I LOVE MINIVANS and BANANAS!

So we bought a Minivan this weekend. It's cute. I'm very happy with it. This is "my" car (technically speaking of course, it all comes out of one account) and Andy has the macho man truck. We traded in my car that Andy swears was a heap of junk... but it wasn't. It was a nice little car that needed a little work. I loved the Alero, but we couldn't fit everyone in there. When Andy went to buy the truck in July my only stipulation was that he get one big enough to fit all six of us in there. Job well done! So we decided to get something a little cheaper on gas and that was more "mom friendly". We've been talking about buying a minivan for a while, but we thought we might just wait until the car was paid off. HA! That idea lasted for all of six months lol.

So far, there are only three ladies in the family with cars, and I was one of them. The rest have SUVs. Of course all of the guys have trucks (RAWR)! So I know I'm going to get some razzing for being minivan mom lol. All good. I can take it.

The funny part is Andy is taking the minivan to work. He says he's "Rockin the Mini" and takes all the jokes from his work buddies in stride. What a champ! See why I love him?!?!?! It was a complete manipulation tactic to take the mini to work. We work well together this way. I know he wanted to drive the new car to work. He knew I wanted to keep it in the driveway and stare at it all day long, knowing I wasn't leaving the house. It's my new toy and I want to stare at it. I love new toys! So instead of just telling me he's going to take it and dealing with me throwing a fit... he asks me a question "Do you think I should take the mini to work?"

Crap! I'm stuck! He knows this makes me feel like I get to make the decision, so I'm all happy about that. But he also knows I'm going to make a sensible decision too. And the sensible decision was to watch my new toy leave the driveway every day because it's cheaper on gas. Crap crap crap!

I've learned, in relationships, if you "suggest" instead of "demand" you get your way more often without any ill feelings or feeling like you have to give up a "man-card" or lose cool points.

Another example. We weren't going to move into a house until another six months or so. We decided we'd get everything taken care of financially that was going to cost us big bucks in the near future, and THEN take on the responsibility of higher rent, more bills, etc. Well... I knew I was going to get a tax refund this year, and I was way too excited to get into a bigger place and didn't want to sit in that apartment any longer. I knew Andy wanted to move as soon as we could too, but he's more careful about bills than I am. I've been robbing Peter to pay Paul for so long, a move wouldn't be any more difficult than anything else I've done in the past.

So, I propose this idea of mine to Andy. It's still just an idea in my head at this point. What I'm doing is planting the seed. I say "Babe, I saw a house for rent down the street... wanna go take a look at it, just for fun?" So that gets the ball rolling, and before we know it, we are actively looking for a house and now it's become something that has to be done within the next month instead of the six months from now. We moved into our house the last week in January, a mere three weeks after my initial "suggestion" to Andy.

I LOVE the power of suggestion!

In the past year (because we've been together a year now YAY) he's moved into the apartment with me, then we moved into a bigger house where all the kids could have their own space, we've purchased new vehicles for both us, I'm back in school full time and back to transcribing, and his divorce is almost final. I think it's been a productive year. So one year down on our five year plan. I can't wait to see what the next four years bring us!