Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My Little Green Goober Mobile

Today I want to pay tribute to my 1999 Toyota Sienna minivan, or as my kids like to call it, the green goober mobile.  Why am I honoring my geeky minivan, you might ask?  Well, because today the speedometer hit the 200,000 mile mark, and that my friends is quite a milestone.

I've decided to post the top ten things I love about this very hip, very cool minivan:

10.  It's green!  The color of nature.  The color of trees and bushes.  The color of grass and meadows.  The color of boogers!  GROSS!  OK, I'll admit it, I don't love the green, but because this minivan is so cool, it can pull it off!

9.  All the seats come out and it turns into a lean, mean haulin' machine.  We have crammed more junk in that little minivan than I care to recall on this little blog, but trust me, it holds its own when it comes to haulin' junk!

8.  It has captains chairs in the back, which came in handy when Shelby and Jake were little because it put them just out of reach from each other.  This way they couldn't kick each other, smack each other, bite each other, or put gum in each others hair.  At least not until they got out of the van.

7.  It has a CD player that has faithfully blasted Tim McGraw CDs, giving me hours and hours of listening enjoyment!  Or listening fantasies.  Whatever!

6.  It turns on a dime.  As long as that dime is the size of a cul-de-sac.  Seriously, it can, and does, turn any u-turn into a five point turn!  Dave says it drives like a boat!  Hey, boats are cool, and so is my minivan.

5.  Eventually, because the seats come out, I've told my family they can use it for my coffin.  EVENTUALLY!  Not today!  Seriously, they all think it's hideous.  They're not going to want it when I'm gone, so I say they just take out the seats, lay me in the back, turn the key to auxiliary and blast my Timmy CDs.  I'll feel like I'm in heaven before I even get there!

4.  It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!  It's helped teach three teenagers to drive and survived every scary moment.  It's hit curbs, nearly smacked poles, almost ran over a poor lady in a wheelchair and merged onto the freeway at speeds so slow that I swear I saw a tortoise pass us!  And it's kept us safe all the while!

3.  It can fit a long board, five boogie boards, beach towels, fins, umbrellas, beach chairs, numerous coolers and a ton of people and take us all down to the beach!  This green goober mobile of ours has provided us so many days of fun in the sun.  And it never once has complained about the sand we bring home!

2.  It has taken us to Utah and back more times than I can recall.  Many many trips to the cabin in the woods.  Trips to attend general conference.  And mostly trips to see Jessica and Todd.  Take me there again, little minivan.  Take me there again SOON!

1.  It is payment free!

So you can laugh if you want.  You can call me a goober.  You can wonder why someone as cool as me doesn't drive a car equally as cool.  But I'm here to tell ya that I love my little green goober mobile, and I'm proud to be a minivan mom!