a little bit of a pick-me-up

well, we've had a rough year...year-and-a-half...ok, it's been a rough THREE years...BUT! we are alive. we live in a beautiful spot in northern california that we both love. my husband (for the first time in years) says that despite alot of our stressors that are still present, he is really happy right now......wow, can't argue with that!

we got in a car accident the day before his birthday...we decided to go for a drive to relax and de-stress...and on our way out of town we were rear ended.  so much for relaxing!  we thought it was just damage to the bumper, but it actually crushed part of the frame rail on the passenger side also...so it totaled our hand-me-down that we were hoping to sell for a little bit of money so DH could look for an old jeep or chevy pickup that was in working order, but could become his project car. well, that seemed to be out of the question at this point. we were positive we wouldn't get enough out of it, that the insurance wouldn't cover our repairs, and that (obviously) we wouldn't be able to sell it either. yesterday, we received our settlement check for his little old corolla and it was towed away, and last night while searching Craigs List D found a CJ7 for the perfect price. we got up super early this morning drove down to the valley, we were the first ones there and told them we'd take it. 

you should have seen his proud face driving that thing home!  sure...there are a few little issues with it, and we need to clean it out and just do some maintenance on it, but for the price we got it...wow. it runs great, (sounds wonderful), and it is the perfect start...it even has a hard top so D won't freeze this winter! we are so excited. our agreement was that he could shop for a "project" if the amount we spent getting it to running order where anything we did beyond that could wait and was optional was no more than the amount we received from the insurance...and we got that.  it hasn't been messed with, (except for the silly gold miner hood ornament and the giant roll bar sticking out the front) -- so as he decides along the way to upgrade or refurbish or paint...etc...he is starting with a blank slate...

so excited, i grew up with my dad's toy being a '55 CJ5...he built and re-built and re-built that thing. it's beautiful, and the whole family has sentimental value for it. looking at it as we were finalizing the sale, it was hard to believe, we were getting our own......hopefully, this ends up being our family nostalgic vehicle!!!

...took this while D was looking around the inside...