Two Silver Surfers…

I cried a little more than the last time.

We don’t change cars often, and when we do, I struggle.  Well, at least when it comes to my vans!  The last time we changed vans it was out of necessity.  We sort of killed the Gold Rush III on the autobahn.  One emotional point was that it was a little bit of the US that we were able to take to Germany with us.  In its place we welcomed the Silver Surfer, which hauled us all over Europe.  We had some amazing moments in that van:

• Official Introductions to the Original Silver Surfer
• Saying goodbye to the Gold Rush III
• It Was Not a Dream
• Full Rainbow over the Silver Surfer – The pictures taken on the way to Italy, of us as we drove and of the blizzard we drove through in Switzerland, are treasures.  The last picture on this page is my favorite shot of this van ever.

Thursday night as I pulled into my garage for the last time I put the car in park, turned it off, and cried.  Harder than a grown woman should over a $5,000 minivan.  I was thankful Matt had the boys at soccer.  I needed the moment.

I cleaned the windows one last time of finger prints and checked all the storage compartments for items we may have left behind.  Yesterday morning we woke early and drove to Temple where we met the buyers of our treasured vehicle.

Okay, about that:  I was pretty sick at this time last week and Matt was leading a Single Soldiers’ Retreat.  Knowing that we were on the verge of buying a new(er) van I decided to put ours on a few sites because I just knew it’d take several weeks to find a buyer.

Twelve hours after it hit CraigsList I had five responses, three with cash offers for the next day.  One caught my attention right away.  She was a mom with four girls and I immediately recalled my saying to one of the bajillion car salesmen I spoke with that, “No, I don’t have a trade-in. I’ll get more for it if I sell to an individual, plus, I’d rather see it go to a family who is just starting in the mini-van market.”  I’m sure that Joe CarSalesman thought I was an emotional nut, but who cares.  The buyer I responded to met me at a nearby restaurant and she and her husband tested it out.  I had Hayden to be my protector.

They liked it and we told them the only stipulation was that we couldn’t officially sell it until we had secured a new one for ourselves.  (We have some pretty awesome guests coming soon and we couldn’t risk being a one-car-family at that point.)  They were okay with that and after a touch of negotiating we agreed on a price.

So, we bought our newer van on Tuesday and sold my van to the other sweet family yesterday.  It was the last little bit of Germany we were able to bring back to the US with us.  It hurt, but the sting was made better by the fact it was going to a really sweet little family.  Their oldest is barely older than Parker.

Here is one of the last pictures I have of the Silver Surfer in our garage.

Parker and I stood by the van at the DMV just before we made the final transaction.In keeping with tradition, I had to take a picture of both vehicles in the same shot.  Because of the rain/snow/freezing precipitation we’ve had, I never got a really good picture of both.  This is as good as I could get.

And that is your first introduction to the newer vehicle!

Yes, it looks very similar.  IT’S SILVER!  We were not looking FOR silver, but it was one of our top two color choices as I was researching.

Meet the Silver Surfer II.

Neat story about the window sticker below:  While I was driving the older van to sell it I recalled seeing that Matt had removed the stickers from the rear window.  They were OIF/OEF, Army, etc.  Those are very important to me, but they aren’t about me and what I do.  I wondered what I would put on my car if I could find something that described me.  I wondered if there were stickers that represented Financial Peace University.  On the way home Matt asked me which stickers I wanted.  I mentioned the FPU stickers and he said he had purchased a few when we met Dave back in June of 2013.  It was meant to be! I can tell you that it was strange to write a check that big… I had to prove to the dealership that we had that much in our account.  We got a great deal and I will tell you that I spent a great deal of time researching and watching seven or so websites waiting for exactly what I wanted.  My MUST HAVEs were: Stow-and-go, back-up camera, at least a 2011 and under a certain number of miles.  Using the requirements I had, I set up alerts on a few websites so that I’d get texts when vans that matched my criteria were added to their site.  If you’re in the market right now for a 2011 Chrysler Town and Country and you live within 200 miles of me, I can give you a list of about 25 great options at the moment!

Now we have some memories to make in this van.  We have some trips to take and some fun to have… starting today with three soccer games.

One of our first memories in our new van was getting stopped at the gate at 1500 on Thursday afternoon.  (Early release on Thursdays here at the Hood.)  Because the flag was about to go down the gate guards weren’t letting cars in or out.  When the warning bugle rang, soldiers got out of their cars, the gate guards got into position, we turned our radio down, and witnessed one of my favorite parts of being military: respect for our flag and what it stands for.  I’m proud to be Army!

And because it’s almost time for me to order next year’s curriculum, I’m posting a link to a giveaway from our favorite company. If you click and register, then we are both entered and if we win, we each get a year free!
– See more at: http://25.sonlight.com/my-account/#sthash.daU0mYOK.dpuf