~ W H E E L S ~

Two weeks ago yesterday, I was picking up Nate from work when this happened:


Ouch.

The next day, our Insurance Company hooked us up with this:


Yikes. Our six year old nephew said, "it looks like this" as he made a wavey motion with his arms. Yup. He had it right.

A few days later, this appeared:


Not the best lighting, but if you look closely you'll see my wicked bruise. The band-aid next to it is covering up a large scrape that graced my foots presence as well!

Around the same time my foot turned green, we were told by our Insurance Company that our Santa Fe was fixable! We rejoiced! We loved that car and were so excited that it was getting fixed.

We spent the next week speculating on the work that was being done on our car and when we might have it back.

Then Nate got the call. When the auto company opened up the hood and started taking the car apart, they noticed that the transmission was damaged. The car was being totaled. We were sad. We were stressed. We took advantage of the attorneys that I work for and had them help us with the settlement to pay off the car.

I went to clean out the car before it was towed away for good. I drove around the parking lot and did a double take, because our poor beloved Santa Fe didn't quite look like itself:


Sniff, sniff, sniff. I actually teared up. I realized how much I loved our car.

I sat in the drivers seat for a minute, re-lived the last moments I was in the car, and made my peace with the situation.


Then we went car shopping. For the first time ever, we both dreaded it. We searched the local dealerships and test drove cars that we thought we would like. We liked them all, but we couldn't make ourselves commit to any of them. We were comparing every aspect of the car to our Santa Fe.

We left frustrated and I told Nate that I was turning the decision over to him. I didn't care what car he picked, none of them would be the Santa Fe and eventually we would love the new car just as much. We had to make a decision though, because we only had two more days left with our Rental Car. Stress.

That night I couldn't sleep, so I jumped back on line and looked at the "Valley Motors" website. It was pretty late (or early, depending on which way you look at it), so I didn't believe my eyes when I saw a 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe for sale! Same year, same model, same EVERYTHING! I'm pretty sure the first thing I said to Nate the next morning was, "I found a Santa Fe."

When we got in the car to take it for a test drive, Nate said that it felt like home. Neither one of us could believe how easy it was to know that the car was ours. We went through the motions, and two weeks and one day later, we are at home in our new Santa Fe!


Now that we've got a car squared away, our new washer delivered and a clean house, we're hoping for life to slow down a little!!