Category: Uncategorized

Isn’t that a song? My husband tells me it’s actually “These are the Days” by the 10,000 Maniacs, but I swear there’s a commercial or something.

Anyway.

This summer, we’ve been staying up late. Too late.

The kids are home with their dad, so they don’t have to get up and go anywhere (not that that prevents them from getting up early)… the sun stays up until 9:30… and we have been staying up way too late.

On many of these nights, I find myself sitting at the kitchen table with Sam, as he eats a bedtime snack.

We sit, and we talk. He tells me about all kinds of important things like hitting homeruns and what he ate for lunch. He tells me jokes. He sings me songs.

Sitting and talking to him – even though it’s late and we should both be in bed and he certainly shouldn’t be eating cookies – is just about my favorite thing in the world. I love that little boy’s voice, and I love to hear what he has to tell me.

Lately our snack of choice has been Strawberry Milanos, and as we sat and chatted last night I recognized that this is what they mean by a Milano Moment – a moment after the craziness of the day, when we are doing nothing but being together. And eating cookies.

Being with my Sam and eating cookies – my two favorite activities.

What’s your Milano Moment? The folks at Pepperidge Farm, maker of the famous Milano, want to know! Enter the sweepstakes by telling them about your “Milano Moment” – you could win a bushel of the new Strawberry Milano cookies (and then you can eat 90% of them by yourself, like I did). So head on over to The Pepperidge Farm Milano Facebook page where you can “like” Milanos, enter the sweepstakes to win a bushel of Strawberry Milano goodness, and download a 55-cent off Milano coupon!

In the last couple of weeks, Jenny and I both shared our Toyota stories… we told you about what the assorted Camrys and Corollas we’ve each owned in our lifetime have done for us… but we never expected to get such a response from you.

We were so impressed with the comments you left and the stories you told about your Toyotas, that I thought I would share some of them here.

Tim wrote:
My first Corolla was a marriage saver. With two beat up old cars in our driveway that were money pits always falling apart, we drove our little crappy white honda civic cvcc hatchback into the Toyota dealership with gas spewing out of the backseat and distributor shaking so bad that the points burned half way off on our trip to the dealership. The 1987 Corolla stayed out of the shop for 8 years then some belts needed to be replaced. I drove it 80 miles a day. A few months later we bought a first generation Corolla-Tercel 1982 used for $1500, put new tires on it and drove it for 5 years and it never went to the shop, sold it to a friend for $500 and he drove it for 5 years (who also sold it to someone in drivable condition)… We still have a old Camry that my daughter drives, its a 2001 and has over 150,000 on it but keeps on turning.

A marriage saver! Pretty impressive, for a car.

Anna wrote:
My husband drove a 1985 toyota until he had to crawl into the backseat to get out of the car. And even at 300,000 miles when the body was falling apart, the engine was still great. Our father’s advice “Nothing is worse than a car payment.” It’s surprising how quickly savings to buy a car in cash adds up.

Now that I would like to see.

Charlie (Jenny’s dad) wrote about her first car:
I got Desmond for 125 dollars since she had a broken CV joint. Just put a junk yard axil in her and she was good to go. Did have to replace the gas tank after a while. Second best deal I ever got in a car.

I believe the first best deal he ever got on a car had something to do with a barn, a bird nest and Jenny’s brother, but that’s a story for another time.

Bobby (Jenny’s husband) wrote:
Desmond was a beast. He only quit running when a friend let it run dry of oil… it threw a rod… through the side of the engine block. That’s right, a great big hole in the side of the engine, oil everywhere… and the car would STILL START AND RUN. Unfortunately the damage was too great to repair. I keep a piece of one of the rod bearing caps ( that I found on the side of Interstate 675 ) from Desmond in my new Camry wagon for good luck.

I don’t know what a rod bearing cap is but I love that Bobby kept a car part for sentimental value.

Andrea wrote:
We do love our Toyota and the service policy as well. When we only had it less than a year (it was used), the transmission just up and died on us. Toyota replaced it and that was that. Yeah, we are having some spit and sputter issues now that it has 185,000 miles but we gotta get it to make us through so we can pay cash for a new one!

How about those stories?

Do you have one of your own? To share your story, visit Toyota’s Facebook page.

I don’t have a lot of “talents,” so to speak. I can’t sing, I don’t dance, and you’ve seen the pictures I take (on my cell phone).

I do have one useless talent, though – finding four-leaf clovers.

I don’t really know why, but it’s just my thing. In the last few months, I can recall finding one when I was on a field trip with Kate, at a couple swim meets, outside my office, and various other places. It always excites me to find one, though, and when I say “I found a four-leaf clover!” my husband’s response is “Of course you did.”

I don’t do anything with them, I don’t keep them or press them or anything, but I always think it’s neat to find one on a special occasion. Like the picture above – I found that one on Sam’s birthday. On Wednesday, the day my niece was born, I found one in my sister’s front yard. That one I kept – Anna is a scrapbooker and I thought that would be a neat addition to Lilly’s baby book.

It’s a useless talent, but it’s mine.

What’s your random talent? Come on, I know there must be some other freaks out there!