Stroller frustrations

I decided this week not to use the car at all until Saturday. Then of course I ran out of milk, which is a big deal because coffee is just not the same without milk. :) So the boys and I walked to a local pharmacy and got a gallon of milk. For this trip, Elijah went in a small umbrella stroller, Noah went on my back in the mei tai, and the milk, once we got it, went in a bag which I hung from the handles of the stroller. Of course every time Elijah hopped out of the stroller to investigate something, over the stroller went with a thunk because the milk hanging on the back made it so unbalanced. I had to keep reminding him to stay put. LOL

I am very grateful for our big double stroller, which was a gift from friends at church. Without it, I would not be able to get out nearly as much as I do, especially not for our longer (more than a mile) walks. However, I'm starting to get frustrated with some of its limitations. It's a swivel wheel, which means if I'm going along a sidewalk which slopes towards the street, the stroller keeps wanting to turn and roll into the street, and I'm fighting with it the whole way. And it has the boys positioned one in front of the other, which means it takes a lot more muscle to turn it, as I don't have as much leverage with the narrow handlebar. On rough surfaces like gravel, the front wheels shake and rattle alarmingly, causing a very jolt-ey ride, and even some dead stops as the wheels manage to turn themselves sideways. And whenever I encounter a curb, I have to haul back on the handle (with my foot on a crossbar at the back) to lift the front of the stroller up--very difficult to do with one of my heavy guys in the front seat. Needless to say, all of these features add quite a bit of exercise to our excursions! On the bright side, I am getting very strong!

SO....I have done a lot of research, and concluded that my dream stroller would be a side-by-side double jogging stroller with 16" wheels, a fixed front wheel, and an aluminum frame. I have a specific model in mind, and I am checking Craigslist and the local children's consignment store on a regular basis...but no luck so far. I'm beginning to think that I will either have to wait till winter, when more people are willing to sell their used strollers, or buy new. But new are so expensive!

The thing is, I really think that with a good stroller, I could walk a lot of places that I now drive. So by driving less I would be saving money, which would somewhat offset the cost of the stroller. But do I really NEED a new stroller, or can I make do with what I have?

Sometimes it's hard to have to make all of these decisions by myself. It can take me forever to make up my mind! I did however make a rather impetuous decision today--I ordered a steam carpet cleaner! From initial idea to purchase in less than two hours!

Now that I have this post typed up, I realize that it's probably not going to be particularly interesting to anybody, but I stayed up so late typing it that I'm going to post it anyway.

EDIT: my stroller may not be as bad as I thought! See the comments section!