new to me

I remember when my parents bought their very first new car. It was a minivan and had automatic sliding doors (!!). I believe I was 15 years old. I took my driver's license test in that car, back when I had cute naturally curly hair and actually had a decent license picture. We took tons of road trips in that van and my siblings and I argued over who got to sit in the middle row (as opposed to the back). That van drove me to college, among countless other places.

Five years ago we were living in Boston. With one (dumpy) car. I drove Spencer to the train every morning and picked him up every night. Sometimes I had to pluck sleeping babies out of their beds to go get him. We couldn't afford another car, and we made do and it wasn't a big deal.

But this van - my parents's van - came along and saved us. We were suddenly a two car family!! My parents drove it out to us, across the entire country. It didn't like Boston weather so much but once we left it did so much better. It has been SUCH a good car for us. Emma "named" it Annie.

Recently it has gotten...tired. It's now 15 years old. It shakes when you drive it. The heating works sometimes. The automatic doors gave out long ago. I get nervous when I need to drive it more than 10 miles. The upholstery has really cool 90s patterns  and designs on it. We've put a lot of money into it, but every time I've been so glad that we continued to hold on to it.

Last night Spencer took me out car shopping. I have been doing research for months, and have spent countless hours on Craigslist to see what's out there. Through all my research I realized I am just not a new car kind of person. My frugal lifestyle doesn't jive with a brand new car, at least not right now. I'm glad I came to that conclusion, as it saved us a lot of time with car salesmen. From of all my research I also knew what model I wanted, what colors I wanted, what options, etc. I guess in the end that is what made it so easy.

I have never been one of those snobby people who swears they'll never buy/drive a minivan (well, maybe I'm snobby in other ways but not about minivans). So that's what we got! A new (to me) shiny pretty car that will hopefully get us the same amount of years as my parents' van did! Happy Birthday to me!

The one taking the news hardest is Emma. This morning when I told her to go look in the driveway she said, "But I'm going to miss Annie!" She started crying and then she asked if we could keep it and just park it in the backyard. (Um, no, we only have room and are only trashy enough for one vehicle out there, thank you very much). I'm having a hard time letting go too. Well, I would be if my dad hadn't given me permission to go send it over a cliff.

RIP trusty old van.

Spencer, good luck topping this present.