Hot Dog, Kids! It's a SMASH!

I can't get the formatting to cooperate, so the text appears to be all one paragraph, I apologize. If any blogger has a suggestion (it does this often) please let me know. I've tried everything I can think of. It appears 'normal' when I'm writing and editing it, but when I publish it it's all messed up. Suggestions, please!

So here's our BRAND NEW (to us) Car!

I'm really working on domesticating Kraig, as he puts it, by owning a minivan. In fact, I never thought that I would want to own a minivan until this one crossed our path. But it's a really great story how this minivan came into our lives. Let me share...

Monday morning on Kraig's day off we decided to go run some errands. It was cold out and as usual (we'd actually forgotten that it did this, since we've had such nice warm weather for so long) the driver's side back door (Andy's door) wouldn't open. We don't know why, but if it's below 60 degrees, the door acts like the catch is broken and won't open. When we had one kid and Andy's car seat was in the middle, it wasn't that big of a deal, but now with two children and car seats to navigate into the back seat, working out of only one door is a pain.


So when we got home from errands that morning (slightly frustrated, I must admit) I logged onto Craigslist.com to see what was out there. We've been dreaming about getting a new car for ages, but the car has always been in the 'want' category, not the 'need' category. So any looking we did was just dreaming. I suppose in the back on my mind I wasn't just looking, but secretly hoping there was something out there that was made in this century and was decent and affordable (the Rodeo is a 95).


Well, not to sound dramatic, but this van called to me. The price listed on the website was right, it was a 96 (ok, not in this century), but it only had 35,000 miles on it. What? Was that a typo? I called the owner and asked how it had so few miles and he explained that he and his wife were both doctors (ding, ding) and they had bought it for their kids when they were little and now they were grown (ding, ding) and it was a 5th car so they didn't hardly ever use it (ding, ding, ding). So I set an appointment for us to go and take a test drive that afternoon. Kraig was a little skeptical, since it seemed like we were rushing into this big purchase...


The car was everything this kind doctor (who lived in a 1.5 million dollar home) said it was. Upholstery was clean, tire and breaks were new, body was in great condition and there was really only 35, 950 miles on the odometer. It drove like a dream and I wanted it from the moment I sat behind the wheel. Before we went to the doctor's home we checked the price of the car on Kelley Blue Book. For the features it had, the doctor was asking a little too much. We asked how firm he was on the price and he said he was pretty set, since according to the mileage, it was only a 3 year old car. So we told him we would think about it and get back to him.


Driving home we called and offered him a much lower price, but still what the car was 'worth' (according to Kelley). He said, he'd meet us in the middle of the $1000 price cut we had suggested. Not bad. Kraig and I discussed it again, but decided that if we were going to spend the money we should look around a bit longer and not rush into it. But something kept us talking and thinking about the car. We prayed about it, talked to family members for their advice and decided to pass for the time being. I called the doctor back and told him the price was too much, but thanks for his time. He said, 'How about we meet in the middle, $750 off the asking price?' Um, that's still a little too high, but thank you. His last offer, 'Ok, I'll sell it to you for what you can pay. My wife says we should since you're a young family with two kids.' Yahoo! I did feel good about the car and I felt even better about the price we could pay!


So, I'm a minivan mom now! I love it! I love it! I love it!


PS--here's a Halloween preview. We had our ward's Trunk-or-Treat on Friday. Joshy was a hot dog, Andy was a piece of cheese in a ham sandwich and Kraig and I were the ketchup and mustard on the side :)