the van fiasco...

the victim: our van, bought mid-march, 2009

the culprit: ehren, our 2 year old

the weapon: a plastic hair thing

this happened the very first time that i took all four of our youngings out alone, april 15th (about 3 weeks ago).

it was a typical wedensday morning...we were missing our friends & craving osme of our old routine, so we packed up in the van and were on our way to our homeschool co-op's weekly playgroup.

there was a new thrift store along the way that i had been wanting to check out, so we stopped there first. afterwards, as i was getting evyn buckled in i noticed ehren sticking somthing into the ignition (a plastic hair thing). i told him to stop & get in hi seat, which he did.

well, when i went to put the key in, it wouldn't go. it turns out that a piece of the plastic thing had broken off inside the ignition, and by putting the key in i had only shoved it in further. i spent the next 30 minutes with a bent up paper clip trying to dislodge it. i finally gave up & called lance, who was not yet up.

i ended up having to call our neighbor, who just happen to be home & have a van that would hold our lot. she drove evyn and i home, and graciously agreed to watch theboys while lance and i tried to get things sorted out.

no luck...

we had to have the van towed home, which cost us $60. then we had to completely disasemble the steering column, which of course required special tools (another $40), and then order a new ignition switch ($60).

not to mention the time invested...this all happened on wednesday, and we finally had it up and running that next thursday.

needless to say, i learned to always put ehren in his seat first.

but just think of what we did for the environment by staying home for that whole week...:)