It's a van..no it's a

Love Machine Truck.  Shortly after (OK like 6  months) after our daughter was born one of our cars went to car heaven (AKA the junkyard).  Although it works for some families, being a one car family does not work for us as a long term solution.  We have had to do it in a pinch and recently went down to one car for over 2 weeks while our neighbor fixed the transmission of our Chevy Blazer. It worked but it wasn't pretty.  Thank God for helpful friends and co-workers who really stepped up to the plate to cart Scott's behind around  help out their dear friend, Scott.  So basically, what I am saying is when we needed to head out for car shopping we were pretty sure we wanted a mini-van. I know gasp...I wasn't even 30 and wanted to ride a mini-van.  Actually, the underlying plan was slightly different, if the ladies saw Scott driving the "MV" they would know he was a family man and stay far away...OK I know "MV's" are babe magnets don't deny.  If the van's a rocking, don't come knocking Just kidding. Scott's a stand up guy and doesn't a mini van to demonstrate this.  We love our mini van like no body's business.  Our pastor spoke about "idols" this week and sometimes I think our mini van is my "idol" but I'm working on this...So what's the point?  It's just that the mini van is so amazing in oh so many ways.  It has demonstrated it's ability to haul over and over again.  We've hauled a treadmill, furniture, a swing set (not assembled), landscaping timbers to create our raised garden, and precious cargo, just to name a few things.  I recently got a phone call from my friend, Kelli, who was offering me FREE cedar mulch, all I had to do was haul it home.  We went to our first resource, our neighbor, well call him Resourceful Randy, who has this awesome trailer but it was broken with no sight of being fixed ahead (he's looking for a specific part and can't seem to find it).  So I thought of making several trips with my garbage can...lame, I know.  When suddenly it hit me to transform the van from the babe magnet to a hauling machine...yepper, you guessed it.  I hauled the mulch in the back of the van. 

Yep, that's a pitch fork in there and oh yeah, it was a mess.  You know what, after two trips I was able to re-mulch my backyard for no cost to me (except a little gas-but I was in the area both times).  I put in a little sweat equity also if that counts.  If we do one more load either from my friend or the local "dump" I can fill in my front yard, too.   Here are just a few photos of my beautiful and not yet brown flowers. 

Thankfully it takes a lot to kill a Hosta. 

Excuse the sad looking Hosta, I had just split a ginormous one and this is a split one.  It hasn't had time to revive itself yet.

My raspberry bushes that we planted last year.  We need to fence them in yet...slowly.  Ignore the patchy grass we're working on it.  This wet spring and a wild dog does not do wonders for the lawn.

I still need to do a little work in here.  Believe me it's much better than the hot mess it was.

This has nothing to do with my mulch but if you can see past the brown leaves, you see a red juicy strawberry starting to ripen!  Yeah, I might produce some food this year.  See my thumb must be getting greener.  Come on, just ignore the brown leaves.

So really, what is the moral of the story?  If you're out looking for a new vehicle, get a van.  It will transform your life.  It might even make your thumb green...which if it literally does, you'll want to seek medical attention because that's not right.