Last Wednesday Travis was working on the wall again and I mowed the lawn. It has rained enough lately the grass decided it would start growing again, and our yard was much overdue for a trim. It has been neglected lately due to all the work on this wall. While mowing the lawn, I came across two fire ant hills. The first I didn't notice until I was coming back to pass it. That was about the time I felt the first bite. By the time I could dig under the tongue of my shoe to smash the little bugger, he got me again.
I used to have severe reactions to fire ant bites. I finally went to the doctor at one point and she said I have hypersensitivity to the bites, which means that my reaction gets stronger each time I get bit. Oh and there was nothing she could do to treat it. I just had to wait it out. But after I had Aiden, my allergy seemed to have gone away. Aiden turned 2 July first. Between the time I had Aiden and now, I have been bit by a fire ant three times. And I never had a severe reaction. Until this past week, that is.
The bite itself swelled into a welt that night. Thursday morning, after my walk into work, half my ankle had swollen and after my walk back to my car after work, the rest of my foot swelled up. Friday was the worst of it. It was so swollen that I couldn't put my foot flat on the ground. It felt like it would burst with the pressure of it. This is what it looked like Friday night (with a little petechial hemorrhaging around the bite):
Every day the swelling seems to go down a little more. It gets worse when I walk a lot or when I'm in the heat for too long. Today the top of my foot and ankle are still swollen, but at least I can pull my foot up now. I haven't been able to bend my ankle for four days! Oh and I can wear shoes again.
To top it all off, I misused some crutches on Friday and severely bruised my underarms. Who does that?! The muscles in my shoulders were so sore on Saturday and Sunday. So stupid.
Saturday afternoon during Aiden's nap, Travis started looking through AutoTrader. In case you don't know, that's a website for advertising vehicles for sale. We were planning to start looking for a replacement for the Murano in December, but there are several things that need to be done on the car. Since it would be annoying to drop $1500 into a car that we are planning to get rid of in a few months, we decided to look into getting a new car now. The four main points for us are lower payments, certified pre-owned, large trunk space and NO BLACK INTERIOR. We live in southeast Texas. What was I thinking purchasing an all black car?!
We had one car in mind when we went to the dealership, but we decided to look at a couple other cars. We looked at a Mazda CX-7, Ford Edge and Ford Explorer. The Mazda CX-7 won. We liked it better on the inside and it comes with some perks being a certified, pre-owned foreign car from that dealership. (Like free oil changes for life!) The problem was it was 8:30 at night and we had Aiden with us. He was delirious since it was 30 minutes after his bedtime. I told the dealer that we would come back Monday to deal with the financial side of things. That's when he offered to let us take it home for the weekend while they keep the Murano for appraisal.
I said sure! Why not?! So here it is:
Black cherry exterior, black and tan interior
Turbo charged 4 cylinder with AWD
Seats 5, large storage space, good gas mileage and in our price range!
While we were talking to the dealer Saturday night, we let Aiden roam free in the cars. It helped corral him so we could focus more on our conversation with the dealer. Now Aiden things the car is a jungle gym.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the Murano has, but I need to let go of that. Lower payments = less fancy buttons and switches. It also has less leg room in the back seat, but after we get another car seat back there (maybe in the next year?) it won't really matter. We're hoping to get at least three years out of this car before we need to upgrade to a larger vehicle. By that point, we should have two loans paid off and will be able to afford a nicer SUV.
Auntie Ariel is coming up tonight to hang out with Aiden at home while we head to the dealership to talk money and do a little haggling. I think it will be a lot easier to negotiate a few items this time since it's not imperative that we get rid of the Murano today. We have eight months to find a good deal. Crossing my fingers that they don't figure out what a piece of crap that Murano really is.
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