For real???

Paul and the three older boys headed about 3 hours south to a Father/Son camp. Hopefully, they are having a lot of fun despite the two days of down-pouring...

It has been funny that everytime they leave to go camping and just the girls are left to fend for themselves, something happens. Last spring, our property flooded out and 30 of our chickens drown and our fences were washed down, so we spent the week fixing and cleaning. A year ago, when they were at last year's Father/Son camp, our well went out and we had to haul water from other houses to even flush the toilets.... So, this time, I was actually expecting something...

Well, I wasn't disappointed. For the past 2 weeks or so, our mini-van has been running with the service engine light on. It would sputter every time I started it, but after driving for 15 seconds or so, it would run normal. Let me reiterate, it was running like that for over 2 WEEKS. This is nothing new. But, hey, my car decided to wait until my dear husband was gone to give me trouble. Yesterday, the "low coolant" light came on. Fine, I can handle that. I found an automotive store and they fixed me up with the right stuff and even filled it for me. They tried to check why the service engine light was on, but my car wouldn't talk to his little machine for some reason. So, today, the girls and I had a tea party to attend in Dwight (about an hour south). I think I may have been asking for trouble by driving that far, but, again, it's been running this way for a while... Needless to say, I got about 15 miles from my friend's house on I-55 and it died. It was actually still running, but the gas pedal wouldn't work anymore, so it just coasted to a stop on the side of the highway. I grabbed my cell to call someone, and because I had spent the last 2 nights at a friend's house, I had forgot to charge it. It was kind of laughing as it flashed "low battery" at me. I quickly called a friend and told her the situation in about 15 seconds before it went dead. In that time, she managed to get enough info to borrow a van and head out to pick me up. She had to borrow a van because, silly me, I agreed to carpool a different friend's 4 daughters along with my 3 kids. My mini-van was packed to capacity, so we needed a large vehicle to take us anywhere... I managed to revive my phone long enough to scare my dad out of his wits and leave him wondering what kind of danger I was in.

Ok, so, we did make it to the tea party. A tow-truck was called and my van is sitting at a service station in Dwight. I took every scrap of personal information out of it in case someone wanted to steal my identity, but completely forgot my garage door opener. Duh. We hitched a ride home (minus the friend's 4 daughters) and will NOT be going anywhere until my hubby gets home.