Just One of Those Days?

Before I begin this blog post... I just went back and read a few of my most recent posts and it seems like they all have the theme of "here's a blow-by-blow description of my life craziness right now." I'm not sure why I think other people would have any interest in reading this, but the beauty of having a blog is that you can write whatever you want and if people don't want to read it, they can just skip it. So here goes another one of those same type of posts... I guess general craziness kind of is the theme of my life right now, so that's what you get.

Last Thursday was a crazy day... it was one of those days that probably should have left me at wits end, but it came out a bit differently that it could have. I guess the whole week has been a bit busy, as evidenced by the fact that it's taken me over a week to finish writing this post. On Thursday morning I was scheduled to go visiting teaching, have my visiting teachers visit me, go to an OB appointment and do a couple of errands. A lot to pack in, but I'm an organized, "on-top-of-it" kind of gal, right? ;) The woman I visit-teach (an assignment from church where a "companion" and I are assigned to visit a few other ladies monthly, give them a short spiritual lesson and generally look out for) is fairly new in our ward- this was only my second time to visit her. We were having a great conversation and having fun chatting and getting to know each other better so I didn't realize that we were going way over time and I needed to leave. After a hasty exit and a stinky diaper change for Jackson, I raced off to my visiting teacher's house about 30 minutes late. Instead of having time for them to give me the lesson, I dropped Jackson off, rushed out the door, dropped by the elementary school do bring Jared his lunch (which he forgot at home that morning) and raced off to the OB appointment.

While I was there I decided I might as well get my flu shot, but they were out of the vaccine until 1:30, which meant that I raced from my appointment to pick up Jackson, went straight back to the hospital (via Taco Bell, to try to get some sustenance) and got my flu shot. The syringe had a problem with the seal, so the shot splashed all over the place instead of going into my arm and they had to stick me all over again. After my shot, I raced home and got back just as Jared and Camryn were arriving home from school.

On Thursday afternoons Camryn has ballet class so I always end up in mommy-drill-sergeant-mode, trying to get the kids through their after-school routine in time to leave. "Put your backpack away! Eat your snack! Hurry up- a snack shouldn't take 20 minutes! Is your homework ready to turn in tomorrow? Go practice piano!" We were only about halfway through piano practice when I had to stop them and herd the masses into the car to go pick up Camryn's friend and head off to dance class. (Her mom watches my two boys while I drive the girls to and from dance class- a fabulous exchange, if you ask me.)

After dance class we were finally headed back to Camryn's friend's house to have dinner and I heard a huge thump underneath the car. The car immediately started to slow down and make bumping noises. I pulled over and sure enough, the driver's side front tire had blown out.

Now this could have been a disaster and extremely inconvenient -not that the blowout was particularly convenient- but this could have happened in the middle of my crazy morning, on my way home from the flu shot as I was rushing to beat the kids home from school, or with Jackson in the car, screeching to get out of his car seat. Instead, I had just Camryn and Connie, who were both interested and intrigued by this rare occurence: "Cool! Can we get out of the car and see what the tire looks like?" Within 5 minutes two people pulled over to help me change the tire, but I didn't have a spare. So I called Dave- who works about 5 minutes away from where the flat happened and he came and met up with me. Just as the novelty of the flat tire and playing in an empty parking lot where we had pulled over was starting to wear off for the two girls, I took them with me in Dave's car to get a new tire at the tire store (also 5 minutes away)-- which had free popcorn!!! Meanwhile, my boys were playing happily at a friends' house.

Dave put the new tire on the van and headed back to work. I dropped the girls off, skipped dinner, headed to back to school night and then off to a choir sectional and rehearsal while my great friend fed my kids dinner and watched them until Dave got off of work (as previously planned-- thank you, by the way).

So, no, I guess having my tire blow out wasn't particularly convenient. But I still think it's pretty amazing that with all of the things I had crammed into the day, the tire blew out during the one two-hour period when I had nothing scheduled and the only thing I had to miss as a result was dinner.