Stranded...

First of all I want to state the incredibly obvious and say, "I am a HORRIBLE blogger!" I was chatting with a friend the other night and she asked when I was going to update my blog and I assured her I would do it soon, but that truly, I don't lead a very exciting life and am not generally good with words, so really, why would anyone want to read my blog?

And then something terribly exciting and adventuresome happened....

Are you ready for this? Sitting on the edge of your seats? Ready to laugh your head off?

It all began.....

We have one vehicle to drive in our family, and I needed to take Peanut back up to school after Christmas break, so my parents, who are ALWAYS incredibly helpful in these instances, offered their van to us so that my hubby could have the car we have to drive to work.

I taught water aerobics on Wednesday morning and our plan was to leave (K & I) as soon as I got home...around 9:45-10am. On my way home from the gym, the power steering went out on the van, so I called my dad. He then borrowed my Grandma's car, and they brought my dad's truck to us so that we could go ahead with our plans. They had the van towed (it ended up being the water pump...it sprayed fluid on a belt and it slipped off) and we finally got on our way at 11:30am.

We were havin' a GREAT trip! The roads were completely clear! The sun was trying to peek through the clouds. We had the music jammin', we were talking about all we hadn't caught up on in the past couple of weeks, we were rollin' right along and I was on course to get her and her (incredibly large pile of) stuff delivered to school and return home by 8ish Wed. evening. We were literally 30 minutes from South Bend...ALMOST to our destination...(remember it takes 3-3 1/2 hours to get there)...and the oil gauge plummets and the "check gauges" light comes on.

Earlier, before we had left, my dad explained to me that this might happen. That there was a sensor messed up, and that it would recover.

It wasn't recovering........

It started knocking.........

I immediately pulled off the main highway, turned onto a side street and off to the side of someone's long driveway. In the middle of farm country. No town or service station or anything "public" close by. We were....stranded.

I called my dad, and making an incredibly exciting (read:boring) story short, they were coming to get us.....so, we waited, and waited, and waited......remember, it's a 3-3 1/2 hour drive to our destination, we were almost there!!!!!! They had to tie up loose ends at home and they left to make "The Rescue". By the time they reached us... (thank you Lord, for technology, cell phones, and wireless internet connections in the middle of farm country in north central Indiana!!!!!)...we had a 3 1/2 hour adventure in the truck, on the side of the road!

Now most of you who will read this know me personally, so you know that I just looked at the bright side of it all, and K and I had us a party!! We laughed! and we crocheted! and we sang! and we thanked God for all the blessings that were coming out of this! and we prayed for safety, talked on the phone, texted with our friends, and just made the best of our great adventure!

And of course, what kind of "paparazzi" goes anywhere without her camera to document what MIGHT happen?!?! Not this one!!!

The view around us...





Our stash of snacks!



Our HAPPY FACES!!





By the end of the adventure, we were pretty cold, but we had dug out all of K's hats, mittens, and scarves that she had packed away.





The end of the story is just as exciting (read:boring) as the rest...K (and all her stuff) has been delivered to school, I finally made it home a little after midnight, and all is right with the fam now. My parents already have their van back and the truck is in the shop!