Oh boy....It's A Car

Oh boy it is a car.....yes you heard right. I am now the proud person of a car payment and a semi used car. Dang the devil. The story is we bought a used van when our littlest was about a year old. She is now almost 11. This van of ours has soda stains on the roof of the inside due to surprise! Sodas that had been shaken to see what would happen. Gum stuck and petrified underneath the seats. Broken seat belt and hand prints/foot prints and who knows what the heck prints all over. But it was with us for a really long time. We drove it on trips to Disney, about a million trips to the grocery store, transporting to choir concerts and friend's houses. It took us to Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California and Utah. It has rushed us to the Doc's for stitches and to the Walgreens for medicine. It has loaded sleds and bikes and hauled things to the dump and the thrift store. It has been backed into twice and has a few scooter scratches from the handle bar of said scooters. Children have climbed on the roof and pretended to be on the tallest of mountains. It has been washed for the mere price of popsicles and has taught two girls to drive or sort of drive. It contains slurpee spills from 7-11 runs on the hottest of summer days. The passenger window doesn't work and the side door requires a special tap to open it up. It has spilled lip gloss in the door slots and mismatched earrings in the glove compartment. It carried baby seats and carpool to a charter school two cities away. It took us camping. It took us to the Heber Lodge for a wonderful Christmas party and over nighter. It took us to the outlet malls in Park City and to midnight runs to Del Taco. It hauled friends to pick up their cars at the shop and took us on long Sunday drives. It had gusto. It also had no car payments for many of the years. But those days are over. The van was fixed but the light went out and to replace that is a few hundred dollars and an extensive search in the heap yards to find it. Then a few cylinders just went out meaning it won't go past 30 miles an hour. We would love it but we live out in the country and today it was -7 degrees. You cannot survive here without a reliable car. So I am sad to say that now instead of soda stains on the floor I will have heated seats. Instead of a semi working radio I will have a great cd player/radio. Instead of a car streaked with micro scratches I will have four  wheel drive. Sounds good? It is but as usual...it comes with a price tag. But like children, it is a necessity and like life...it's going to cost us. BUT I will have a warm buttocks during all the driving I do. So I count myself lucky to be a new payee on a car. But atlas our  old van I will love for the things it served us in.

Go and  do.