A Proud Member of the Mom's Mini Van Brigade Once Again!!

So our van died. It's died before but this time it died for good. We said we would drive it into the ground and we did exactly that!!

In 2001, with a toddler and a brand new baby Maia, we reluctantly bought our 1st "family" vehicle. I'll admit it was hard for me to give up my cute little car. Man I LOVED that car. But, it was also really really exciting to be joining the BIG TIME moms who were all driving mini vans around town. Made me feel like a true, authentic mommy or something!! Like now I was a part of the inner circle of a secret club:)

For the most part the van was really good to us. It safely toted my babies to and from countless activities and survived an untold number of road trips. It rallied through not one, but two accidents!! It never even complained when my kids spilled Happy Meal sodas or lost millions of french fries down into it's seats:) It may have groaned a bit the umpteenth time that Andy dumped coffee all over the driver's seat though:)

The poor van (we should've named it) did start having problems in the last few years. The AC went out and then the heat followed suit. The exhaust system was starting to become a real problem. When Andy scored a brand new cr-v as a benefit to his job, he was nice enough to hand the keys over to me!! He wanted the kids and me to be in a reliable vehicle so he started using the van as a work car. I'll admit I was GIDDY inside at the thought of driving a cute little SUV!! Eight years after I was sooooo excited to be driving around town in a mom mobile...I was ecstatic to be ditching it:) I no longer wanted the status symbol that it brought with it. Kind of like how during my 1st pregnancy I was overly eager to start wearing maternity clothes, but by my 3rd pregnancy I was THA-RILLED that I didn't HAVE to wear maternity clothes until 7 months into the pregnancy.

So last week the transmission went out on the van:( And we had a BIG decision to make. Did we want to put a significant amount of money into a 1997 vehicle with over 180,000 miles on it or should we finally lay our poor, overworked van to rest? In the end we decided that the van was simply not worth putting any more money into. So we started car shopping!

Turns out that Andy and I had VERY different ideas of what we needed in a family vehicle. As much as I loved driving the cr-v, I knew that my family wasn't fitting very comfortably in it. The kids were smooshed in the backseat! And let's be honest here...they're only getting bigger!! Plus, we couldn't take their friends with us when we went somewhere fun. Not to mention our 2 very large dogs. Sometimes we would have to drive 2 vehicles to get everyone to and fro. Which is ridiculous. I KNEW we needed a 7 passenger vehicle. Andy, on the other hand, ONLY wanted to look at SUV's. Which, I honestly would've been thrilled with...but I knew there was NO WAY we could afford a 7 passenger SUV. Neither the payment or the gas!! When I pointed this fact out to Andy he decided that we would just buy a 5 seater SUV. Well, I wasn't going for that and I fought pretty hard for a van. Who woulda thought right? That me, who was so excited to be rid of my original mommobile, would be fighting so hard to buy a new one? Andy was standing his ground pretty firmly. Now,  I don't usually give Andy a hard time about things like this, but this time I was standing just firmly as he was!!

So who do you think won?!?! I guess I sorta gave it away in the title huh? But yep, I won. Thanks to Johnny, at Ricart's used car factory, I am now the proud owner of a *new to me* Kia Sedona!! Andy has insisted that he won't drive it...but we all know that he will:) In fact, he already has!! He drove it home from the car lot while I followed behind in the cr-v. Even he had to admit that it was so nice for the kids to be able to spread out a bit :) Speaking of the kids...they are in LOVE with our new van!! They have each staked their claim to their new seats!!

The kids were excited when I cut and added our little stick figure family to the back window. I'm pretty sure Andy is gonna HATE it:) It will officially make us "that" annoying family:) But I don't care...I think they're cute!! Except that butterfly that's bigger than my girl's head. That probably needs to go:)

So there ya have it. My kid's are only gonna be young for so long. I'll proudly drive an "uncool" minivan until they're all grown and gone:( And I'll be thankful every minute for the time I have with them. It's a privilege to be part of the Mom's Mini Van Brigade!!

Doesn't It Just Figure:)

Isaac plays the cello. Well...he sort of plays the cello!! I take him to the Middle School bus stop, super duper early in the morning,  twice a week, so he can take lessons. Then maybe a couple of times a month he picks up the cello we have here at home and practices. The. same. two. songs!!! That's right. We pay an exorbitant amount of money each month so our son could learn Baa Baa Black Sheep for an entire school year!! Did I mention how much we pay for the cello rental? It's a lot. Isaac obviously has very good taste--just like his mama--he picked the most expensive instrument that was being offered!!


So Andy is sick of paying for the cello. Isaac is still interested in it though. Andy thought that we could sway Isaac to give it up easily enough. You know, a little bribe here, a little bribe there and POOF the cello is gone. I wasn't exactly on board with this plan but Andy seemed pretty intent on following through with it.


So Isaac comes home last Thursday all excited about his great day at school. Let me tell you this never happens so I had to get down to the bottom of his giddiness right away!! Turns out his cello instructor pulled him aside and told him how fabulous he is. Turns out he's some sort of cello SUPERSTAR when it comes to Baa Baa Black Sheep. Okay...so she may not have exactly used the word superstar...BUT we know that's what she meant when she told him that his sight reading was very good and that his playing was coming along very nice. Clearly,  he is destined for cello greatness!! We're already searching out his future bandmates so he can form the next Apocalyptica!! Okay, not really. But you know!! We're keeping the darn cello:) Maybe next year he can learn Mary Had A Little Lamb! 

Lesson Thwarted!!

Asher was WAY more excited about the derby this year than Isaac was. The siblings in Isaac's pack are allowed to make their own car and race them in a fun run. Asher begged Andy to work on his car everyday. It's all he could think about for weeks. He decided on a Batmobile.

 He decorated it all by himself. Unfortunately, we didn't give it the time that we should have. It was far too heavy. We are really lucky that they let us race it at all. It wasn't sanded or laquered. We didn't even graphite the poor kid's wheels. This is Ash watching his car's heat. His car came in dead last each time it raced. Talk about a discouraged little boy:(

It's no wonder that his car came in dead last each time it raced. It was so slow that it never even had a chance!! Asher was quite devastated. I saw his lip quiver a few times.

Daddy did a good job consoling him. It was hard considering Asher is a boy who LOVES to win. We've actually had several conversations with him lately after he's had complete breakdowns because he lost a board game. I think Andy probably offered up a few apologies as well. Asher did have some tears at the trophy ceremony. He didn't throw a fit or get mad. He just quietly cried. Little tears silently rolling down his sweet face. He REALLY wanted a trophy. Andy pulled him aside and explained that we can't win everything all the time. That we don't ALWAYS recieve trophies. That there are always winners AND losers. That all we can do is our very best and that maybe next year we would be the best. Asher was feeling much better. I saw a little smile creep into his eyes.

And then a den leader approached us with what else than...A TROPHY! Just for Asher:) She told him he was a winner. His whole face lit up. Poor Andy though!! His whole lesson on being a good loser had gone down the drain with one mom's good intentions!! Maybe next year we'll actually deserve a trophy:)

Pinewood Derby Update

So the boys DID finish Isaac's car!! It was very last minute but they pulled it off. I should've figured that they would...Andy ALWAYS comes through in a pinch.

I think Andy did an awesome job on the urban camo paint. There is a Lego gun on top and there was supposed to be half of a Lego soldier sticking out of the top as well, but we had to yank him off. Isaac's car was just a smidge over the weight limit, so we had to ditch the soldier to put us at the proper race weight. They had promised to put the soldier back on for when the boys walked through the line of cars and judged best of show, but that didn't happen. Isaac was pretty disappointed, but I don't think the addition of the Lego man would have earned him any extra points. Lots of the boys worked really hard on their car and it SHOWED!! Our friend Taylor's car ended up winning best in show. It was designed like something from HALO. At least that's what I'm told...I don't actually have any experience or knowledge of HALO:) I do know that Tay's car looked AWESOME and that he totally deserved the win. Mac's wedge of cheese with a mouse on top car was pretty cool too!!

So Isaac's car did end up coming in first quite a few times. And for a boy that couldn't give two hoots about his car for an entire month, you know when he was actually supposed to be planning and working on it? I could see the excitement building on his face each time his car came down the track. I'm pretty sure he was calculating in his head where his car would place overall. I think he really really thought he was going to bring home a trophy. I knew better. Landon and Jose's cars were both really really fast. They were winning by a mile each time they raced. And they were BOTH Isaac's direct competition.

In the end I was right. Isaac did NOT bring home a trophy. Shhhh...don't tell him...but I was really glad he lost. In fact, I would've been really disappointed had he won anything on this day. He didn't WORK hard enough for it. He didn't WANT it bad enough when it counted. What would it have taught him if he had gone to that race and WON? It would have taught him that he can skate by and not put any work into a project but yet still get big rewards is what it would've taught him. That is NOT a lesson I want him to learn. I am thrilled that the boys who put so much time and effort into their cars took home the trophies!!

Andy was upset with himself for not putting in much effort this year. He didn't realize how much fun the derby was going to be. He was out of town for last year's race and missed all the excitement. Our only other derby experience was with our old troop, and if I'm being honest here, I would have to say that that particular derby stinks:(  You have to stand in a crowd of a million people--at the mall--there is very little chance that you will even see your car come down the track. Plus you only get one shot. If you don't win your first race there, then you are disqualified. That is what Andy was expecting I think. But that is most definitely NOT the way they do things here! I kept trying to explain to him how different it was--but I don't think he heard me. Oh well...lessons learned. 

Not only did we lose the race but we also lost Isaac's coat! Well not lost it exactly--it went home with somebody else though. Isaac tossed it up against a wall and it turns out that another kid did the exact same thing...in the exact same spot. And their coats were IDENTICAL. Except Isaac's coat was the next size up. So the coat left behind didn't fit him. I waited 2 days to see if his coat would turn up. It didn't. I ended up at Kohl's in search of a new Winter coat on Sunday night.  There were only a handful left!! I was super lucky to not only find one, but to also get it on clearance:) Wouldn't you know that the very next day, you know after Isaac had ALREADY worn the new coat, we got the old coat back!! Isn't that how it always works out?!?!?!