ode to a dear old friend

I realized a long time ago that I'm just a tad sentimental.
This would be fine if I was sentimental about normal things.
But I'm not.

I tried to think about what I should be sentimental about, here what I came up with.

Things I think most women get sentimental about and maybe I should try being sentimental about.

**Anything that has to do with their kids**
~baby pics of their kids
~old baby clothes their kids wore
~pictures their kids drew (that are so rotten that they are actually cute)
~lopsided ash trays (or coin holders) their kids made in pottery/art class

~anything with their kids hand print, foot print, or silhouette on it

**Jewelry handed down for generations**

~you know-that broach that your great grandmother left you but you will never wear but you keep anyways

**Stuff from dating their husband**
~I don't know!! I'm reaching here! I had a friend once who made a scrapbook with a bunch of junk "mementos" like a movie ticket stubs from their first date, sappy love notes, dried petals from the first bouquet her husband gave her, blah, blah! (sorry- if you, dear reader, have one of these at home. I'm not trying to be insensitive. It's just how I am)

**Songs that remind them of the good old days**

~Journey's "Faithfully" always brings back memories of middle school parties in my friends basement where we turned out the lights and danced (any excuse to get our hands on the opposite sex-man was I boy crazy!)

Yep, that's all I could think of (I even Googled 'sentimental')

Let me tell you what gets me all sappy and cheesy.

I already told you how I get sentimental about leaving my gardens behind when we move.

Forget the house. The house were my kids were born. The house were memories were made.

I told you I'm not normal.

But by far the weirdest thing that I get sentimental about are my vehicles.

It's impossible to explain. I try to tell myself "it's just a car for goodness sake!" But when the time comes to let them go. I really struggle. Thank goodness my hubby takes care of all the selling of used vehicles because otherwise this is how I would picture me dealing with the calls I would get.

Innocent Guy Trying To Buy My Van (I.G.T.T.B.M.V.): "I'll give you $3500"

Me: "you want to offer me $3500 for that 10 year old van!"

Me (not letting I.G.T.T.B.M.V. get a word in ): "are you kidding me?"

Me (with the volume of my voice raising in relation to my blood pressure): "do you have any ideas of how great a van this is?! Do you realize the memories I have of my kids in this van?!"

Me (not even waiting for I.G.T.T.B.M.V. to respond): "do you know how many hours I spent in this van hauling my kids all over kingdom come?! This is like my second home and your only offering me $3500?!"

I.G.T.T.B.M.V.: dial tone because he hung up on psycho crazy woman (Me).

Here's a picture of my beloved last van

isn't she a beaut! Many, many hours were spent in this baby. Gosh, I had a hard time picking just one picture so I'll just post some more.

this van was huge! So many memories! Vacations. Carpools. Volleyball tourneys. Watching movies (it had a huge TV on the floor-not like the wimpy TVs that swing down from the ceiling now a days). One time I took all the seats out of it and filled it with Crispy Cremes (for a fund raiser). Thousands of Crispy Cremes. I have pictures. All I can say is you're lucky my scanner isn't hooked up yet.

Okay, I'll stop. I could go on and on (maybe I already have). No just one more.

So pretty! Sigh.

Definitely feeling all drippy now. So I'd like to share this.

Ode to my beloved van

Dear Sweet Van.

you were a great van.

words cannot express how much you meant to me.

all that you put up with

kids kicking your seats, ripping out the tabs on your cup holders, drawing with ink pen on your ceiling, vomiting on your carpet...boogers smeared on the seats

you never gave up on us

well maybe a couple times like on the way home from school with a van load of kids and your fuel pump died and Lori had to come and rescue me

but that's okay. I know you didn't mean it

we all have parts that are giving out on us

I'm sorry my mean husband made me sell you

I dread to think of how you are being taken care of now

That guy that bought you looked a little suspicious to me

I'm sure he isn't loving you like I did

keeping you clean and tidy like I did

Please forgive me for letting you go

I know kinda chokes you up ehh?

The saddest part?

When I started writing this morning I meant to blog about my feelings for this...

please promise me you'll come back.