Still in Shock!!

Something AMAZING happened Thursday night. My wonderful husband of 23 years surprised me with an early birthday present. Now this is not just some ordinary OLD car. It is the EXACT replica...although restored..of my first car ever. But my first car was a junker...this one is amazing! Needs a little mechanical work but Dave and buddies are excited to do all that! So let me take you back and tell you the story of our little yellow bug named Bruno.

1985 I purchased my first car...all by myself! It was my dream car...a convertible 1972 Yellow Karmann VW Bug. I bought it in college and encouraged by Dave who I was dating at the time to go for it. I pitched the idea to my parents who reluctantly gave their blessing. So for 2 years we had an amazingly fun time in this little car. But the car was definitely far from perfect. It looked a little crooked...as if someone took a pop can and twisted each end in a different direction. The bumpers were crooked, the seats were cracked and it would only go about 50mph! Then one day we were driving down a gravel road and Dave drove over a big rock which I felt bump under the car. I looked under the floormat and said, "Wow I can see the road!" Yes, the underneath of the car was rusty and the rock punched a hole in the floor! Then that same summer we were out with my parents and family camping and we had the car at Louisville State Park. Some othr family had come to visit us. I saw one of my uncles checking the car out and watched from afar as he stepped on the side running board of the car. He looked a little panicked when he bent the whole thing down. Yes, rust bends easy! He quickly bent it back up, looked around to see if anyone saw him, then briskly walked away. I saw it from afar but never said anything. I laugh when I think about that today. But my little sister, Kit also saw it and she came over right away to report it to me. Again, we never said a word.
Then came my accident that winter . I was coming back to Lincoln after a weekend in Omaha and it was icy. I wasn't concerned about going too fast because my car didn't go fast. But when I was exiting the interstate at Exit 405 into Lincoln(yes I remember the sign vividly) I slid into the exit sign. Now having a steel bumper, when it hit the wooden sign post it cracked it. I didn't think the sign would fall though because was just cracked a little. But as I sat there in disbelief, I watched as the sign slowly fell on top of my car. It was a blessing I had a convertible because it just bounced a little and laid there. A passerby stopped to see if I needed a ride and I said, "I can't leave my car, could you just help me get the sign off and help me push it out of the ditch?" He did and I was on my way. Now this was before cell phones so when I got to school, I called my dad and he was happy I was OK and told me that the honest thing to do was to call and report my accident. He was right, but it ended up costing $500 to replace the sign! Really? The sign was fine, it was just the two wooden poles! Man, where do they get THAT wood from! That's government for you! HA!

We realized later that I had damaged the car more than I realized. The bumper had pushed into the front hood so it wouldn't open. So later that spring we refinished the car and fixed the damage. That spring, Dave had gotten into a motorcycle accident and broke his scapula so he was actually in a sling while he worked on the car. He and a buddy also overhauled the engine!

By 1987, Dave and I had been dating for 3 yrs and we wanted to get married. We were only 20 &21 at the time so we knew my parents would be greatly concerned that we were too young and couldn't support oursleves. We devised a plan that if we saved enough money before going to them with our plan that they would see how serious we were about our intentions. So our plan to start saving money included Dave and I both working 2 jobs, while finishing up school. My last year I planned to move back home to save more money. But the unfortunate reality came that my little car could not make the daily trip from Omaha to Lincoln everyday. So we discussed selling it so I could move home to save money and lease a more reliable car. So the that summer I sold the car to a girl who I worked with...and she ended up totaling it later. So sad.


So we always have remembered that event in our relationship as the one that started our quest for our life together! Yes, I know that sounds sappy but it's true!

So now over the past 23 years of marriage, EVERYTIME I would ever see an old bug I would usually make some comment about wishing we would have never sold it!! All my family knows this too! When I first got that car back in 85, my little brother, Chris, said when I took him for a ride for the first time, "If you die can I have this car?" haha!

About 4 years ago I was driving down 12th St in Sioux Falls and spotted an orange VW bug at a car dealer. I told Dave about it and we called, thinking it would only be $1200-$1500. I about fainted when the dealer said, "$12,000!!!!! He explained that when the new bugs started coming out , the older models just shot up in price! He said that was the going rate for a fairly nice bug. Well at that time my hope of ever getting another old bug was quickly going out of sight!


Life continued on and we kept having babies and living and loving life in SD. But always our fondness for that car was always in our memories because it held so much significance and memories for us.

Fast forward to now. This part is where I should really have Dave write his story and I will make him write it all down in here as well. His quest for this car was relentless and fascinating!

This past Thursday as I was heading out to do a Pampered Chef show Dave sent me a text saying to hurry home cuz he had something to show me. Now, not liking surprises that much, I of course tried to figure it out. I figured that since he had been working out a lot that he wanted to show me his newly defined stomach muscles, or since he started trying Rogaine, maybe he had some new hair growth on his head to show me. Couldn't figure out what it could be. I ended up staying a little late at the show catching up with a friend and Dave sent me another message checking to see if I was coming soon. Little did I know that he was frantically pacing back home waiting for me. And I just thought he was showing me hair and muscles !! haha!

As soon as I got home he was waiting in the Prius and said, "Get in!" "Uh OK"...I reluctantly responded He handed me a card with heartfelt words of appreciation and apology for not remembering my birthday over the years. Yes, this always seemed to be a sore spot as he was just not great at remembering those things like he used to when we were first dating and married. But who is really? You know life happens and we get caught up with the everyday business of life(and we have a lot to manage around here with 6 kids) and the nice little things we used to do for each other sometimes gets pushed to a back burner somewhere. Now don't get me wrong, we love each dearly and really believe that we are soulmates, but as any married couple with kids will tell you it gets hard at times. So over the years I had some disappointments with my birthdays. I just stopped expecting anything then I wasn't disappointed. I could tell Dave was disappointed in himself and would tell me that a lot. As I read the card I tried to figure out what he was up to! I also felt bad that he felt so sorry for missing my bdays in the past. Because you know, I can be difficult to live with, so oftentimes I feel like he should be receiving an early Saint Canonization! This week had also been a sad week for us as one of our friends from GOAT Rugby days passed away after a long battle with cancer. It brought up many fun memories of him during the week and gave us yet one more reminder of how precious life is and not to waste the time you have here on stupid things and worrying about things that don't matter.


Dave explained as we drove that he had been working on something for 2 years and it was time to let me in on what he was doing . So now I started getting scared, because he looked so serious and wouldn't look at me while he was driving. (He later told me that if he had looked at me, he would have either started laughing or crying).
He pulled up to house which I immediately recognized as Coach Chad's house. I still was confused!! We walked in and before I could even say a proper hello, he opened the garage and there I saw it!! I yelled, "MY CAR!!" (which I always said when I saw an old bug) then I looked at him and said, "Wait...Is this MY car?" He smiled and said, "Yep! Happy early birthday!" To say I was in SHOCK is an understatement! I was shaking and don't really remember what I said after that. He had to tell me to sit in it and go see it. I could barely move! This car was WAAAAY better than my first one! So very soon the questions started, "How did you...where did you...who did you ...how much did you...is this why our savings seemed smaller...." I stuttered and stammered all at once. He said he had a big story to tell me but we should do that over drinks at TC's. Chad and Rachel laughed and said that everyone knew about this except for me!! I cannot believe that he pulled this off and when you hear his story you too will be amazed. He actually looked for the original car but never found it then he found others on Ebay and this one he found last December on EBAY!!! It happened to be located in Florida about 6 miles from where his aunt lives. She went to the owner and scoped it out and confirmed that it was a STEAL! Dave tried to offer the seller a bid right there to take it off Ebay but they wanted to keep it up for bid. So on Dec 18th he started bidding and at one point I walked past his computer and saw a picture of a yellow bug. Then Zach swooped in and grabbed the computer from me. I thought, "weird' but oh how nice he is looking at bugs. He is remininscing too!"

That night he won the bid! The story of the people involved and how he got it here and what he went thru to find it is utterly amazing and touching and it brings tears to my eyes when I think about how much he loves me.

So that night as I listened to the whole story, I cried and told him I am not worth this and how could he do this for me! WOW! the other amazing part was that I went that day to sub for Adoration at church for my friend Brenda. As I sat there and prayed, I prayed for Dave and I, that we continue being good parents but also find the fun part in our life again like we used to. I prayed, " Please let us take more time to realize how much fun we used to have with each other and take more time with each other.  Thank you for giving me this wonderful man to share my life with and keep our marriage strong"  Not sure what compelled me to pray that on THAT day but I just did.  And I continued to pray for my children other pressing needs and blessings in my life.  And then later that night, THIS was the day Dave decided to give me this gift from his heart and soul that might seem silly to those on the outside but is signifies so much from the start of our life together and now it's here again!  The way it all came together is just amazing! 

Now Dave also explained why he didn't go with the original plan of giving it to me while I was out to lunch with some friends and have the waiter bring the keys to me.  He hadn't expected that some extra work was needed before it was to be REALLY road ready,  so he felt he needed to let me know because there would be some extra time and cost that he was going to spend on it and he could only make up so many excuses for so long.  So now it will be ready for us to take our first drive once the snow stops and the weather is nice!  The exterior of the car is perfect, the original floormats are there...with LadyBugs on them...and the seats are perfect!  Although my birthday is not for 4 more months, there is nothing that could be better than going for a ride on July 13th with my honey in the car that brings us back to so many happy memories of our life starting together!  Keep watching for Dave's post!