I forgot to post this story a LOOOOOONG time ago. Like April. But, it is a good story for the family history book.
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The morning started a little rough. My Mr. and I were in a little arguement as we drove down the Kamehameha Highway headed towards his work. He was a little late, because he was waiting for me. I was feeling grumpy because it's not my fault we live an hour from town and gas costs a bajillion dollars an ounce, and I am too cheap to drive the van that far.
Anyway, after pulling over twice to make potty stops for child #1 and child #2, we finally dropped him off at work, kissed and made up. It was nice.
The kids and I headed off for an adventure, but I didn't know it was going to be one of the best days ever!
We first stopped at Ross. Apparently I needed to retail therapy. I'm pretty sure I piled my cart 2 feet above the rim with a throw pillow, new welcome mat, kitchen mat, shoes for kids, plates for me, plates and cups for kids, stuff for Eden with birthday $, and anything else my hands grabbed. Of course, before leaving we thinned it out to our most favorite 3 or 4 items and left the store with our new purchases. I checked the time and couldn't believe my kids were relatively well behaved for over an hour while their Mom meandered through isle after isle.
As a reward, we headed for McDonalds ice cream.
Our next adventure lead us the loooooong and wrong way to one of my favorite little thrift stores in Kailua. It's at a Christian private school. I discovered it just before Christmas. We headed there, got an extra booster seat for the van to tote friends kids around, an easter dress for Eden, 2 new kids cassettes to listen to in the car, oh, and that silly Barbie that cost $1...though I thought it would only be 50 cents.
We jumped back in the car. Eden and I jumped, Tex just continued sleeping. I should mention here that Tex is an AMAZING sleeper. He fell asleep before the thrift store, got out of the car with me, an was put back into his car seat....all the while SLEEEEEEPING! He's pretty awesome like that.
So, got in the car and headed on down the Pali. Next stop ZOOOO! Or so we thought. Not long after starting out on the road where there is just nowhere to stop, my power steering went out. I had heard before "if your power steering goes out, pull over asap and check
something". Of course I couldn't remember what that something was, and I was kind of freaking out. "What if my brakes go out next as I am charging down this hill???!!" So, I called Jonathon 5 times in a row. He finally answered. I pulled over soon as I could, checked
the belt. Verdict...there was no belt. "Great!" Went to call him back, no service, and maybe 1/20th of a battery life left.
As I sat there on the side of he road in a very hot car trying to remain calm and keep kids happy, I remembered a talk that I heard in a RS conferense a few weeks back. The talk was about how keeping a cheerful attitude will shorten your trial. I kept this in my mind as I tried getting ahold of Jonathon who was in a meeting at this time, and texted a friend of mine to get her husbands opinion. That Casey Jorgensen. He knows a lot about a lot of things. ;-) I sat on the side of the road, watching my kiddos lick the icing from the sandwich cookie I had saved earlier from their Lunchable and waited to hear from someone what I should do next. Jonathon texted "drive to where you can park and not get towed." I pulled back onto the road, and 30 seconds later received this text "Casey says, no belt no drive!" AAAAAAAhhh, I start thinking. Then Jonathon calls to tell me to find somewhere quickly. If I take too long the battery will die on me. More Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh's start running through my mind.
I drive through 2 or 3 neighborhoods trying to find somewhere to park. In Hawaii, people can be quite particular about who parks in front of their house. I didn't want to tick anyone off. Of course all the streets were 10 feet wide. I finally found a spot my heart felt good about, parked the car, grabbed what I thought we would needed and headed out towards town in the middle of the noon day sun.
Eden began whining that she needed water. I had about 2 inches left in our water bottle but it was really warm from being left in the car. She didn't want it. She stopped to sit on a bus stop bench. "I can't go anymore. My legs are tired!!" I really felt for this poor little 4 year old, which was an unusual feeling for me. I feel like quite often I act like we need to be in a rush here and there, I forget that my kids have feelings that matter, and just try to foce them to do the things I want to do. But, thankfully, this day, this moment, was different. I bent down to talk to her. Our conversation went something like this
"Eden, do you remember how we said a prayer before we left our car? And we prayed that Heavenly Father would help us to be safe and to have a good day?"
"Yes"
"Do you think that he knows you are thirsty and tired?"
"Yes"
"I'm sure he will send someone our way to hep us. Maybe someone will let us get a drink from their hose. We just have to keep walking."
I explained how the people who lived in the houses around us might all be at work, and that we would just need to keep walking so that Heavenly Father could help us find the person he is sending to help us.
She got off the bench, we started walking and playing a game as we went. I spy I believe. And not too long after, a sweet Asian Auntie passed by us walking briskly our same direction.
"Excuse me. Do you know where this road leads to?"
"It can take you as far as King if that is where you need to go. But that is a long way down. Where are you trying to get to?"
I explained how our car had broken down, and that the kids were thirsty.
She had just happened to be walking back to the hospital where she works. We walked with her the next hundred yards, and she told me how to find the cafeteria, and told me I could catch Bus 13 and it would take us all the way to the Zoo!
We went into the hospital gift shop. Tex played with a frog that sang "A dream is a wish your heart makes..." which I thought was a fitting song for the moment I had just experienced. We found a water fountain, had a potty stop, and bought a pack of mentos and banana from the sweet lady in the gift shop.
After we had cooled down, emptied our bladders, and had a snack, we headed to the bus stop. A few short moments after we got there Bus 13 showed up!
We hopped on and headed for the zoo. Though it was taking a LOOOOOOOONG time to get there. By now it was alreay past 1:30.
I noticed we were nearing Wal-Mart, which was one of the places I was hoping to go to on our trip to town. I talked Eden into skipping the zoo and going to a nearby pet store. We hopped off the bus, and walked to wal-mart. We put many things in our cart. More things than I could logically carry around town with me, especially with 2kids in towe.
I ran into a friend of a friend. I thought about asking her to take my things home and I'd pick them up later, but didn't want to impose. I later saw her husband in the store, thought again about asking, but thought it would be even more strange to ask him. The kids and I went to do a little more shopping, and by this point I really wished I would have just imposed. I wandered down a few isles hoping to see her or her husband, but no luck. Shoot! I had been given proabably 4 chances, and I took none of them. We headed to the check out, and who should be in the lane next to me, but the girl I knew!
..............................I never finished writing this. I'll write what I remember now.................
She offered to take my things and give us a ride, but I hadn't made good on my pet store promise yet. So, I gave her my bags of goods and the kids and I walked to the mall.
We played for a while at the arcade. The pet store I was planning on taking them to was out of business. On our way out of the mall, we grabbed a bubble drink and I really wanted to check out Old Navy before catching the bus. I bought a $6 t shirt for Tex, and I never spend that kind of money on a shirt...not even for myself. But this one was just so cute, it made me happy. ;-)
We grabbed some Taco Bell and headed for the bus. By this point my cell phone was dead so I couldn't text Jonathon, but I figured he knew we were all right. We sat at the bus stop around 6 pm and got home a little after 7:15. Jonathon wasn't home and I wondered where he might be. I started getting the kids ready for bed and 10 minutes later he showed up mad that I hadn't called because he had been driving around the past 30 minutes looking for us.
Usually I would have borrowed someones cell to check in, but I really wasn't worried about it because we were all right, and our Father in Heaven had sent angels who really watched over us the entire day.
I don't remember now how we got the car back. Probably our angelic mechanic friend Casey.
I'm still laughing.
