okey dokey, little updates on our lives....

**aaron got a new truck. we used to joke frequently about aaron's penchant for new vehicles but he's actually had this truck for about three years and that's a pretty long stretch. for him. about three years ago, we found out we were expecting andie and immediately decided my fun, bright, sporty, yellow, did i say fun? mazda protege was no longer family material and it was time to submit to the stage of life that requires a minivan and.....get a minivan. so, we found said vehicle, had it for a couple days and then brought it back to the dealership for the teflon-type coating they were going to coat it with (fat lot of good that did three years later, my van is nearly identical to this one). anyway, we had just bought this van and were picking it up a couple days later when aaron walks by a truck and falls in lust with it. buys it on the spot. what kind of people go pick up their new van and within ten minutes exchange trucks?? in the time that i've known aaron he's had five vehicles and the running joke when i'd call him was that he was at the dealership. but, he'd had this truck the longest and i came around to support him in trading it in--car was over 100,000 miles, starting to shake a lot, rust problems, a new one would be a great write-off, blah, blah, blah.

but it's all good. the new truck is bright red! that's my favorite part. i can't tell you anything about the brand, or the horsepower, or "torque"-whatever that is. it's shiny and new looking and i'm sure it'll take aaron and his construction jobs approximately a week until the inside is cakes in dust and dirt. yesterday he went to a truck place to ask about some truck something-or-other (did i mention i don't know anything about truck stuff? and i tend to zone out at the mention of sparkplugs and rotors) and whadaya know, his barely relinquished old truck is sitting there, all waxed and detailed, looking brand new. it was the only teeny, tiny remorse aaron had about giving it up and starting over again. but then he got in the nice, shiny red truck, with more room in the back for the kids (cuz it's all about the family right) and he was happy.

so, all's well that end's well with the vehicle situation. though i was a tad jealous after riding in the pristine truck cab. but as if he read my mind aaron jumped in next to me and scheduled my mom-mobile for a detailing tomorrow. yay!

**i must have a totally generic face or something. people often tell me "you look just like my friend _____!" or they outright mistake me for someone and for some reason, even though it's by no fault of my own that i'm no so-&-so, i'm the one who gets embarrassed, on their behalf, and turn bright red as i awkwardly explain that i'm not the person they think i am. just this morning at andie's school a chatted casually with another parent and then she studied my face, "you look really familiar." i returned the statement--mostly because i didn't know what else to say. sometimes it's true, i'm pretty good with faces and can usually at least identify a person by the context of how i know them but not usually their name. but i'm sure i just look like someone this woman knows.

yesterday i dashed into a furniture while the kids were at school scouting out overpriced, fancy stuff that a person with two young kids (moi) has no business owning at this point in time. i was barely through the door when this scruffy guy comes right over to me, asking, "are you barb?" i verify he's talking to me and kindly tell him i'm not, but ironically, it's my mother's name. apparently i look like someone named barb he knows from AA. i proceed to blush, or course, and tell him that i get that a lot, people always think i resemble someone they know. he proceeds to tell me half his life story-he worked as a carpenter for $7/hour for years, asked his boss for a $.50 raise and his boss fired him. wishes he could go back but he was, after all fired, and then he has issues with his spine and is on disability. this to happens to me all the time. i find myself in bizarre situations like on a plain or naked in a waiting room where people (you know, come to think of it, it's usually men, and men who i've never met before who engage me in strange conversations and i find myself doing a lot of "uh huh", "oh really", a couple "that's really interesting"s) talk and talk and i wonder how i find myself there. in college i called it "the burden of being cute". i'm friendly and harmless and enjoy meeting new people and i resemble someone you know. so, come introduce yourself and ask me about AA. i love it.

i remember a quote that goes: "I am a part of everyone I have met." and it's exactly how i feel. kind of keep you on your toes.

**kids are good, nothing big. excited for halloween. i bought them adorable alligator and ladybug costumes but i have a sneaking suspicion that both are going to want to be power rangers. they both just got transformers yesterday, andie's was something called barricade but she kept calling it "carrot cake". wished aaron hadn't told her the correct way to say it-kids' speech impediments are so cute. kieran is loving school and all his new friends, tonight went to Family Reading Night at his school, which was ironically sponsored by the local PBS station and promoted a lot of TV shows, but was really fun. kieran instantly saw a schoolmate when we arrived and tackled him to the ground. ahh, boys.

so, that's us this week :)