Luck Luck Luck :)

I can't help but think that our luck is changing for the better!
We waited around all day Saturday for the mail... my husband was still short one recommendation letter for his application materials for a job back up north. He ended up asking 5 people (he needed 3), and as of Thursday we only had 2. He asked all of his references in plenty of time. We were ready to send it out one letter short this afternoon - otherwise it wouldn't have gotten there in time - even overnight. Apparently, some places overnight means 2 days... anyway, we didn't get anything in the mail on Saturday. No economic stimulus payment either (which was supposed to be delivered that day according to the IRS)...

But today in the mail we got 2 more letters of recommendation AND the economic stimulus payment!! Woo Hoo. And just when I was on cloud nine about all that... after mailing off the application materials we walked to the grocery store and discovered that we had the winning ticket for the weekly drawing! We won a $50 gift certificate to the grocery store!! Double Woo Hoo!! I should so go buy a lottery ticket! :)

Needless to say, I feel really good for the first time in a while :) Today, I have hope that things are turning around for us and that everything is going to work out just fine.

Gas Guzzling Woes :(

So we've been trying for the past few days to see if we can trade our gas guzzling SUV for a less of a gas hog minivan... and there is no relief in sight. We are too upside down on our loan... the trade-in value is at least $6,000 short of what we still owe. We would have to come up with a $4,200 down payment. Which we in no way have! Mostly due to the raising gas prices and all the travelling we've had to do in the past couple of months. We are quite in the hole at the moment.

I never dreamed I would be an SUV owner. I actually made fun of those soccer moms barrelling around in an SUV instead of a minivan.

Then we moved to northern Wisconsin. And really, if we wouldn't have had a vehicle with 4WD last winter - we wouldn't have made it anywhere. They just don't make minivans with 4WD. They may have AWD, but that's just not the same thing.

But boy do I kind of regret that decision now. I say "kind of" because I'm so noncommittal ;) Really, in browsing around at minivans, the features on my Explorer are pretty cool. I love the seat-warmers in the winter (or cold as hell spring that we just had). I love the control panel! It tells me exactly how many miles I can go before I reach E. It also will display current mpg (ugh!). And all sorts of other useful things (tire pressure...etc.) The minivan control panels we were looking at left much to be desired. They looked completely old school compared to the digital readout on my Explorer. And I think we were even looking at luxury model Chevy Uplanders and Pontiac Montanas.

Oh well. I guess we will just have to continue getting further in the hole with gas prices until our economic stimulus payment comes... then sadly it will all go towards catching up on bills!