Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A LONG 24 Hours

My girl is home! Yippee! Yesterday at about 04:30, Mr. Clean drove to "Metropolis" to meet her 06:15 flight and bring her home from the airport. He stopped to grab some breakfast on the way back, stopping about 5 minutes from our house, and to not further torture me he decided to get "take out" for all of us to eat together. Except when he went to leave, the battery had died in the mini-van.

Unfortunately since he had the van, there was no way I could pick them up with the Volvo. A family of 6 does not easily (nor legally) fit into a Volvo designed to seat 5. After trying with two different people, Mr. Clean got the van jumped and running and came home. I could finally hug my girl and just breathe in her presence.

After replacing the battery, which needed to be done anyway, we were satisfied that would solve the problem. We were wrong. I drove the van and had no problems, but later when Mr. Clean decided to take the kidlets to the pool, the van was dead again. We jump started it and took it to our local auto shop. Four hundred dollars later, we know we have another problem, but nothing that has to do with the battery. For that diagnosis we have to go to the dreaded dealer. The dollar signs are piling up in the pit of my stomach.

The day went on as usual and we spent A LOT of time just being with the kids and enjoying Xena being home. The "crash" I expected from her never occurred during the day, even though she confided that she never slept on the red-eye from Oregon. She gladly went to bed on East Coast time and slept in until West Coast time this morning. The girl was exhausted! No matter, she is home and that's the best part. Van or no van.

3 comments:

Susie said...

AAAAAAaaaaa! I feel your pain! We seem to be suffering together! I'm so glad Xena is home safe and sound!

If you find out what the van's problem is and Mr. Clean decides to fix it himself, my hubby said he'd gladly help him.

{{{HUGS}}} to you, my dear friend!!

Jamie said...

Ooohhh so glad Xena is now home! I couldn't imagine my kiddos being away from me that long (though honestly at this point I feel like I would love it and wish I could ship them all off).

Hope your van doesn't cost too much to repair! What a pain!

Samantha from Colonial Curve Cottage said...

Hey...I know I'm in a far away land...but...I happened to be married to my mechanic who is an awesome Christian man and owns his own shop so he dosn't have to rip people off for a living anymore. If you'd like to tell me more I can relay the issue and before you get work done, he could tell you if it sounds right or if your in for a rip off...without seeing it will be hard, but it's his pet peeve in life...people being over charged. Hate that. All the best and congrats on your sweetie coming home. Did she fly alone?