Well, I looked stress in the face, and won!!
Friday I went into town for Callum's therapy & Dr. appointment. We left at 8 am, Callum did great in therapy (although he still is too scared to climb to the top of the climbing wall--but who blames him? It is 3 stories high), and then I went to Target to get a few things from the ad. Emmalee and Benjamin were with me since Brienna and Zane both had sewing 4-H club, Ethan had student body meeting, and Rusty was helping his dad with an electrical job.
Anyhow, I buckled the children in, climbed behind the wheel of my trusty 18 year old mini-van, turned the key and.......NOTHING!! The key turned way too easily, so I immediately knew it was the ignition. Rusty had problems in his truck a few years ago with his ignition, so I knew it was that or the starter.
So what to do?? I am 1 hour away from home, don't have friend or anyone to call in the town, and so I wanted to cry. That was my first reaction--but then I thought: what will crying do? I knew the children would get upset if I was upset. So I stayed calm, unbuckled the children (so they could entertain each other) and tried to call home. Of course, the other children were all at their various happenings, and Rusty didn't have his cell phone with him. And neither did my father-in-law. So I had to make the decisions on my own. If they had been home, I would have waited in Target while they drove to town and they could tow me to the mechanic (who is our mechanic??).
Luckily, I have an old phone book under the seat, so I looked up the last place I remember going to for our tires--Wally's by K-Mart. It is only about 1 mile away from the store, so I was hoping the towing wouldn't be too much (the other side of town is 5-8 miles away). Unfortunately, Wally's does not have towing services, but they said they would call me a tow truck and it would be there in about 15-20 minutes (since I told him I had a newborn with me).
Now, it was a chilly day in town. It was overcast with low clouds that left a chill in the air, and the wind had picked up. The tow truck got there about 15 minutes--talk about quick service. Emmalee was nervous about getting squished in the van--thanks to watching "Cars". But I told her we would not be in the van when they pulled it to the "car fixers". The tow man (police man to Emmalee due to the flashing lights on his truck) didn't have room in his truck for 4 of us (he was told about the newborn, but not the other children). So he called for another vehicle which came within 5 minutes. It was starting to get chilly in the van, but Callum wasn't worried--"We have blankets, Mom!"
We got to the mechanics (after buckling 3 kids into a strangers car) and Emmalee was worried about her car seat left in the van!! The mechanics were sympathic, since I had the 3 young ones (although they behaved so well--I knew my prayers were being answered). And then they were even more sympathic when they found out I had 3 more at home (and thankful that I didn't have everyone in town with me!!) lol
Okay, this blog is now becomig a chapter book, but I am getting to the end soon.
By now, the kids were playing with the train table in the waiting room, drinking complimentary hot cocoa and eating candy from the machines. And little Ben kept snoozing away like the good baby he is. It had been 1 1/2 hours since we had left Target, and the mechanic told me the bad news: it was more than just the ignition and the problem was in the steering column too. And that would take about an hour to diagnos, plus then fixing it would be at least an hour (if they had the parts there) but they thought they would have to order the parts.
So I called home and finally got a hold of Ethan (my oldest). He hadn't heard from Dad, so I called my mother-in-law. She said she would come and get me. I had to call the Dr. office & cancel Callum's appointment (it was for his poor skin--ezcema). It was just after noon, and the kids wanted some lunch. So I thought I would have about 1 hour. So we walked over to K-mart (3 buildings away) and we about froze!! The wind was in our faces and it was cold. There is a little eatery there, so we ordered mini pizzas and bread sticks. We had just sat down when mother-in-law called back and said that brother-in-law was in town, and would pick me up in about 5 minutes, take me to his house about 20 minutes away and she would met us there and take us the rest of the way home.
The lady at K-Mart was quite nice (must had felt bad for me) and gave us a full order of bread sticks for the road and aluminum foil to wrap our food in so we could go. We squished into a little, tiny, small pick-up truck, stopped by the van so I could get a few things out of it, and then drove 20 miles to his house. Emmalee was really good with all the shifting going on by her legs, but the last 5 minutes were spent singing songs, counting, guessing and anything else I could do to distract her from bugging everyone else!
We were able to eat our pizza there, and then transfer ourselves into Tasha's van (cousin that lives in our town) and make it home in one piece. We did need to get back quickly, though, because her boys had a middle school basketball game at 4, and then at 6 & 7:30, Ethan had his games (he plays both JV & varsity).
I really didn't feel stressed. I love my new year's resolution of letting things fall where they will, and not stressing about things that are out of my control. The good news came when we were almost home--the van would be fixed by Monday morning, and the cost was half of what I expected it to be. I guess since I didn't call the tow truck myself, and went through the mechanic, I was given a huge discount. And it didn't take as long to diagnois as they expected. They did have to replace the locking cylindar thingy along with the ignition thingy (like I can remember any of the mechanics termonology) and we would be getting new ignition keys.
So this morning (well, it is now Tuesday technically, but Monday morning) I got the phone call shortly after 8 that they had just finished fixing it, they gave the the total amount that I owed, and I got a ride into town with my father-in-law & uncle (I just had baby and Emmalee today).
But I did have to spend all day in town trying to do the shopping I didn't get to on Friday. I got most of the things done (the necessities), and made it home in time to throw a lasagna into the oven, put some of the fridge food away (left the rest in the cooler in the van), and begin piano lessons (I had 3 students today).
I know we are blessed and that our prayers were answered. I am thankful that family is so willing to drop everything and drive 50 miles (one way) to help others in need. Life is good. And--I looked stress in the face--and laughed!!
