Happy Epiphany!

Our new year got off to a bit of a rocky start, so I missed wishing everyone a timely Happy New Year. Instead - Happy Epiphany! (Today is the traditional celebration of Epiphany, the visitation of the Three Kings.)

After a sluggish start New Year's morning, we began a trek down to Corona for the day to visit with Jason's parents. They were planning a small birthday party for Darian (lucky kid - this was the third day in a row his birthday was being celebrated!), nothing major - just some cake and ice cream - and a few presents, of course!

For a while now, my van has been making some strange noises. However, being the procrastinators that we are, we hadn't had it checked out yet. So, a little over half way there, Jason, who is driving, suddenly turns to me and says, "I think the power steering just went out." Before I can say anything, this is quickly followed with "Uh-oh, the temperature just flew into the red!" We quickly pulled to the side of the freeway to figure out what next while the children, anxious to get to Grandma and Papa's, start in with "What happened? Why are we stopping? Are we there?"

We called Jason's dad to get the kids, called the tow truck to get the van, and we sat and waited...for an hour. An hour on the side of the freeway with a car full of bored kids. Such fun.

We arrived at Jason's parents house (I won't even bother describing the very bouncy trip in the tow truck, wedged between Jason and a big sweaty tow truck driver) to discover that we had interrupted Karl (Jason's dad) in the middle of a home repair job - the main water line to the house was broken and there was no running water. Could the day get any better? Did I mention that Vibiana had a cold? Did I mention I had started my period? Oh, the joy!!

Oh yes, and of course, the car repair places were all closed due the the New Year's holiday.

The next morning we got the van towed off to the repair shop and I took Vibiana to the doctor. Over the course of the previous afternoon and evening, her cold and turned into something worse. The doctor took one look in her ears and said that she had a rather "impressive" infection in both ears. After waiting with all the sick people in the Kaiser pharmacy to fill her prescriptions, we arrived back at my in-laws to wait. Of course, since the van broke down, my head is filled with numbers - how much was the repair going to be? Will we need a new power steering pump? New belt? Can I afford any of it???? A few hours later the shop called and Jason went to pick the van up.

When he got back my first question was "So, how much?"

"Well," Jason said, "the bad news is that we won't be able to feed Darian for awhile. The good news is, it only cost us $68."

Talk about an answer to prayers. The only thing wrong was some dinky little part (idle pulley?) that was an easy fix. What a relief!

Of course, shortly after arriving home Friday evening I started feeling sick thanks to my visit with Vibiana to Kaiser. I spent the entire weekend sick with a cold. Fortunately, I am better now, Vibiana is better and the kids are all back in school. They had a great vacation, but I am glad to get back into our "normal" routine. Aside from having to fix lunches and a frantic last minute search for a belt, I enjoy them being in school and having some quiet time for myself - if I can get the two little ones to nap at the same time.