Vini Man by Jillian Livingston

My husband, Wade, woke me up one morning when we were living in our condo, and told me that a Cottonwood Tree had fallen on our mini-van and my first question was, "Are the flames ok?"

When I was pregnant with my third child, Tucker, I had to trade in my Toyota Fore-Runner for a mini-van to accommodate my impending larger family. It was a difficult decision for me to make as I had grown up with a father who had a BMW fetish. I tried my best to follow the most environmentally friendly path but unfortunately the hybrid vehicles were all to small to meet my needs. As it was, I was constantly cursing at life as I loaded and than unloaded cumbersome gear and I only had two boys.

Prior to leaving for our favorite summer spot, ready to pop, I made all the arrangements to pimp my mini-van. I insisted that the van get flame decals adhered to it so that I would be slightly different than every other mom in suburban America. Wade insisted that we play down the flames and have the decals be blue instead of orange. I begrudgingly agreed. Three days before Tucker was born an article came out in the New York Times that featured a mom pregnant with twins who also had flame decals placed on her mini-van. I had full intentions of looking up that woman knowing that we would become great friends but got detained by going into labor.

We drove our baby Tucker home from the hospital in our new van with sparkling flames on the side. I am not one for chotzky nicknames but the van had a personality of it's own and so we dubbed it "Vini-Man". Vini-Man has become famous in our community and I take full advantage of it's appeal when I am racing to pick up the boys and need to cut into the traffic lane. When the boys are with me, Brevitt, my oldest, Dj's on my ipod while wearing his adult Oakley Frogskin retro sunglasses and we drive slowly through town with the windows open.

Jillian Livingston-
A mother of three rambunctious, noisy, mostly adorable boys ages 4, 7 & 9. She lives with her husband Wade in a basin surrounded by mountains near Aspen, Colorado. Jillian writes about real life and shares with us the ups and downs of parenting and surviving in these financial hard times.

Check out her blog at:
isdisnormal.com to read more stories about Jillian and her family or check back weekly to read more posts by Jillian.

Reactions are best at the height of the season when all the Aspen glitz is strutting around in their high heel shoes and fur coats. The locals also give us their fare share of comments. Once, while in Savasanah in Bikram's yoga class, a friend whispered over to me that her kids saw our van go by and yelled, "There goes that flaming van with the Livingston's in it".

Vini-Man was beginning to stink recently and the fan was making a clicking noise, so I brought it in to the shop. The report was that a mouse had crawled in through the undercarriage and died in the fan. It's poor little feet were hitting the fan's motor and that was what was making the clicking noise. Who would have thought?

Occasionally, I will glance over to a car next to me and notice a group of adorable, rugged, young mountain boys smiling at me. I forget what I am driving for a moment and fantasize that they are checking me out. "I still got it", I say to myself giving them my glamor smile. Than my bubble deflates as I realize that what they are admiring is not me but Vini-Man. Like Wade, Vini-Man steals all of my mojo.

Vini-Man is beginning to fall apart on us but at this point we cannot afford to purchase another car and an environmental car to meet our needs has yet to come out in the market . Luckily, we have all become quite attached and would feel naked without the flames. We are going to milk every mile and hold on to Vini-Man for as long as we can, which hopefully is longer than I think.

by Jillian Livingston