Speaking of TIRED...

I could go on and on asking you all how you get everything done daily -- groceries, school projects (and it's only preschool), and constant errands are whooping my butt. Take yesterday, for example...

6:45 AM Against my better judgment, head to Wal*Mart for tires. (Who doesn't need to save $ these days?)
7:00 AM Meet the lovely gentleman -- we'll call him Bruce -- who tells me he can save me 50% on the $1200 tire quote I got from the dealership. (I guess the "Hotyssey" has special tires -- who knew?) Me likey Bruce.
8:20 AM (well over an hour later) Bruce comes out and says "bad news." Apparently Bruce is having some trouble getting three of the tires off. But hey, he got one off the car -- that's a start!
8:30 AM Have extra keys made for my house. Oooh BONUS! I actually checked something off my list of things to do that has been on it for months.
8:40 AM Bruce comes back out with more bad news. Not only can he not get the other three off, the one he did get has a nail in it. He'll have to put the spare on.
9:00 AM Well look at that, there's no spare in my car! Baffling since I've never had a flat and only had service done at the dealership.
9:10 AM Hang up with the dealership who tells me...

A. There is no spare because the special tires can run 100 miles on a flat, therefore deeming a spare unnecessary.
B. You can't put regular tires on those rims. They are made only for special tires. "The guy at the tire store should've known that," I'm told.
C. I need to "get the hell out of wherever you are."

9:15 AM Have a conversation with Bruce, letting him know I need my tire (with nail in it) back on the car so I can leave. Bruce says, "I'm sorry ma'am. I can't do that."

I take a second to cringe at calling me "ma'am."

Why not, Bruce? Oh because you can't get my tire back on the car?

I call the manager and tell him that he needs to call a tow truck to take my car to the dealership. PS: Mr. Wal*Mart, you're paying for it. He responds to my request and starts to make it happen.

What I didn't mention so far is that my friend, Michelle, was waiting to swap cars so she can take Lucy for the day. But we can't do that now and have to reassess the situation.

So car is being ready to get towed, my friend is waiting to be provided with a car that fits three car seats and I am insanely late. Jeff pulls up, gives Michelle his car, takes hers and we both drive 30 miles to work -- which just happens to be half a mile away from each other for just this week.

Are you exhausted yet?

10:30ish Arrive at work a sweaty mess.

10:45 AM Share my life-changing decision to quit my job with the powers that be.

3:00 PM Get a call from dealership from my new friend, we'll call him John. They were waiting on parts that just arrived. The car will not be ready today and I'll have to get a rental. I inform him there's no way I'm driving to rental place and then back to dealership and then all the way to boys' preschool. I will never make it on time. He agrees to have rental car company come pick up the three car seats.

4:00 PM Get picked up by Michelle, her two kids and Lucy. Drive to rental car company to pick up (wait for it...) a minivan. Yeah, I get that I drive a minivan so I should be over it by now. But trading in your own minivan to drive another minivan? It's really the ultimate in mom humility.

4:45 PM About to finish up at rental company (we'll call it Enterprise) when the teen behind the counter informs me that he can't rent to me after all. Why? Because this drowning mother of three didn't RENEW HER LICENSE last month!

So let me recap. I am at rental company with my friend and three of our kids (Lucy crying in the car) ... my boys are stranded at preschool wondering where mom is and I am being denied a car by a boy who was born probably after I had graduated college (which stings -- a lot).

UGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Now I'm standing here thinking I really should never have scoffed at my co-worker when she babbled about this Mercury in retrograde thing (sorry, Jen).

Michelle comes in, rents the horrible minivan and sends me on my way to pick up my boys. She takes the rent-a-wreck to my house and lets herself in with a key I just had made. (Remember, that was my silver lining of the morning...)

Guess what...

I pull up to my house with my three kids and Michelle is standing out front. The key doesn't work. SHOCKER!

I take the kids in and make dinner, realizing as I'm doing it that my cranky Lucy actually has a fever. I turn on a movie, get them bathed and dressed, give Lucy a little Tylenol and crawl into bed -- with laundry, dirty dishes and messages on the machine all untouched.

How was your day, honey?