Flat Tire .... Ugh!

Two nights ago, after dropping off my hubby at the airport, we had to do a Wal-Mart run to get the last minute Valentines day treats for my daughters class & teacher. By the time we got home, it was way past my kids bedtime. So after pulling into my driveway, I started to hurriedly rushing and grabing things that needed to go in the house, so I could get everyone inside & to bed. Especially since Mikayla had school the next morning. My daughter was the first to get out and run to the front door, so she could open it with the key. Next thing I hear, is...

Mikayla: Mom, do you hear that.
Mom: No. Hear what.
Mikayla: No. I hear something listen.
Mom: I don't hear anything.
Mikayla: Really mom. Come here. It's coming from the van. I can hear it. It sounds like air.
Mom: (walking around to the other side of the car)Oh you're kidding me.

Oh yes! Yeh me! My tire was going flat! It happened, right as I was literally pulling into my driveway. What timing! Right after I had just dropped Nathan off @ the airport. So as quickly as I could, I carried my kids & groceries into the house, then went back out to see if I could figure out what I'd run over.

I immediately found where the air was coming from. You couldn't miss it. The distinct hissing noise & the cool rushing breeze were easy to locate. Why did it have to happen right then? Not only, was my husband gone, but my father-in-law had just left town that same day. Plus, it was so late, I couldn't take it anywhere to be fixed & Mikayla had school the next morning. Lovely!

The culprit, was one of those really long thick wood staples. At first it looked like a nail, but the two ends were just smashed together. Now normally, I would've left it in, but since I was extremely tired & not thinking straight, I grabbed it & pulled it out. Yes. I know. Genius idea! What can I say? Lo & behold the air started coming out faster. I quickly ran inside to get a flashlight, to see if I could find the hole again & somehow wedge it back in. Yes I know, the genius ideas just kept a coming. After about 5-10 minutes of fruitless searching, I finally found the freakin' hole. I was even able to plug it back up. I plugged it so good I could barely hear any air escaping at all. Woo Hoo! :) Which either was a very good move or a very stupid move. Either way, it slowed it way down.

So, of course, this morning I wake up to a *shocker alert*.... a flat tire. I quickly called to get a ride for Mikayla but to no avail. I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Thank goodness my next door neighbor, Julie, was just coming out of her house to get her vanned warmed up to take her own little daughter to school. I quickly asked if Mikayla could catch a ride with them, since of course, my back tire was flat. 'We're probably going to be late, I didn't realize the van was covered in ice. But yeh that's okay.' 'Thank you, thank you.' I asked her if she had a snow scraper, which she said she did, then I went inside.

At that time, only Jayden was awake, so I grabbed my 'mother of all snow scrapers' that Nathan had bought me specifically for my own van & hurried over to help her finish scraping hers. Good thing too! She had this teeny tiny little hand scraper, and she couldn't even reach the middle of her windshield. She was just starting to plug in this other little hand-held ice scraper, that supposedly heats up & helps you scrape the ice off faster. But even that one, would've taken awhile. Anyway with the both of us scraping, it took no time flat, and they were able to get off to school a lot faster. One problem down, one more to go....

After returning back to my house, I opened my garage door, to find my husband's air compressor. Well I found the air compressor & the hose, but I couldn't find the attachments. He has this system where you slide this metal thing over and you can easily & quickly change out the attachment heads. It's pretty cool. I don't know? Maybe all compressors have that? Anyway, I couldn't find the tire attachment. I texted (is that even a word?) my husband, not knowing if he was at his convention yet or not, when I saw it right in front of me on his table saw. HELLO! Open your eyes Jodi.

Immediately after I filled the tire back up, my husband called. Talked to him for a minute, told him my plan, & went inside to feed & change the boys, so we could head to Wal-Mart to get it fixed. Figured it would be the cheapest. At this point, my poor baby had soaked through his jammies. So I had to clean him up, change & dress him, feed him & Jayden, had Jayaden go to the potty, got some laundry going, & we were off.

The whole time I was driving, I just kept thinking 'please don't let me tire go flat. Please don't let my tire go flat.' That & hoping they were slow, so my van wouldn't go flat in the actual waiting line. So, I pull up, there's about 5-6 in line. Oh crap! I got out, couldn't see anyone, and started to unbuckle my babies, when the guy comes walking out. I explained my circumstances, told him what had happened, and showed him where it was. Which was kind of hard, since it was blocked by the pavement. You could see the actual staple sticking out, but he wanted me to pull forward, so he could get a better look at where it was on the actual tire. So of course, I obliged. Thinking that everything was okay now. I had made it to the actual store. Me & the boys could do some shopping (while he fixes my tire), & I'll be on my way. Yeh, not quite.....

"I'm sorry mam, that tire's unrepairable."

'Excuse me, what? You are kidding me?"

"No mam. According to Wal-Mart policy, since it happened in this area (showing me on the tire), we are not allowed to even touch it."

'My tires going flat as we speak, and you're telling me you can't fix it? You're kidding me, what am I supposed to do.'

"Well you could either buy a new tire, or take it to another tire store to see if they'll fix it for ya. You got Discount Tire Store, or Big'O close by."

So after getting instructions on how to find Big'O, I held my breath, & hoped we would even make it there in time, before the tire was completely flat. Thank goodness it was only a couple minutes away. I quickly pulled into the parking lot (preceded by a glare from a lady walking her dog, since I didn't yield right of way to them. Bad I know!), unbuckled by boys, and ran in the store to find help as quick as I could. They probably thought I crazy! I explained the situation, told them my tire was going flat even as I spoke & could someone look at it before the air was completely gone & we couldn't move it. You could hear it hissing, every time the door was opened.

I handed him my keys, he wrote down my information on a piece of paper & they immediately pulled my van into the shop to take a look at the tire. Thinking everything was finally going to be okay, I took the boys in the breakroom, so I could just relax. I put a kids show on for them to watch, and they played with the few toys they had in there. (Tyler actually spent more time playing with the brochures & papers, & ripping off the pages of a notepad meant for a drawing they were having for a high def t.v. Yeh I bet, they loved us.)

Well a couple minutes later, the tire guy walks back and informs me, that they too are unable to fix the tire. With the location of the puncture (barely on the sidewall) it was unrepairable. Nobody would touch it. Ugh! Not again. I asked what my options were. They informed me I could either buy a new tire. Preferably 2 to keep the van properly balanced. Total price tag for both = $237. Or, they could put the spare tire on for me. Not knowing what to do, I informed them I needed to get ahold of my hubby first, since he was out of town, & just to put the spare on for now. I preceded to text my hubby and ask him what he wanted me to do. His reply? Check the price of Sams & Discount Tire first. Finally a direction!

So with our pint-sized donut in place, we preceded to the Discount Tire Store. We should have started there to begin with. When I first pulled up, I texted Nathan again, to ask him what he wanted me to do. (Our whole communication was through texting. He was right in the middle of hid convention & couldn't leave to make a phone call) He told me to get ahold of is dad & figuring it out with him. But unable to get ahold of Vic, I went back to asking the hubby. I stood in the entryway for like 5 minutes, just standing there texting. They were probably wondering what the heck I was doing, but they just waited patiently behind their little counter.

BJ, the guy who helped me, was way more helpful, way more informative, way more knowledgeable than the Big'O guys. Plus, he was just an all-around nice guy. After explaining my circumstances, he told me what I pretty much already knew. Still unrepairable. But then he went on to explain why they couldn't, & showed me on one of their display tires why that was. It was refreshing! It was nice to not be treated like 'an ignorant female.' Much appreciated!!.

I asked him the pricing. He showed me my options, recommended a certain tire (which also happened to be the cheapest) & proceeded to explain why. He knew his stuff. I told him what the men at Big'O told me, and he informed me: they were either not up to date on their information or they were ignorant. Like I said, I should've gone there first.

Anyway after texting back and forth with Nathan for another 10 minutes, Nathan finally just told me to make a decision. So I did! 2 new tires it was.

Now for the waiting game. Since I spent so much time texting back & forth with Nathan, more & more people had come into the store to be helped & so me & the boys, of course, had to wait for their vehicles to be finished first. Which my boys, definitely didn't mind. They were having a blast terrorizing the store. They were checking out the tires, chasing each other while screaming @ the top of their lungs, ripping the paper sales tags off of the display tires & the posters on the windows, while I was trying to talk to BJ. As soon as I'd get them out of one thing, they'd move on to something else.

That was only the half of it. While I was giving him my information to buy the tires, Jayden took my house keys out of my coat pocket to play with & almost lost it. Then when a gentleman opened the door to leave, Jayden bolted out the door & pretended to run away giggling....(not funny!). Then they both discovered the drinking fountain, where Jayden proceeded to drench his entire shirt with water. I could literally wring the water out of his shirt. I had to just take it off & use his jacket as a shirt instead(zipped up of course). Tyler was only slightly wet at this point. But he started to giggle and run towards the front door & lost his balance, and fell down hitting his cheek (just barely below his eye) on the door frame, before I could catch him. He now sports a small thin scab there. Thank goodness it wasn't any higher, or I can't imagine what would've happened! Holy crap!!! I was almost a basket case. It was just one thing after another. If they're this bad at 1 & 3, I can't imagine them when they're older. All I can say is gray hair & ulcers people!

Then one of my long lost friends, Carri Rasmussen called. (We, along with her sister, Roshell, & our other friend Eliza & hopefully my little sister are going to get together on Monday to hang out & catch up. It's been over 8 years since we've all been together. She was just letting me know what was going on. So, while I was chatting with her, Jayden had moved a chair under the window so he could watch them work on the van, & was standing on the arms of the chair on his tippy toes. Dangerous to say the least. Thank goodness it was a heavy chair or it would've tipped over on him. I immediately ran over & took him off. Two seconds later, he had moved it back & proceeded to do it again...and again. The little stinker did it 3 times in a row. Finally, he realized he could walk over to the connecting door leading out to the garage area, & get a much better view. He was enthralled to say the least. He kept excitedly telling me everything they were doing on our van. It was cute, plus it kept him entertained.

So while all of this was going on, Tyler went back to playing with the drinking fountain & got water all over the floor & was tracking it everywhere. I was shocked he didn't have more on him. To say it was bad, would be an understatement. I'm surprised they didn't just kick us out right then & there. Probably the only reason they didn't, was that my van was hoisted up in the air being worked on. I had to run to the men's room to grab a huge wad of paper towels, since the womens' were completely out, & clean up the mess. It was everywhere. I felt so embarrassed.

All I can say is, thank goodness Mikayla wasn't there! The boys were bad enough, but adding her to the mix would've been 10 x's worse! I could just imagine her whining & griping about how long it was taking, and asking when we could leave over & over & over. (And yes, I do know this from experience.) My friend, Keri Benson (her daughter & my daughter are in the same class at school), was awesome and picked Mikayla up from school since it was early out day. She took her to her house & watched her for me while I was dealing with the whole tire fiasco. You're a lifesaver Keri, thank you!!!!!!

So once I finally finished cleaning up the water mess; the guy who put my actual tires on, handed me my work order & receipt & said they were just finishing putting the spare tire back in its place. It would only be a couple of minutes. Yipeeeee!!!! I was so happy. It was past Tyler's nap time & he was exhausted at this point. He was getting upset at everything. He wanted to be held, then put down, held, then put down. He almost didn't know what to do with himself. He just wanted to lay down in his own bed.

We ran one more errand, picked up Mikayla from Keri's house, & thankfully headed home. Tyler was completely out at this point & was easy to lay down. The poor thing barely moved a muscle, he was so tired. The 2 older kids went to the Bybee's, our neighbor, to see their "club". Emmee & Ryleigh came to get the kids, just as we were pulling into the driveway. Whew! I was finally able to get a reprieve. I ended up just cleaning house, but still it was a reprieve nonetheless. I was just happy the tire was fixed, and I didn't have to worry about my boys destroying private property. :)! What a day!