Yes, yes, we love it!!

I've decided that this week is going to be dedicated to posts that I always want to write, but never do. I am trying to get things off my check list before Baby Berry comes and I disappear into parenthood.

Last year, I posted about two pretty major purchases that we made, but I never followed up on them to let you know how/if we liked them.

I can honestly say- yes, yes, we LOVE Them.

First up, last April we made the life changing (yes, life changing) purchase of a foam Buongiorno Magniflex Mattress.

This was a bit of a splurge, but SO freakin worth it. We used to toss and turn, and were often hot at night, but now, Mr. Spice is asleep in minutes (I've always been a quick sleeper but now he is faster than me) and we rarely have a too hot for the covers nights.

We love having a foam mattress and constantly talk about how much we love our bed. I kinda, sort of wish we would have splurged on a King mattress, but then we would have had to get a whole new bed and sheets, etc. The Queen really is just fine for us, but now that the dog is super clingy and demands to sleep in the bed; I am getting larger; and I also demand to sleep with a body pillow- it feels smaller, but surprisingly, we all still fit.

I 100% support a purchase of any Magniflex.

Next up, let's talk about our Minnow that I wrote about in April 2010. AKA our Subaru Impreza 2.5i Wagon.

We traded both our cars, which both had over 100,000 miles on them, for this brand new beauty. So this little car had a long list of wants and needs:

1. Small enough to fit in City parking spaces, but big enough to hold purchases from an Ikea run.

2. Better gas mileage than our old cars, and surprisingly really good for an AWD car- about 28 mpg combined City and HWY miles. (Although the new Subaru's get even better gas mileage, and a Prius gets even better).

Check out our impressive 63mpg we got as we flew down the Grapevine on our way home from LA (no, this is not standard and only lasted about 15 miles):

3. AWD: after a bad winter and getting in a snow storm while getting out of LA (yes, I said snow storm and LA in the same sentence), I love knowing that we have AWD. I was also in a spin out 6 years ago in my non-AWD, mini-SUV and still remember the terror from that accident, and the $1,000 I spent to get my bummer fixed.

4. We upgraded and got a Nav system- which has saved our marriage.

5. Our new Nav system also has a great stereo that hooks up to our ipod and we can stream pandora for long road trips.

6. Big enough to hold two car seats- And yes, even though I find the back seat kinda small, our 2.5yo nephew and his car seat fit in perfectly:

7. I do wish we could have gotten leather, But when we bought it, we had the car professionally cleaned and scotchgarded, and we currently have no stains on the seats. Despite Huck's best attempts after a fun day at the beach:

Seriously, look at how happy that dog is??

In conclusion, we love our Minnow. We bought new because of the super low interest rates and we knew we'd be piling on the miles (Mr. Spice drives 90 miles per day). And yes, we park our NEW car on the streets of SF, which I am totally fine with because I think someone would most likely break into the new BMWs and Lexus' that are also parked on the street before breaking into our Subaru. I also told Mr. Spice that we can save the $300/month for a parking space and just get new bumpers when we move out of the City.

Only twice in the last year and a half have we ever needed two cars at once- so yes, we are a VERY successfully a one car family. I am a bit worried that I won't have access to a car during my maternity leave, but we have access to a zip car across the street, and it's faster to walk to our hospital than drive and park.

So in conclusion, as Mr. Spice likes to say, "We are now Subaru for life people." Seriously, they are great cars, at a great price. I already have my eye on the new style Forester to be my "carpool-car" in a few years.

What purchases have you made in the last year that you can say, 'yes yes, we love it!"