an old car and a new car

On my 16th birthday, my parents handed me a little black box. There was something I REALLY wanted for this birthday but I never would have dreamed of getting it. There was something about the smiles on my family's faces though that I think I knew even before opening it what was inside. The anticipation was killing me but I hid it behind a slight smile just in case I were to get my hopes up. I didn't want to look disappointed. I slowly pulled off the lid and inside that little black box was a key! The slight smile grew into a giddy perma grin when they told me to close my eyes and escorted me to the garage. When I opened my eyes I could hardly believe what I saw! There it was, with a bouquet of balloons attached to the antenna. My very first car, a silver Oldsmobile Alero!

{a picture of a picture, 2006}

The first few years, that car took me to countless early morning dance practices, high school football games, movies, and friends' houses. Then it ventured with me a long way from home to college and many trips back and forth between Pocatello and Meridian ever since. It now has at least 130,000 miles on it. My only hope was that it would last long enough to make it through college. When I graduated in May, it started lurching whenever I stopped at stop lights or had the air conditioner on. The electric window quit working on the driver's side of the car and it was becoming more and more apparent that it wouldn't last much longer. I finally took it into a shop to get looked at a couple months ago and was told that the repairs it needed exceeded the worth of the car if I were to sell it. It didn't seem like a worthy investment for us to fix it. I had to take some pictures on the last day I drove it before it goes to get parted out at a junk yard...

Then began the hunt for a new car. I drug my feet for at least a month before even looking. I was fine with just being a one car family for a while. It turns out, one car isn't as conducive to two full time working people though. Nic was constantly running everywhere with his car during the day so he would drive me to work so that he could use it during the day and I would wait for him to pick me up when he got off. Several times I had to ask coworkers for rides to meetings and the second I started feeling like a nuisance, I knew it was time. I have a hard time asking others for help.

Despite the not so fun car payment, it turns out there are so many great things about having a new car with only 150 miles on it. It will be perfect for a growing family in the future, it gets just as good if not better gas mileage as my little Alero did, it feels SO much safer to drive in the snow with all wheel drive, and I LOVE IT! Here's to new adventures in our Toyota RAV 4!