The Good and the Bad

So there I was, 80-degree weather, kids in the van and tired and restless as I was driving along when all of a sudden like bad fate, my van overheats.

I pull over to the side of the road put the van in park and sit and stew. Kids are whining after only 3 minutes or so of sitting there. My oldest twin is digging his head into the youngest twins shoulder, my daughter is complaining she is thirsty(thank Goodness I didn't take the 32 bottles of water out of my van yesterday I had just bought), and I'm on the verge of a meltdown. Then my youngest twin decides to yell at me and tell me "Just go mom! I'm HOT!" I looked at him with that lovely "mom stare" and said "LOOK, the last time you guys said 'Mom go!' I did, and my van was smoking all over the place and broke down. Remember that?"

Finally silence.

So I get out of the van, pop the hood and hope the slight intermittent breeze would help it cool down faster.

No...

Such....

Luck.

So after about ten minutes of this madness, it finally cooled down enough that when I opened the radiator cap, the heat didn't spray hot water at me and I was able to pour the rest of my "spare" gallon of water and some of the bottled waters we hadn't consumed yet. I couldn't believe not ONE person bothered to pull over and see if we needed help. Van full of kids, woman on the verge of a meltdown and not one driver even slowed down to ask if I needed help. As I shut the van hood, I looked up at the sky and said "Where oh where is my knight in shining armor?"

Mine probably died in the war.

We made it home and the boys took off.

At which point my poor daughter said "I'm bored!" So then I proceeded to tell her "Let's Bake!"

So we did.

Then about half an hour before curfew here(sundown) two little girls who live beneath us came out and I explained to her mom my daughter's poor dilemma with no friends. She is very protective of her girls(rightfully so, especially where we live) and I told her that my daughter has some activities she does during the week, so if anything it would only be once every other week that she would need to hang out with her girls. Thankfully she was open to that option. For my daughter's sake, I was glad I asked.

I peek my head outside the door and I hear the one girl tell my daughter, "I never say the word ask, because it has the word ass in it --" my daughter cut her off and said, "there's a "k" at the end you know."

So I just went out to tell my daughter that she has to come in.  My daughter wanted to meet another girl who just moved here, and she is begging me for more time. The little girl playing with her says "Pleeeeease, it's her only chance!"

How could I say no to that pleading little voice?

So I said, "Fine, five more minutes and that's it."

Well, five more minutes turned into an hour later. I was chatting with the girls mom and another mom and we ended up talking for a while. Made plans for tomorrow to hang out with our kids.

My daughter was like the pied piper. All three girls followed her around wherever she ran. They had so much fun yesterday.

So despite the drama-induced start to my day with the kids, it ended with a lovely evening.

I guess it is true when they say with the bad comes the good.