We Took A Road Trip

Title isn't too newsworthy, huh?

What about if I add in our own car?

Still no big deal?

Then I have to add first time in over two years in our own car.

Okay, maybe now it's a little bit interesting. At least it is to us.

I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

After five years of driving a vehicle that we bought under duress that was a lemon from the day we drive it off the lot, we finally got rid of it.

It took a lot to get to this point and so many stories in my mind that I want to remember. This experience this time was such a different one from our last car purchasing experience.

And I am truly grateful to the people who helped me get my act together last week, put my ducks in a row, and I am thankful that I had done research ahead of time so that I could be informed of what I was doing. Without those people, this experience may have been just as awful as the previous one.
And now we have a car. Actually, it was the one I wanted all along and had been talking about for six months now. We toyed with another van but with so much driving I do I couldn't find one with low enough mileage to suit our needs. And honestly, I was ready to scale down. We couldn't scale down TOO much mind you. I have a six foot four inch hubby and two boys who seem to be quickly shooting up as well. And I drive car pool and needed three little bodies to fit comfortably in the back seat.

New pretty gold next to yucky old blue

I can't believe just how stressed I had become every time I got into the old van. It broke down numerous times on the way home from car pool this fall so it wasn't even reliable for that. I missed a half dozen days of work due to its failures and this past Christmas break was spent with only our backup truck as the van kept going back in for repairs every other day that were never the root of the problem, using up all of our expendable money for the break.

The final straw came last Tuesday when I went out to head to work and the back up truck wouldn't start either. And that day was the we spent searching for the new Wheelz Family Vehicle.

But I find myself not believing it. I am afraid to allow myself to be happy. Every little smell, bump, or noise I hear in the car is making me panic. I am having a very hard time letting go and believing that we did the right thing. I'm just so afraid of being stuck again. I am afraid to be relieved or to put my guard down. It is pathetic that a vehicle can cause this much anxiety. Maybe after a little while and the nightmare of the old van has passed for awhile I will let myself relax.

But I do smile each time I head to the driveway to go somewhere. I really like the car, even though it has no bells or whistles that I used to have. I love coming out of a store and reminding myself that the pretty gold car is mine. I loved taking an overnight to my brother's house this weekend in our own car. And Steve had a great time calculating the gas mileage on the trip, which is almost double the old van.

And the boys were hilarious. In the last two years, every time we did manage to get to my brother's for a visit, it was for a day only and we borrowed my mom's van. So when we told the boys we were going this weekend to sleep over, they were incredulous. Neither of them actually believed me. Aaron must have asked at least twenty times, "Are we really doing a sleepover?". When I was packing he kept asking me why, still not believing it was happening. And my SIL said that he even mentioned something to her about the amazement of sleeping over:)




We had a fun weekend. The boys got to watch the original Star Wars for the first time and we played lots of fun games. But the best was just having some time away to relax with family. I imagine more trips will be in the works in the near future.

Why?




Because we FINALLY can!