Living the Dream

You know how some people dream of owning a home in the Hamptons, or having that awesome boat they can use on the weekends, or wintering at a beach house and summering in France (oh wait, that may be reality for some people... ahem... you know who you are...). I had an entirely different dream.

While quite content with my wonderful late '90s Windstar (affectionately dubbed "The Matchell Mobile", except around my husband, who wasn't a fan of the nickname), I realized that it did have a few weaknesses:

Like only having one sliding door, so all the kids had to pile in on the passenger side and scale seats (but not piles of toys, Sunday school papers, or backpacks, because the Windstar was always spotless! Right Mimi??).

And the fact that while driving in traffic, I would have to be very careful about checking my blind spot, since the passenger mirror froze off and shattered during the infamous ice storm (and it was obviously just too complicated to replace).

Or the small inconvenience of not having AC in the back half of the car (but really, they're just kids... do they really need to be so pampered by having cool air blow on them during the heat of summer?!)

So... when our sweet little Eclipse got the death sentence, we knew something had to be done. And that's when my dreams came to fruition...

You see, for the past 5 years or so, I have been dreaming about one day owning this particular van... You know, that most amazing of vehicles that not only has TWO sliding doors and a passenger side mirror, but also allows those doors to be opened at the touch of a button.

It had one of these on the front:


And this on the back:


I would see others driving "It" around town, and gaze longingly as their children seemed cool and content in the back of their car rather than have flushed little foreheads, beaded in perspiration. And then, as I sat in my wonderful little Windstar, I would fantasize about owning one of those someday... our family all smiling in the comfort of our leather seats, the kids singing along to hymns in the back while Brian and I listen to our own equally edifying music up front, holding hands in marital bliss... oh the possibilities!! But I didn't really expect this dream to become a reality until I went back to work one day. Because our Windstar ran great and had been the perfect van for us so far...

Then one day, our friends decided to make my dream a reality. They showed up on our doorstep... with an envelope. There was a clue for Mikaiah,




Which led her to a movie for her (which would be necessary to watch on the DVD player in my dream van) and a clue for Jakin.


Jakin decided to explore a bit on the way to his movie, which accompanied a clue for Anna.








Anna's clue led us to Mimi and Papa's house, that housed her movie and a clue for me.




And that led me to my awesome new HONDAY ODYSSEY!!!!!!



(Looks pretty perfect in our driveway, if I do say so myself...)

We were all SO EXCITED!!!! The kids were just about as thrilled as I was with our new van. (A few days after we bought it, we took the Odyssey on a road trip--of course, because that's what we do--and Jakin woke up in the middle of the night after falling asleep in his car seat and said in his sleepy little voice, "Mom! I can hardly believe my eyes! I went to sleep and woke up and we're still in our new, shiny red van!)

Our friends are those meticulous car owners (what I'm striving to be, Darren...just be patient!), so they were the perfect people to buy from because it's in fantastic condition. I realize that a car is a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it has been SO fun and quite the unexpected blessing to own such an awesome car at this stage in our lives.

And to all those other Odyssey owners out there, just humor me while I wave frantically and smile in Odyssey-bliss whenever we drive past, cause I'm living the dream right along with ya....