When you dream about car shopping, you know it's time to be done with it

Tuesday John and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. Well, we more "observed" it than "celebrated" it since we spent the night car shopping with the girls. Let me just take a moment to say: I HATE car shopping! It is not fun. I just want it to be over.

The girls have been real troopers throughout this process. Monday we ditched them with a friend, who graciously watched them for 7 hours while we ran all over North Texas looking at vans. After we picked them up, we went back out for another 2-3 hours. Tuesday and Wednesday we were out for 4 hours each evening. The girls went to bed late each night and had their naps cut short (or went without entirely) for three days. We moved car seats countless times and they spend hours on hours in the car with no more entertainment than some library books and inflatable butterflies. Lunches and dinners were rushed and made up of peanut butter sandwiches and chicken nuggets. Libby's reward at the end of the long nights was a handful of skittles.

Yesterday the girls and I took the day off. John went and looked at yet another reject after work. I made dinner for the first time since Sunday. The chicken was dry. The only cleaning I have done in a week is a load of dishes I ran on Tuesday. To say my house is a disaster area would be a gross (and I do mean gross) understatement. All my free time has been spent on the computer researching cars, pulling reports, mapping locations, and calling dealers to check inventory. I haven't had a nap in a week. Oh, and Jaina has had diarrhea since last Friday.

Yesterday John received a call from a dealer we've visited a few times in the last few weeks. They just got a van in yesterday that they are sure we will like. He's going by at lunch to check it out. If it passes his inspection, he'll come pick up the girls and I so I can check it out. If it passes my inspection, we'll take it to our mechanic. If it passes HIS inspection, we may well be done with this fiasco. If not, then we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Today I must clean. Lots and lots of cleaning. My bathroom, where muddy girls gunked up the tub yesterday and Jaina climbed up the side of the tub, onto the ledge behind the tub, then onto the counter and into the sink where I was soaking muddy clothes in oxy-clean. My bedroom, which is usually off-limits, but where my girls have been entertaining themselves while I work on the computer and where Jaina ripped apart a roll of toilet paper and left little white peices of TP that get stuck to the bottoms of my feet. The living room, where every toy and book is off the shelf and on the floor, and where Libby has been bringing snacks each day that she scrounges out of the pantry and the diaper bag, which end up on the floor and crushed into the carpet. The kitchen, where on Tuesday we ran out of bowls, spoons, forks, bottles, and sippy cups, so I ran a load of dishes, and where we are again out of bowls, spoons, bottles, and sippy cups. At least we still have a few clean forks.

On the bright side, I thoroughly cleaned the inside of our car Wednesday, spending 90 minutes vacuuming, windexing, and de-trashing our little car, where I found something moldy glued to the backseat. I stuck my hand in a used zip-loc bag and scraped whatever it was off the seat then gave it a good scrubbing with Windex, because everyone knows Windex fixes everything. I emptied the vacuum canister before I got started, and when I was done it needed emptying again, full of cheerios and goldfish and broken crayons and old stickers and a few things I didn't recognize. Snacking in the car is now banned, except on long trips and while car shopping. Oh, and I didn't do all this because we are trading in. No, I did it because I'm 30.5 weeks pregnant and experienced a moment of "if this car isn't clean then my world will end". You know how it is.

I'm exahusted and stressed and yet, somehow, still zen enough to prompt my midwife to say to me yesterday "I can't believe how relaxed you are. I've never seen you this relaxed." So despite my current state of mind, I'm apparently in better shape than I was last time I was pregnant. must have something to do with my whole "Yeah, I'm pregnant, no big deal" attitude that has overcome me this time around. And the fact that half the time I don't even feel like I'm pregnant. I forget sometimes, until I have to get up off the floor or lift a large box, or scrub the bathtub, that is.

Oh, another bright side! My friend is throwing me a baby shower next week! Yay! She asked me where I was registered and I said "nowhere, but I'll do a Target registry right away!" Yesterday after dropping John off at work and before my appointment I stopped by Target and got to registering. I may have gotten a little carried away. Easy to do with that little laser gun thingy they give you to scan your stuff. There's a lot of blue stuff on that list.

So anyway, now you know why I've not posted for so long. Oh, and I did get a video and some pictures after I discovered Jaina playing in the bathroom sink, fully clothed and with a book in hand, no less. I'll get it loaded and posted when we finally have a mini-van sitting in our garage. Don't hold your breath, it'll probably be a while.