Mini-van = Mega-fun!

I have some news to share with you (my 5 followers). I have reached "a-whole-nother level" (Randy Jacksonism) of parenting.

Vince bought me a minivan!! True love "fo-sho" don't you think?

Seriously though, it was a lengthy well thought-out decision. It meant me giving up any possibility that another man was going to ever check me out while driving, and gaining the opportunity to have other moms checkin' me out. And I must admit, I like the turn of events this has brought on. Guys dig me...other moms wanna BE me! LOL

We started looking at vans in April and then by May decided they cost too much money and the Escape was good enough for a women of average to high needs, such as myself. We had room for the dog in the way back and plenty of cabin space so that everyone in the vehicle could huff her nasty, rank, dog breath. If we gave the girls snacks the dog was sure to be able to scarf down at least half of Annaka's and whatever of Brielle's she wanted to relinquish. We had the strap-on dual screen DVD players so that the kids could feasibly watch movies and shut the @#$% up while we were driving. Except, after purchasing our 4th set of these puppies we still had not mastered the art of getting them to stay connected to the seats, nor had we gotten used to the amount of volume necessary to deafen the ears of the front seat passengers while still allowing the rear seat passengers to audibly hear the dialogue of Sesame Street. Additionally, the main screen which contained all the controls of said DVD player were on Brielle's side, which allowed her to switch off (or raise the volume of)any movie at any given time. Furthermore, if out of necessity we had to allow the dog to accompany us on a trip we had to use the cabellas car topper to carry our luggage. Lemme tell you how easy that sucker is to attach...alone...with a 120 lb. dog and 2 screaming kids running around. Why not do it the night before while kids and dog are asleep? Because it is dark out there people!

Then reality hit along with the end of summer.

So now, with a third on the way and no backseat space available for a car seat, we explored some other options. We settled on a van for price and space. We test drove all the new vans out there...Toyota, Honda, Dodge, Chystler...and finally concluded we liked the Honda the best. After all, it offered the most luxury features of all the vans and if I close my eyes (while parked of course!) I can imagine it is a tiny cute Mercedes sports car I am driving with heated seats and great sound system.

So a 2006 white Honda Odyssey is finally ours! I do like it. We have a sun roof, a 6 disc changer, leather seats, power everythings, room for 8 to ride not including the dog who has her own semi-private quarters behind 3rd row seating, and most impressively we have the DVD player with wireless headphones! We have not heard a word from the girls with these! For whatever reason they feel so privileged to each have their own set of headphones that they quietly watch whatever is playing and never argue. We have yet to hear them while driving. This feature alone was worth the purchase of the van.

Go ahead and tell me how jealous you are...unless you are one of the wiser-than-I and had the foresight to purchase your family van long before necessity time.