We bought a van!

Happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a good one! For those in the path of Hurricane Laura, please know that I am praying for your safety and well-being! Here in Ohio, it is HOT and HUMID!! We are supposed to have pop-up storms today and then tomorrow and Saturday we are supposed to have severe/strong thunderstorms as Laura makes her way through here. We shall see what the weather is going to be like. 

Tuesday and Wednesday it was hot as well! The kids all had a good day at school on Tuesday. They were a little sad that some of their friends weren't in their classes or assigned to the same days as they were but I told them that this means they can make new friends! Yesterday, the boys had a couple of worksheets to do for their virtual work, and Rebecca didn't have any work. She told me that she does have work for tomorrow though. 

Yesterday, Bill and I spent the morning at a car lot. Last week, Bill came home and said that his van quit as he was turning onto our road. The engine just stopped. He was able to get it started again but we knew that we were on borrowed time. (We actually have been on borrowed time as he was told almost 2 years ago that it was almost dead. The main head gasket was blown, it leaks coolant, apparently in the last 6 months it has started leaking brake fluid, the rear-view mirror fell off, the heater doesn't work...in all case and purposes it is a piece of junk.) We have been talking about getting a new, used van but it was never the right time, etc...

So Bill asked me what I wanted in a van, as the plan was to get a better van with less mileage and that would be MY van and give him my current van to drive as it has almost 250,000 miles on it. I told him I needed at least 7 seats and air conditioning!  

Tuesday he did some research and found one that he said looked promising at a car lot in town. We went and test drove it. Honestly I wasn't in the mood to buy a van. I wasn't in the mood to drive a van. I wasn't looking to buy a van. Toyota Sienna's were NO where on my radar. We put half down and financed the rest. We are trying to get Bill's credit score to go up so that we can hopefully buy a house in the future. They were really slow on getting the financing done so we had to leave as Bill had to go to work and I had to get the kids from school. That night they texted Bill that the financing went through and they were trying to get us to put less down and finance more. Not happening. 

Wednesday morning we headed back over to finish the paperwork and get the van. So now for the first time in my life, we have a car payment... but we also have a nice, used van WITH air conditioning! LOL

After we got the van, we came home and told the kids to get their shoes on and we would go have a picnic. They were happy with the new van and that we got them McDonald's! LOL We ate at the park and let them throw rocks in the lake. There were a ton of geese around.

Today, the kids were in school and Bill is at work. After I took the kids to school, I took an almost 3 mile walk and saw some really cute ducks and ducklings in a yard here in town. Along with some beautiful flowers. 

After my walk, I came home and showered. Then headed off to Walmart to get a new dust pan as someone broke ours. I also wanted to get some new socks for Ben and new underwear for Jacob. Apparently our Walmart only sells boxers for boys as they didn't have briefs on the shelf or spaces for them. Guess I will have to order online. :( Then it was off to Kroger to get groceries. We were out of fresh fruit and veggies here at home, except for 2 apples and a bag of carrot chips. I stocked up on some easy meal ideas, including a frozen lasagna and chicken strips. Then it was home to put it all away. 

I then left to go pay rent and stop at the farm market to get a cantaloupe and some tomatoes. Then it was off to pick Rebecca up from school. I will say with the new hybrid model, we don't have to sit in the backup of traffic that is usually the case. It was also nice today to wait for her with the a/c blowing and not sweating to death. Then it was off to get the boys. Now Rebecca is doing homework, and the boys are playing at the dining room table. They said they have work to do for virtual day tomorrow. 

What are you guys up to today? Anyone have experience with the Toyota Sienna?