What a Monday...

Last night we went to bed knowing that there was a leak in the basement. The water tank was leaking and we'd already informed our landlord who would be sending a plumber over in the morning to check things out.

I awoke at 6:25am to Ruby's cries. I figured she was hungry and cold, sure enough, she'd taken her socks off and her toes were freezing. I brought her back to bed with me and warmed her up as she nursed. When she was done, I put her back to bed and climbed into the shower to prepare for the day.

Most of the girls were already out of bed by the time I was done, so that meant the morning had begun early for them. After getting dressed, I picked out clothes, packed lunches, and prepared breakfast for everyone. Ruby didn't fall back asleep since the girls were up and playing in their room, they all share the same room now, so she'd want to eat as well.

Looking at the clock a bit later reminded me that the trash man would be coming soon. So I grabbed my coat and headed out to take some trash out to the curb. Duane followed me to help me and start his car. We realized that my car was blocking him in so I went to start my car up to move it for him. I couldn't unlock the car with the key fab which made me wonder if the battery in it had died. But as soon as I climbed into the car I realize it wasn't the key fab's battery that had died, it was the car battery.

We have a very narrow driveway and there was no way that Duane could get his car past mine, not to mention the 2 1/2 feet drifts of snow on one side and the concrete wall on the other. I put the car in neutral and climbed out to help Duane push it. I then realized that I had my slippers on and ran inside to find my shoes. Under the car is a sheet of ice and we quickly found our "Yaktracks" that help give traction on ice. We began pushing and rocking the car. But to no avail. It is 4000 lbs of pure steel. Nothing like a Volvo station wagon, strong as ever and as safe as ever. We tried everything to push as hard as we could. At one point, my feet slipped out from beneath me and I smacked my face on the front of the car! It was pretty funny. We couldn't help but laugh. I must say that I wasn't in to laughing too much at this point, I was ready to cry. The girls were going to be late to school and I couldn't get everyone dressed in time to walk them there.

About this time my neighbor walked out and wondered what was going on. She offered to take the girls to school on her way to work. What a gem! She buckled the girls in and away they went.

Duane and I turned our attention back to the car. I tried to convince him to call our Motor Club to have them come bail us out. Duane's concern was that they wouldn't have a flat bed tow truck to tow the car out. So he came up with a brill ant idea...back the TT up to the Volvo and push it out of the driveway.

Before all this, we'd spend the entire day on Saturday organizing the garage and making room so Duane could change the oil in both the cars. We decided to place his car in the garage for the remainder of the weekend.

What would we buffer the cars with so that they wouldn't hurt one another? Duane's idea? His extremely dense temperpedic pillow. So off he runs to grab his pillow. I climbed in his car to back it up into the grill of the Volvo and Duane would steer it into the street. I got out and continued to push the car and we eventually ran over our neighbor's trash. Just about that time I looked down the street to see a car coming towards us. We were completely blocking the street by now, no way to get around us. Then another car comes from the other direction. Duane just shrugged his shoulders to both cars and continued pushing the car. He was able to get his car out of the garage and turned around so we could jump the cars.

Another side note: Earlier in this endeavour, before we could get Duane's car out of the garage, Duane found all 3 of our jumper cables and decided maybe we should try linking them together to see if they'd stretch across both cars. We decided that it might not be such a good idea.

We got the car started along with the car's alarm. If the neighbors weren't watching from behind their living room curtains by now, this would've drawn them to see what was going on. I pulled the car back into the driveway and debated about what to do next. I know better than to do what I did next but I did it anyhow: I turned the car off.

Just as I did this, I looked up as Duane yelled, "NOO!!!"

I quickly turned the car on again and couldn't get it to start. I tried to hold back my tears because I realized that we were back in the same spot again. Duane was going to be really late for work now, so I just told him to leave that we'd worry about it later. He didn't want to, but I began telling him that he needed to leave and I began to cry, he asked me why I was crying and my answer was, "I haven't eaten my breakfast yet."

Duane laughed and left for work. But my tears came out in full force once I got in the house. I have been feeling so beat up lately and this silly incident just brought it all out.

I apologized to Duane for yelling at him in the driveway when he called to check in on me and let me know that he wasn't mad at me. He's incredible. He knows what my limits are and encourages me the best way he can. He came home at lunch and hooked the battery up to a charger.

The last time we charged a battery on it, the battery was charged by day#6. :)

The plumber came by too and knows what the issues are with the tank but he can't fix it till he gets approval from the landlord. But at least we still have water!

Humor has gotten me through this day, because now I can see how funny it all is. What was meant to bring us down, has actually brought us closer and now I can see that we both should continue drinking our weight-gainer protein shakes. :)