January 2017- It all began a 3 days after Finley was born, as we were putting her car seat in the car to bring her home from the hospital (yes are Olympic level procrastinators.) we were slapped in the face with the realization that we could not fit all 3 kids car seats in my car. So after some pushing, pulling, tetris-ing, and smaller car seat buying we got all the kids in the back seat and decided we needed a bigger car. Chad immediately started looking at minivans, and I immediately started threatening his life if he dared trade in the love of my life (my Malibu) for a minivan. So we tabled it. For a year and a half. And it was fine, just look at these forced smiles.
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| Also I took this as we were getting out of the car as Carson was loosening his seat belt, we didn't drive with it like this, don't even start with me. |
Fun fact: Chad and I host minor league baseball players every summer. They live in our basement, eat cereal at all hours of the night, call me Mom, and sometimes make my neighbors question if I'm having an affair, prompting some very awkward conversations, but that's a story for another time. (Why am I telling you this, could this be part of some kid of twist ending?)
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| Family Photo with Antonio and Alonso |
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| Our current boys. Antonio and Adolfo. |
Memorial day Weekend 2018- We took my car into the dealership for an oil change. There was a carnival going on in the parking lot so we walked around (Chads fatal mistake) and a beautiful new Traverse caught my eye. We test drove her, it was true love! So we went inside to talk financing and Chad asked about trading in my Malibu. Excuse me?! No! So we tabled it. For a year.
June- Two weeks before our trip to San Diego we were driving home from my parents house and my kids were fighting non-stop in the backseat. Finley kicked Carson in the face, which made him cry, which annoyed Brisa and made her have a full on meltdown. It was a 10 minute drive, they couldn't go 10 minutes in the car without arguing. It was in that moment I decided that I needed that Traverse before we left for San Diego! But because I was still unwilling to trade my car in for it Chad said no and we decided to rent a minivan for our drive to San Diego. It should be noted that at this point Chad was given a truck by his grandfather and had I bought the Traverse it would have brought our owned car total to 4. I am a monster, I blame my parents for not telling me no enough.
So on our trip something unexpected happened. I fell in love with a minivan, the automatic doors! I don't have to walk around and make sure they are closed all the way! and I don't have to worry about the kids flinging the door open and hitting a car next to them! I was still 100% against getting rid of my car (monsters are notoriously stubborn). There is no way I am going to be driving around in a minivan unless it has kids in it. I know its unreasonable, but I'm too young (in my monster mind) to become a full time van mom. So Chad said if I wanted to have both I would have to wait until next spring when we could buy the minivan in cash because making car payments to buy a 4th car for a household with only 2 adults is apparently "ridiculous".
It was at this point that fate stepped in for team Megan. In July a few days after we got home from San Diego Chads car died and it would cost more to fix it than the car was worth so because we now needed another vehicle I got a van without trading in my car! I'm not proud of this, but I was full on gloating, it's what monsters do.
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| Saying his final goodbyes. |
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| Saying hello to our new wheels. |
It is about now in the timeline that we were flying home from Maryland and a home run ball was flying into our windshield at Lindquist Field. Go Raptors!
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| Life happens. |
If you have read this far, you now are wondering why you are even friends with me and how Chad has managed being married to me this long (8 years this month!) I couldn't tell ya. But don't worry, karma was gunning for me! Before we even put the new license plates on the van, our sweet host sons, got in a car accident and totaled my car. Luckily everyone was uninjured. But in my sweet baby's autopsy report (probably not actually what it's called) she was marked as great condition all around, so that's something I guess. Also it's weird that a car that still runs and has no damage to any of the mechanical parts can be considered totaled because of the amount of body work it needs. So I got to go clean her out and cry (could they not have thrown a sheet over her to protect her dignity??) and come home to a nice roomy garage.
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| I'm just now realizing the boys are still in the car in this shot. I was getting my hair done so Chad sent me this. |
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| They somehow managed to make her look worse at the shop. |
But as with any "Summer of Bummer" there were many blessings along the way and I think its important to acknowledge them.
1) Chads's New Years resolution was to pay off my car. Chad is super into some budgeting podcast or blog or radio show or something. I have to admit I'm not actually sure what it is, but I know its made my life harder. Anyways because my car was paid off, when it was totaled we got the full amount that the car was worth without having to subtract what we owed. If it hadn't been paid off we probably would have broken about even and not been able to get a replacement for Chad to commute in.
2) We were given a truck before Chads car died. Chad's car was a 2002 Santa Fe with about 200,000 miles on it. We knew it was close to death. So we are very grateful that it held on until we got the truck. Also grateful that it died as soon as he got out of the driveway and not on the freeway on his commute to work.
3) The car was totaled at the end of the baseball season so we only have to drive the boys to and from a couple games instead of the entire season.
So for those keeping track at home. We started the summer with two cars, and will end it with 3 completely different ones.
wow lots of cars.
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