My babies! (and some crap about the Ultimare)

... Are no longer such babies.

I am now, officially, the mother to toddlers.

Overall, it's been a good birthday. Even though I didn't make a cake or anything really cool. In fact, we didn't even give them their present yet.

We did:
*wake up at 5-flippin'-thirty in the morning because Bruise was SCREAMING and would. not. stop. (Good point: He had not pulled his, um, man parts out of the diaper. He was soaking the diaper. But not his clothes for once. Phew!)
*put the kiddos back to bed after nursing them AND letting them get into the big bed with us ... where they decided that they wanted to play, not sleep.
*get everybody ready and drive for a little over an hour to play in the SNOW!!!
*Played in the SNOW!!!
*Got lunch at A&W ... the kids had corn dogs for the first time. Bucket? Didn't even try it. Bruise? SUCKED on it, SAVORED it! (Usually he inhales food. He didn't even want to give up the stick!! How cute is THAT??)
*Came home and I tried to get some more resolution on the whole Ultimate Warranty thing. (More below)
*Had dinner
*Went to Coldstone and got the kidlets their free ice cream (Seriously, if you've got one near you, sign up for the birthday club. Michael and I shared an ice cream, too, that we got with a $1-off coupon. So, in all, we got THREE Love It-sized ice creams for just under $5 (Usually it'd be around $15). Nice, huh??
And I got the chance to pay it forward, since I had an extra $1-off coupon that I gave to a lady waiting in line. I mean, Confucius had it right: Treat others as you would have them treat you. I know that I'd totally want a coupon from a stranger.
(And since I can't give you all coupons ... I'll just let you know that Coldstone does offer online coupons that you can print out.)

The kids ate their ice cream (NO, not the whole dish. Like half of it. Which I might raid for later. For ... um ... quality testing purposes *shifty eyes*), had a bath, nursed, and are in bed. Michael will be home tomorrow, which makes me happy.

SO, if you want what else is going on with "Ultimate" Warranty, here it is:
-Not only do they owe that one company who procured our current transmission hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they're supposed to have $44 million in reserve for the $48 million of potential claims ... they have $15 million.
-They've pretty much gone belly up in this whole thing.

We have very few options as we've been screwed over in this whole extended warranty soap opera.

-We can fork over the cost for towing to Portland and another $200 to perhaps get rolled over into another warranty offered by a larger dealership.

-We can trade in our (at present) giant wanna-be paperweight and get something without these problems.

Our main problem in this is money. Because there's no way to break even by getting rid of the van (as usual, we owe more on it than what it's worth. And that's not helped by the fact -- like I've mentioned -- that the stinkin' warranty is rolled into our car loan. ... Too bad we can't do a chargeback on that. Wish I could).
BUT there is one vehicle at UHonda that we could get that would allow us to keep our car payment about the same per month.

So, keep us and this whole fiasco in your prayers for me, 'kay?

I'm just so tired of this situation. I just want a car that works and will work well until LONG after we've finished paying for it. I want to have my own vehicle so I can take the kidlets to storytime and do my visiting teaching and so we can (comfortably) VISIT MY FAMILY, dammit. (Yes, I am frustrated.)

Sorry for my whining right now. Especially since it's been a pretty good day. Hopefully tomorrow will go something like this:

Wake up, get kids ready, go to BRHonda, fill out credit application, follow Michael as he drives van to UHonda, drop it off, go to storytime (the last time that the kidlets will go to "Wobbler" storytime ... did I mention that I'm the mom to TODDLERS now?!?), go back to UHonda, get a great deal, get approved by the credit union, drive to credit union in new (to us, but older than the "old") van to put Bruise and Bucket's Christmas and birthday money in a savings account, go grocery shopping, come home and put the kids to sleep and have some adult time (which will probably consist of falling upon the bed and watching an episode of Firefly), do dishes, fold a crapload of laundry and start making cupcakes for the might-happen-might-not-happen party for Bruise and Bucket (since T1 is going down to visit Mom and Dad C -- Mom can't travel right now :( --, T2 is busy, busy, busy. I don't know what J's plans are. I don't know if C&A and their girls are going to make it. My mom and stepdad are busy -- Mom came up last week, though --. Dad has bronchitis ... This will be interesting. It makes me a little more resolved to have an "unbirthday" party for them ... maybe in July. On their half-birthday. ... But that puts it really close to one of their cousins ... *shrugs*).

Well, I'm tired enough that my eyes feel like they might start bleeding soon. ^_^ I'm going to close up.

Thanks for putting up with me.
Remember, it only goes downhill from here. :P