New Car and School

We bought a Prius this week! It is Toyota's version of the hybrid. The gas mileage is supposed to be around 50 in the city. The car is super cute. James will be the primary driver which means I get the Cruiser as my car and the Intrepid shifts down to Forest when he gets his license this summer. He is starting driver's ed this Monday.

Anyway, the car! We were in the market for a new car and were considering our options when An Inconvenient Truth came up in our Netflix list and arrived in our mail box. It really helped us make the decision. If you haven't seen it yet, you must. I was afraid it would be a lot of stuff I already knew and would leave me feeling even more depressed (like The Corporation - a good movie but very depressing). Surprisingly An Inconvenient Truth ended with a very hopeful note that we can make changes to turn the situation around!

The car has GPS, satellite radio and blue tooth. All the technical stuff really appeals to James. He is having fun with it. I made him promise to watch the road and not the little screen. When it turns on, it is super quiet. One of the screens you can chose will tell you when the battery is charging and when it is using gasoline. It also shows you what gas mileage you are getting at different stages. Another cool thing is that you get a tax credit, insurance credit and free parking at meters in downtown Austin. Hooray!

Forest has started at a new school. It is a public charter school that focuses on small class sizes, developing bonds between teachers and students and helping students like Forest who are bored in a regular classroom situation to re-engage with school. The homeschooling just did not work out for us. We were not able to help him enough with Chemistry and Math. This school also has some really cool affiliations with groups that do different types of projects like green home building. If he completes one of the programs, he can get a scholarship for college from it. Another affiliation they have is one that helps kids with their job skills, resume writing, job searching and interviewing techniques. Fingers crossed that it will be a good experience for him.