Sunday, August 3, 2008

Firetrucks and cloth diapers

Friday morning, E ran our run-around-the-town car into a firetruck responding to an emergency. She was ok, just lost our entire front end of our nearly classic H.onda Acc.ord (1992.) Thankfully, the insurance company let us make our late payment as we were making the insurance claim. (Still not sure how I overlooked that bill, but I guess we've had a bit going on over here.) Crisis averted!

So, Saturday, we decided to pre-shop for a minivan. We don't know that we're going to be buying a vehicle, and we sure didn't plan on spending that money at this point, but if the old car is going to be totaled.... so, we test drove some real family vehicles. Wow! Nothing says "cool 30-somethings" like a 2004 minivan. Definitely not "cool" in terms of image, but wow are those things functional!! Lots of space for people AND things. Gladys could lay on the floor! We would have room to grow our family (god willing.) So, we'll see what the insurance company says about the other car, but we may end up w/ a minivan yet this year.

In other news, we finally got around to enacting, albeit only partially, our cloth diapering plan for A. We spent most of today changing cloth rather than disposable. It felt good to be using something theoretically a bit more sustainable, but mostly it felt right to be doing something that we ACTUALLY PLANNED for A.

15 comments:

bleu said...

Yay for the cloth diapering. It will truly save on the diaper rash most of all. When Bliss was an infant if I put a disposable on him, even the 7th gen ones, he would get a rash within 30 minutes it was crazy, but with cloth, after he was about 3 months old, he never got a rash, ever.

As for mini-vans, I am not a fan as well but a friend recently got a Honda Odyssey and omgosh it is sure nice and roomy and cute!!

bleu said...

OH and I am soooooooo glad E was ok!!

Lizzie said...

So glad E wasn't hurt!

welcome2ourworld said...

Oh my gosh ! Thank God E. is ok...

R said...

Just wanted to say hi! I'm so glad that all is well with little man and that ya are doing good too!!

Anonymous said...

We just got a 2004 Toyota mini van
and we are in love with it! We
planned on getting a Scion wagon
but since we couldn't sell our travel trailer because of the
economy, we had to get something that would pull it. We looked at a basic
2007 Sienna and liked it ok but then we found a loaded 2004 with
24,000 miles and just had to have it. Our dogs love it and there is
plenty of room our baby and all his
stuff as well as our friends and their babies.

So glad E was not hurt!

Anonymous said...

Doesn't it seem a little rediculous to be buying a mini-van and then in the same blog entry talking about wanting to be more green by using cloth diapers? It seems like such a small drop in the bucket compared to the ongoing gas guzzling way of a giant mini van.

Anonymous said...

I thought I would come out of hiding and say hello, since I have been reading your blog for some time now... ;)

Sorry to hear about the firetruck, thankfully Erin is ok...

I remember right before my own little M was born we went to buy our first car. I really wanted a 5 door/hatchback sporty thing, but when we got there we looked in the trunk and realized our stroller would never fit. The salesman walked us over to a station wagon and began singing its virtues, and all I could hear was "blah blah blah" since my mind was racing with "omg-- how much more cliche, and uncool could I get?". 2 1/2 years later, I realize that I guess I really AM a stationwagon lesian. Oh well!

Good luck with the cloth diapering. Strangely our son reacted to the cloth much worse than disposables! He would get terrible rashes from them. But we have a compost system in our city that accepts disposables so we don't feel that badly. I did, still feel badly when I had to give away all the beautiful cloth diaper covers we bought, though (esp the little on with thw whales...)

Holly said...

oh. sorry about the car. glad E wasn't hurt!
There's nothing wrong with minivans. I was going to fight tooth and nail if Lois wanted one. But after seeing our friends' minivans, it's actually quite practical.
I just may be talked into one if we have another kid.

Anonymous said...

We have a minivan and a VW Beetle
there is only 1 mpg difference
between the two in town and exactly
the same on the highway. And yes
we do actually get tune ups etc. on
the Beetle. Any way any amount of
"green" is helpful to our environment.

tbean said...

Glad you are home, E. is okay, and A. is healing well. Minivan you say? Sounds perfect for your growing family!

E. from Pot o' Gold said...

I'm glad that Erin wasn't hurt. Maria loves the practicality of a mini-van, so someday we might get one. I love using cloth diapers and it always makes me feel better about not polluting landfills further.

La said...

Thankfully everyone is ok. I am so with you on the minivan idea, but I just bought a truck. Ali will have to be the one to do the minivan. I do love the new Nissan van though.

NotesFrom2Moms said...

im so glad your worries have shifted from hospitals to cloth diapers... Glad to hear the three of you are settling in back home. (ps. i really despise mean anonymous commenters... I mean sign your post and own up to your comments?!?!)

Susanica said...

We knew we wanted a car that was a lot easier to get Danny into (our Subaru back doors were oddly small and very low to the ground.) I also really, really wanted the option to seat 7. So after tons of research we got a Kia Rondo. They've been sold in Europe for years as the Kia Carens and we love it. It's like a large station wagon and the 2 extra seats that fold down leave us with lots of room for stuff and once we have to lug multiple relatives, Danny, hopefully baby # 2 and all their assorted stuff and friends we think the Rondo will be just the right car. We read about it first in some Parenting magazine because it scored so well on the safety tests. Just my 2cents. Delighted to hear that you are all doing so well! -Monica