The very exciting news around here is that my faithful minivan hit 100,000 (+6) miles this weekend.
(When I said that sentence in my head, it sounded sarcastic and sort-of funny. But, like most of my text messages, the sarcasm didn’t translate into print. So, then, it was like I had typed the MOST suburban mom sentence in the world. Then I thought about THAT a little more and realized I am a suburban mom. So100,000 miles is kind of exciting.
Why?
… we don’t usually hold onto cars this long. M loves buying and selling cars. In our first ten years of marriage, we had fifteen different cars. By the way, buying the minivan was a total KILLJOY for M’s love of the car-buying industry. The realization we would only own minivans for the next several years has frozen out his red-hot car-buying passion.
…our family was in Galveston this weekend. We were (you guessed it) working on 100,000 (+6) projects to get the beach house ready for renters.
Without whining about how we worked ourselves to exhaustion for two days, I’ll tell you this story: I’ve been watching my speedometer for weeks now, waiting for it to turn to 100,000. I kept wondering where it would happen.
On Sunday morning, driving back to the beach house from St. Johns, Catie said, “When did we get the minivan?” And I looked down and saw the magical moment of 100,000 miles had happened while driving to my childhood church, with my children, on Pentecost morning.
Wow.
I told the kids the story abut the day we got the minivan. Catie was two years old and I was HUGELY pregnant with the twins. I was this time of year, so I was due in just a couple weeks and trying to get as much accomplished as I could before the storm of two infants came. So, while I got my hair cut, M and Catie bought the minivan. (We consider it an excellent negotiating strategy to bring a rambunctious toddler with us to the car lot. They’ll take any deal to GET THE LOUD KID out of their fancy showroom). M and Catie drove the van to Galveston, where we met the Wards at Rainforest Cafe for dinner and the big reveal.
Anyway, I took the above picture stopped at the light just outside Galveston’s Rainforest Cafe. It seemed very much like a Lion King Circle of Life Moment.
Except the minivan has not died. And it’s looking like we will have it for another 100,000 miles, mostly because we are spending all of our money on this beach house. (Kidding. Kind of.) Also because, it’s just not that fun to shop for another minivan. A new minivan would stress me out because my current one is so nicely broken in with dozens of fruit snacks smushed into the carpet and the lovely smell of a yogurt drink Nate threw at me when he was six months old.
That last sentence was supposed to be sarcastic.
Sort of.
