www.idahofamilymagazine.com
10-2015
PUMPKIN LINER TRAINS Take a family fun train ride to a pumpkin patch and choose that perfect pumpkin. There will be lots of fun activities including a kiddie hay maze, bouncy house, games, trick or treat houses and pumpkin gardens. *Advanced reservations recommended. For more info on dates, pricing or packages
call 331-1184 or visit www.thundermountainline.com
10-2015
corroded piece of crap stranded in the driveway. We had regular conversations like this: “Mom, mom, MOM, take a look at this (insert name of whatever) this guy’s offering up for twenty five hundred … the body’s in MINT CONDITION.” “Sweetie, the thing has no Beth Markley is a humor writer and seats … or engine.” fundraising consultant who lives in “MOM we can buy it and I can work on it after school, Boise with her husband and two sons. She publishes weekly stories about her So-and-so said he’d come misadventures in parenting in her blog, over and help.” Manic Mumblings of a Mediocre I understand his optimism. Mom at www.manicmumbling.com. I buy all kinds of crafty things I swear I’ll one day make into something useful. That’s how people end up with a basement room full of upholstery fabric. And a glue gun. And here school was starting in a week or so and we were kind of getting down to the wire with this car thing. The whole used car market is really depressing, with people trying to offload their barely functional crap, and I was having daymares of my kid breaking down on the freeway on the way to school. I wasn’t really sure what we were going to do. Then our friend, whose own kid had left for college, asked if we would be interested in looking at his car. A Pontiac about a year older than our son. It’s a cute thing. Sturdy enough. Not very many dings at all. And a functioning engine. Our neighbors might not hate us for parking it out on the street. It’ll likely not strand our kid on the freeway most days. This could be fantastic. Or not. Jack’s been ruminating about cars for the last two years. We’ve had endless conversations about makes and models, the names for which escape me even now — I care so little about cars. We’ve talked about what his car collection will look like when he’s grown, what he’ll buy me when he comes into his bajillions, the perfect car for his brother, his dad, himself, etc. Would he ever acquiesce to something sensible? That doesn’t look crappy? Something in which the air conditioning doesn’t work, which is okay because the brakes do? That makes a big ka-DUNK noise when you shift from park into drive? Turns out, the answer was a big, fat YES on all counts. The kid barely had to test drive the thing to give up all dreams of having the frame of something red and sporty and completely non-functional dripping all over our driveway, thank God. And thank God for friends who are willing to offer up a discount and the opportunity to take something off their hands that isn’t crap, whom we can call with questions and who offer to take our kid to the junkyard to rifle through stuff for an armrest to replace one that’s missing. Thank God for a little independence and a shred of reliability being more important to a boy than something showy and sporty and new. Thanks for our 10 hours a week commuting time back. For some leverage to keep grades up for good-student insurance discounts. For incentives to get some yard work done around here in exchange for gas money. And for the distinct lack of a sunroof. Thank God for that one as well. n
Idaho Family Magazine | October 2015 29