new buggy

well, i thought my days of driving a mini-van were over . . . but i guess not! i was so excited at the prospect of having "outgrown" a minivan, or maybe i should say that i had "ungrown" a minivan and no longer needed all that room to haul other people. i could actually choose a car based on what i wanted and what i needed now.

i had been needing a new car for a while, but jerry and i recently went car shopping to see what was out there and what we liked. we were kind of leaning toward a kia sportage for several reasons -- warranty, price, size, 4WD (important to jerry), sits up tall (important to jill), and we have friends/family who have these and were very happy w/ them.

we didn't go to buy -- we just went to look and shop. jerry had been in touch w/ a salesman at roper kia in joplin through email and requested some different prices and stuff. once we got there, we were so impressed w/ the salesman, the dealership, the car, the package, the financing, the rebates and pricing, we ended up just choosing our vehicle and making our deal.

only problem was, the longer i looked at non-minivans, the more i realized that the days of traveling together w/ my family were over. a sportage would only carry 5 people and that wouldn't be comfortable for a long trip. a sedona would easily carry 7, the typical number for a minivan. right now, that's nice because that fits everyone in my family OR everyone in jacob's family along w/ us. that makes traveling together somewhere so much easier and so much more fun.

we've had the new van now for 2 month and already we have been on several trips -- canoeing at elk river, branson to silver dollar city, kansas city, and more. we didn't wait to start "breaking it in" -- although we haven't done some of the things we planned to this fall, we'll just keep chipping away at the lists of things to get done!

before christmas, we need to get back down to silver dollar city, up to kansas city for the thanksgiving weekend and plaza lighting, numerous shopping trips, to oakton to the live nativity scene, to carthage to see the precious moments chapel and lights at the college, and more. i can tell already that we'll have many great memories w/ this vehicle -- just like the previous mini-vans. i can't wait!!!