Where to begin???

OK, so our little weekend vacation didn't really turn out as we originally planned.

We originally planned to go out of town on the first weekend in November after our anniversary. My Mother-in-law ended up being sick, so we had to cancel the weekend. Luckily, the Bed & Breakfast had the same suite available the following weekend, so we booked it.

Then on Thursday (the day before we were supposed to leave) Evan spiked a really high fever. So - again - we canceled our weekend. I cried and cried and cried.

Then on Friday he was FINE with no fever and no symptoms all day long even without medication. Soooooo... we called the B&B back and made reservations for Sat night & Sun night (instead of Fri & Sat).

My MIL needed to get her hair done and do some other stuff on Sat morning, so we didn't even leave the house for quite a while on Saturday. We didn't arrive at the B&B until 5pm that evening. Just enough time to drive in to downtown Branson, walk around, get dinner & grab some ice cream.

On Sunday we had a fun morning of shopping at the outlet malls. Later we took a nap & then went out for dinner. NOW it was beginning to feel like vacation! So I was looking forward to spending most of the day on Monday chilling out before going home, too.

On Sunday night while we were standing in line to go to a movie, my MIL calls to say Evan's spiked a fever & is acting lethargic again. She puts him on the phone and cries, "You need to come HOME, Mama!!!".

Oh. My. God. You may as well have ripped my heart straight out of my chest.

At that point it was way too late in the evening to drive all the way home (3-1/2 hour drive) in the pouring rain.

So Tim & I got up at the crack of dawn on Monday morning & were on the road by 7am.

Then, just outside of Springfield (not long after we left Branson) we stopped to get some McDonald's for breakfast. We got back in the car to start it, and all of a sudden there was a LOUD squealing sound coming from the engine & then Tim couldn't hardly steer anymore!!!

So we immediately pulled back in to a parking place. We turned the car off & then started it again. Then we heard a very loud *CLUNK!!*. Sounded like something fell OUT of the engine!!!

I called my step-dad who's a mechanic to see if he had any idea what it was. He said it sounded like a broken drive belt. HMMM... we JUST HAD the drive belts REPLACED by a shop less than a week before we went on vacation!!!

Called AAA, waited FOREVER for a tow truck to arrive. The guy looked in the engine and said, "Yep, it's a broken drive belt; and it looks like a bolt CAME OFF!". Our only timely option at that point was to ride in the tow truck while it hauled our car all the way back to St. Louis.

So a 3-1/2 hour trip ended up taking 7 hours.

**SIGH**

Got home, took care of Evan. Then that night Ally spiked a fever and thew up.

I give up.