car

so, about 2 weeks ago, tom's car died. we toiled over whether to just replace it with another small sedan "work" car for him, that gets good mileage, especially since he does reserves up in boston every month, or if we should just go for it and get a replacement for our minivan, which was going to need replacing in the next year or so anyway. we decided to get the small car, and ride out the life of the van until next year. wouldn't you just know that when we took the van in for a tune up because we are driving it down to my parents' condo in florida in 2 weeks that it looks like we have transmission issues. here's the thing.. i don't want to break down anywhere on the 2 day drive down there. so, here i go, off to carmax to look at some vehicles, that we really don't want to have to buy right now. takes the excitement right out of it. however, i reeeeally don't want to pack the 3 kids shoulder to shoulder in the back of the altima for that personal brand of hell. so much for trying to have an affordable, stress free vacation.