I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you drive away.

Oh Mini.  My little peace sign sporting garbage can on wheels.  My auto-door genius that has goldfish crackers ground into 

every. single. surface.

I'm not going to miss you one stinking bit.

I am, at my very core, an extremely idealistic person. (see peace sign on back of Mini)  I have these ideas that take root in my brain and heart and I can't seem to shake.  Sometimes they are clear winners, like say, cloth diapers.  We used cloth diapers for a few years and saved some serious cash, made more room in some landfills, and Jonahs butt looked super hip at all the play dates.  Win/win/win.  Sometimes they are clear crazy ideas, for instance, when I purchased $200+ of fruits and veggies so Brett and I could start a 30 day juice cleanse.  We are not 30 day juice cleanse kind of people.  While we were busy finishing our Taco Bell, the raw food purchase was busy liquefying in my fridge.  Epic fail.

And sometimes, these ideas are less obvious. 


And let's be fair here: Sometimes they are Bretts crazy ideas!  We take turns being the nuts, and that seems to work out well for us. So one of us shows eternal patience and support,  sits down with the one who has clearly gone nuts-o and crunch numbers, weigh pros and cons,  and talk for days about whether or not we can do this next big thing we are considering. 

Renting out our house and moving in with my folks was like that.

Brett going back to school was like that.

Getting Married was like that.

(Heck, staying married can be like that.)

Changing political and religious ideologies, opening a coffee cart (that one was ultimately put on the "very bad idea" list), having kids, having more kids...

And then we moved to Portland.  Downtown Portland.  Where Safeway is three blocks from our door and the kids school is a street car stop away.  We moved to a building with, and this is a fact, over 75 children.  And it's a small building.  We feel safe, we have a sense of community, we have access to one of the best public transit systems in all of the universe (maybe not a fact, but it is how I feel).

So we made the leap from a one car family.... to a no car family!

FAQ's

What the hey are you thinking?

We are thinking, "Hey, lets save ourselves about $400 a month, drop 7k in car debt, embrace our hippie ideals and walk as much as possible.  I'm also thinking it's lunch time."  Thanks for asking.

Will you ever get outside of the City again?

Yes.  Thanks to Zipcar. the train, and buses.  Yes I will take the bus with three kids.  Alone.  Be looking for lot's of interesting blog posts.

Isn't Zipcar expensive?

We will save no less than $400 a month using Zipcar. We don't pay for insurance or gas.  We get to drive cool different cars all the time and we have more than 20 cars within walking distance of our house.  Super cool.

What about car seats for the three, count em' three kiddos?

Well look at this:

  Brett's invention.  He can fit all three of our car seats on our stroller.  So we load up and stroll to our reserved car.  The kids, *ehem* love it.  

 I wish so many things were different about this photo.  Starting with my hair.  Ending with my transition lenses.  But I digress.  It works.  I can do it by myself and the kids love the "new car each time" element.  (So do Brett and I, to be honest!)

 Outback love!

 They stay busy while we put in the car seats.

 One last look at the madness. 


Get ready peeps.  Things are getting interesting around here.  Now if you will excuse me, I have to go work on a blog post that shows you around my house.  Anyone know how to photo-shop muddy hand prints off a wall?  Anyone at all? 

 

be idealistic,