48 Hours We Will Never Forget...


BEWARE...THIS IS A LONG ENTRY, BUT TOTALLY WORTH GETTING THE FULL STORY...The last 48 hours of our life have been a little crazy. It all started when Nate decided to "browse" the Toyota car lot. We had decided a long time ago that with the adoption coming up, we wanted to purchase a car with 3rd row seating. Our beloved Jeep Cherokee had a whopping 195,000 miles, no working AC, and dents in all places that gave it character, so we were due. There was only one problem...I was not willing to purchase a mini van. I know that sounds vain, but the idea of driving a mini van to the high school to meet with students, or coach volleyball, did not thrill me (sorry all of you mini van drivers that read this...I have a lot of respect for you!). I guess I am just one of those stubborn 31 year old youth pastors who won't cave on the mini van debate. Anyway, he came back from the dealership and said he wanted me to look at a few cars. We weren't planning on purchasing a car until the end of the summer, but Nate wanted to show me what he had found anyway.

I went down to the lot and he showed me a few SUV's and then said, "Or, we could still look into the mini vans...you know, your mom always says they are great because she can fit all of the bikes inside the van." Ok...let's just stop for a minute. First of all, how many people put their bicycles inside of their vehicles (that's what bike racks are for). Second, if you are going to talk me into a mini van, the argument is going to have to be a lot better than that. And third...seriously...how many people other than my mother put bikes inside mini vans???

We knew the manager at the dealership, John, and he was super helpful in talking to us about cars. He understood my fear of buying a mini van...yes it is a fear...and said he has learned to love mini vans and actually "rocks them out!" Nevertheless, I wasn't interested and he introduced us to what would be the new love of our life...a Toyota Sequoia. This SUV was mega huge, had a sun roof, a window in the back that rolls down, dvd players, and a bunch of other bells and whistles. It was going to be a major purchase for us, seeing we never really purchased a "more than nice" used car!

We were scheduled to go see the musical "Wicked" at the Kennedy Center (which was the most amazing experience ever...I will blog more on that), and were actually going to have to drive dressed up, in a car without AC, to meet our Uncle and Aunt who were taking us. John, actually let us take the car for a test drive to DC...where we fell in love with the vehicle. We came back this morning from our night out, spending the night in DC, and were faced with a huge decision. Should we buy the car?

After hours of thinking, talking to various people, talking about our future, going back and forth, we decided to purchase the car. We went to the dealership to tell them the good news, and realized that we had forgotten the check book. We had a bunch of errands to run and decided we would come back later to sign the papers and trade in our Jeep. So, we headed to Wal-Mart to get supplies for our upcoming mission trip. While we were in Wal-Mart, we realized we needed to pick up the bike that Nate had gotten me for our anniversary. We had totally forgotten it was in. I told Nate to put the bike inside the Jeep (I know...ridiculous), so that it wouldn't get stolen while we ran to the other stores we had to go to. This took some time. Our jeep is really small and the bike is really big. After a lot of maneuvering it was in and we jumped into the car. What's that sound??? Oh that's right...nothing! The jeep decided not to start!!! Here we were, 30 minutes from trading this in and making a huge purchase, and we couldn't get the jeep to the dealership. Needless to say, the tow truck came and towed little "Black Beauty (the jeep we have come to love)," to her death, and we bought our new White Toyota Sequoia...who we have now named OZ...that's all we could come up with after coming off of the high of watching "Wicked!"

We signed our papers, paid our bill, and headed out to begin our new life with Oz when we realized one more thing...we still had the bike to transfer from the jeep. You can take a guess at where that bike went...inside of our new Toyota Sequoia. I learned a lesson today. I can avoid the mini van all I want, but I can never run away from the fact that I am exactly like my mom!

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