A tale of two tires . . .

We had a super exciting weekend--though not by choice. Friday I drove up to SLC for a book signing for a friend's debut book (Daughter of the Pirate King, which is a lot of fun). I left early so I could go to dinner with some other writer friends. And then, somewhere between Yuba lake and Nephi, I changed lanes and my whole car started shaking--the tell tale sign of a flat. I looked in the rear-view mirror and the tire was smoking! I pulled off the road, feeling a little shaky because the car had fish-tailed a little when I tried to do so, and found that the tread had cracked away from the rim around the entire rear driver's tire. I tried to change the tire myself, but while I got the car jacked up, I couldn't get the lug nuts to turn so I had to call AAA and wait for them to come help me change the tire. I had two new rear tires put on in Nephi and went on my way.

The book signing was a lot of fun, since I was friends with all the authors on the panel, but my introvert self kicked in a little toward the end and I found myself feeling tired and somewhat dorky.  (I suppose I should work on that before I do my own events).

The next morning, I was in a hurry to get home and forgot to get gas in Provo. I didn't notice until I saw the gas light was on--and I almost missed the last exit in Nephi (which would have been bad, since I'm not sure I could have made it to Scipio, 35 miles away). I felt a little stupid as I pulled into the gas station, since I should have picked up on the gas sooner. But while I was getting gas, I noticed that the other rear tire was flat--one of the one's I'd replaced the night before! So forgetting to get gas may have been a small mercy, since I discovered the tire was flat before having it blow out on the freeway. Again. I drove it back to the tire shop (apparently I wasn't supposed to drive on the flat tire, but I was a little distraught at the second flat tire in 18 hours). The same guy who had helped me the day before was working and he was pretty surprised to see me again, but they replaced the tire for free.

I made it home okay (though I kept stopping to make sure no other tires were flat. I get paranoid sometimes). But Dan called me in Beaver to say that Andrew had cut himself with his pocket knife. He thought the cut was okay, but when I got home and looked at it, it was still bleeding and obviously needed stitches. This was our first experience with kid stitches and Andrew was pretty freaked out (he kept hyper ventilating). He was a trooper when they put the stitches in, though, and today he bore a really sweet testimony about the power of prayer, saying that prayer had helped him calm down when he was really scared.

One of my friends does amazing wood art and made this for me--copied from the map I drew. (She burned it onto wood!)

Evelyn, playing Star Wars legos in a Jedi robe. As one does.

Oliver at the park before March realized it's still technically winter.

Blue tongue and cheek courtesy of a ring pop at church.