no more complaining

I finally caved in. Several months before Gracie was born, Jon started pushing to get a new van that would more easily accomodate 3 kids. We currently have a Chevy Venture and an Isuzu Rodeo. The Rodeo is in fine condition, but does not easily fit a baby carrier and two booster seats. The Venture obviously has the needed room, but it is a piece of you know what. We bought it while we were in college, and it drives nice, but a few summers ago the air conditioning went out. When we checked in to fixing it, it was going to cost about $900, way more than we were willing to put into it. Then, this last fall, I noticed that I was driving along one day and going 0 mph. That's right, our dashboard had a short. We have no idea how fast we are going, how many miles are actually on the car anymore or how much gasoline we have. We have figured out which fuse to replace so that it will work, but until the short is fixed we have to keep replacing fuses everytime that it blows out. Why don't we just get the short fixed, you ask? Well, according to the mechanic that we talked to it would be an easy fix once he finds the short, but first he has to FIND the short. He says he would actually have to catch the short when it happens. To us that is code for bring me your car and let me charge you for a bunch of hours to find the short. Since we don't care too much about this car, we don't really care to get it fixed. It still drives well, you just have to be cautious with your gas and be sure not to speed. Because the air conditioning is broken, we don't feel comfortable with me driving the kids in the van, so it has become Jon's drive to work car. That is about all we use it for. But, the kids and I in the Rodeo is a tight squeeze. I have been holding Jon off now for some time, insisting that we could make it work. I've been this way because we have been married for almost 8 years and only made a car payment for 2 months of that time. I know that this is not normal, and I know that eventually we would have to take on a real car payment, I've just been trying to put it off as long as possible. Anyways, the point is that I finally gave in. Last week I got tired of listening to Jon bug me about it, so I got the financing in place and yesterday we went out and bought this.

It is a 2004 Nissan Quest and we are in love. We got a really great deal and it has hardly any miles on it. The kids love the built in DVD player and Jon and I like that it is a minivan but doesn't look like every other minivan on the road. All that's left to do is sell the Rodeo. Simple enough, right? I'll keep you posted.