New car

So this post is LONG overdue, but I'm trying to catch up on some stuff before the baby comes. (Which means the baby still isn't here, if you missed that. 38 weeks tomorrow!!)

Anyways, the car. Despite the fact that most of you won't care, I'm going to give you some back story. Because I care, and this is my blog . Yes, I'm feeling a little snarky. I figured that would be ok with you guys. Being snarky that is. If you don't want to read the backstory, you don't have to. Just scroll down to the pictures. Really, it's fine.

My first car was a 97 Toyota Corolla. I grew up in what I lovingly refer to as a "Toyota family". My family has super-bad luck with American-made cars and great luck with Toyotas. My mom had a 91 Previa that lasted over 200,000 miles with absolutely no issues. That's a good car.

I loved my Corolla. Lovingly called him "Charlie". Don't ask, I have no idea why that was his name, but he told me his name and I complied. I drove Charlie all the way through my senior year of college. I had decided to do the responsible thing and drive Charlie until his wheels fell off. I was NOT going to do the typical ROTC thing and buy a new car right before graduation because I knew that Charlie would last for many, many more years.

And then I got my orders to Alaska. And although it certainly wasn't necessary, I finally had my excuse to buy my dream truck. A Tacoma. I mean, a girl in Alaska needs 4WD, right?

So I did it. Traded in Charlie (who had about 150,000 miles on him) and bought an 06 Tacoma. And I loved my truck. I mean loved. We bonded on our road trip to Alaska. I learned how to drive in the snow in that truck. It was my baby. By the way, in case you were wondering, his name was Bruce. As in Bruce Wayne. I do love Batman. It was a silver truck, but I decided that Batman wouldn't mind that his namesake wasn't black.

Bruce on one of our many road trips.

This is when Chuck and I drove to the Arctic Circle. The roads are uh... interesting :)

But then, in September 09, I found out I was pregnant. And I had to come to terms with the fact that my truck wasn't the most baby-friendly vehicle. Since Chuck is a big Dave Ramsey guy, we don't take out loans for anything other than a home mortgage, so a new car was not in the equation. But I found a great little Subaru on CraigsList. Not my dream car by any means, but it was a manual, which I find to be lots of fun to drive, and it met our needs. The miles on it were super low and it had room in the wagon area for the dogs. My dad actually bought Bruce, and it was great that I was able to drive him anytime I went home since I definitely still missed him despite really liking the Subaru.

The only picture we have of the Subaru. At least that we can find. Right before we traded it in about a month ago.

After having the Subaru for a while, I realized it wasn't quite as big as I thought it was. In my mind, it was an Outback. In actuality, it was a Impreza Outback Sport, meaning the base size was an Impreza. Which is about the size of a Civic. And carseats are HUGE. It was great with just Jade, but when we found out another baby was on the way I started freaking out a bit. We had Jade's seat in the middle of the back, but there wasn't room to put another seat next to it. So we would have had to move Jade forward facing before I wanted to to put her behind the drivers seat and put Baby Sister behind the passenger seat... leaving very little room for the passenger. A double stroller and the dogs would not fit in the back, which would have been a hassle anytime I needed to take the dogs anywhere. It was a great little car, it just wasn't going to fit our needs quite as much anymore.

I knew that I could deal with the smaller car, but I wanted to at least look into something bigger and see if we could swing it. We agreed that we could pay up to $5000 for a car that had the same number of seats but more room and that if we got a crossover or something that had a third row, we might be able to swing a bit more. 

Car shopping was NO FUN. Generally, I love it. But when I was looking for my truck I knew exactly what I wanted. This time, I didn't. We looked at Ravs, CRVs, Outbacks, Foresters, and minivans. A minivan might have been the "responsible" choice but I just wasn't ready to take that plunge yet. And honestly, they don't have as much room for the dogs so I was really leaning more towards SUVs. But we weren't finding anything in our price range and I was on the verge of just giving up and saying "I'm keeping the Subaru" because it would have worked, although not quite as conveniently.

And then we found it. A 4Runner. Basically the SUV version of my beloved Bruce. We couldn't afford a new one, but I trust Toyotas. They'll go forever. So I got an 04 4Runner with 113,000 miles on it. We figure that Chuck's truck (an F150 with 175,000 miles on it) won't last forever and that if we decide to get a van one day, then Chuck can take the 4Runner so we'll have it for a while even if we freakishly wind up with four kids. 

Anyways, I love it. Love it. I feel like I'm driving my truck, but it has room for both kids. I can put the jogging stroller and both the dogs in the back. It's so nice. It's just a great car and I'm so excited that we were able to get it for just at $4,000 out of pocket. Totally worth it.

And for an 04, it's in great shape. A couple people have actually thought that it's new... I wouldn't go that far, but it certainly looks good for an 04. The inside is in good shape as well. I'm just in love. 

Oh... his name? Alfred. He reminded me so much of Bruce that I had to stick with the Batman theme. 

So there... way more information on my car history than you wanted to know.