Christmas 08'

The Blanchard house was blessed in so many ways this Christmas. We celebrated Jana's first Christmas, Papa Bob came from Texas. It was a wonderful time. Jana got lots of cute toys. I can not figure out what her favorite present is yet:) Cole's favorite was his I shuffle. Seth was his V-Tech system.

Funny story about Christmas Pa Pa Bob was reading the Christmas story Seth said at the end of the story" Amen Lets open presents:)"

New truck

12/25/2008

so here we go. i bought my 97' toyota tacoma in 99' or 00', dont remember off hand. drove the truck into the ground treated it like a work truck. never cleaned it, never really did anything to it. i changed the brakes once, a c-v shaft, and a starter in the 130,000 miles i owned the truck. it was a good truck to say the least. so then i got a letter from toyota saying that my truck has a recall and toyota may buy it back from me if the frame was showing signs of penetrating frame rust. anyone who has seen my tacoma would say it was definitely rusting beyond belief in the rear bumper and hood, so it seemed safe to say my truck qualified. if i find a pic of my tacoma, i will post. so the letter said that if the vehicle qualified, they would buy it back at 1.5 times the suggested retail value of the truck in excellent condition. my truck was not in excellent condition, so this was a win win for me. so i took the truck in to get checked out. they said sit down it will be about 30 mins. i got a cup of coffee, sat down, and saw my truck roll around the corner again. apparently rusting to the point that the service manager laughed as he told me my truck would definitely qualify. so i wait for a phone call from some company that handles these things. i bought this truck for $7000, and was told that toyota would buy it back from me for $7987.50!!! the one and only time in my life that i will ever make money on a truck that i beat up for eight years. so we go shopping, but all toyotas on a lot are lease trade ins, or brand new. $22000 to $40000, too much. apparantly like me, no one who has a toyota with 100000 miles or more likes to get rid of them. i ran 230000 on my tacoma. after haggling and nearly leaving because the dealership had nothing in my price range, they pulled this nissan titan that they just got in out from the back. 112000 miles with the tow package, off road package, crew cab, and many others. everything i wanted. we test drove it, loved it, and they told us the price. after some more talk they dropped their price $4100, and i bought it. so for relatively very little money, i have an awesome truck. i love it. i am trying to get used to having a nice vehicle with a big 5.6L V8, compared to my 2.7L four banger. it is a struggle, but ill make it. i will say that the one creature comfort i am most appreciative of, after driving a basic no frills truck for 8 years, is intermittent wipers. it sounds funny, but go without them for 8 years and then get back to me.