New Car and a Bead in a Nostril

Monday evening (the week before last) on the way home from work I noticed a slight hesitation with the car when I tried to accelerate a few times on the highway. On my way to a conference the next morning, it was noticeably worse. I drove straight from the conference to the Honda dealer and they took me to work. 

Later that afternoon the guy from Honda called to inform me that the transmission needed to be replaced. I knew that we weren't about to put $5,000 into the car (we were planning on buying a new car later this year anyway) and that his news meant we would be making a very quick car purchase. 

Ten minutes after hanging up the phone I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Norah was in her office with a bead stuck up her nose. They tried to get it out but were unsuccessful, so she recommended that we take her to the doctor.

So there I was at work, no car, the fresh news that we needed to buy a new car, and my child 20 minutes away with a bead stuck up her nose. 

Oh wait…did I forget to mention that Seth was in a meeting with a new client and therefore unreachable? 

I made a quick decision to call Enterprise since they "pick you up." I called a friend to see if she could get Norah from school. And I texted Seth, "She is okay but I have to take Norah to the doctor." 

About an later I had my rental and got to Norah. There was definitely a bead in her nose, but otherwise she seemed fine. While waiting to get in to see the doctor I looked up her nostril one more time and thought it looked like the bead had slipped down a bit. I asked Norah to try blowing her nose again and out came the bead. 

With that behind us, Seth and I went into planning and researching mode for the car purchase. Mom came down Wednesday night to be with the kids so we could test drive a few cars. We also made arrangements for mom and dad to come down Saturday so we could have to day to make a purchase. 

Saturday morning we had a 9:30am appointment at CarMax to sell our Accord. I still really loved that car!

From there we drove 30 minutes to an Acura dealership that had one of the very few pre-owned RDX's within a 50 mile radius of Houston. It just happened to fit most of our criteria, including 2013, the amount of mileage (25,000), and both interior and exterior color preferences. By 1:00 negotiations were over and and were ready to buy! We are now the proud new owners of this:

The girls love playing in the back:

It has a lot of bells and whistles, especially compared to a 2004 Accord. I particularly like the memorized settings for two drivers that include seat position, mirror position, temperature and audio settings. Also, the navigation system, rear camera, voice recognition and bluetooth. 

Considering the fact that my Honda had some pretty new and exciting features when we bought it 7 years ago, it will be interesting to see what develops for cars between now and our next purchase. Not that I am at all in a hurry to go through that process again. 

I'd be okay without any more beads in nostrils, too.