We joined "the club"

It's official, I am a mini-van driving mama. As I mentioned in my last post, the transmission in Patrick's car broke last Monday on his way to work. We knew it was only a matter of time. He called me around 8:30 as I was pulling into Wal-Mart with the boys to do some grocery shopping and said that the car was making lots of funny noises and he didn't think he would make it. I offered to leave right away to come pick him up, but he insisted on continuing to drive and wanted to see how far he could get. As I was settling the boys into the shopping cart Patrick called again to say that he really didn't think the car would make it much longer. Again, I offered to pick him up and told him that I would rather leave right away than when I had a whole cart full of groceries (that sounds really selfish); he again declined and told me to keep shopping. Another thirty minutes passed and I was nearly done shopping as he called again. This time to say that he made it to his parents house-about halfway between home and work- and could literally make it no further. I told him as soon as I got the groceries unpacked at home we'd be on our way to get him. We picked him up at his parent's house, he brought us home and then turned around and began his commute again. As soon as he came home that night he told me that his dad's mechanic looked at the car and diagnosed it as a broken transmission. With the realization that the car was not worth as much as the repair, our search for another vehicle began.

Having just had our second baby, it was really only a matter of time until a mini-van would seem appealing and alluring. In fact, lately I've been envious of my other mommy friend's vans. They're so roomy and seem so convenient. It seemed the perfect time to explore the van as an option. I was embarrassingly clueless about the modern van - at our first stop, the Honda dealership I was so impressed by the double side doors that opened that I raved to the salesman about how much I liked that feature and I wanted to confirm that older models had the same feature. When Patrick and I were driving home that evening he laughed and said vans have been doing that for years. Oops. We were both a little hesitant though, I was worried that a van would be too big-you know, bus-like- and Patrick wasn't quite ready to commit to one so we also looked at a few 7-passenger SUV's and a 7-passenger crossover. The irony is that after test driving the vans, the other SUV's seemed small and we began saying crazy things like "it doesn't have enough room." After lots of looking, test driving, late night online research and some stress induced headaches we settled on a used Toyota Sienna that we found online at a dealership in Elmhurst.

Now I don't want to be that crazy mini-van loving lady who goes around telling everyone to buy a van. It was the right time in our lives to consider it as an option and I will say that if you're considering one...do it! I love driving ours. Sometimes I feel like a babysitter because I couldn't seriously be old enough to be driving one around filled with my own children. But it's true and I do like it. I like all of the room and the perks of a van. I'm still learning to park and reverse safely. So far, so good. The boys like it, too; Henry lovingly refers to it as "my van" as in his van. Ha ha, ah the irony, it may well become his when he turns sixteen...