Easy Come, Easy Go.

I can't stay away from my blog for long, so even though my computer is still (sniff sniff) broken(that particular screen is on back order - there is a "worldwide shortage" on only that screen, don't you know, ugh!) I am attempting to blog from my kids' computer and it is like driving and old jalopy when you are used to driving a Porsche...

or driving a beat-up old Suburban after driving a brand new Volvo.

A few weeks ago, Dennis, Luke and I drove down to Carlsbad to pick up our new Volvo from Legoland.

The car had been all detailed and shined up pretty for us. The hand-off was informal. The official from Legoland fished the keys out of his pocket and handed us a packet with the registration and such, posed for a quick picture for me, and it was done. He was very nice. He told us some more details that we didn't know before. Dennis' guess of 6,732 lego bricks was exactly right, and there about 90 other correct entries (not the 30-50 that we had guessed). And he was surprised to find out that we had only one entry in the pot, because he told us that most of the entries in the pot of finalists were multiple entries, meaning that several people, once they figured out the number, kept coming back and entering again and again to better their chances. I bet they were pretty disappointed when they didn't win. Dennis only had one entry, but like he said, "If the Lord wants us to win that car, all we need is one entry."

Actually, Dennis said that line a long, long time ago when he was just getting started in the insurance business. Dennis was driving a tiny little Ford Festiva back then because that was all we could afford on his small commissions. That was way back when he drove to his clients' homes. He would have to park around the corner so they couldn't see him climb out of a tiny little used car. The company he was working for at the time announced that they would be giving a 2 year lease on a new Jeep Cherokee away to one of their agents nationwide. Agents earned a ticket for every so much in sales they had during a certain period. Most agents earned several entries, but since Dennis was just starting out, he sold just enough to earn one ticket. But he was confident that he was going to win. "If the Lord wants us to win that car, all we need is one ticket." He went to work that day knowing he would win that car. Sure enough! When he called to tell me the good news, I didn't believe him and he had to get his boss on the phone as backup.

Anyway, so here we are at least ten years later, with the keys to another brand new car! Can you even believe that??? Something tells me that won't be the last car he will ever win, with the Lord's help of course. Goodness!

And with the new keys we opened the trunk of our new Volvo to find THIS:

Yep! All 6,732 lego bricks. Legoland let us keep ALL of them! Legoland ROCKS!!! (or BRICKS, perhaps.) That is 6,732 lego bricks that I will have spread all over my house and be stepping on in no time. Actually, we were very excited about all the free legos, and we knew the boys would be THRILLED!!! Legos truly are their very favorite toy in the whole world. They play with them for hours on end. This was going to be better than Christmas for sure!

In total there were 19 boxes of legos in the back of that car, a few were worth over $100 each! I added up the prices of all the boxes and they totaled $1,140!!! Score!

So Dennis, you just won a new car! Where are you going? - Um, to the Volvo dealership.

As cool as Dennis looked driving that new Volvo (just like a Cullen if you ask me), we both decided that our best course of action was to sell it. Dennis called all of the dealerships in SoCal and after picking up the new car, we drove directly to the dealership that offered us the best price.

Yes, I did get to drive it. I drove it from one parking lot to the one next to it at Legoland, reaching speeds of up to 15mph! It was quite exhilarating, I must say.

I know, selling our brand new Volvo is not very glamorous or exciting, but we decided it was our best option. The car is wonderful, but was too large for Dennis' needs (besides he already has a nice car), and it is too small for our family car (only a 5 seater). Although my Suburban is falling apart - literally, in chunks, we have recently put a whole heck of a lot of money into it, so instead of trading in the car for something new we decided that we will put the money into the bank and run our old car into the ground - even if we can get another year or two out of it that would be great. Besides, do you realize the damage 6 boys can do to a car? Oh my! We figure if we can hold off a few years that is a few years older (and hopefully less destructive) everyone will be to a new car.

We have also decided that we would use that money, after paying tithing, of course, to pay off all our credit cards and such first. That way we can use the money we would be spending on interest to save toward our new car.

So we drove home, without a trophy car, but feeling much, much lighter!

Of course Dennis' car was weighed down a bit with 19 boxes of legos in the trunk. The boys had no idea. When we got home we told the boys to come outside and help us carry in some stuff from dad's trunk. When we opened the trunk...

... it was Christmas all over again! The looks on their faces were priceless!!!

New car/old car - they didn't care. Those legos were more exciting than anything!!!

We have opened 5 boxes so far, and they have been having so much fun with them. I'm so glad we won a car full of Legos and not, say, Barbies. Just saying.

They are such good boys. They deserve it.