Our New Van!

I've been waiting to tell the fun news until i had some pics, but that's not gonna happen. so yes, we bought a van while brian was in New Mexico and I in Nebraska. he he. I shopped online in Omaha and Crestwood online and found two great deals at Cottage Car Sales just around the corner in crestwood. they had prepaid for the car reports so i knew exactly what i was getting. we settled on a 2001 Honda Odyssey charcoal grey. it has all the little extras that we were hoping for and we only paid $....yea, i don't know if i should share that or not. Anyway, the timing on all of this was beautiful. While i was driving to Nebraska i got a call from my friend Sunshine. her car was a driving pop can and it had finally died. and before she called i had this thought that we could sell our Malibu to her. so i call bri on a friday and tell him my idea. he would think about it; because at that point we really had not shopped yet. so monday it was confirmed for Sunshine that her car is toast. she was without a car and needed one badly. as she analyzed her $ she could only afford so much. so she felt her only option was to go to a dealer and do financing. well she kept having this pressing thought to call Karen, my mother in law, to go with her to the dealer. finally giving in the to impression she called. all the house calls were forwarded to Darrell's cell so he answered and took a message. darrell's with brian and so brian calls sunshine right back and offers her our malibu in the exact price range she could afford. so within five hours she went from no car, panic, realizing more debt, to i have a great car that works. it was fun and brian finalized everything from selling our malibu to buying a new van all in three days in between his business trips. and i'm totally taking all the credit on finding such a great find. on our end i had printed off a van from this cottage car sales and thought to keep an eye on it. a week went by and brian and i make more of a defined decision on what we want/need and so i do another search. and find another van from the same dealer that looked great. i call the number and find out that the van just came in. i told him my husband couldn't look at it for another week because he was out of town. so karen willingly dropped everything that afternoon to test drive it and see if it was all it was said to be. she felt is was amazing (she had done some van shopping previously so had lots to compare to). she called bri back told him she thought it was great and she put a down payment down for us. while she was test driving it another gentlemen came to buy the same van. the salesmen told him a family was currently test driving it and if they didn't put a down payment on it today he would sell it to this other man. so karen came back from her drive and told him our decision. that is when he shared with her that someone else was interested. it may be boring and so-what to you, but i think it is a little fun to see the events unfold for us.

And a side story that i found hilarious and my friend Emily will laugh too. she left a previous comment on the previous van story about my experience in her van back in high school. we were on our way to her house after seminary and i sat in the very back. i was pushing and pulling everything back there and just as i pulled something her mom pushed on the gas and my seat went flying completely horizontal. a bit startlingly to myself and a great laugh. well, brian and i were out and again i am in the passenger seat pushing and pulling the buttons. and i pulled and lever and found my self immediately flat and startled. it was funny. because the same thing happened again. bri of course didn't laugh as much as i did.

And driving a van isn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. i loved my 4 door honda civic. oh the feelings driving that car were incredible; hot and sexy! that was my car for the last two years in college and our only for a about 3 years. i really didn't look forward to a van because they are so stereotypical and i used to feel that if i drove a van i would become unattractive and embarrassed; my self esteem couldn't handle it. but all that is gone! i'm a real mom! i feel great and gorgeous. the only thing is that i used to be able to dance and drive at the same time...now i just feel stupid.