i had an entirely different post for tonight. Actually - I had an entirely different post the last couple of days that I just haven't gotten around to writing. It's all in my head right now, so as soon as I get thru this new crisis, I'll post it.

But let me tell you how my day went today.

It started at 4:30am courtesy of The Ethanator standing by our bed. I heard a noise and looked up. I saw his outline next to the bed and I asked him what was up. "Look! " he announced cheerily "It's OLIVIA!" as Olivia pranced across our bed. "I see Olivia, but why are YOU up?" I groggily questioned. "Because my tummy hurts." Now that he'd remembered why he was in our room, his demeanor changed from excited to see the cat to sick and pathetic. "Oh no!! Are you going to throw up?" "No, it's just my tummy hurts and I'm really hungry."

So rather than get up and cook him breakfast at 4:30am, I convinced him to stay in our bed and lay quietly. He did this, but then when the alarm rang for us to get up, he still said his stomach hurt and it was because he was hungry. So we fed him breakfast and sent him to school. I made it about 3 steps into my office building when I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Ethan was in her office.

The nurse said that he was nauseous. Now see, earlier my husband & I had just decided that the child was constipated because he kept sitting on the pot while getting ready for school. So we let the nurse know that he just had to crap and he'd be fine. She sent him back to class. 10 minutes later he was back in the office because he had proceeded to ralph all over his classmate.

oops. Mommy Moment of the Year award goes to ME.

I got through the rest of the day at work because my mother graciously offered to take care of him. I have the next two days off so this should be no problem....right?

I was driving home tonight, and stopped at our mailbox. Turned my car off, got the mail from the community box, and started my car. Or at least...I tried to start my car.

Won't start.

So imagine this: Me in heels trying to push my car the last block home.

Didn't happen.

Some nice man helped me get my car up to my street at which point my husband meandered out to assist me in trying to get the car up the steep incline which is what our driveway amounts to.

I almost ran him over when the car started rolling backward.

oops again

So now I'm stuck at home with a child who is doing his best imitation of the excorcist, no working car, and no idea how I'm going to get it repaired. I hate it when cars break down this close to the holidays!

The bad news is I think it's the starter which is never a cheap fix. GrreeeaAAAaaAAAAAtttt