Reading Alma takes a long time

We're working on reading the Book of Mormon by June, because we're sooo righteous. Last night we finished the book of Alma, so tonight we got ice cream to celebrate. I like to think that reading Alma is like driving through Pennsylvania. It's lovely and full of goodness, but it is oh-so long, and when you're through it you feel like you've accomplished something pretty big. 

This  school year is the first time we've read actual scriptures with the kids every night. We've always done the scripture videos on lds.org or the simplified scripture stories. Sometimes getting through those chapters is a bit tedious, but we've been amazed at Aani in particular, who can now read those big scripture words without any trouble. Who needs first grade sight words?

Conclusion of the $10,000 Mistake

I promise this is the last minivan-themed post I will do, but this drama has been too cray cray to not document. We were discussing it with some friends the other day, and one of them put it perfectly when he said, "It's almost like there's a portal to hell in that minivan", and I was like, "Yes, a portal to hell makes perfect sense!"

We've had it for 9 months, and it's spent 5 weeks in various shops, and had over $7,000 in repairs. It still doesn't drive like it should, the alignment is wacked out now, and the rotors make it shaky when you brake. It really is never ending with this thing. Two days after we got the transmission fixed, our big heavy ladder in the garage fell on the van, denting the same panel that was fixed from the accident I was in 3 months ago. No one knows how this happened, but I have an explanation: PORTAL TO HELL!!

We've been over it, but have never felt good about selling it to someone else. DARN YOU, ETHICS! Financially, we have just made peace with the fact that this is a disaster and there will be no compensating for it. There was no way to get out of it without losing more money, but I'm confident that keeping it would be constant money down the drain, and we'd be stuck with an unreliable ticking time-bomb.

Nils took it to a dealership yesterday to have it appraised. They did a thorough inspection on it, and told him that the frame was damaged. In other words, it had been in a major collision that was never reported. Finding that out was crappy, but it actually validated our experience that the van is jacked up and will always be trouble. They offered him less than half of what we paid for it less than a year ago. Nils then took it across the street to a different dealership, who looked at the van for 5 minutes and offered him a few thousand bucks more if we bought a minivan from them. That's how we ended up with this beautiful piece of heaven in our garage. I love it so much. When Nils got home with it, the kids were jumping up and down and shrieking for joy. We have all been quite traumatized over the last year, so this minivan is our wildest dreams come true. And the kids don't need to go to college, anyway, right?

This morning, Anders opened the door to the garage to look at the van, and he said, "It wasn't a dream, it's still there!" Traumatized much?

Nils and I both agree that under different circumstances, we would never own a minivan this new. We both felt really good about this purchase, however, because the post traumatic stress disorder has changed us, and we want to travel with our family and not have to be towed home anymore. I love you, New Van. Please teach our children calculus.

May the good Lord bless the soul of whoever ends up with that portal-to-hell-laden Odyssey. We honestly tried our best with the thing, and I hope it gets driven off a cliff or blown up before it victimizes someone else.

Minivan stories out!