Flats & Birthdays...

I've had a new experience this week that I wasn't all that thrilled to experience! On Thursday I had a lot of groceries to buy and errands to run. I was out most of the day and somewhere along the line picked up a HUGE bolt or screw with a washer on the end!!! At first I heard something... click click click click click... It was the bolt hitting the pavement while I was driving. I got out of the van and happened to see it in there.

I had to pick up Tori from a Christmas party at school and then planned on going right to the place where they could fix the tire for me... we didn't make it. We were about half way there and we both heard a loud hissing sound. Tori asked "What was that?" and I told her "I don't know. That's a new sound to me!". I pretty well knew it was from the bolt coming out of the tire and soon my thoughts were confirmed when I heard a thump thump thump thump thump.

Soooooo we pulled into the bank and called Mike at work. We tried to hook up an air compressor to it (we have 2 in the van just in case!) - the air came out as fast as it went in.

I called my friends Kim and Steve to see if Steve could come over and help me. He had to go back into work so...

I called the place where I was heading and they asked if we had towing insurance. I didn't know for sure (I know now that we indeed have the insurance - mental note) so I told him I'd have to call him back.

Mike called back and we discussed further what should be done about getting it fixed.

Meanwhile, time is getting closer to when I have to pick up Logan from school because he had Science Olympiad practice. I called Kim again and had her pick up Logan from school and then come to the bank to pick up Tori and me and take us home.

Mike called again when we were just walking in the door and he decided to come home from work to take care of it and at least get the van back home again. He put on the spare tire and put the other tire in the back of the van. He ended up staying home that night and I took the tire in the next day to get a plug put in. All in all, it was not something I would want to go through again!!! I do want to add, however, that I am extremely thankful that I was only 1/2 mile from home when the tire went down and that I didn't have a blowout and that I wasn't traveling at a high rate of speed!! I praise and thank God for watching over Tori and me!

Here's a couple of pics I took before getting it fixed.











Last night was much more fun!!! Our homegroup had a potluck at our leader's house and I took a couple of ice cream desserts. This is what Tori always requests for her "birthday cake" so I made a couple for last night to share with everyone. Tori's birthday is this coming Monday and Nik's is next Wednesday (I think) so I got some candles and "assigned" one dessert to each of them. Amy made a cake too and her daughter Sarah's birthday is next week Friday (I didn't have a number 9 though so I didn't get a pic of her).




After dinner we went caroling to a nursing home/assisted living home. A beautiful Christian woman who goes to our church lives there and we had an awesome time singing together and talking with the residents there! What a blessing they are to us! I challenge anyone who is reading this to visit a home like this and just take in what this older generation has to offer us! They are absolutely amazing!!!

Look for the good in everything today and be a blessing! :)