'Fin'

I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family to y'all...meet 'Fin' :-) 

'Fin' otherwise known as 'Finny' is our new car, a 2008 Infiniti 35x. Patrick and I had to purchase him after our other vehicle, 'Ellie the Elentra' was crashed in an accident. Let me rewind...

I had to head home to Pittsburgh mid December for the death of my grandpa. I always look forward to visiting home, but I never enjoy a funeral. Grandpa lived a long life of 91 years though, and I have no doubt he is reunited with my grandma in heaven and at peace. 

While I was away I got a call from Patrick while visiting with my sister, Katie and brother-in-law, Ted. The three of us were having a great conversation about what we anticipate heaven to be like. When I answered the call, Patrick was audibly shaken and blurted out that he was just in a car accident (NOT what you want to hear when having a heavy conversation about heaven!) he said the car appeared to be totaled. These were the last words I was expecting to hear, and the last words I wanted to hear. I felt so helpless. My husband obviously needed me and I couldn't be there for him when he needed me most. He was stranded in the middle of an intersection miles from our home while I was hundreds of miles away from our home. I was a mess. 

Patrick had just gone to Taco Bell to get dinner. I couldn't help but think that if I were there I would have cooked dinner and the whole accident would have been avoided. As he was driving home another vehicle pulled out in front of him. Patrick says he slammed on the breaks, but he couldn't stop our vehicle in time. Both Patrick and the girl say they had a green light, so the right away is questionable. All of the witnesses left once they saw both parties were okay. The accident was ruled as a "he-said-she-said", which stinks, because obviously someone had to have been in the wrong. Patrick says he has replayed the scene over and over and knows he had the green light, but ultimately, what is most important is that both of them are okay, and they both are!! The police officer who came to the scene said he had never seen anything like the accident and stated that "no one will even believe this report"...Patrick tells me the car he hit into (a Jeep Wrangler) had no damage but a small dent, while our car was completely totaled...check out the pictures of our car...

I credit football for Patrick's lack of injury. He's obviously used to collisions, and this was probably nothing  compared to the collisions he faces head-on on the field. LOL! 

Speaking of football, Patrick now had no car to get him to work, since I had taken his vehicle to the airport and parked it overnight there. A big huge thank you to our friend Tim who came and picked Patrick up the following morning and took him to work! 

Patrick and I were so not ready to purchase a new vehicle. We had no idea what we wanted, so it took us a few weeks to select our new car. Car shopping with Patrick is kind of difficult. See, he's a big guy, so there are a number of cars he doesn't fit into. It's wild, his head literally hits the ceiling of some cars! On one hand, this is helpful because we can just rule those vehicles out, but on the other hand, it's not very helpful because it rules out vehicles that I really like and fit into just fine. Initially Patrick was set on us getting a sedan, while I wanted us to get another SUV. After one night of shopping we decided on the Infiniti...could it really be that easy?! Not at all! Patrick then noted how surprised he was at the fuel economy of sedans. They were pretty much getting the same mileage as an SUV, so he suggested we look at SUV's then, because we would get more space for the same mileage. I was torn then because there were so many SUV's I liked! Initially I was loving the Infiniti FX but of course, Patrick didn't fit in it. We did find that we really liked these vehicles...

 The Mercedes Benz R350 

And the Ford Edge

Both of these vehicles weren't on our radar previously. I of course liked the Benz (Patrick laughed when a friend told us it was the "Mercedes Minivan") while Patrick was rooting for the Edge. I honestly really liked the Edge (even though Patrick thinks otherwise) but I hated the front of it. It just seemed too masculine to be my vehicle. We dismissed the Mercedes due to a small trunk and impossible to get to third row of seating. It seemed like the Edge was going to be our car, and I had accepted that...that is until Patrick suggested the Infiniti 35x again. It was about $10,000 cheaper than the Edge and had more of the bells and whistles we were looking for. Our Infiniti may be a couple years older, and have some more miles on it, but its in awesome shape! Plus it has sensor touch doors and push to start, two features Patrick's vehicle has that I have grown to love and desire! And it has a navigation system built in, which the Edge lacked. 

We drove Fin to Pittsburgh and he runs good! I'm very happy with our choice! It was a difficult one to make, but I think we did the right thing. Here's to lots of safe memories in our new car! Yay! :-)