Last week I redeemed a Groupon to have my van detailed.  I was instructed to remove everything from the van including emptying the glove box and the console.   Apparently my idea of shoving everything in the console and under the seat when I cleaned out my van is not considered detailing.  Who knew?

As I watched the pile grow larger and larger on the garage floor I was amazed at how much stuff could be in one van.  The list below is comprised of the highlights of my purge.

-Two bras and one hot pink winter coat that needed to be returned.  The receipts were from November.
-Three old cell phones and six old cell phone chargers.
-Six socks that did not match.
-Barbie coloring book (My daughter is 19)
-Set of flash cards for first graders. (Haven’t had a first grader in eight years)
-A reacher my mom used when she broke her leg two years ago.
-Two rolls of duct tape.
-One brown flip flop
-Bottle of Excedrin that expired three years ago.
-Various pills that I didn’t recognize.

I was amazed at how much junk I had accumulated over the last seven years.

Then I realized that the van had been our home away from home for a long time.  It had taken us from first grade first day jitters to traveling to college.  The kids and I had laughed after movies and cried after losing baseball tournaments.  Both kids had learned to drive in this van and together we had traveled over 120.000 miles together.

Vacations, trips to the ER, field trips and ice cream runs had helped add miles and memories to our family vehicle.  We had spent time together talking about everything under the sun and jamming to lots of different types of music. My kids had grown up in this van.

All it’s bumps and blemishes and squished gummy bears didn’t appear so unseemly after all.  I wouldn’t trade a moment spent in my van.  All the stains and scratches were just battle scars of a job well done.  It had transported us through lots of happy years.

This four wheeled traveling home away from home was getting a well deserved  “vehicular spa day”. It seemed like the least I could do.