no love for the car

yesterday afternoon, i piled the little people in my vehicle to go meet chase at mcalister's for kids eat free night before our baseball games.  and....it wouldn't start.

"what's wrong with our car?"

"is it gonna blow up?"

"did you put gas in it, mama?"

"let me out, i don't want to blow up!"

so...after i assured everybody that we weren't sitting on a bomb, we came inside to eat peanut butter and jelly and wait on chase to get home so we could go play baseball.  i had several different lights come on on the dashboard.  after looking them up in the toyota book, i still didn't know what was wrong because none of them gave me an explanation.  each just said....take it to the toyota dealer.

therefore, i packed the little people and some pop tarts in the car this morning and followed my instructions to take it to the toyota dealer.  (thankfully, it started this morning even though all the lights were still on!)  it needs a new crank sensor something or the other, and they didn't have that part in stock.  it would take a day to come in, and the lady told me that i could still drive it for the day and just bring it back tomorrow, but that i would run the risk of it not cranking.  i guess she read the "you've got to be crazy look" on my face as i pointed at the 3 kids with me.  like i want to be stranded somewhere with all these people.  so she immediately changed her tune and said, "um yeah.  let me go see if we can get you a car."

and we were soon the proud owners of a bright red camry for the day.  y'all.  to the mamas that drive 3 kids around in a car....i applaud you.  they thought it was cool because it looked like a race car, but that soon changed to disdain when they realized that they all 3 didn't exactly fit in the back seat too well!  "i can't reach my buckle because it's too close!"  "wes is squishing me!"  "no i'm not, you just take up too much room!"  children that age should not be allowed to sit where they can touch each other!  we had a come to jesus moment where i told them to suck it up.  we could handle anything for one day.  and then it just became comical.  for one, i felt like i was driving a go kart with super sensitive brakes.  so when i bottomed out just going down a slight bump and barely touched the brakes which locked all of their seat belts, they all started laughing.  "do you know how to drive race cars, mama?"

and then we made a quick stop by kroger because all the employees would miss me if i didn't show up that day.  "i can't get out because there is nothing to step on!"  vehicles without running boards are apparently very confusing to my kids.   as we were coming out of kroger, wes piped up, "where are you going to put the groceries?"

"in the trunk."

"the what?"

"the trunk."

"what's a trunk?"

"that thing in the back of cars where you put groceries."

"so that thing opens?  how does it open?"

"push this button."

all 3 little people:  "COOOOOOOL!!!!!"

"it's so huge, you could fit like a body back here!"

so help me.  how do my kids know anything about putting a body in a trunk?

"can we ride back here?"

after all the trunk discussion, wes tried to climb in the car (which does not have a running board), slips, falls and somehow ends up completely upside down.  "i don't like this car!"

since chick-fil-a is right beside kroger, we drove through for a drink.  i'm not used to looking way up at the pick up window.  the girl handed me 4 drinks, and i hit each cup on the top of the window as i was getting them in the car.  the laughter just got louder with each one.  she was looking at me like i was crazy.  and i'm sure she would have called and reported my license to have me hauled away except the car doesn't have a license plate!

when we got home, i told them to stay put so i could get a picture to remember this ordeal and remind me of why i never want a car.  and then i proceeded to bump my head on the roof getting out of the thing!  yeah.  at least they enjoyed this process!!

and while we have laughed a good bit this morning, i'll be happy to have my gas-guzzling, spacious, non-go kart back as soon as possible!  if it takes longer than a day, mama might not be too happy with the toyota lady.  but then again, this car could come in handy.  at least i'll have somewhere to put the body!  :)