The signs were all there -and yet, I chose to ignore them.

I grabbed the kids and buckled them into their car seats - on time and everything! As I walked around the car, I noticed that the front tire was flat. I ran back in the house and asked my husband to start looking around for a new tire.

I figured I would drive down the street, pump some more air into the tire, then take the kids to daycare and get to work.

Gas station #1: After waiting about 10 minutes to pull into the spot next to the air machine, I notice that it is GONE.

Gas station #2: This ARCO has been open for maybe a month - air pump is OUT OF SERVICE.

Sheesh.

I decide not to drive the kids around in this vehicle any more, so we went home. It was about 7:00 am.

For some reason, my body completely failed me at this point, and I passed out. Cold. I kind of remember waking up from time to time, my husband saying weird things to me like "Did that sound as loud outside my head as it did inside?" and my old baby running in and out of the room approximately every 30 seconds, throwing things at my head.

I finally dragged myself up around 9:15, made breakfast for old baby, and called Costco. They didn't open until 10:00.

I found out that Costco doesn't carry the size tire I need, because you know, minivans are all unique and hard to come by, so I called Big-O tires. They were able to hook me up. By 11:30 I was the proud owner of a brand new tire.

I called my boss as I got on the highway. He mentioned he was getting worried about me - he figured it would take maybe an hour to get my flat tire taken care of. After I stopped laughing, I told him to expect me in the office in about an hour.

That's when the wall of flame on the highway caused some minor traffic delays.

I finally made it home around 1:00. I had called my husband via cell phone while stuck in traffic, and he told me he thought new baby might have chicken pox.

At this point, I started to wonder "maybe God is trying to tell me something". Well, God isn't putting a paycheck in my account every Friday, so I decided to go ahead and get my ass to work.

I am contemplating what my next action should be. Should I work until 5, then sit in traffic for possibly 2 hours to get to my house 10 miles away? OR should I look up some friends in Napa and have a few drinks? Geez, when you put it that way.......