New additions

No - our little boy is not here. I forgot to tell about Jared's recent purchases that we're excited about. And the fun he had trying to get them. GM does training all year long and the technicians take tests (and the parts guys) and depending on how well they do (and how early they get their tests done) they get rewarded at the end of the year. Jared earned Platinum this year in his area! It's the highest you can get. Congratulations! I can't remember everything he gets but I know he gets business cards, a certificate, a medallion, a gold ring with a diamond (they add a diamond to the ring each time after this that he gets a Platinum rating again instead of another ring). They usually give them "money" (points) that they can spend in the GM store but this year they let each person decide to get the points for the GM store or take the points in cash. Jared got his in cash and had already decided last year that this year he wanted to get guns with his money. (He was going to just get a gift certificate from the GM store for Sports Authority or another sports store and then go get his guns until they changed and let him just get it in a prepaid card.) Luckily we know lots of people that know a lot about guns. Jared knew he wanted a shotgun and a 10/22. He talked to Max and decided on a Remington 870 Express for the shotgun.
It looks like the one above. He wanted the synthetic instead of the wood look and he got a 12 gauge.
The other gun he got was a Ruger 10/22 like the one in the top of this picture:
The other one in the picture is a stainless steel barrel and they're at least $20 more so he stayed with the black. We had to pay some money out of pocket but it was less than what just the Ruger would have cost if we had just gone in there and bought it. And we got a gun cleaning kit, ammo for both, and a 50 round clip for the 22. So we were pretty excited to not have to pay much.
Poor Jared sure had a hard time getting them though. We had gone into stores looking at what they had and the prices to decide where to get them. We decided that Walmart had the best price on the shotgun and Cal Ranch had the best price (and the only place with a black barrel) on the 10/22. His prepaid card finally came in the mail and we went to Walmart on a Thursday night to get the shotgun. The guy that was there is actually our neighbor's dad. He asked for Jared's license and asked if it had his current address on it. It's the same license he got when he turned 16 so of course it was old and had the wrong address. He said it has to have your current address on your license. Of course with it being a Thursday the DMV was closed on Friday so Jared went before work Monday morning to get it. Then Monday night we went to Walmart thinking we were good to go. They call in to get his background check and they end up sending it to research. That means no gun until they call back and say he's good to go. They call back Thursday I think and say he's good to go and we can go get the gun whenever. We end up going Friday night and finally get the shotgun. We leave Walmart and head straight to Cal Ranch for the 10/22. (It was cheaper to pay for two background checks than to get the guns at the same place and pay for one check because of the difference in prices on the guns.) They call in for his background and it's sent to research. You've got to be kidding me! He was just cleared the day before! The guy gave us a number that we could call and they tell us once someone is cleared or denied their information is shredded so they didn't have a record showing he was cleared. And all she said was if we could see what she saw then we would know why they send it to research but she couldn't tell us what she saw. So we leave empty handed. If we had known that, we would have gone there after Walmart so they could do both background checks at the same time. They called Monday saying he's cleared so we go back to get the gun and clip. I swipe Jared's GM card saying we were putting part of it on that and the guy had to cancel it because he has to put in the amount being charged to the card. So he does that and then I swipe it again and another guy takes over and for some reason he canceled it again or did something and it denied the card. What?! It's prepaid and we know exactly how much is on it. We even tried a few dollars less and we still got denied. Jared called the number on the card and found out the first time we did it (after the first cancelation and when the second guy came in) it had gone through so it was good to go. But for some reason Cal Ranch was showing that they weren't paid. The lady Jared talked to when he called about the card said they might not have Cal Ranch's merchant ID number so she gave him a number and said they could call them with it and have it go through. We were ready to pay the rest with another card but then it wouldn't let us because according to the computer Cal Ranch still hadn't been paid. After quite a while trying to figure it out they finally just put that we paid the first part in cash and then the rest we paid for with another card. They took the number the lady gave us and Jared's number in case something didn't work out and let us go ahead and take the gun. They said they would call if there's any problems. So far no call so we're good to go! What a mess. It was so nice to have the guns now.

On Wednesday night Max called and we went out shooting with Max and Jenny (Max had bought a Remington 870 shotgun with the wood look with his money from GM). It was really fun. We shot clay pigeons and I felt better after not hitting any when even Max and Jenny (who hunt and have other guns that they've taken shooting before) only hit 2 out of 5 (Jared hit the same). I guess I need more practice so we'll have to go shooting more often:) My dad has guns but we didn't go out much so that's why I'm not the best. Crue did really well being around the guns. I was worried because I had never been shooting when I was pregnant with him and I thought maybe the shots would scare him but they didn't bother him one bit! Maybe in a few more years he can shoot the 22. :) It'll be fun to take them camping (depending on where we go) and just go out shooting with family and friends.

So that's our excitement for now. Jared had a hard time finding 22 shells (ever since Obama was put in nobody can keep them in stock) but he finally found some at a pawn shop. So we are good to go now. Next year Jared is going to get a 30-06 with his money so we'll have a full size rifle, a fun smaller rifle, and a shotgun. Maybe someday we'll get to go hunting!! (I'd better learn to shoot better first!:))