New wheels

A few days before Christmas, we had 2 bad things happen. We were hit with a financial crisis that meant we had no money to buy the kids anymore Christmas gifts aside from the one already bought. The second thing that happened? My car died! (Yeah, I know. I have bad luck. Sometimes I think I am jinxed!)

When my car died, I had only one thought: Thank goodness the kids only had one day left of school. My husband took them to school the next day (I usually do it because he works at night) but I thought I would be getting a new vehicle soon.

Well, soon turned into 2 weeks. They were VERY hard weeks to get through! It got to a point where I told my husband I was gonna turn violent if I didn’t get out of the house, so he drove me to the library and dropped me off there, where I spent a couple of hours writing and reading/researching. But I later needed to get out again and it just went all wrong.

And the problem is, my kids were missing out on their lessons. My oldest has violin lessons. Her violin teacher started driving out to our house since I had no way to get to hers. And Jesse takes gymnastics classes, but he missed out on a couple because I couldn’t drive him there. (His classes are in the early evening.) It was so hard for him to NOT go to gymnastics, because he loves it so much. But, thankfully, I have arranged for him to take make-up classes.

And Jennifer will be going to her violin lessons again because, as of today, I finally have a new car! Woo-hoo!

It’s not a brand new car. It’s used. We actually got it from my husband’s co-worker. And, it’s a minivan! I have never driven a minivan before and today was the first time I ever drove one. Of course I was scared but I did it anyway. I HAD to see if I could do it. And I can! (So cool to stand up to what scares us and just DOING it anyway! Seriously, I surprised myself.) Driving the minivan is AWESOME! I love my minivan. It’s kinda like driving a small bus. I think that since my last car was a long car (a sedan), it gave me good practice in being able to maneuver a minivan. However, this time, I am NOT going to put myself into a situation where I have to drive forward-backward-forward-backward a bazillion times a la Austin Powers in order to get out of a parking space. I am starting to keep an eye out for parking spaces where I can easily pull the vehicle out of its spot or, even better, away from a curb. This change in parking has also changed how I drop Jesse off at school. Before, I would park in the row of spaces with all the other cars by the walkway that was meant for children to safely walk to the school. But now I’ll park in another area closer to the front of his school and he can get out on the side where there are bushes, not cars driving past, then go to the walkway where there is a crossing guard. So, it’s all good!

I still need to get used to driving this kind of vehicle but so far, so good. I am really thrilled to be driving again and having the freedom to come and go whenever for whatever. (Gotta have my freedom!!) I also like how it’s so roomy and comfortable. And the heater works a lot better, too. The steering in my last car was messed up because of that accident when I slid on the ice so it’s also nice to not have to deal with steering problems in this car. I just need to drive more carefully and watch out for icy roads!

And the best part is that THIS vehicle is travel-worthy. I want us to take a family vacation this year and now we can with this vehicle. It runs great and there are no engine problems so I look forward to traveling in it on the road someday soon. Very soon, I hope!

It was hard to wait for a new vehicle but it was definitely worth the wait. I’m thrilled with my new car (which I have not named yet but I’m considering the name Chloe) and I look forward to being able to get to where I need to go again!