Car Connundrums

This week has been crazy! Back to school + car drama = one tired mama. Fortunately, school has been a delight (or mostly a delight for Simon - he did have one of his epic meltdowns when I dropped him off on Thursday...which ended as soon as I left the room and then he had a great day...) for both kids. I have to say I am quite impressed with the Pre K experience so far for Stella. They both wonderful teachers and classmates, so I'm looking forward to a great year!

So, back to the car drama. I mean, really, no Hinman story is ever complete without some kind of car issue. Last Thursday, I decided to treat the kids to Menchies (delicious froyo) or "Mint Cheese" (gross, I know) as Stella refers to it. As we were pulling into the parking space, my brake pedal went to the floor (without braking) and we slammed into the curb. First and foremost, I am still thanking my lucky stars that we were going slow and in a parking lot. Can't even imagine if we had been on an actual road, or even worse, at highway speed... The kids thought it was funny and I managed a somewhat psychotic sounding laugh that they fell for. At that point, 157 warning indicator lights appeared on the dash which is never good. I had been debating whether or not to have any froyo until that moment. You can bet the farm that I fixed myself up a lovely froyo concoction to soothe my frazzled nerves. And it was damn tasty.

I refused to drive the car after that and Steve took it to the dealership on Friday. A whole lot of $$$ and a weekend later, it was revealed that there was a massive brake pump failure. No, that's not the technical term, but you get the point. On the plus side, they loaned us a brand new Toyota Highlander to drive which was lovely. Steve picked up my car on Monday afternoon and I was all set to take the kids to school on Tuesday (the first official day of school). Tuesday morning drop off went fine until I went to restart the car after dropping the kids in their classes. Upon starting, the check engine light and 45 (<--- sarcasm) other lights also came on. I was so PISSED! The check engine light wasn't on at the beginning of all of this mess. Poor Steve got an earful (clearly I know it's not his fault, but he's a man and men are supposed to know ALL of the things in regards to cars, right???). Also, I should add that I HAD to be at the hospital that morning to volunteer.

All of that said, after I daringly drove my car to and from the hospital at highway speeds (I'm a badass, I know...) with the check engine light blaring at me, I rolled up the dealership before I picked up the kids. Luckily, my new BFF Charlie was working (our service guy) and he immediately came out to look at the car and was baffled as to why the light was on. Given my time crunch, he offered me a loaner so I could get the kids - this time a new RAV4, which, while cute, is very small. I was in a full blown sweat (keep in mind it was 2,000 degrees outside and a million percent humidity), by the time I unloaded and then reloaded and installed Simon's carseat and Stella's booster. Is there anything more exasperating than trying to install a carseat when you're in a hurry and sweating a river???? Anyway, I made it just in time to get the kids and blow Stella's mind at carpool with a different car She may never forgive me for that one...

Wouldn't you know the minute I picked up the kids, they called to say the car was fixed?!?! They had forgotten to reset the freaking codes (or something like that, I don't even know). So, we hauled ass back over to the dealership, where I again unloaded and reloaded the carseats. I was a sight, let me tell you! The best part of this whole story? When we got home, as I walking around the car, I noticed that they had forgotten to put the damn wheel cover back on. Christ on a cracker!!!!! So, we'll be making yet another trip to the dealership this weekend and I swear if there's even one more issue, I'd better be walking out of there with a brand new damn car! TGIF...