Vroom!

It's here, it's here!!!

After almost seven years and three children the Sloths have finally decided it was time for a second vehicle. There's so much to be excited for, so much to be thankful for!

Last Friday around 3pm Mr. Sloth 'messaged me' (via computer) asking if I wanted to go look at vans. Without thinking I responded yes, but then thought, "Wait. Now?" and then "Wait can we really look at vans?". We'd been waiting for one finally pay day before we could purchase a much needed second car. We have a rule around here that Mr. Sloth is not allowed to talk about perspective pay days with me anymore he is only allowed to tell me when we indeed have been paid and then he only allowed to tell me how much money *we* get. Things get stressful otherwise and difficult lessons have been learned. At first I thought Mr. Sloth had a rough week and was calling it quits early and thought van shopping would be fun but then I realized, "Wait! We got paid today! We can ACTUALLY buy a van now, it's not just a dream".

The Sloths headed out to begin our search for a van. It was a disaster. Happy was quite Happy to van shop the rest of us were miserable. Then a friend gave me the idea to have Mr. Sloth bring a van home from the dealership so we wouldn't have to bring the kids. Brilliant! That's just what we did the rest of the week. One day Mr. Sloth brought two vans home for me to look at and try and then on Wednesday he walked in the door and said, "I found our van". He was right. It has everything we wanted and buying new was cheaper than buying used in the models we were looking at previously. We spent the next few days doing research and praying about it. Yesterday we decided that today would be the day.

We woke up to a beautiful spring rainfall and thought, what a crummy day to buy a van. Demand didn't even know you COULD buy a van in the rain. We were breakfasted, dressed, and ready to go in record time. Our first stop: Adoration. I had decided that I would give God one more chance to tell no. I heard nothing so we continued. I spent the next hour and a half corralling Happy at the dealership while Mr. Sloth worked out the details. It was taking much longer than we had thought in face I ended up taking the kids home, eating lunch and putting them down for a nap before Mr. Sloth finally drove the van home.

I had removed the kids' car seats but couldn't vacuum them out since Happy was asleep above the garage. Once he was awake and snacking we vacuumed out the seats and Mr. Sloth installed them in the new car. I was still hoping to keep Happy facing backwards* for a while but it was easier (therefore safer) to install the seat facing forwards so Happy got an upgrade too. Of course Happy had no idea that we had bought a new van and boy was he tickled when we put him in the car seat and he was facing forward in one of those 'fun moving playgrounds' we been looking at recently. Our first stop was the always popular SuperTarget. The beloved van has made a few more journeys today as well...mostly just for fun.

I love it! It doesn't feel any different to drive than our sedan, it will be so much easier to get the kids in and out (and safer even), plus, and this is the best part, Mr. Sloth and I don't have trade three times a day if I want to go anywhere. I don't have to get groceries in a 45 minute time slot and just cross my fingers that it's good timing. I can plan errands around nap times and eating times rather than when Mr. Sloth prefers to be picked up. I won't have to wait in the parking lot with screaming children while Mr. Sloth wraps up a phone call before driving us back home.


It's......it's just so exciting. I'm proud of us for waiting so long and now, the fruits of our labor.




*Happy is old enough and heavy enough to face forward so we're not skimping on safety. It's recommending children face backwards as long as possible and I was hoping to go a bit longer, like two years. We're sticklers for car seat safety. In fact no one has ever driven our children and no one will without going through a strict demonstration first.(and possibly swearing an oath) I believe that some stats show 70-80% of car seats are installed or used improperly. Scary stuff.