The latest

So, we leave tomorrow for our big first family trip. I'm so excited. I've been planning and dreaming about this trip for 4 months or more. We bought the Disneyland tickets at the beginning of December and booked our hotels right after that. I've been picking up extra shifts for 4 months to help pay for it. Then life happened and the universe tried to keep us from going.

Last Monday, Jonathan was in a car accident on the freeway and totaled our Buick that my parents had so nicely given us when we were having car trouble. It feels like we're ALWAYS having car trouble. Well, we decided to take the money from the crash and our tax refund and buy a gently used van. I couldn't stand the stress of doing it right before our trip, but on Friday we were hanging out and thought that we'd go see the vans at Carmax. We fell in love with a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan and actually drove off the lot with it. Then I went to our credit union and got it financed at a great rate with a nice down payment. It all sounds so nice when I sit here a couple days later and type it, but it stressed me out completely. I couldn't eat all that day and still feel anxious about spending that much money. Well, our great luck with cars continued because yesterday I went to start our Malibu and it wouldn't turn over. My awesome dad was nice enough to spend the entire afternoon figuring out that it was the fuel pump and it probably needs to be replaced. Well, it won't run and I guess it's really amazing that we went and bought the van because without it, we'd be stranded and wouldn't be able to go on our trip until the car was fixed. Now, we can still leave as planned and just worry about the car when we get back. I even have a friend at work who's husband is a mechanic and he thinks he can replace it. So, I guess it kind of depends on how you look at things. Either it's a pretty amazing string of events that we didn't take the Malibu and get stranded here or in California with a broken car. Or, it's the Universe trying in every way possible to tell us not to go on this dream vacation of ours. Time will tell for sure. We'll post when we get home hopefully safe and sound next Sunday.