Minivan time

Okay, so I've tried to come up with a clever way to get around having to buy a minivan. I've thought about buying a four-door car, a four-door SUV, pretty much anything but the mommy mobile. BUT each time, I somehow internally convince myself that a van is truly what my growing family needs.

You see, we not only have a little boy on the way. We already have two kids, our two little doggies, Abby and Sheba. They are our babies and they go with us a lot. We haven't had the pleasure of going on vacations with them but when we go to Bethel, Abby and Sheba follow. They love, love, love to visit their maw maw's and she spoils them rotten. Now, if we had to leave them home from now on, they would not like their little brother Corbin, now would they?

So logically thinking here, we really do need a vehicle with a third row seat. Corbin gets his own little seat and Abby and Sheba can have the very back seat if we were to get a mini van. Abby and Sheba tend to get really, super excited when we pull up in maw maw's yard and their tails go a-wagging away. Pit Bull Terriers have really super strong tails and they hurt and if they were to be in the same seat with Corbin, well their tails could whack his little head off and that would not be cool. And they are also kind of temperamental when they ride. Well, okay, Sheba is temperamental. So she needs her own space. She already has to share with Abby, who will take up 80% of the backseat of our car when riding now, leaving Sheba a little, tiny corner. She's usually okay with her corner, but every now and then you can tell she's not liking her sister. A van would give them the option also of laying in the floor so they could truly have their own space. All around, the minivan is the way to go.

So, I have accepted the minivan theory. I have a family to look out for now and once Corbin is born, there may be some talking about a second child and a minivan would accommodate another one as well so we wouldn't have to go through this whole new car spill again.

I have looked and looked at minivans and I finally found a "cool" one. The Honda Odyssey. They have this sporty look to them, which will help me adjust from being the cool, 2-door, sporty car driving person to the soccer mom, minivan driving girl. Of course, these vans are expensive!!

I've been checking them out for 7 months. I finally found a model that doesn't have a gazillion miles on it that looks nice and clean and is a good price. So this week, we shall ride to Raleigh and take a peek at it. There's a small chance we'll go ahead and take the plunge and buy it but then again, we may decide to wait a little longer. I, however, would like to go ahead and get something soon so I can practice driving it BEFORE the baby comes. It is a van, for goodness sake, and I need to learn how to not run into things. The last thing I need is having a minor accident when Corbin is here. I'll have to go ahead and start bribing the kid from the get go. "Let's not tell daddy about this little accident, okay Corbin!" So, the sooner the better for me.

We initially wanted to save up and pay cash for our new car but we are spending every extra penny we have on the house and Allen's business so we will have to get a loan for a new car, which is VERY disturbing to us. We don't want anymore debt but we've sat down and rationalized a way to quickly pay off the car loan. So we feel a little better about it.

But regardless of what happens with this van, we will have to at some point make a decision about a car, and soon. So, hopefully, we are now on the fast track to moving forward and making some decisions so we can check this one off our list of things to do!