We bought a car. In a blizzard.

Well, we've done it. Crossed the threshold. We are officially parents. Officially suburbanites. We are now the not-sure-we're-proud owners of a Honda Odyssey, a.k.a. a minivan. We knew this step was coming, as our current baby--I mean car--won't fit three carseats across. And if there are any more kids in our future I don't want to be buying yet another car in a few years so we decided to take the big leap. After attending a seminar at our bank on buying and financing a car a few weeks ago, we decided that it would be a good time to take a look around as it was nearing the end of the month (the best time to buy a car, we had learned). The only day we could go out was the 31st, so we arranged for our gracious friends Amy and Brandon to watch our kids so we could drive an hour north to check out our first prospect.

Everything was going fine until the weatherman announced a winter storm watch for Thursday evening, but we decided to brave it anyway as we were still the proud owners of a car that had 4 wheel drive and handled snowy roads beautifully. We ended up leaving home around 5:30, and after a quick stop for dinner, we headed up north.

THREE AND A HALF HOURS LATER...we finally arrived at our destination dealership a whopping thirty minutes before they closed. We looked at the car, it met our needs perfectly (except there's no CD player--NO CD PLAYER PEOPLE), and so we took it for a test drive. Well sort of. We drove around the dealership parking lot at about 2 miles per hour through almost a half a foot of snow, for about 5 minutes. The car salesman said it was the shortest and slowest test drive he'd ever taken anyone on in his thirty years of selling cars. He also kept referring to the van as being "creature friendly"; I'm not sure I like my kids being called creatures. Anyway.

We ended up getting a very good deal, paying low taxes because we traded in our (weep, weep) 4-Runner, we got a great deal for our trade-in, and I was extremely proud of Eric for handling the whole thing so well, as I would have folded and cried and wrung my hands and been taken advantage of immediately, even WITH the seminar training session on, "How Not to Get Taken Advantage of at a Dealership."

So now we are counting the days until we have to make the (hopefully) one hour drive back to pick up our "mommy-mobile" and turn in our "maybe I'm a mom, maybe I'm not" vehicle that has been so good to us. I'm a little apprehensive about being the minivan mom, or as my sister so kindly called me, a "mini mom." I mean, we don't have many other options; it's terribly practical and will fit our needs perfectly. And I'm sure in time I will be so thankful for it. But at this exact moment I am sad to let go of our 4-Runner, as I have loved, loved, loved driving it the past three years. On the way home from the dealership last week Eric and I were lamenting over giving it up, and about the "bachelor's worst nightmare" (marriage-kids-minivans), and we even went so far as to dream about what kind of car we would buy AFTER we didn't need the minivan anymore...which was fun to dream about. Of course by then we'll be stinkin' rich and won't have to take out a loan from the bank to pay for it, right? Right?

Well, I'll post a picture of our new beauty when she arrives. But that could be awhile...as they're predicting another blizzard tonight. Welcome to winter in Chicago, folks!