The New Ride

Something strange has been going on around here lately. It started with a slight brush of a few wayward strands of Ella's hair against the top of the car. That led to a minor scrape of her head, then slowly turned into harder thuds and soon outright concussion-inducing smacks, and I soon discovered something significant.

There seemed to be a direct correlation between the size of my quickly expanding belly to the number of times I knocked Ella's head on the roof of the car, trying to squeeze her in the middle of the backseat of the ol' Impala between two squirmy and rapidly growing boys. But as purchasing a new vehicle is a big commitment, I wanted to make sure.. So I took this profound information and went to great lengths to graph these occurrences. And this is what the charts show.
























There's just no arguing with that kind of scientific data. And as I still have a few months of belly-expanding to do, it was quickly becoming obvious.. The time had come to take the plunge into getting a true "family" vehicle.

So we began looking around.. trying to decide what would work best for us. We looked at SUVs, Durangos, Pilots, Suburbans and ultimately *gasp* minivans.. boy did I buck and kick against a minivan. Don't get me wrong.. I dearly love my many friends who drive mini vans.. It just wasn't for me. Ever since I started this journey called motherhood, the thought of owning a minivan has been one thing that just gives me the heebie jeebies.. ranked right up there with projectile vomit in my face and poop in a public pool. I don't know what it is about the van that has me running the other direction.. I mean the features make sense. Stow and go seats! Sliding doors! Endless storage capabilities! Great gas mileage! I get it.. I just couldn't bring myself to go there.. So we looked around. And looked. And looked some more. And nothing we saw seemed like it was going to work for us. And just at the point when I was about ready to throw in the cloth diaper and reluctantly join Club Minivan, we discovered it.

The Chevy Traverse.

(No, this is not a sponsored post, but if Chevy does get wind of it and would like to knock off a certain percentage of my monthly payments, I would be okay with that.)

One Word: LOVE.
More Words: Looks. Prettier. When. Clean.

This new (to us) vehicle has SO many custom features our old car didn't! It's crazy how extravagant it is.. I feel a little guilty driving it around town. Like.. it's a little too lavish for us. I mean.. for starters, the exterior does NOT resemble the surface of the moon.. (Our old car had some slight pretty major hail damage.) And the interior does not smell strangely of dirty diapers and sweaty soccer cleats (although that may be subject to change in the near future). There are stereo speakers in the back that aren't broken out (lingering results from that hail damage) so the kids can finally hear and understand the radio and the seat belts actually latch the first time you try to hook them without shoving them repeatedly together while holding down the button, then releasing at just the precise moment, of course only when running late for school causing you to mutter curse words silently under your breath (not that I've ever done that...) And get this-the seat belt latch for the driver's seat even works so you don't have to use the one from the middle and have your car register that you don't have your seat belt on, when in fact, you do, and listen to it ding and flash lights at you.. Also, one of the more ornate aspects of this new vehicle is the middle console that actually latches so if you try to flip it up, the junk very important contents that have been accumulating for the past 5 years actually stay in place instead of spilling out all over the floor. And another notable quality-the windshield is crack-free and doesn't randomly fog up for unknown reasons causing you to use to make an entire two hour drive barefoot in the middle of winter because you're using your socks to wipe the glass off so you can see (not that we've ever done that either..)  And as if all those showy attributes weren't elaborate enough, it also has.. wait for it... 12 cup holders. TWELVE! That's 6 times more than our old car!  

Keeping up with the Jones's??? No way.. They'll be trying to keep up with us now.                                                                                          

Seriously though.. It's a pretty basic package of a vehicle, but I am possibly just dying for someone to call me when I'm driving. I may have moved up the ranks by a little something called Bluetooth.

And I do exaggerate slightly.. Our old car really wasn't that bad and served us well. It was exactly what we needed for that season in our life and I'm thankful we were able to fit it to our lifestyle as long as we did. But the time has come to move on and make room for bigger and better things.
(Did I mention we can fit SIX kids in this new vehicle?? Hmmm...)

By the way.. on a complete and unrelated side note is anyone interested in buying a 2006 Impala? Runs great.
Would make an awesome work commute car or a nice humbling first teenager vehicle. :)