Count Your Blessings!

So here's a long story for your pleasure:

Saturday night, Casey and I left the kids at his parents' house so we could go to Idaho Falls to do our photobooth at a wedding there. We charged our "clients" an arm and a leg to travel there, and we were going to stay the night since we wouldn't be done until about 11:00 p.m. We planned on leaving pretty early so we could check into the hotel before the wedding. We got ready way early, so we dropped the kids off at Casey's parents house much earlier than we had planned.

We've been doing this photobooth thing now for almost a year, so we think we have it figured out by now, which is wrong. It seems like every time we do a photobooth, we have some problem and we barely get it set up by the time the wedding starts. We always joke that if we leave an hour early, we'll have a problem that takes an hour to fix; if we leave 2 hours early, we'll have a 2 hour problem. (Makes you want to hire us, huh?) But, it hasn't failed yet that we have been able to fix every problem we have had and are able to provide wonderful service to our photobooth customers.

So... we were drivin' along, listening to the 3rd book of the Hunger Games, when I saw smoke coming out of the engine of our Tahoe. Crap. Casey pulled over and we were litterally in the middle of nowhere. A highway patrol car pulled up behind us and asked if we needed help. Since our plates were expired by 4 days, we told him no, but asked if there was somewhere closeby. Nope. Great.

So I called some tow trucks and it was going to be at least an hour and a couple hundred bucks to get us off the freeway and into a town. We were two hours away from Idaho Falls and had to be there in no later than 3 1/2 hours, not to mention checking into the hotel. Since it was Saturday and Labor Day weekend, the chances of getting towed to a town and getting fixed were slim.

So back up to Thursday night... Our registration on the Tahoe was due. Our side mirror was broken (thanks to Benson and a golf ball). I took it in and got the mirror replaced and was literally on my way to the inspection place when our check engine light went on. So I took it in and they told me that it wouldn't pass because of the check engine light, which said that either the coolant temperature censor wasn't working properly, we were low on coolant, or the code was faulty. Also, our back brakes were bad and we needed a new light bulb somewhere. I promise, we try to take care of our cars.... So Casey decided he would take care of the problems on Friday after work. After a trip to Auto Zone, Casey came home with this information: We were low on coolant, and so he filled it up and they told him that he had to drive it for a while to get it to register, then if it didn't, we needed a new censor. He also tried to get brakes, but they weren't sure which ones he needed, and since the whole censor thing was going to take a while, the brakes weren't a priority. We decided that since we were pulling a trailer and there was no way we were going to get the Tahoe registered prior to leaving on Saturday, that we would just drive it and hope we didn't get a ticket.

So the smoke coming from the engine was the coolant thing. It broke off and sprayed antifreeze everywhere. Casey googled it while we were sitting on the freeway, and to replace the censor would have been $30. But no, instead of paying $30 and taking 15 minutes to replace it, we were sitting on the side of the freeway with our photobooth on a trailer, in a panic. My parents were out of town and so Casey called his parents. His dad was at their cabin, but should be on his way home soon, and had his truck. Crap. We sat there for a minute saying silent prayers. Casey told me to call the bride and tell her that we would not be there. I refused. If it cost all of the money we were going to make, we would figure out a way to be there with our photobooth.

And then Casey's dad called. This is where our blessings start pouring in. He had made it home from the cabin and was getting his flatbed trailer hooked up to come and rescue us. Casey's grandpa Lloyd was already on his way in his truck and would give us his truck to pull the trailer with the photobooth to Idaho Falls. Then he would sit with our Tahoe until Casey's dad got there with his truck and get our Tahoe on the flatbed and towed home.

The plan worked flawlessly. Grandpa Lloyd arrived much faster than we had anticipated. He pulled up and got the photobooth trailer hooked to his truck and then we left him sitting on the side of the freeway with our Tahoe. Casey's dad got there and got the Tahoe on his trailer and pulled home. We got to the wedding and set up with about 15 minutes to spare. The photobooth ran flawlessly the entire night, and they paid us a bundle of money for it. We had a wonderful stay at the Marriott and drove home without any problems (except for Casey's phone has bit the dust, but that's a whole other post).

During the whole trip, we kept saying "Wow, that was lucky!", but after about 30 times of being lucky, I decided that we are blessed!!! Let me count our blessings:

• We just happened to leave 3 hours earlier than we actually needed to leave, which NEVER happens. We are never early to anything.
• We didn't have the kids with us sitting on the side of the freeway. They were in the very loving and capable hands of Casey's mom, whom we LOVE!
• The Highway Patrol man didn't give us a ticket. Even after we saw him look directly at our licence plate, he didn't give us a ticket. Amazing.
• The problem with our Tahoe really is a small one. We made more than enough doing that wedding to pay for it.
• I forgot to mention this, but after we got on our way in Grandpa's truck, one of our straps on the trailer broke on the way, and so Casey pulled off the freeway and guess what we saw RIGHT THERE.... Harbor Freight. So we got new straps. Perfect.
• Casey's dad got home from the cabin just in time to rescue us. Had he been at the cabin, there would be no way to reach him. And he just happened to have a trailer that he could pull our Tahoe home on.
• Casey's grandpa was able and willing to let us borrow his truck for a while.
• And the biggest blessing of all is that we have wonderful families who are willing to help us. No offense Emily, but we are really blessed to have so many family members close by that we can trust. We kept thinking that if we were living somewhere else, we wouldn't have had all that help.