Vacation week? What vacation week?

What do "they" say about the best laid plans?  Well, any plans I had this week went up in a cloud of busyness and unexpected car trouble.

Last Saturday (because, in my extremely intuitive way, I know you want a blow-by-blow of my week! lol), I was supposed to have a Pampered Chef show, but hadn't heard back from the host.  Early in the afternoon, the host's mother-in-law called to tell me that the show was cancelled.  I told her that I would bring her some catalogs, and the transmission went out on the car while I was driving there.  That was my Saturday, in a nutshell.

Now, those of you who have known us for any length of time may realize that this is the FIFTH transmission to break in TEN YEARS.  Two different vehicles, but who's counting? 

Steve came to pick me up, we dropped off the catalogs, and went home.  On Sunday morning, Steve called AAA and had the car towed to the transmission shop.

The only other car we have is Steve's Roto Rooter truck, so we had to shuttle to church.  Eli went first, then the girls (shhh, we buckled both of them into the passenger seat), then me.  THREE trips.  Thank God that our church is only 5 minutes away. 

Between us & friends, we all got home.  I had a show that afternoon, so Steve brought me (and picked me up) in the RR truck.  Again, thank God, the show was only a mile away.

Another blessing was/is the fact that our friends Kyle & Beth are letting us borrow their van until we can get our car fixed. 

Monday is poured buckets all day, so we were able to have a relaxing day at home. (Tell me, does swapping out bold/not bold print help making reading the paragraphs easier?  This template doesn't let me double-space for some reason, and I'm too lazy to try to learn how to fix it.)

Tuesday Eli had his orthodontist appointment.  He got spacers put between his teeth, in anticipation of the braces that he'll get this week.  I honestly can't remember what we did for the rest of the day.  I had all of these plans to dive into a small unit study for the week--it just didn't happen.

Wednesday, I had to go get a filling.  I hate getting fillings.  This wasn't a new cavity, but an old filling that needed to be replaced.  After running to the post office and bank, we arrived early at the dentist's.  The kids were great--they had to wait in the waiting room (so appropriately named, I guess!) for over an hour.  It takes forever for my face to go numb, so they had me wait about 40 minutes before they started drilling.

Everything went fine (I'm comparing this to the time that it took 3 novacaine shots to numb me, and then I was numb to the base of my neck...), but I was so tense, I needed a nap once I got home.  Some things need to be slept off.  Dentist visits are one of those things.

Eli's friend, Andrew, was dropped off at our house that afternoon.  We used to live next door to Andrew's family, so the boys don't get as much time to play as they did.  Andrew stayed for dinner, and came to Awana with us. 

After dropping Andrew off at home, we let the kids stay up late to watch the LUNAR ECLIPSE.  How fun was that?  We had a nice, clear night, albeit freezing, freezing cold, so we had a great view of the eclipse.  We did an astronomy study last year--how very cool to see one of the things we learned about right in front of us!

On Thursday, my friend, Sue, had the kids over for a Star Wars movie-viewing party.  Along with 20-30 of her kids other closest friends.  Sue, I know you read this, and I think you're fabulous and slightly insane. :)  The kids had a great time!

A wonderful surprise for me was getting to see a dear friend, Mary, who was also dropping off a child (he's one of 10, God bless her!).  We had a lovely visit--it was fantastic to get to catch up with her.

We brought the girls' friend, Rosemary, home with us to play for a while, and then delivered her home before dinner.  A quick trip to Target finished the day.

Except for one thing: I had to tape Lost for my mom.  Back story:  she asked me to tape the season premiere of Lost on 1/31, and I messed up and didn't tape the whole show.  So I was determined not to mess up this time.

I messed up. I taped the right time, and for the correct amount of time.  I taped the wrong channel. Sigh.  My poor mom.  I have a chance to redeem myself next week.

Friday was a frenzy of housework.  Laundry had piled up disgracefully, so I tackled that.  I also (brag alert) mended a sheet.  No really, this is a big deal for me.  Two years ago, I would have just thrown the sheet away, but yesterday, I took out my sewing machine, and fixed it!  It's really pathetic how proud I am of myself.

Last night, I had a Pampered Chef show in Bristol--about 35 minutes away normally.  Oh, did I forget to mention?  It snowed all day yesterday!  I'm so grateful to Kyle & Beth for loaning us their van, but they warned us not to drive it in bad weather (bald tires or something...).  So I had to borrow my dad's Jeep, which involved him coming here, me bringing him to work, me driving to my show, driving home, staying up late, then going to pick him up at midnight, him driving me home, then he got to go home.  WHEW!

Today has been pretty relaxed so far.  I cleaned the kitchen, and did all of my dishes from last night.  I was supposed to have a PC show, but that has changed to a catalog show. 

Maddie has a birthday party to attend in an hour, so I need to get the van cleaned off (roads are fine now) and warmed up.  Steve is working at friend's home, so he's gone all day.

Tomorrow is church, then I'm working in the afternoon.  AND THAT was our vacation week!

Next week isn't looking much calmer. :)