SharonAndAdam.com

Can you see us in one of these?

If not, you better work on your imagination because it is now the official vehicle of the Gretencord family. After many months of evaluating all the choices, we have decided upon a 2006 Scion xB. Why “the box”? Well, here’s how we came to this conclusion.

Any vehicle that would be of consideration to meet our family’s needs would first have to perform well in 4 catagorires:

• Safety
• Reliability
• Fuel economy
• Passenger space

The top contenders within or close to our budget were the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Matrix, Mazda3, Mazda Protegé5, and the Scion xB. Our experiences with previously owned American made cars will attest to their absence from our list.

We cut out the Mazda3 since it lacked any sort of cargo space. The Protegé5 is liked by many but it was only out for 2 years, and that was 3 years ago. Servicing it would might have been trouble and we never saw one that wasn’t a smoker’s car. Weird, huh? The Toyota Matrix was a little pricey, even for a used model… not to mention it is the same car as the Pontiac Vibe. You know how we feel about Pontiacs.

This left us with the Accord, Camry, or xB. We searched continuously for a good used Accord or Camry around 2-3 years old, when safety features were standard or available options. However, every time we inquired about the price, we’d look over to a new xB with comparable options for the same price: same standard safety features (ABS, airbags), better fuel economy (30/34 compared to 30/30 and 23/32), proven reliability (Scion is owned by Toyota and this is the 3rd year for the xB), and ample passenger space. I don’t think we’ll get 3 car seats back there but I believe that was wishful thinking on most vehicles anyway.

Some have asked, “why not a minivan”? Well, one is certainly in our future, but not now. With gas prices rising, our fuel expenses have practically doubled since the beginning of the year… and that’s with one car for part of it. I’m certainly drawn to a minivan’s space and versatility, but at 19 mpg and a higher price tag it doesn’t quite balance out the difference. Another reason is that we plan on going back to one vehicle for a while. We still have the Cougar but it’ll be up for sale shortly. The xB will more than likely become the commuter vehicle when the minivan arrives.

Well, there you have it. We’ll see you soon on the great American highway.

It was the worst of days…it was the best of days…

Parenting is by no means easy. There are days when you wished you hadn’t gotten out of bed. Yesterday was such a day for me…I won’t divulge details as there is no need to add salt to the wounds. By the end of the day, I was even cranky about having trick-or-treaters (i.e. random kids looking for free food) come to our door, that Adam was in charge of all the candy distribution this year.

So at Mass this morning I prayed and prayed that the day would be better even though I would be lacking much needed sleep since I had to go the EARLY morning Mass. I especially asked our Blessed Mother to give me a hand…even though she had a perfect child, I know that with an ounce of her wisdom and grace I could get through anything.

…And the day was great…Therese was sweet…so excited to color in her Mary coloring book…thrilled to pick flowers outside…pointing out every “happy” (i.e. jack-o-lantern), star, and flower in the neighborhood during our walk…and making an attempt to actually use the peddles on her tricycle…and the best part, she actually took a nap–after I bribed her with a lollipop! What a nice day…

All Saints Day Costume

This year we decided to take Therese to the All Saints Day party that our parish has for the kiddies. A couple of weeks ago when my mom came to help me out while Adam was in California, I had her bring up her sewing machine. Unbeknownst to her, I don’t know a lick about how to sew. (I took extra math classes in high school not home economics! Little did I know how domesticated I would be come!)

Before mom and I went shopping to materials, she asked me if I had thread, scissors for cutting material, needles, straight pins, and a pattern for the costume. My answer was an innocent, “no.” I don’t think I’ve seen my mom laugh that hard in a long time!

I hope those of you who know me would know exactly who I wanted to dress Therese as…St. Therese of course! Fortunately we have plenty of statues and holy cards of our little girl’s namesake. And the extra blessing is that my mom DOES know something about sewing even though she doesn’t do it very often…and some of my math backgroud did payoff.

So with unceasing prayers to St. Therese we did it! And Therese’s costume didn’t come out half bad thanks to my mom and some divine intervention.
Check out our All Saints Day pictures.

Home–almost–Alone

Well, Adam is away on this business trip this week. Tonight he gets to go to Disneyland! Poor him, huh?

Fortunately I’m not home alone with Therese. Grandma Lozano came up to spend a few day with us and become indoctrinated with the Gretencord household rules before she comes to help us out when Baby G is born. It’s funny our lives change when we live on our own.

These past few days have not been without their events. Therese is cutting– not one– but TWO teeth. And for Therese that means lots and lots of screaming. I’ve been nesting these past couple of weeks…organizing things before the baby comes has been a little obsession of mine. I just hope the baby doesn’t decide to come anytime soon…I still have a 8 weeks or so to go.

Melts My Heart

As Sharon alluded to in her last post, I simply adore Thérèse and her admiration for daisies. So last week I brought my girls home some flowers: gerber daisies for Sharon and simple, white daisies for Thérèse. As soon as the little one’s eyes fell upon the bouquet I was greeted instantly with bursts of “fwower!” and “day-ze!”. The video shows it all. Thérèse got so excited, she even told us how old she is.

I am a proud father.

Therese Funnies and Loveables

Therese really is so delightful (when she’s slept well and has had a good nap).

She’s quite the collector. She finds more joy in collecting items and organizing them than she actually finds in making use of the item…examples: she likes to collect the crayons and carry them in a cup. She like to collect her spoons and carry them around (for hours). She like to collect loose button and take them to her little garden house.

Her latest funny was a few days ago when we were having salad…All of a sudden she likes salad. Ok..that’s not so suprising. But then she sees the slices of red onion and wants those too. She starts eating them just plane and raw. Adam and I were stunned because neither of us are that crazy about onion. Luckily our child isn’t too weird. When she had enough in her mouth, she spit them all out and made a rather, “ewwww,” face. It was the best laugh Adam and I had all day!

Adam has been in love with how Therese says daisy. I won’t even try to write that out. He’s working on getting a video on the website so you too can fall in love.

The other endearing thing she says…when she sees a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she says, “mommy!” That’s too sweet.

Almost Stress-free

I had the intention of giving Adam a stress free weekend.

Saturday was Therese’s Name day. It was the feast day of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. We went to Mass that morning as I had the intention of the Mass at St. Louis said for her. That afternoon we went to make our pilgrimage to San Antonio. We had an early dinner at our favorite restaurant, Mi Tiera. Then we went to the Mass of the Roses at the National Basilica of the Little Flower.

We met a lovely woman who shared her prayer guide with us. She has 5 kids and one of them is also named Teresa. She was without the kids and offered to sit next to us to share the prayer guide. We told her we were there from Austin to celebrate our little girl’s name day. She was so sweet to even help us calm our little one down during Mass. Afterwards we learned she home schools and is joyous about living out the Church’s teaching. We know this was God-incidence.

Anyway…the day was complete with some sweets from the reception after the Mass. And we even shared with Therese since it was her special day. We asked one of the Carmelite Priests to give her a blessing…it was one of the most beautiful blessing ever prayed over our daughter. We were quite grateful!

Then Sunday hit…neither Adam nor I slept well last night. Therese slept with me…and hopefully will never again. Adam slept on the air mattress. The morning came much too soon. My sister cooked us breakfast. And we were off to Oktobrefest in Fredricksburg. It was mildly disappointing not to mention HOT! I didn’t think it worth the $6 admission; but being from a small town, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. At least we can say we went.

On the way back to Austin, the car broke down. The engine light came on and it was not a pretty ride. We managed to make it to the center of town when we called a friend to give us a lift home. Say a BIG prayer for us that all this gets resolved soon and cheaply.

We’ll be seriously looking for a new car next week. By the way, we learned during our car problem that Therese is now into repeating what we say…not a good thing!

New Pictures

We finally got some new pictures up in the gallery. You’ll see our vacation pictures to New Orlean (pre-flood), Pensacola, and Hanceville and Irondale.

We also have some pictures of our trip to Fiesta Texas.

Nothing too exciting has been going on. Fall finally hit for 24 hours yesterday…the weather was beautiful! Mid-70s and cloudy…great breeze. Then summer hit again today. Oh well, that’s part of living in Texas I suppose!