Seriously, I am a magnet for things that cost money! Let's see...what happened?

Can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but on our (Lauren's and my) way back home to Newton from Mount Pleasant, my tire went flat on I-80. Not too big a deal, I can fix a flat, but I'm not so handy without a lugnut wrench. So we had to call for help, and all the while dad's telling me how I need to learn how to change a flat without having to call 911. ~sigh~ The tire was beyond repair, so we had to buy another one. Gotta cough up more cash. Lauren was so fun though. She was freaked out about the huge semi's going by and moving the car by the force of their...air (?) and because the car was on a slight slope next to a deep ditch, she was convinced we were going to tip over. :) After all was said and done, she climbed back in the car with me, sighed, and exclaimed, "Life experiences!" Maybe you had to be there...

We went back to Mount Pleasant for our parent's anniversary party (where I wrote the last entry) and drove back today. We left a little later than we should have and got back to Newton late.

Problem #1: Nasty Iowa winter weather. The roads are coated with ice. Yuck. It'll take me a while to get back home.

Problem #2: My car battery is dead again. This time for no apparent reason. (Enter voice in head: "Bad money magnet! Bad money magnet!") Dad decided my battery is worthless, is way to small for my car, and no longer worthy to sit on the platform beside my engine. He gave me a new battery, a different battery, that seemed to start my car with no problems at all. It's a lot bigger too; much more worthy to sit on the engine throne. I feel like I've betrayed my old battery that was semi-reliable for 2 years, but those feelings were quickly forgotten and the whole situation wouldn't have been brought up again, were it not for blogspot.

Problem #3: Changing my tire. Not really a problem per say, however my efforts to persuade my dad that I can, in fact, change a tire were thwarted when I forgot to loosen the lugnuts when the car was on the ground. Dad read that as an inability to complete the task and took over. Once he turned his back to put the spare away, I immediately jumped into action and tried to place my brand new, deep tread tire on the axil ("tried" being the key word). I can make up a million excuses as to why my frozen hands couldn't maneuver the big heavy tire onto the small bullseye of the bolts while my hair was blowing in my face and making eye contact with my small goal difficult, but I'll just say dad took over quickly and finished giving me my lesson in "how to change a tire." Class finally dismissed.

Problem #4: Finally, at 9 pm, I'm on the road to Ames. On the road, but not moving. Yeah, slight problem with west-bound I-80. It's not moving. Took me 15 minutes to go one mile. Now, I'm not a math wizard, but I had 33 miles to go until I hit Des Moines and who knew how far traffic was backed up; I could end up hitting Ames at 1am! If I arrived that late, no doubt my roommates would be asleep and I wouldn't get help bringing stuff into the apartment. I turned around at an illegal U-turn path (why are they there if you're not supposed to use them?!) and headed back home in a faction of the time it took me to get to the spot I turned around.

Which leaves me at the here and now. I am now here in Newton, spending (hopefully just) one more night before I head back home.

Paige, don't go into labor with bad roads. I'll pray for a prophet to come and knock on your door, telling you to leave early so you don't have to rush to the hospital on a layer of ice. Preggers people should not have to deliver in such weather conditions... And I got the little guy hats! :)