Freak out Friday

So, we had a rough Friday.  That afternoon, John and I left Becca in charge and went on what we called Operation: piano rescue.  I was informed by my mom that my grandma's piano needed to be picked up from my cousins house.  It would need lots of work to fix it up, but did I want it?  Of course I wanted it.  It was at least 100 years old and my dad said that he would refinish it for me (he has done that a few times before) and then get the inside fixed. I was super excited.  What a treasure.  So now back to Friday, John and I went and got a uhaul and met Johns dad, Pat Crosby, my cousin and my aunt and uncle and we loaded up the piano. 

Isn't it beautiful?  It used to be a player piano. 

It was quite a beast.  Wait, that is an understatement.  It was "holy crap" heavy.

It was tough for them to even finagle it into the back so they could tie it up. 

Then John hopped into the uhaul and took off for Tremonton to put the piano in my parents storage shed until they get off their mission in 1 1/2 years.  Then I will get the whip to my dad to get going on having that piano back in it's georgous shape. 

I took off for home to get the kids.  Then we were going to go pick up John and hang out with Denise for a while then head home.  We (me and 7 kids) get on I 15 and start driving.  About 40 mins. into the 1 hour and 10ish drive, the battery light came on.  (now rewind a month.  We were stranded at Sis's house in Boise over new years because of the alternator.  The  battery light was our warning.)  So as I am driving 75 miles per hour down the freeway and the battery light came on, that was the first time "I am freaking out" came flying out of my mouth.  I called John, but he didn't answer.  Dang it.  They must be taking the piano out of the truck.  (By they, I mean, Denise, Rick, Dylan and John.  Yes, poor John had to put it on and take it off.)  What the heck am I going to do. we keep driving and I try to call again, still no answer, double dang it.  Jason needed to see a man about a horse, so I pulled over at a gas station in Farr West.  I didn't dare turn off the car, so I had Becca run him and James in.  They hurried and came running out (funny side story: while they were in the bathroom, the toilet was running so after he was finished and they flushed, it looked like it was going to over flow, so they booked it out of there.  ha ha)  While the kids were off flooding gas stations, I called Sis.  I said "I am freaking out.  My car is doing what it did at your house and i have 7 kids and we are on the freeway and I can't get a hold of John, what am I going to do?"  She helped me to realize that I should have called denise and see if I can get a hold of her. (Note to readers:  I drive a 12 passenger bus and I have run out of gas a few times before.  That sucker is so hard to steer.  I could barely get it off the side of the road.  So I was scared at how I would control that big of a vehicle on the freeway.) So by now, we are barreling down the freeway at 75 miles an hour with our battery thing dropping fast.  Denise answered her phone and they had just finished loading the piano in to the storage unit.  (I have no idea how they did it.  it was pretty tricky and they even pushed it on the side of the piano in the snow, but they got that beast in!!  wahoo!!) She was very calm and told me it would be okay.  So I called John and as I did, I looked at the dash and my speed said I was going over 100 and the odometer was off.  In other words, I had no battery power. I freaked, threw the phone at Becca and pulled the bus off the road.  To me, that is a huge blessing.  I didn't know that cars ran with no battery power.     I was able to get pulled over safely and the bus turned off.  I got back on the phone and lucky for me, the uhaul return place was also a machanics shop and also in their ward.  So when they told the man there, that there was a woman with a dead bus and 7 kids on I 15, he rushed out to come save us.  John was going to go with him, but when we talked about it, we decided that made no sense.  So he should just go back to my sister/parents house.  He finished the paper work for the uhaul and looked around and said, "Oh, well I guess I will just sit down."  He had no way to get home.  My sister had left to get Rick home so he could get Ethan to his pinewood derby and then she could rescue us.  John called Dylan to go get him.  Meanwhile, I stopped crying and got a grip and realized that it was just an adventure and we would be fine.  For a while, I could only say, "I am freaking out", repeatedly.  When I am in a stressful situation, I tend to not take pictures.  Which is really against everything I believe in.  So I told becca to take some photos.  Here are the kids freaking out faces.

That would be me on the phone. I was on the phone quite a bit. It got dark super fast. The bad thing is that I had no idea where I was. There was no signs, mile markers, bill boards or anything. All I knew is that I was on the north side of Farr West. I had no idea how far. I just kept looking at the dash and the road and nothing else in my time of freaking out. So Denise asked where I was and I had no idea.  She just had to drive until she spotted our flashers.  It was super dark by that time.  Oh, another funny thing, the kids wrote backwards in the fog on the windows, help us and help us- van broke.  Very clever I thought.  Denise found us and the tow truck got there as we were trying to corral the kids into her car without getting near the freeway.  We also had to grab the 4 car seats.  The one good thing was that we got to visit and cousins had fun.  Sarah and Denise cooked us some yummy pizza's and then they let us borrow their van.  I had a foster care meeting I needed to go to in the morning.    

It turns out it was the alternator again and it was a freak manufacture default.  So now the machanic has to get a hold of the people to get it fixed and it better be paid for.  So, there you have it.  My freak out of a friday.  Sorry it was so long, but it felt even longer to me!!!!