Vehicular update

In anticipation of our upcoming bundle of joy and his accompanying big, bulky car seat, we began minivan-shopping in late July. Now, before you send us your condolences, we are totally fine with owning, driving, and therefore being seen in a minivan. We already own a station wagon, so clearly we're not that hung up on driving "cool" "cars". And really, I wouldn't put it past me to single-handedly change the image of the minivan for the better. I'm pretty sure I am that awesome.

We did a bit o' internet shopping and reading and then test-driving. Chuck focused on things like how the engine looked/sounded, how it drove, and the mileage and I focused on how much room I would have to crawl back and buckle wee children in the third row and how cute I looked sitting in it. We each brought a lot to the process.

We quickly found that the Chevrolet Uplander was the minivan for us; then it became a matter of finding the right Uplander. We looked at four pretty seriously: two were rejected for engine issues, one didn't have rear a/c (nooo thanks) and also it was gold (ditto) and the fourth seemed to be an excellent fit.

Just to make sure, we took the boys with us to test drive that one. Don't worry, we waited until after we had handed over the check before letting them climb over the seats :).

Here's a shot of the new ride!! . . . although this makes it look like it's as long as a limousine. I promise it's not.

The same day we brought home the Chevy, the Saturn got jealous and became very attention-seeking. As in the water pump went out. Now, that would have run us somewhere around $500-600 at the shop to get fixed but instead my awesome husband got ambitious and went all DIY on its, um, engine:

$70 for the part and a few hours later and the Saturn is running b-e-a-utifully. Thanks honey, you're my hero! (But stop asking if you now get to go out and spend $500 on something else you want. It doesn't work that way).

Unfortunately the truck's issues went beyond Chuck's fixing ability and its overall worth, so we had to part ways.
We bought this '88 Ford Ranger back in April of 2005 for $750. It was an excellent truck for the last six years, all things considered. It started having some serious problems earlier this year and finally gave up the ghost about a month ago, so we sold it to the junkyard for a sweet $300.

The little boys and I will miss piling in together (Beverly Hillbillies-style) and cruising around town, but I'm pretty sure we'll get over it. The truck and its habit of dying mid-right turn did provide good gospel teaching moments, though, as Clyde was ready each time to offer a prayer that it would start again and get us where we were going.

So the other day when Chuck and Clyde were adorning the new ride with a Boise State Broncos sticker on the rear side windows, I mentioned something to Chuck about other bumper stickers. He promptly vetoed the idea; I think he thought I was envisioning something like this:

Which, for the record, I was not. I actually am really not a bumper sticker person either. Buuut I did spend some time pondering and googling which ones I would commit to . . . because, you know, why not?

This one would obviously make the cut in an effort to make the minivan more legit.

And then this would cancel out any street cred provided by the previous one. . .

This one just made me laugh, and continues to each time I see it. I don't even know why; it just does.

I laughed at this one because, I kid you not, it was on the bumper of the station wagon my mom drove during my teenage years.

I'm cheesy and slightly idealistic, so I'd definitely stick one of these on there.

This is as far as I'd go, politically. Honestly, most political bumper stickers (on either side) are just really mean-spirited which isn't really how I roll.

There are a ton of autism-related bumper stickers out there; I thought this one was cute.

As is this one.

This one is sweet. And true. Although I'd probably grab my sharpie and add "But seriously, my hands really are full." And then when I'm wrestling Will as I carry him to the car whenever we leave church/the store/my mom's house/basically anywhere, people could nod knowingly :).

Then my hypothetically bumper sticker-loving self felt guilty about only focusing on one son's medical/health issues so I turned my attention to Clyde.

Unfortunately, there is a serious lack of Hirschsprung's-related paraphernalia out there; this sad/hard-to-read bumper sticker was the only one I could find. Then I realized Clyde would probably not love a reference to his intestinal disease plastered on the back of the family minivan, so I tried to find something a little more his style.

Success. I'm actually a little worried for Chuck to see this one; he might backpedal and make an exception for it. . .