It was one of those Mondays...

It was one of THOSE days. It started with a great plan to get some spring cleaning done and run a quick errand. It ended with me physically and mentally exhausted collapsing in bed. It went like this: My van needed a little tune up done and the mechanic I use is way done south near Lee's Summit. My in-laws just happened to be leaving for a weekend trip to Florida, so it worked out perfect for me to borrow their car while mine was in the shop. On Monday, early afternoon, I was to pick my father-in-law up at the airport and he would bring me down to the shop to get my car. A perfect plan and it was going perfectly. I was on schedule to be back home for my tutoring appointment at 3:00p.
Having just picked up my van I got about 7 miles away from the shop when the OIL light came on. I thought, "This is bad!!" I took the next exit and headed towards the gas station to check the oil. I thought maybe the mechanic forgot to put oil back in the car. I hit a red light just before the gas station and the car died! Completely shut down! At this point I should tell you that my friend wasn't feeling good that day so I exchanged my Blake and Caleb for her 7 month old baby. I figured the boys can just play Xbox at her house and she can sleep and I'll take the baby with me on the drive. So here I am dead on the side of the road with a screaming 7 month old (she didn't like the bottle I gave her), my 2 year old and 4 year old. Luckily my father-in-law was nearby, grabbed some jumper cables and was there in 10 minutes. A young man did stop but I didn't want him trying to push my van through the intersection. I called the mechanic and he was flabbergasted to say the least. Our whole family has been taking our cars to him and we have never had any problems. He suggested that maybe the battery had just completely died. We have had some battery problems with the van so that seemed likely. With a policeman on the scene now I put the car in neutral and let it roll through the intersection and into a parking lot. We switched the car seats once again and headed off so I could drop Jerry off at his office and then run to buy a new battery to install. That would be when...


Jerry got pulled over for speeding. I think when he pulled out his license and the cop saw his prosecutor badge he decided to just give him a warning:)
Soon I was off to Walmart where I realized that Sydney's shoes had not made the switch to the car, so she had none. I carried in the baby and Sydney into Walmart with Luke on tow. We got some bottled water, formula and treats for Syd and Luke. Back in the Tire section we found NO BATTERY for my car. I did what anyone would do in my situation...
I got back in the car and ate chocolate:) (don't tell my in-laws). Jason at this point had offered many times to come but it was just a battery. All I needed was a wrench to fix it. With all the kids happy I ran to Sams Club where they did have the battery I needed. Now I just needed a wrench. I ran back to my in-laws house to grab a wrench. I got back to the van and changed the battery with no trouble BUT...it still didn't start! At this point I called the tow truck. I didn't even cry when they pulled it onto the truck. Luckily that morning I had been listening to Elder Wirthlin's talk entitled "Come What May and Love it". I tried to laugh at the absurdity of the situation and laughed while I talked to various people on the phone. I also looked at the bright side...
1. The weather was beautiful, no rain snow or anything cold. In fact I got a little red on my arms.
2. Cheryl is still out of town so I could keep one of my in-laws cars. (Of course that means I will be picking Cheryl up at the airport on Thursday with a severe sense of de-ja-vu)
3. My insurance will pick up half the cost of the tow.
4. Blake and Caleb had not been left home alone for my quick 2 1/2 hour errand that turned into 8 hours.
5. We were safe:)

I will admit that I was a little grumpy on Tuesday and still tired. I was not looking forward to taking 4 kids to the DMV on Tuesday, but luckily the line was very short!!
I should mention when I called the shop in the morning he told me that the car started right up for him. I asked him to figure out what happened.

I trust that this happened for a reason and I will probably never know why..oh well at least the initial repair had been less than I budgeted for so I am still going to break even.