{10} Thankful...

I am thankful (sweetheart... this one is for you, wink) for my new to me car (sounds so much better than used car, right?).  Sometimes it feels odd to be so thankful for such 'material' things.  But I am trying not to judge my gratitude here, it truly is a huge blessing.

My first car was a red 4door that actually belonged to my parents and I was allowed to use  it.  I don't remember the make or model, it was passed on to me after my brother used it before me.  Mom?  Didn't it have to be junked because the whole bottom of the car was found to be rusted beyond safe driving standards, grin.  It was a heap.  But it got me from point A to point B.  And I was thankful for it.  After that rusty deathtrap, I drove my Dad's Rabbit.  No power steering.  Nuf said.

My second car was a silver 4door.  I know it was a Spectrum, not sure who made it.  Can you tell that I'm a true car encyclopedia?!  I bought it myself.  I was a dental assistant at the time and it was MY car... well until I went to college and was too broke to make the payments so Dad got it sold for me.

Years after being at college without a car and having to bum rides to work and anywhere else I needed to go, I bought a Dodge Colt (i think thats what it was, my lack of memory is proving embarrassing) from my boyfriend's friend.  It was a 2door... I'm a 4door kind of gal, painfully practical that way.  But the price was cheap and I was desperate.  I actually transferred out to the University of Utah shortly thereafter and with my sister, Misty, and my Dad we trekked cross country in this little crackerbox of a car.  Painful.  I was driving this car when I met Shawn.  He fell in love with me inspite of my sad little car.

Shortly after getting married, I was driving to work and someone drove up next to me honking and screaming at me.  I thought he was a lunatic.  I need to mention that it was 4:45 IN THE MORNING and I was a tad spooked... not many cars on the rode when I would go to work each morning.  I finally rolled down my window to hear this Good Samaritan yell at me that the rear of my car was ON FIRE.  So I calmly.not and levelheadedly.not pulled off the road.  Ummm...  into a gas station parking lot.  Yep.  I was a blooming genius.  Because everyone knows you should pull right into a gas station with a car that is on fire!!  I am lucky I didn't blow up half of Salt Lake.  A trucker was also parked at the gas station and proceeded to berate me and my less than logical decision to blow up half of Salt Lake with my ball of flames car.  I screamed right back at him.  Don't ask me how I knew this, but I DID know that truckers are required to have fire extinguishers in their cabs, so I not so calmly said to him, "Are you going to continue to curse me and DIE with me or do you want to SHUT UP and help me put out my car!"  Oh yes I did.  Those words are burned into my psyche because I am a mouse when talking to strangers, under ANY circumstances.  Well, any circumstance except standing at a gas station at 4:45am next to a car on fire.  So, the car was extinguished.  It was sold for parts.  We only had liability on the Colt and it was a big loss.  I became a 'bus gal' after that.

We made a terrible purchase of a used Volvo after the car o' flames.  We had it weeks when it broke down and the parts alone would have sunk us.  Shawn's dad went to a junk yard and found what we needed, saved our poor butts, and we sold the Volvo weeks later.  Whew.  Lessons learned.  I was returned to bus gal status.  

Later, Shawn and I bought a 4door red Mirage.  We loved this car.  It was used but in great shape.  We were pregnant and Shawn wanted to have a good car for me and the future baby, awwww.  We pulled that car behind a Uhaul all the way to Alabama to finish our undergraduate work.  Then drove it to Nebraska for dental school.  It also got us to Utah and Alabama every summer for family visits.  It was a great little car, dream.  Then we finished graduate school and sold the car to my mom and dad and it took a nose dive into lemon car.  Sorry mom and dad.  I think it loved us so dearly that its heart broke when we so swiftly snubbed it for a BRAND NEW Dodge Durango.  Such snobs we were.

And so, from that little Mirage til now, we have been so blessed with such good and dependable cars.  Having all those years of metal death traps or no car at all, a good car is indeed something to be thankful for.  Over the years, I have created my car 'bells and whistles' list.  I will not list these items because you would mock me.  I do not care about fancy GPS systems, and fancy DVD players, blah, blah, blah.  I really just need a few key things for my sanity.  And so while my 'new to me' car is not NEW, it was chosen for all the specific bells and whistles that I want/need in a cute little adorable 4door package.  Content Sigh.  Oh and the fact that we had to have Quad middle row seats that move back all the way to the back row,  because if Christian is not driving he can not make his thigh bones bend in half to fit in otherwise.  So thank you honey!  I love the vehicle.  I love that I have always had the newer, nicest car in our family because I am always hauling our kiddos.  I love that you really don't mind driving a truck as your 'car' because we can not NOT have a truck and own a farm... so your vehicle kills two birds with one stone.  I love that you searched high and low for this perfect car for me and all my necessary bells and whistles.  I love you.  Thankful.  New to me Car.