Sunday, July 22, 2007

Car Shopping & Laundry



This is what Baby did while I was packing up the camper today.
Just hanging out in the sink with my toothbrush. What's the problem?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There comes a time when, after having a child or two, you decide to turn in your dream car for a minivan. Well, we've long since passed that stage and are now thinking of turning in our minivan for a bus. OK, well maybe not a bus, but a really big van. Right now I have two bench seats in my van. Each bench holds two children in car seats and one child squished between the seats. I have only one sliding door and let me tell ya, I could be in the circus with the contortion act I do every day trying to get the kids all buckled into their car seats.

So, we went to a car dealer yesterday to take a look at a ten passenger van we'd seen advertised. Since this dealer was over an hour away, we called first to confirm that they still had this particular van in stock. We were assured that they did indeed have it. Guess what. They didn't have it. The salesman insisted he could find us another car that we'd love and led us to a Mustang. Ummm hello? Do you not see the parade of kids behind us? Maybe we could put a few kids in the trunk? Although it would undoubtedly be a quieter ride that way, I don't think it's especially legal.

CAR SALESMAN: Oh, no problem. I understand. I have another car that will work. (as he leads us over to a Ford Freestyle)

ME: This only has six seats.

CAR SALESMAN: Yes.

ME: Can you count?

CAR SALESMAN: Huh?

ME: There are EIGHT of us. See? Eight. A vehicle that seats six passengers won't really work for us. Do you understand?

CAR SALESMAN: Ohhhh (still looking completely dumbfounded)

Needless to say, we did not purchase a new vehicle yesterday.

OK, I'm off to finish up some laundry. Speaking of - it absolutely cracks me up when my sister or my mom says something like, "I have to do laundry today." Today? Today??? That always makes me fall over laughing. I do an average of three loads a day. Every day. I don't mind doing laundry. Really, laundry rates way higher than changing poopy diapers, cleaning the toilet that my sons can't hit to save their lives, and, God forbid, cleaning up vomit. The only thing that makes me insane is when my children take their nice, clean, freshly folded laundry and instead of putting it away in their drawers and closets, they plop it on their floor. It sits there a few days only to be thrown back into the hamper when, after I've threatened their very lives, they clean their rooms. Not that I don't just adore being their maid, but something about washing perfectly clean clothes before they're even worn makes the blood vessels in my head explode.

Sorry, I digress. Now, I'm going to finish folding the laundry for my kids to throw on their floors. Have a wonderful night!

11 comments:

Genie books said...

Hey, check out 8 passenger vans, 10 might be hell on your insurance. And my teens still do that crap with their clothes!!! It never ends!

Anonymous said...

I'm waiting for my DH's job (at public school)to decide the insurance rate on their 14 passenger van is too high. Then...oh yes, that baby is MINE! Me and Big Daddy, 3 boys in car seats, Gramma, AND groceries in one run!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Anonymous said...

I followed your ebay listing to your blog and let me just say it has made me smile,laugh out loud and yell "I know how that is". Granted my brood is much smaller (I guess mine isn't a brood but maybe a peck) I only have 2, I will be directing my husband to your blog once he returns from deployment to let him know that our kids are not the only ones that act and do things the way they do. I agree about the writing a book suggestion and should you ever write a book and have it published I will buy it.. Another maybe cheaper way is do an Ebook, it seems to be very popular. I will be adding you to my favorite blogs to visit list on my blog.. Have a great day!

Loretta said...

Dear Dawn,
Hey, isn't it neat to have instant fame, and all without writing one book? Isn't the blogging world fantastic, to say nothing of eBay, one of my all time favourite web sites? I just had to post and say I loved your blog (what I've read of it so far) and I admire your stamina in having 6 children and living with them. Keep hanging in there! I came from a family of 4, my dh came from a family of 6, but we only produced 1 son, who is now 18, so since I discovered the world of blogs this year, I really enjoy reading about brave women like you. I found your link from your famous eBay link, which came from a neat blog by Danielle Bean, who has 8 kids. Her blog is daniellebean.com if you are interested and ever get time to read again, now that you are so famous! Have a wonderful life!

Anonymous said...

I so enjoy reading your blog...I came over here from your eBay listing. I *only* have 4 boys but that is the limit as we are military and moving and finding houses that we all fit in w/o killing each other would lead me to have to find good hiding places for the bodies :) Just kidding!! Check out 9 passenger GMC/ CHEVY vans. I just upgraded (from a hi top 7 pass van) this summer so I could use it to pull our trailer (bunkhouse of course). I know what you mean about the are they all yours questions...of course add the "poor thing...all boys" to mine. Like I haven't heard anything like that before people!

Please keep writing, your going to help me get thru the next 8 months of a long deployment!

Laura- 4boyzmom

Anonymous said...

I bought my 15 passenger 2006 chevy van from a dealer in Houston, TX on ebay last spring. It's victory red, a bright brake light red. If only they had hooked up the rear dvd screen so the headphones work, it would be perfect. I can have only 2 kids in 3 of the bench seats and 3 in one seat.

Mommeeof9 on live journal.

Anonymous said...

YOur blog should come with a warning....Do Not let your kids read this!! My ds 13 was sitting down reading this and as I am laughing my head off, he feels justified on all his naughty deeds now!! Afterall, he now has proof that all other kids do exactly what he does...so it must be a basic instinct that just comes naturally.
My boys even put clothes that are still on there hangers in the hamper just because it touched the floor. Let me get this right; you can let the dog lick your mouth after he just licks his butt. You can also wear the same clothes for a week spent camping, gutting fish, rolling down hills and wiping hands after eating cheetos, but heaven forbid you wear clean clothes that have touched the floor. Of course, my boys room should have bright yellow hazard tape around it, so I can not completely blame them. Thanks for the laughs; I needed it! I have 5 kids so I feel your pain.

Anonymous said...

I have a solution for the clean and folded laundry that kids love to throw on the floor or in the hamper (because you may or may not yet know, pre-girls love to try on several outfits each day, but putting them back in the drawers or closet is too much trouble). Each of my kids, from the age of about 12, had to do their own laundry. It's not a perfect solution, I suppose, because sometimes they ruined things, and they did smaller loads more often, but it sure saved me a lot of time and frustration. Granted, I only had 3 kids, but I'm a single mom, so really, I have the same parent:child ratio as you. (Unless you count your husband as just one of the kids . . .)

River said...

My 4 were great about putting clean folded clothes in their drawers until they got to be teenagers. Then I just pulled their clothes off the line and threw it into their rooms because that's what they would do if I handed them a pile of stuff.

mary ann said...

When I was nine, my mother said "Come here, I want to see something." I walked over "Stand up on this crate. I want to see if you can touch the bottom." "I can" "Great! Wash Woman quits! Time to learn to do laundry!"

Karen said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who goes ballistic from rewashing still folded clothing. I've tried putting my kids in charge of laundry to remedy this but it only made the rest of us wear the same socks two days in a row out of desperation.

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