Family Van dies at grocery store...in frigid temps!

Ohhhh, the drama of our life! I tell you, it never stops! Last night, we ran out for Sydney's picture appointment and to grab a few things from the grocery store so we don't starve Al's dad while he's visiting. We figured at some point he may want something to eat and it might be nice to have something in the pantry besides 28 boxes of Cheerios, peanut butter, and fish sticks.
So, we make it through our errands, with Brice and of course Sydney in tow, and when we come out and crank up the van to drive home...it idles....then....turns off. Okay, so we try again. Same thing...We try again. Now it does't even idle. Just dies. Albert gets out, looks under the hood, gets back in and thinks...get back out and opens the hood...gets back in and thinks. We call a tow truck...they want $80 to tow it back to our house. We don't want to spend $80 if we don't have to, so we call some friends to pick us up and Albert plans to go back in the morning and bring his tools to see if he can get it running. Our friend Ron comes to get us, he's brought his tools and he and Albert spend a few minutes trying to see what they can figure out....nothing doing though. We come home, and comment on how freezing cold we are. Gee whiz, sitting in that freezing cold van must have really gotten to us more than we though becuase we just can't warm up. I cuddle up against Albert to try to get warm. He warms his feet under my very well padded legs. We decide to drink some Sangria and go to bed. On the way to bed, we pass the thermostat. One of the kids has reset the temp in our house to a balmy 66 degrees. That's why we're cold! We put on "The Zodiac" for the 5th night in a row, and for the 5th night in a row fall asleep almost immediately.
This morning I get up early to get a head start on housecleaning becuase Albert's dad will be here today. Albert is up not long after me b/c he's going to go back to Shop-N-Save, where we've abandoned our van, to work on it. I get ready to vacuum (sorry, I can never spell that work right!) and when I turn it on....sparks fly up and smoke starts comming out. I shut it down and Albert tries to figure out what's wrong. Seriously, I have 8 kids...you can't even begin to imagine what our carpet looks like unvacuumed! And we're going to have company!!!! The vacuum has aparently also died. It sparks every time you turn it on. Albert has taken it apart and now it lies in peices .....ALL SPREAD ACROSS MY BED!!! The bed that I put the "fancy" comforter on just YESTERDAY!!! I ask my darling husband to please remove the vacuum peices from our bed and he replies, in all seriousness, that it must stay there, b ecause "its the easiest place to work on it." Oh Joy! Quickly, I light a candle so that our room will smell like cucumber melon and not like burnt vacuum cleaner motor.
I move on to the bathroom (the one in our room) to clean up a little in there and I see a plastic Olive Garden kids cup lying on the counter. So, I casually pour the water in it down the drain and set it aside to bring downstairs. As I start to wash out the sink (after sparying bleach water all inside of it) I see something shiny...a bit filmy...and round...in the sink. I pick it up...and it's Albert's contact. Hmmmm. I think. I wonder what his contact is doing in the sink. I go to the staircase and yell down, "Honey! I found a contact in the sink."
He answers, "I put them in the Olive Garden cup, so make sure you don't dump it out."Oops.
Too late. Seriously, we have 564 contact holders floating around in our bathroom and my husband uses an Olive Garden kids cup????? He was asking for that one!
Slightly annoyed, Albert (now donning a pair of glasses) makes his way back up to the grocery store to work on the van. He has brought our 12 year old for help. This situation is not promising on many levels. And sure enough, they return a couple hours later with the news that the tow truck has indeed been called. The van will be worked on Monday.....great. Albert runs up to the bedroom, apparently to see if the vacuum cleaner has miraculously healed itself, and cranks on the power again. Brice screams when yet again, sparks fly everywhere. So much for cucumber melon...
Naptime finally rolls around, so now I have a few minutes to get dressed. I take out the NON maternity jeans that were really close to fitting nicely last week. Surely by this week I'll be able to wear them. I pull them on and they seem to have shrunken a bit. Funny, I haven't dried them. I lay flat on the bed, struggling to zip them. If you've ever seen the scene of "The Incredibles" where the Dad tries on his super-hero costume you'll get the idea.
Alas, even laying flat won't make the pants zip, so I peel them off and search my dresser for a pair of maternity jeans. After that I come downstairs for lunch...cookie dough....hmmmmm
Emanuel had a basketball game at 2:00. Of course we couldn't all go because of our now crippled ride. Al's dad arrives and is at the game with Albert, Manny and Brandon.
They'll be home soon. so, at not even 3:00 p.m. we are down a vehicle, vacuum cleaner and a pair of contacts!