The Nicholson Zoo

Well, we have been in Bham for the last ten days. We had a good visit with family and friends. Mammaw has been in and out of the hospital with one thing after another going wrong, but hopefully, after today they will have her on the road to recovery. The trip home today was pretty interesting. We got up at 4:00 a.m. to leave today, car completely full (could barely shut the trunk), kids asleep. So all is well.....until about 10 miles on the other side of Jasper the left rear tire blows out. So we pull off the road and open the trunk, and unload all the luggage to get to the tire and jack. Troy smashes his thumb with the jack and keeps mumbling something about how we're going to buy a hydraulic jack no matter how much it costs. On top of all that it is dark and freezing and Troy has no hat for his bald head, no jacket, shortsleeves and flip-flops. He gets the tire changed miraculously with the kids never waking up. So we backtrack to Jasper to get a biscuit from Hardees and head to Wal-Mart for a tire. It is 6:30 at this point and we are first in line for when they open at 7:00. We are sitting there eating and Maci needs to poop, which would be fine except for her portable potty is in the back of the trunk which would have to be unloaded again to get to. So I ask Troy to drive me around to the front of the store to take her to potty and Troy just looks at me and says,"I'm not losing my place in line, I was here first." I just laughed and got the potty out of the trunk and sat Maci on it in the front seat. Then I got in the back and sat in her carseat because it was so cold outside. Maci hadn't pooped yet and the workers were coming towards the car to help us and Koby reminds us that he doesn't have any pants on. So I pull Maci off the potty and get Koby's pants and we pull the car up. Then we had to unload the car again and leave our luggage on this picnic table outside the store while they fixed it. They did it pretty quick and we were finally on the road again. After that we stopped for gas and I got Troy a grapico which spewed all over him when he opened it when we were on down the road a little. So the next thing I know Troy has pulled down his pants to his ankles while he is driving and puts a baby blanket over his lap. This was funny because, as it goes on family trips, you have to fuss at the kids a lot and so everytime he would fuss at them, I would laugh because I couldn't take him serious with his pants down. We finally made it to Arkansas safe and sound and now the fun of unpacking begins. Flat tires are never fun, but we feel like everything happens for a reason and who knows, God could have been protecting us from something much worse had we not have been stopped at that specific moment. Have a good day and hopefully I will have some new pics up soon!