Meet the Min Van

Well folks, we did it.  We bought the minivan, DUAL POWER SLIDING DOORS and all.  It has been mine for all of a week and a half now.  I've officially moved in.  

Honestly, the van is pretty handy.  And it is freaking huge.  

I have stronger opinions about parking now.  

It still doesn't feel like mine really....I keep thinking I need to get it back to Annie or Maggie and pick up my car again, but I imagine after Cliff Stu gets here, it will really feel like mine.  

Now before I go showin off my new ride, I wanna share something random with you.  When I wrapped up the sale of the ol' minivan, the dealership gave me a dozen long stem roses.  Yep.  

These are my flowers.  I still can't decide if it is nice, or odd.  Feels personal.  But maybe not in a "thanks for buyin a van" type way.  More in a "thanks for bein my woman" type way.  

Regardless, I got pink roses....and a grey Dodge outta the deal, so I can't complain. 

The minivan is alread being broken in.  I had boosters for Annie's kiddos and a full-on carseat for Ollie.  Annie and Jade were out of town for 5 days last week....which explains my lack of posts.  I had night shift at their house, like 5pm to 10am, each evening and couldn't seem to get anything done in the days.  This includes laundry at my house, remembering obligations, and banking, just in case you were curious. 

Check out all the storage space.  

I have cubbies everywhere. 

I have 6, yes, 6 cup holders in my center console, plus 1 in each door.  It is AWESOME.  I am so thrilled to have a ridiculous number of beverages within arms reach.  I just can't even tell ya.  It doesn't help me to cut back on bathroom trips, but dammit I am hydrated!

This van is getting it's road time that's for sure.  In the last 2 weeks I've been all over the world.  In the last 7 days I will have been to St. Louis, Bloominton, and Galesburg.  I seriously underestimated my gasoline expenses this month.  But, my trip to Galesburg is for my first baby shower with the Zacman's family.  I am super pumped about how big my van is.  A two door car would suck for loading up baby stuff I do believe.   

Now time for a little tale about my recent travels....

Last Sunday, Maggie and I decided to brave church with 5 kids.  We loaded all of them into my new van and hit the road to make the 9:45 service.  Getting all 5 of them dressed, fed, teeth brushed, with car seats transferred and animals fed all by 9, was a bit of a mess.  Not so surprizingly, I was not my most beautiful when we left the house.  I thought I'd throw on a little make-up on the drive.  This promptly turned into me nailing the ceiling with the wand of my mascara.  

Not to worry...I had a Tide Stick in one of my cubbies.  Maggie was there to save the day.  That is...until she pulled the tube in half and flung Tide Stick solution all over herself and my camera, while missing the ceiling.  We are two peas in a pod.  Two very graceful peas, in two matching Dodge Grand Caravan pods.  Lucky us.  

Plans

I saw this little sign the other day.  It spoke to me. 

It is so true.  I just returned from a weekend in Carbondale visiting my college roommate.  She and her husband live there and he works for the college.  I can't count how many times I said "I don't wanna go." This is in no way a reflection of my feelings for Chelsea and Andy.  I love them dearly and would gladly see them daily.  It is a reflection of how I feel about having to physically move myself.  I keep asking Zac to work on figuring out teleportation for me...but he says he is busy.  

I laugh at this, but it is a little sad.  I am 26!  When did I get so old that the hours between 11 and 7 seem like they were never meant for anything other than sleeping and the prospect of having to be outside of my comfort zone seems almost offensive?  I like to pretend that it's just the pregnancy.  If I were not so pregnant, I wouldn't have taken a nap on Chelsea's couch Saturday afternoon. It's a lie.  Baby has little to do with it I am afraid.  I have simply turned into a slightly antisocial homebody.  Case in point, yesterday my sisters had a WildTree tasting party at their house.  I wanted to tasted the food, I wanted to go, I simply wanted to go at my own convenience and in my pajamas.  I think part of it had to do with the fact that my size bigger jeans weren't dry, so I had to squeeze my pudge belly into my smaller jeans and I thought I might just pop a button at anytime.  And again, the other part being that I am a lazy antisocial girl.  

So that's what I have been dealing with lately.  I can sleep 12 hours in a day and still need a nap in my car in the park at noon.  I come home from work and sit in my chair until hunger inspires me to move.  And I celebrate cancelled plans because that means staying at home and changing into yoga pants.  Lazy is what it is about right now.  I am a lazy old pregnant lady.  What up.

Gifting...Zacman style

My husband, historically speaking, is a bad present giver.  Well I guess not bad necessarily, but it's obvious by his gift giving that he work for Best Buy.  Over the years he has given me a camera, a laptop, and a wine fridge.  Yep, wine fridge.  When I got said wine fridge I desperately wanted to pull a Wayne Campbell and say something along the lines of "wine fridge, I don't even have A bottle of wine, let alone many bottles which would necessitate an entire fridge" (tell me ya'll remember the gun rack scene from Wayne's World).  I didn't.  I said thank you, we plugged it in and three weeks later the motor burned up.  We replaced it, it happened again, and finally the wine fridge was outta my apartment.  I guess I am partly to blame for Zac's odd gifts.  I was trying to be nice instead of honest.  This past Christmas I couldn't take it anymore.  

I am a good gift giver.  You mention once, in passing, that you like/want something and I mentally store it away to shock you later on with it.  This has always been how Zac has awesome birthday/Christmas/anniversary presents.  I had Zac's stuff all wrapped and ready to go weeks in advance.  He is a last minute guy (which is part of the reason I get electronics) but had told me a few days before the holiday that he "tried really hard this year."  I was excited about it.  Zac had to work on Christmas Eve so when he got home that night he said "I didn't get you any stocking stuff cause I was in a hurry to get home."  To which I replied, "It's ok.  I know you tried hard on the other stuff.  It's no big deal."  Turns out, I was wrong.  

We got home from grandma's, I give Zac his presents and stocking stuff, then I was up.  Zac put one of my presents in my stocking....a set of make-up brushes.  I knew they came from the supply house, Maggie had the set and I liked them, so I knew she'd mentioned it to him, and picked them up for me.  Next present....a purse.  Again, saw it with Maggie, she called Zac, she bought it, wrapped it, then handed it over to Zac.  Third present, a folded up $100 bill.  That was my Christmas.  The "tried hard" presents.  I was mad.  I didn't say anything, instead I let myself get quite mad....then I had a fit on our way home from his parent's house.  It went a little something like... "you said you tried hard Zac and both presents were from Maggie.  It is not her responsibility to take care of my Christmas.  You gave me a freakin' $100 bill.  Do you know how impersonal that is?!  I'm your wife.  We've been together 5 years and you still can't figure out what I like?!  I even emailed you links to things I wanted!  It's not what you got that bothers me, it's that you said you tried hard and I expected that you had and my presents would be even remotely meaningful!"  Zac felt bad, I felt, well, like an ungrateful bitch considering it was more than what some people get, and in Zac's defense, I told him I didn't want much because I'd used a lot of my Christmas money to do Angel Tree for a few kids.  But seriously, it was not even a "tried hard" group of presents. He got the point.  

My birthday is this Sunday.  Zac has already gotten me two presents. I joked with him that I couldn't imagine what he picked up for me from the gas station.  He said he was excited about them, that he knew now why I always wanted to give him his presents early.  Last night he gave me "the big one."  This is what he got me.....

Isn't it beautiful?  I've been asking for a wedding band every holiday/birthday since we got married.  I am a Chiropractor, and my solitaire sets up high, so it would always get caught on the table or in someones hair or rip the face paper, etc.  I was expecting a plain gold band so needless to say I was shocked...to tears.  This is what my wedding set looks like..

so I can actually remove my solitaire from the wrap and drop in my new band, or wear the band alone and wear my wedding set on my right hand.  I am just shocked.  Really.  From wine fridge to diamond ring.  My husband has really stepped up his game!