So it might not be the most appropriate blog post title, but it has you wondering doesn’t it? If you are a regular reader you might have noticed the odd comment here and there that I have made about our van’s slow and painful (on the pocketbook) death. Our plan was to buy a new van next spring when income tax returns come in. Unfortunately, our van had other plans. It wanted to spend the income tax return now on all sorts of repairs. It became evident that we were going to have to change our plans and get a new van before this one put us in the poorhouse.

I am sure I will miss some of the things that were wrong with our van and Dave will say to me later, “You forgot to mention…” I will attempt to document the list of problems.

The transmission was on it’s way out.
The heat didn’t work. (Canadian winter not good)
The engine coolant tube sprung a leak, it was patched but resprunge (I know- not a word) a leak the same day as the patch job… that was money well spent. Dave would continually have to top up the coolant, we went through a lot of coolant!
Driver’s side window hasn’t worked in over a year, not good for drive-thru. (Maybe that is a good thing, sorry Tim Hortons.)
Turn signal fuse and brake light fuse kept blowing, turned out it was a computer issue and the computer was going to need to be replaced.
Rear windows stuck in open position, again not a good combination with no heat.
A few months ago Dave hit a deer 🙁 Thankfully it could have been much worse.
When Dave hit the deer it cracked the headlight. Whenever too much water would get in the headlight the bulb would die and we would have to get a new one.
The rear windshield wiper stopped working and when it rained the back window would leak.
I can’t even rightfully say how long the windshield was cracked.
So if I remember this correctly the fan that cools the engine went and it was also a computer issue so our mechanic bi-passed it somehow and installed a toggle switch to turn on the fan. We just needed a few more toggle switches and we could have said, “We would ask that all passengers fasten your seat belts and prepare for take off!” I forgot to mention that when the car was moving or the fan was on it kept things cool enough but as soon as we parked that engine coolant that was leaking would hit the hot engine and steam would billow out, which really looked like smoke and would give off this slightly sweet burnt smell. You can just imagine the smile on the car salesman’s face when we pulled up.

It was time to say Good-Bye…

…and it was time to go BIG or go home!!!

Last Friday we became the proud owners of Goliath or Big Rig… do you really need to name your vehicle? At any rate he isn’t the color I would have picked but it fits us comfortably and with 6 FAST growing children it is nice to know there is room for growth.

Hello!!

Our children were all happy to get in and go for a drive (more about that in a future Field Trip Fridays) but first Joel wanted to try out the drivers seat and Joshua opted for shotgun!

Samuel may not have looked super impressed but I think he is liking the new van too!

I’ve had these stickers for years but never used them. Now, don’t think that I have lumped Joel, Hannah and Samuel in with the pets there is a knobby thing on the window and I had to work around it. Poor planning on my part I should have put them on above the knobby thing. Oh well. My children would like me to point out that we have 3 barn cats and a 4th that comes and goes. Can you imagine if I had put all the chickens on there too??!! I did not have 3 cat stickers so the one represents all of our kitties. So if your needing a ride we probably have room! 🙂