Minivan

Mentioned it in the last post, but we did it.  We have the mom-mobile in our possession, a 2007 Honda Odyssey with 20k miles (wow, you save so much money buying a newer used car in good shape than a new one...amazing).  Now, about 10 different mom friends assured me that even though I was very against the thought of driving a minivan, I would be soon won over and think it the best thing ever and love it.

I'm waiting.

The thing that has definitely been wonderful so far is that we were able to bring home a load of 10' 2x4s last week without any trouble.  That was nice!  But as far as more convenient with the kids, etc.  I guess I don't see it yet.  Yes, the sliding doors are nice, but I'm not sure if that one plus outweighs the minuses of feeling like I'm driving a BUS, being very far away from the kids, and them being far away from each other because the thing is so BIG, a much more scratchable exterior vs. my rugged plastic-bumpered-on-all-4-sides CRV (which I previously used as a gate at the edge of the hilly driveway), and a trunk door so enormously large and heavy it is hard to close one-handed.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining.  It is a beautiful vehicle (and has seat warmers...um, awesome).  And now we can tote around visiting family and kids all together, which is beyond great.  I'm just saying that I'm not really sold on it as such a significant help in my day-to-day normal life.  Maybe it will just take some more time to grow on me ;)

As far as Reuel the daredevil...well, we were scheduled to leave for family camp on Wednesday at noon.  Reuel went to the dealership where we saw the car online, and bought it on Monday night at closing time.  All of Tuesday and Wednesday morning was spent in frustrating attempts to wire money from our account to pay for the car (isn't it odd that it is harder to get people your money than to take a loan of their money?).  The status of the transaction at camp departure time on Wednesday was that the money had been successfully wired, but could take unpredictable hours to clear the federal reserve and land in the dealership's bank account.  No big deal, I packed our other car and insisted that we leave for Maine!!  Reuel, however, really wanted to finish this thing, and pick up the car.  Mind you, the suburb where he bought it was 1 hour's drive in the opposite direction of Maine.  So, I'm thinking...add 2 hours of driving time to our already 3 hour trip to Maine with non-driving-loving kids, and potentially walk away with no minivan?  No WAY!!  I submitted to my husband.  (Take note, that is not always my strong suit, and I did admirably well that day.)

We drive up to the dealership and nope, the money is not here yet!  Reuel chats with the salesman while the kids run around and convinces him to go check again.  10 minutes later he's back, and the money has just arrived.  Registration, quick inspection, and we drive to Maine with room to spare (the Mazda was packed to the gills).

This is really not that fantastic of a story, but it shares a little of my husband's modus operandi, and how things seem to work out for him.  He was really very brave, potentially having to deal with 2 whiny kids and a whiny wife who drove 2 hours out of the way for nothing, and who would've had to return shortly after camp to retrieve the van.

Now we have a very old, very falling apart CRV to try to sell, that we not-so-smartly put too much money into repairing recently.  Hope someone wants to buy it.