Spa day for The Bus....and a Toot Toot for Britax car seats

Today is just a silly, absolutely no meaning what-so-ever completely stupid post. There is so much craziness going on with the Swine Flu, I thought everyone needed a break to read something just to get your mind off the outside world. So, if you don't want to read this, it won't hurt my feelings! I have another sinus headache and am trying not to think more than I have to. :)

On Sunday, The Bus got a full spa treatment. Due to strange smells coming from the inside, I figured it was overdue. I absolutely love The Bus. I wanted one even before we had the other half of our kids. Once Carson came along, it just made sense to buy something bigger than a two door Monte Carlo. Wow, was that a beautiful car . Anyway, the first time the kids rode in The Bus I very firmly stated that there would be no eating or drinking inside the vehicle. The next day we went through the drive thru at Wendy's. Since then, it has seen its share of french fries, hamburgers, soda, chicken nuggets, fried fish, ice cream, soda, milk, pop tarts, soda, chips, pizza, whatever we had for dinner but didn't have time to eat, pudding, soda, and juice, oh, and soda. Did I say soda? Just wanted to make sure.

Step one in cleaning out The Bus is the one thing I hate the most. This is why I don't do it. Child labor laws don't apply to cleaning out their own trash and toys from my truck, do they? I hope not! Source one of the smell was a sippy cup which is supposed to be spill proof. Apparently not once the milk has soured. Blech! Reyna and her friend did a pretty good job of cleaning the inside, so I let them wash the outside. They are so fired. I think it looked better before they washed it! Missed spots, water spots, dried on soap. At least they didn't expect to get paid.

Step two is removing two car seats which is a pain in the ass. Fifteen years ago, a car seat was only held in by the seatbelt. Now, they are held in by the seatbelt, two clips in the seat, and a clip behind the seat which is bolted to the floor.

Commercial break!! When I was preggo with Maisie a friend of mine asked me to research car seats as her baby was ready to be out of an infant car seat. She wanted to know what the safest car seat was. I spent a few days looking up several different brands and reading reviews. In the end, I told her Britax came out on top. After reading about it I decided that I wanted one. The only thing I didn't like about Britax was the price. $300 seemed a bit much for a car seat but how can you put a price on your child's safety? I convinced Hubby to buy one for Maisie but Carson could use it until she was old enough, we chose the Marathon model. The first time my father-in-law moved the car seat to his car, he was hooked and would never buy a different brand of car seat. The Marathon holds kids from 5-65 pounds and less than 49 inches. Eventually we'll have to upgrade to the Frontier which is a booster seat and holds bigger kids from 25-80 pounds and 42-60 inches. At least the Frontier is only $280!

Ok, so I got the car seats out. I drug my crappy vacuum cleaner outside and spent the next 20 minutes vacuuming every nook and cranny I could fit the hose in. I would say that my vacuum cleaner sucked but, well, it doesn't which is the problem. Then I spent the next hour steam cleaning the middle seats and floor. This is why I kept mentioning "soda" earlier. The only time we drink soda is when we go through a drive-thru. I don't know how, but my children manage to get it under their car seats and on to the floor. I get the floor, but under their seats? Are they that clumsy and I don't know about it? There must have been a two liter of soda soaked into my seats! After doing the middle row, I gave up.

I cleaned the windows and wiped down all the surfaces with Armor All so it was all pretty and shiny. Then I discovered the second reason for the smell. You see, when you leave a paper cup of soda sitting for a long period of time, it eats away at the paper. Kind of makes you wonder what it does to your insides. After soaking through the paper, it drips down into one of the many cup holders The Bus has. I laugh when the highly educated person at the drive-thru window asks me if I need a cup holder. Ummm, no thanks, I have eight. So, soda which has dripped into the cup holder seeps under the "protective" rubber barrier which holds the cup. Then, it becomes a science experiment. I'm usually very good about making sure that cups come out of my truck which is why I'm not embarrassed to admit I had a science experiment. Plus, I have four kids so it's not expected to be spotless.

Now, The Bus is clean on the inside and out. It's not perfect but it's clean and it smells like vanilla. The Bus is very happy now and thoroughly enjoyed his day at the spa.

Have you treated your vehicle to a spa day recently?