I Should Be Folding Laundry

Do you know that I could say this any time, day or night, 365 days a year and it would be TRUE. Ahhhhh, the dark cloud (not the one on the Downy bottle) that constantly hangs over my head. I wonder if my kids will remember always having to dig clothes out of their baskets since their Mom never gets all of the laundry folded. I personally pat myself on the back for coming up with such an ingenious idea. They should be grateful that they only have to dig through their OWN baskets (I separate the clothes into their baskets right out of the dryer), rather than a mountain of the family laundry. And yes.....with seven people, it is indeed a mountain.
Mike started his job today. He says he is going to love the ER. I say I am going to love the pay checks....the first one scheduled to arrive on July 11th. I think I am going to frame it.
We bought a new van on Saturday. Nice, Honda Odyssey with more bells and whistles than we have ever experienced before. The kids are most excited about each having their own vent (with separate climate controls that can be turned off and on by Mom in case there is too much fighting or fidgeting) and overhead light!! Harrison loves the "cold heat" and I have to say that being sick and pregnant, this is by far my favorite feature. I warned the kids at the beginning of summer that we wouldn't be going to far until we got the AC in the other van fixed. The other van is now gone.....with all of it's quirks, hang-ups and problems that have been band-aided for the last year until school was done and we could afford repairs or a new van. The transmission was going.... as in dying going (we were putting fluid in at least twice a week) and started making some serious (scary) noises on our way home from Portland last Thursday. We applied for a loan on Friday, made the purchase on Saturday. ( Don't you love modern technology?) We couldn't get a loan for $2000.00 to fix the transmission, but could get a loan for a new van.
Just for history sake, I want to record all of the problems that we accommodated with our 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan. This is not a complaint....it was good to us. We traded it in with 161,000 miles on it.
*Oil leak in the engine, which required a quart every5-6 days.
*Leak in the transmission which required the fluid be replaced at least twice a week. (both of these have resulted on a big dark spot in the drive way.)
*In order for the left blinker to work, you had to turn the hazards on first, put the blinker on, then turn the hazards off.
*We had to push on the trunk really hard with our foot, while pulling on the handle to get it to unlatch. Very tricky and annoying when it's raining and you are trying to load groceries or the stroller.
*Only one of the wiper fluid squirty things worked and it shot very low on the windshield. I don't know how I made it through mud season with that one.
*The engine always made a tick, tick, tick, tick, tick noise that we were afraid to have looked at by our mechanic. Somebody once told us a few years ago that it ( the engine) wouldn't last much longer.
*It had a dent in the passenger side where somebody hit us in the WM parking lot, but didn't leave a note. Since we only carried liability, it didn't get fixed and was starting to rust.
*If it was cold outside the power locks (that was the ONLY thing power on the van) didn't work and I had to go around with the key and unlock all the (3) doors.


By contrast, our new van has....
Key less entry.
Double sliding doors (soooo much easier when getting babies in and out).
CD player.
AC
Power windows and locks.
Anti lock brakes.
Traction control (it will come in very handy this winter).
Zippy...and I mean sports car zippy.....pick up and steering. (even with it full with the family).
Three heating/cooling zones with vents for every passenger.
L.A.T.C.H. (which means no more wrestling car seats into the correct position...very easy).
All the seats recline, even the very back one.
Huge trunk.
Stow away seating (which we will probably never use, but the extra storage space is nice).
Reading lights for every passenger. So nice for those late nights on the road. No more fighting about who gets to be accommodated....the sleeper or the reader?
Great stereo, sound system.
Cruise control.


We just hope we can convert it into an eight passenger come December. If not, we'll be trading it in.
KKS