Amy Scott's Thoughts

With the arrival of Graham, Jeremy and I have had a reoccurring conversation. It starts with me complaining about how cramped and crazy the backseat of our car is. Jeremy then proceeds to tell me how a minivan would solve our problems. I usually sigh and say that I don’t want to go there. I’m not a big rig girl. Minivans freak me out. Not in a mom jeans kind of way, but in a I don’t want to hit someone kind of way. I’m not a confident driver and a bigger vehicle meant I was more likely to hit someone in a parking lot. We knew that we needed a new (aka new to us) vehicle in the future, but I never let the conversation develop too much further.

Then we started to do some real research on minivans. After looking at details and price comparisons and seeing what’s out there, we took our first test drive yesterday. We were underwhelmed by the vehicle. Despite the great price, we didn’t like how the 2nd row of seating was a bench and would put the boys right on top of each other and on top of us. The bench was so close to the front seats. We drove away knowing that probably wasn’t the van for us. I should note that we went and test drove this van in Tacoma (yay for lunch at Chick-fil-A). Jeremy had another van in Scappoose he wanted to see that had bucket seats and the same amount of miles. It was just slightly higher in price. We picked up Owen from my parent’s house and made our trek down south. It was a big travel day, but we were determined to see the two vehicles that peaked our interest. Once we got both boys loaded into the second van, we knew we liked it a lot more than the first one. We took it for a test drive and liked it a lot. We went back to the dealer and talked the price down a bit and then signed the papers. Minivan search done! I am grateful to have the process over and complete. We are, however, still getting calls from other vehicles we inquired about. Car salesmen don’t give up easy.

So now I’m full on deep into motherhood mode! I own more hoodies and lounge pants than any other form of clothing. I rarely get dressed unless I’m leaving the house. This makes visits from the UPS man awesome. He gets to see me in all my messy hair, relaxed clothes glory. My car is full of crumbs and wrappers and partially eaten pieces of graham cracker and Nutrigrain bars. My kids love to do the same things at the same time – eat, cry, wake up, scream, need diapers. I am split in two all day long. I was texting with my sister about the minivan and I told her all I need to do now is chop off my hair and I will have embraced all the elements of motherhood. I guess it’s time to get Owen a soccer ball and we need a cheesy bumper sticker.

Life in this household is loud and insane most of the time. I knew that being a stay at home mom would be work, but wow, these kids kick my butt every day. I love them and they are adorable and that keeps them alive and me from committing a crime. It’s a good life. It’s a blessed life. I never saw myself with a minivan, but now that it’s here, I am jazzed about all the storage and all the space. Cluttered and crowded has never been my thing, so I’m hoping that this will improve things. I know for sure it won’t improve the crumbs, half eaten food and toddler toys laying about, but that’s okay. This is the season of life we are in. It’s a messy one, but it’s a good one. I am thankful. So thankful! On the bright side, this was Jeremy and I’s first time car shopping together. It pushed us out of our comfort zone, but it was an adventure and we did it together. It was awesome to see how in sync we were. We would often give feedback or critique a vehicle and we would totally agree. I love my husband. He is amazing and going through this process with him will be a memory we won’t forget. Our little family sure has a way of keeping us on our toes.

There you have it. In less than a week, I will turn 30. What a crazy, weird and wonderful way to end my 20’s. More about the big 3-0 and thoughts on saying good bye to the last decade of my life in my next blog post. That is if my old mom brain will remember it all! Kidding… but not really. Where did my memory go? Good thing I blog so I’ll be able to remember these years.