Update: You Get What You Pay For

For a grand total of $37.00 worth of dealership paint, my wonderful, amazing, talented husband fixed my car!! It honestly looks the best it has in a year, and from a few feet away the dent is completely unnoticeable.

Here are updated pictures:



I'm impressed! The car looks so clean and so beautiful that it has earned its way back into our garage :)

On a side note, Jonny also had time to build a fire pit after pulling off this small miracle. Here is a sneek peek: 

(Jon built the bench and fire pit himself)

Love to all near and far,

Christina 

You Get What You Pay For

You get what you pay for. In my experience most often this holds true. Now I know there is a reason this old saying has been around for such a long time. When things seem too good to be true, they probably are.

About a year ago, while parked at a Publix parking lot, someone hit the backside of my vehicle. After getting two quotes on the damage (ranging between $540 and $820) Jon had decided that the dent/scratch wasn't worth the rather expensive price tag. We knew if we eventually decided to have a third baby, we would need a bigger car anyways, and that money could go towards a down payment.

Of course I agree with this conservative rationality, but I also do not like staring at the dent every time I load my children into the car.

Three days ago I thought my prayers were answered. While my children were napping I was outside when a man by the name of Neeko who does auto repairs (and was working on a car a few houses down) gave me a $350.00 quote on the damages. I quickly called Jon to run this by him. "Christina, you tell him $200 and he can fix the car." I forwarded the message to Neeko and after a few minutes of haggling it looked like we had ourselves a deal. He briefed me on the repair process then I went on inside to get the girls from their naps.

About an hour later the doorbell rang. My car was done. The guys were finishing up painting and putting a hazy protective coating over the paint. The coating needed to stay on for 24 hours. It looked good since the dent was out, but I couldn't really see with the extra coat over it.

24 hours later, while Jon was home, I went outside and washed off the car. After I was done I came back inside. "How does it look?" asked Jon. "Well, it looks like we spent $200 on a repair that probably should have cost a lot more." Jon smirked and decided to take a look. I believe his exact words were "I liked it better with the dent."

Lesson learned. You get what you pay for. Now instead of staring at a dent, I get to look at this beaut of a paint job:

(This picture somehow does justice to the variation of paint colors.)

My Silly Girls

My girls are pretty silly. I like to think they got that gene from me, but Jon is convinced that silliness is solely a Rehm gene. Either way, both kids definitely inherited it.

Silly #1:

This afternoon I walked into the playroom to find Kaylee dressed like this:

It's like she is taking fashion tips from Lady Gaga herself.

Silly #2:

Later on today, I spoke to my friend Christina, who is getting married this year, and was excited to show me a picture of the wedding dress she had just bought. We decided e-mailing the picture would be best. The girls and I ran to the laptop in excitement to check it out. Kaylee was completely in awe of a dress so ''big, white and sparkly.''

After the excitement wore off for the girls, they ran back to the art room to finish their Play-Doh creations, and I finished up talking to Christina about the gown. After we were done, I made my way to the art room to over hear Kaylee telling her sister, "Madison, isn't this so exciting?! Mommy is going to get married again!"

Silly #3:

While making the girls dinner tonight, I put on an episode of "Dora the Explorer." Anyone who watches this show, or has seen an episode or two, knows they try to make it interactive for the kids and have them repeat Spanish words from time to time. In this particular episode, Dora is trying to find a set of keys that sneaky Swiper threw into the Arctic Ocean. Luckily, Penguino (the penguin) is an awesome deep sea diver and can go underwater to find the keys. All Dora needs is help saying "Abajo!" so Penguino knows which way to go. Kaylee immediately starts saying "Abajo. Abajo. Abajo!" Madison runs over to the TV and starts screaming "A Ho! A Ho! A Ho!"

Needless to say, I got in a lot of belly laughs today.

Daddy's Helicopter

Today was Kaylee's first day back at school after a rather too long, two week Christmas hiatus.

"Mommy, today was share day and Arsha said his dad got a race car for Christmas." Kaylee told me on the drive home.

"Oh wow. That seems like an extravagant Christmas gift." I responded.

"Umm ya.." she followed, unsure of the meaning of extravagant, "and I told everyone my Daddy got a brand new helicopter for Christmas!!!"

"You did?! Did you mention that it is really a toy helicopter?" I replied.

"No."

I should have known that was coming.

Here is a picture of Jon's new helicopter:

I'm sure I will be asked what Jon does for a living come Friday morning :)