keeping up with the jones

It all started about a year ago. A friend of mine gave me a ride home from a church meeting in her brand new fully loaded Toyota Sienna mini van. it was beautiful. i couldn't help but envy her just a little bit. granted i only have 2 kids, and can fit both of them in the back seat of my car, i started to think about how nice it would be to have more room, you know so if anyone came to visit, they wouldn't have to rent a car because they would fit in our mini van. it would be nice to be able to haul large objects i purchase at sam's club, like when we bought nicholas' "big boy bed" a different friend took the seats out of her mini van and brought it home for us. then i started to notice that most of the people in my ward only had 2-3 kids, and almost all of them had mini vans. if we had 1 more kid, we would need a mini van, because we can't fit 3 car seats in the back of our car, so in reality a new mini van is almost a necessity, right? after all, i do intend on signing nicholas up for a soccer team in the fall, and i couldn't very well be a soccer mom with out a mini van. well i was convinced. that was the easy part, convincing sam would be another story. i started with little hints here and there- just to get him thinking about it too. then when i had him thinking it would be nice to have one someday, i started to find some on the internet. i reluctently came to the conclusion that we could not afford a 2004 or newer toyota sienna (2004 is the cute new body style) however a much more affordable and equally stylish 2004 mazda mpv might fit in our budget. after finding several at dealerships, i found one for sale by an individual, and it was priced $3,000 lower than any of the dealerships prices, and it had been very well taken care of. now here is where i have to admit i played a little bit on the unfair side. i taught nicholas to say "can i have a mini van please daddy?" and then blink his eyes. it worked! we went to look at it. it was perfect. then came the drama of trying to buy it. it took 3.5 weeks to get it all worked out- north carolina and our bank have some rediculous regulations for purchasing and regsistering vehicles, but it finally all worked out, and we are now proud owners of a 'white water pearl', 2004 mazda mpv.