New Blue Geckoness

Lately the horses have been on break as our winter seems insistent on raining, then not, then raining, then not.  It makes the ground too funky and I hate riding one day then off two weeks then one day... it's just like nature's tease.  So to that I say GOODBYE and have been working on dog things.

OK, the truth is, the dog things have been pretty full throttle lately.  Since I started the year with "no more training" and ending it with something 50% of my normal paycheck, it makes sense to throw myself into the investment that actually gives me money back.  I'm looking at you horses... :D

So another goal of mine for 2015 was to become a Barn Hunt judge.  I'd worked throughout the year on getting my requirements and all that was left in December was to earn my Open title on Eos.  Well, let's just say never leave chance up to a 20 month old German Shepherd.  While she's an ace searcher, she was a goober at the trials and it took us way more tries than one would have thought possible to get that elusive last leg.  But we DID it on Dec 13 just before the Dec 31 deadline before the new judging rules kicked in.

Because this weekend marked 10 days out of 14 that I'd stayed in hotels (Vegas + this), when the minivan started clicking on Sunday night, I assumed it was my brain losing it's grasp on reality.  The next day was a ridiculously complicated day at work which started at 2AM (after I got to bed around midnight) and ended by 10AM.  I was exhausted, stinky, and just all around done.  I decided to grab lunch and pick up my possible Christmas present from the gun store but they were out of what I wanted.  I grabbed what hubby wanted instead and decided to show it off to him at his work on the way home to nap.  He was excited about the gun but then went "when did this start clicking?"  I stared at him and smiled (I wasn't the only one that could hear it!) but then he sent me to the mechanic ASAP.  Mind you, I still had two dogs plus all my gear from the weekend in the van.  It was one of those weeks :)

At the mechanic's, they tried a bunch of easy fixes and teh van loled at them each time.  Final diagnosis was a lifter or two or three were going out and it would be $3-5K to diagnose and then $10-15K to fix.

Sorry van.  Time to part ways!

I headed directly to the dealer and wanted to check out the new Town and Country minivans and also the Jeep Wranglers.  It was really to just check out the crate space (since I had all my crates with me still) but as we walked the lot and turned a corner, a brand new dealer trade Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in Hydroblue was sitting there and I had to check it out.  It was nice but I wasn't sold.  Walking around to the new arrivals (where the porters are), I found a really nice minivan in this deep emerald green color and it was SO PLUSH inside!  Once I sat in it it was heaven but then I realized this was missing some of the things that mine had (no DVD? whaat?) and the charm wore off when the next closest van was +$10K. 

We test drove the Jeep and I shoved crates in it.  Deciding to just bail on our dying van, I made the deal and we now own a Blue Gecko Jeep!