We Have A Fleet!

Look at the picture at the top of this blog... see all of those girls up there?  They are all teenagers and that means that most of them are now driving. When you have six girls, that's a lot of schedules to manage and we have been adding to our fleet of vehicles to give the responsible girls some freedom to manage their own lives.

The first car we bought for our kiddos was Carley's Toyota Camry. She loves that car and has dubbed it "Cowmander" because of the cow-patterned seat covers.

 

The next car we purchased was a Honda Civic that my little brother, Tyler, had been driving for a while. It was older and needed to be carefully handled but it was a Honda and we thought it would be a good ride for new drivers. Unfortunately, it met an untimely end just four days after we bought it, but I am thankful no one was hurt!

OUCHIE!

It was a while before Madi drove again... for her peace of mind and for ours, we gave her a driving break. After a few months, her dad gifted her a mini van which was very generous of him, but um... mini van.  Ick! Madi drove that van for only a few months and had nothing but problems with it!  After it broke down on her again, we finally sold it to get rid of the bad juju that seemed to be stuck to it like glue.

Van breaks down... AGAIN!

It took us almost two months before we found a suitable replacement car for Madi to drive. But when we found the Nissan Maxima, we had high hopes that it would be a perfect fit and I will say that it has suited her better than the van ever did, even if it still needs a few things to fix it up proper.  We named her car "Mad Max" which is perfect considering she is Madi and it is a Maxima.  We are such clever, witty people.  Haha!

We took a short break from car hunting but then one day we went to the car auction on a whim... Hubby wants to buy super cheap cars and then clean them up and resell them for a profit. The day we were there, a red Jeep Cherokee was for sale and you better believe we snagged it for Emily and the other two soon-to-be drivers.  What I wasn't counting on was that Hubby would fall truly, madly, deeply in love with the Jeep. He didn't know he was a jeep man until we brought the shiny red jeep home. He began driving it every day to work... I was concerned that he wouldn't let the other kids drive it.. Ever! We needed a solution to this problem...

Even though I saw a huge issue developing with Hubby's possessiveness toward the red Jeep, I wasn't actively looking for a new vehicle. I figured we would jump off of that bridge when we came to it. We still have a few months before we turn Emily loose with a car anyway, so I tried to remind Hubby every so often that I bought the Jeep for the girls. FOR. THE. GIRLS.  It wasn't working.

Yesterday I was taking Emily to school when I saw the most beautiful sight at a local car dealership. I quickly sent Hubby a text:

Me: "There is a HOT blue Jeep parked at the Young dealership."

Hubby: "There is a hot red Jeep parked in front of our house!"

Me: "Uh no.... I don't think you can understand."

We talked about the Jeep a little bit that afternoon, but we both felt nothing would come of it, even after the salesman sent me a personalized video of the sweet Jeep. We agreed that we have too many cars and can't manage anything additional.  However, that would all change later that night when Hubby drove past the Jeep himself. I will never forget him walking in the door and saying, "So, do you want a Jeep?"


After an evening of financial planning and a few emails sent between me and the salesperson, we decided to go ahead and buy the sweet new Jeep. It would be a nice vehicle for us and it would definitely break Hubby's addiction to the red Jeep. We were at the dealership at 9am to ink the deal and this is what we brought home...

We are totally in love with this sexy new Jeep! We have taken it on several drives today with the girls and everyone agrees that it is perfectly lovely.  Now I need to get a picture of our fleet so you can get a glimpse of the chaos that is our driveway.. it includes one Dodge truck, one Durango, one Camry, one Maxima, one Yamaha boat and TWO Jeeps!  (Good thing the neighbors can't see that there is also a torn apart Celica and second torn apart Durango in Hubby's shop.. oh yeah, and four four-wheelers and three waverunners in the back yard! Whew what a fleet!)