This would never have happened!

I cannot tell you how many times yesterday I said those words.


A little backstory. While I was in Oregon, training with Hazel, last month I drove a Subaru Forester and LOVED it. Seriously loved it. I told my husband this but knew it was futile. We have a Ford F150 SuperCrew that my husband loves and I hate (it hates me too btw). Anyways, when I got home from Oregon you can imagine my surprise when my husband tells me he has been window shopping for a smaller car with more interior room! Total shocker for me that Josh would be willing to get rid of his beloved truck!

Enter, car shopping. Now, for those of you who actually know us, you know that we are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans. We are DEBT FREE since August 2012 and intend to stay that way. We don't use credit, we don't finance, if we can't afford it.... we don't buy it. So that is always fun while car shopping. Dealerships make their money on financing. The pressure to finance is insane but oddly we have found that people are pretty respectful when you tell them you don't do debt.

Cash is King baby!

So two solid weeks of car shopping online, three days of test driving etc and yesterday we decided to go look at two cars (one we had already looked at and knew we liked, the other was an unknown). The unknown car ended up being in Denver. We took the kids with us yesterday because part of our reason for a new car is Hazel. She is cramped in the back of the truck (I mean she is 75lbs and TALL!) so she needed more space to lay in and be comfortable.

We were grateful to work with the same sales lady that we did on Saturday and we let both kids and Hazel jump into the potential new vehicle. Hazel first laid totally flat on her side on the backseat floor! She's never done that in the truck. The deal maker though was watching her curl up into a ball behind the drivers seat on the floor and she just stayed there for the rest of the time we were in the car. That was it, the car is what we need.

We went into the dealership to sign paperwork and this is how JJ sat for almost 2 hours.

chilling playing angry birds while leaning on Hazel.

He changed position quite a bit (laying on his stomach on the floor or sitting etc) but he didn't try to bolt, he didn't whine or fuss about how long it was taking, and the biggest breakthrough for us, he chose to sit right beside her like this. He occasionally rubbed her back leg but he just sat with her, calmly.

It was wonderful!!

The next part of my story was doing groceries. After a quick dinner last night we went to the commissary. We were dangerously low on food (we've been a bit preoccupied lately) and it was time to restock. So off we went, plus the boys really wanted a ride in the new car! It was BUSY! I don't know why it was so busy being the middle of the pay period, I would expect that much traffic on payday in the commissary but JJ and Hazel were amazing! JJ walked calmly with us through the store, and stood in line at the commissary for 20 minutes with astonishing patience! I was so proud of him. Occasionally he sat down but it wasn't a flopping to the ground in irritation, he was just tired of standing. I'll admit I wanted to sit with him a couple of times too haha!

Before Hazel, neither of these situations would have happened. The boys would have stayed home with respite while we bought the car. Josh or I would have gone alone to the commissary after the boys were in bed. We wouldn't have done these things with the boys because this calmness would never have happened before Hazel.

Hazel has been home with us for a month, today. I never expected our lives to change this quickly but in the space of 4 weeks, life has changed completely. We have freedom, and peace when we go out. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. JJ still tantrums in public but it's less and less now. He can work through things easier with Hazel by his side and he's slowing down to tell us what he needs.

This never would have happened, but it's happening now.