

- My cats have been on a regular feeding schedule for years now.  Yet, they still whine and wait by their food bowl hours before its time to be fed.  Why is this?

- The number 3 has fallen off my house.  The ’siding’ that the previous owners used must be brick mortar or something.  Its near impossible to drive a nail through that crap.  The rest of the numbers are still hanging in there, though.

- I love twitter.  Lots.  And lotsandlotsandlots.  If you don’t have a twitter account, you should totally jump on the bandwagon and get one.  Now.

Its okay.  I’ll wait for you to start your twitter account before I continue.

Really.  Go ahead.  Its super simple to sign up.  Then, you can follow me.   Cuz, I find 140 characters to be more than enough to express myself throughout the day.

- I think I’m getting tired.

- I think the Alieve is kicking in and beating down my ‘fever’.

- I think I need a zinger.

- I think I want to color my hair.  Or cut it, or both.  Or neither.

- Maybe I’ll get a pedicure instead.

- (I got a gift card for Christmas, btw.  I’m not made out of money here.)

- Are you still reading?

- Seriously?

- If you are, tell me why I just noticed that Tom’s and my hair color is exactly the same.  Like, exactly.  Like, should of both come from a bottle to make it that exact.

- Well, his has some grey hairs scattered throughout there. I would never say something like that!  Rude.

- I’m outtie.  I’ll look for you on twitter.

I’ve been looking at vans online for a while now.  You know, just to see what was out there in the world… and dream of winning the million dollar lottery, which would be amazing considering I don’t play the lottery.

Anyhow.  One of the largest concerns about the purchase of a new van is the overall clearance of the vehicle, in regards to the door we’d use to get Tom inside and the interior head room.  If these two things are not available in the options we can afford, it is pointless to invest money in it.

So, while cruising through the world wide web of wheelchair accessible vans, I find one that looks promising.  Yet, a lot of these dealers do not list the measurements of the accessible area.  I find this quite frustrating, really.  I can’t look at a photo and know for certain that Tom’s big ol’ head chair will fit through the door.

I emailed one company, asking for measurements. You know, like, weeeeeeks ago.  To the point that I had written off the possibility of this van still being on the market, let alone actually being contacted by the company.

Today, though, for some reason, I suddenly get 3 emails from this company, and a phone call.  All within an hours time, mind you.

Hm.

Did the dude just get back from vacation?  Did his boss just tell him that he has to sell his quota of vehicles this month or he gets the boot?  I dunno.

The phone call is kinda weird.  You can tell this man is working on several things at once, trying to get caught up from the holidays.  Poor guy.  He’s a little scattered.  Its late… after dinner… before he even calls anyhow.

He starts chatting me up about this great 2008 minivan on the lot that he’s sure that Tom’s chair will be able to fit into… blah blah blah.  I interrupt the guy, “Unless its at least under $20,000, you might as well save your breath.”

Of course, he immediately changes gears, “Well, I’ve got this ‘95 on the lot, raised roof, dropped floor, new lift… ”

I’m kind of tuning him out.  I mean, I’m interested… but, uhm… Yeah, I gots no monies.

It listed at a little less than $19,000.  My ears perk up a little.  Not that I have any money saved (minus the lovely donations that have acumulated that I am greatly thankful for, mind you).

$19,000 is a number that I can understand and respect.  Its still high, don’t get me wrong.  But, the monthly payment would be less than my mortgage payment.  So, its a step in the right direction.

I went ahead and applied for their financing.  I doubt I’ll qualify for the amount of the van.  We’re not rolling in the dough over here… at all.

But, I’m making steps.

Maybe someone will make an effort to meet me half way… or 2/3 of the way… or you know, at least take a step in our direction!