Farewell, old friend.

Back in February 2004 Sean picked me up from school in a brand new electric blue Dodge Neon. To say I wasn't too thrilled with it is an understatement, but our cute little car grew on me as time went by. It was fun to drive (as soon as Sean taught me how to operate a stick shift), new, shiny, and never needed expensive repairs to keep it running. We took several trips in it - one to Kansas City and one to St. George. We had many a long discussion in the Neon - one of which was deciding what to name our first baby. We brought Taylor home from the hospital in the Neon, which was quite an unpleasant drive for mommy who was still recovering from surgery. Taylor knew the sound of the car's engine so well that he perked up and ran to the front door every day Sean came home from work.

Needless to say, our little Neon has followed us through many changes in our lives. However, the time has come to say goodbye - for several reasons. First and foremost, we are trying to pay off as much debt as possible so we can buy a house soon. We do have another car (a 1990-something beater Nissan Sentra) and we'd rather drive that than pay higher car insurance and payment for the Neon. Secondly, the Neon was honestly falling apart. It had almost 100K miles on it and it needed several repairs. Luckily we found a guy that was willing to buy it, knowing that he'd be replacing several parts and upgrading the performance.

So last night as the sun was setting we unloaded the car, handed the keys over in exchange for a fat wad of cash, and watched our little blue Neon drive away. I'm not one to normally be so sentimentally attached to an inanimate object, but my heart broke just a little as we came back in the house last night. That said, life goes on and we are officially $2600 closer to being debt free. Hooray!