When it rains it pours

What a day! Or, really, what a week. It has been our turn for car troubles this week and today was the topper. First, on Monday Will came home and said that his car was acting funny. He was wondering if it was the battery. He drives my old Sentra and I told him I thought it had been awhile since we put a new battery in, so we kinda figured that's what it was. And Monday evening the van's brakes were making a bit of noise after the rain storm but just thought maybe because they had gotten wet.

Tuesday, Will leaves his first job and on his way to his second job the radio starts going on and off. Upon getting ready to leave his second job to come home for the day his car won't start. Bummer. I called my brother Scott at the shop and he got us the hookups for a new battery at wholesale price from Interstate batteries. Cha-ching. So, Will's boss was able to jump start his car with cabless so he could drive directly to Interstate and purchase the new battery and have it installed. No such luck. The car died about a 1/4 mile from his destination and of course we are without our cell phones still, so he got the car into a nearby parking lot and decided to walk the rest of the way to the battery place and make his purchase (mind you I forgot to tell you that Will's cars a/c went out about a month ago!) So he walked back to the car with the new battery and a man at a nearby business was kind enough to let Will use his cell phone so that he could call me at home and give me the latest news. So I called Scott at the shop to see if Darren could drive down and bring the correct tools so Will could install the battery and be on his way. Darren was tied up doing a big estimate so Scott sent someone else and was very helpful! (thank you Scott!) All this time poor Will was out in the hot sun and then had to get back in a hot, un-airconditioned car! Yuck.

That brings us to Tuesday evening. We got in the car to run up to Target real quick before we had to go pick Mariah up from her dads. On our way to Target the brakes in the van sounded AWFUL!!! They were grinding really bad. To the point it was embarrasing and we knew we probably shouldn't even be driving the car anymore. We decided that the van needed to get into the mechanic ASAP!

Wednesday morning Will calls the mechanic to arrange for us to bring the van in. Got that done first thing in the morning. Thanks to Samantha she was able to follow me to the shop and bring me and the kids back home!

Thursday late morning Samantha drove me back to the mechanic so I could pick the van up. $150 (not bad) later we have new brakes that don't grind anymore. Yay! About 10 minutes after arriving home I get a call from an unfamiliar phone number. It is Will. He is broken down again!!! He had gone to get some lunch real quick and his car died in a parking lot. Ugh. At this point he was pretty sure it had to be the alternator. Great. Luckily, Samantha was still here visiting and the kids were playing so she offered to stay with the kids while I went to rescue Will. We jumped his car and decided to try and drive it to the mechanic's shop where it could be assesed. I followed closely behind and the car died 4 different times in which we would pull over and re-jump the car each time. Sounds pretty stupid right? Well, to some yes, but we were trying to avoid a towing bill. The new battery and new brakes were already out of budget, so the headache of having additional car repair costs was a bit of added stress....especially JUST when we felt like we were finally starting to "get our heads above water" financially. Well, after the fourth time of the car dying we decided to ditch it and head home and try to solve our problem there.

After returning home this afternoon Will got on the phone and tried to round someone up with a truck and tow-straps to help him bring his car home where he decided he'd try to replace the alternator himself. Ben was awesome and came right over. While the boys were out Kim and her girls came over to hang out while the guys would be hard at work. And let me say, hard at work they were!! On the way home from towing the car, the strap snapped at a nearby intersection and the guys pushed the car the rest of the way home and Ben went back to pick his truck up. I'm not so sure Ben knew what hard work he was in for. Luckily, Ben had a pretty good knowledge with vehicles and mechanics and together they decided it wasn't the alternator afterall and maybe just a missing belt. We thought that maybe it would end up being less than the alternator expense which would be way cool! Nope. They soon figured out (after a few hours of working out in the horrid heat) that it was more than just a belt. A few phone calls later, and the repair was going to cost us more than what the alternator would have been. Unfortunately, the few places that had the parts they needed would be closed before the guys could get there. Another bummer, but I'm hoping maybe a blessing in disguise? We will try to call Scott in the morning to see if he can possibly order the part we need for a better price and get it by end of close tomorrow so Will can spend his Saturday trying to fix his car and get it running again...even if it sill doesn't have working a/c.

Right now we cannot possibly survive with one car. It just won't work, so somehow we'll have to play with our funds and at least get the Sentra driveable again. Ya think we are being tried?? Just a little. But, we can say after our day today that we were VERY blessed to have some very helpful friends!!! I'm not quite sure what we would have done without them?

The guys were totally beat after working for hours out in the heat (even Jaden was out "helping" the guys). Kim and I had gotten dinner done for the kids and us. I'm sure Ben and Kim were relieved when they finally got to go home ;)

I am trying to stay as positive as I can about this situation. I know we all have our trials. I just wish that sometimes our trials could go on hiatus for awhile! But I also know that what we overcome makes us that much stronger. Soooo, cheers to our trials?!???