My New Outfit

So. Our Ford Explorer didn't have enough seats for Gage's arrival - only three seats in the back. It was a dream come true as far as cargo space, but that's it. And it was having so many issues. Once we got the back windshield replaced, Ben finally went car-hunting (I had been nagging him about it for, oh, eight months or so). He traded in The Piece of Junk and brought home this little beauty:

Pretty, huh? It's a Durango. My family had a durango when I was a teenager. It was a beautiful blue color. I think it was the prettiest car we ever owned. Nat and Beads called it the Durango Doug, after some cartoon character named Doug who pretended to be like an outback adventurer or something. He would call himself Durango Doug.

I feel like this car is a girl. I should call her Durango Darlene. She is five years old and in excellent shape. She has a DVD player in the back, which the kids adore. I like it, too. I really don't mind listening to movies. I bring movies out that the kids haven't watched in awhile, and it's funny to get their reactions. I made them watch Annie the other day and they really, really hated it. I was singing all of the songs out loud - "It's a hard knock LIFE, for US..." It was good times. For me.

I'm still trying to get used to all of the buttons, but I'm liking Durango Darlene a lot. Ben and I can each set where we like the seat, and then when each of us gets in, we push a button and it goes to where we like it. That's super-fun. There are radio buttons behind the steering wheel, and I'm trying to figure them out. There are sixteen radio buttons on the dashboard thingey, which is awesome. But there really aren't that many good radio stations here. :)

Obviously, The Piece of Crap wasn't worth that much, so we do have a car payment, which is unpleasant, but it's nice to have a reliable car.

Our friends and family like it a lot. My friend, Megann, got in a couple of weeks ago (I can't even remember where we were going, Megann!), and she said, "Sweet ride." I concur. My dad is jealous of the whiteness of it. He really, really likes white cars; he says Mom won't let him get one. I wonder if she's worried about keeping it clean? I worried about that, but it looks way cleaner than the darker Explorer did. So far. We'll see what happens when it gets slushy next spring, eh?

I was outside about a week after Gage was born, and my neighbor (one that I like), Carolyn, was walking by on her way to the church. She gestured over to where Sadie was standing, and she said, "Ooooh! Nice outfit!" I looked at Sadie's outfit, and it wasn't anything special. A t-shirt and jean shorts. I was confused. Then I realized that Sadie was standing by our new truck, and Carolyn was referring to the truck, not her. I giggled. Carolyn is Old School Idaho. She says stuff like, "We was going to the store, and we was doing this and we was doing that..." I love it. She is so cute.

Ben loves to drive the truck around town. If he has to run errands, he takes the truck. He says it's pimpin'.

Notice that I referred to our new car as "truck." I've called it a "car" before, and Ben gets on my case about it. "It's a truck, not a car." I don't see a bed, Ben. If it has a bed, it's a truck. If it doesn't, it's a car. That's how I feel about it. Perhaps I should start calling it our Outfit. :)