Lessons learned from our trip to Mesa

We recently took a quick trip to see the newest addition to the ever growing Swensen family, baby Hailee. When I say recently, I mean this past weekend and when I say quick, I mean less than a full day. But, it was a very special day for her...she was being blessed. I am really glad we went. She's a beautiful little girl and it is always nice to visit family. But 16 hours just isn't enough time, especially since the drive was 600 miles round trip. We were quite fortunate though to make it there in time to catch the end of an intense round of the "bean game." Lucky us.

There were a few lessons I learned from our trip that I wish to pass along to pretty much the entire world, or perhaps the two people who actually read this blog. This is very important stuff so get out your pen and paper.

Lesson #1. Don't ever get an oil change at Wal-Mart right before you take a 51/2 hour excursion (or anytime for that matter). I took Abe's car in just 4 hours before leaving to have the oil changed. Well, turns out someone messed with the brake fluid cap. They took it off and didn't replace it, just sat it there without tightening it. Pretty soon after we had left, Abe noticed the brake light on. We just thought maybe it was another weird electrical problem (pontiacs have lots of electrical problems--we also discovered the cruise control wasn't working anymore). On our way home, the brakes weren't working very well. And by the time we made it back to Vegas, Abe was having to run red lights because the car couldn't stop in time for the yellow lights. Turns out, as you might have guessed, all of the brake fluid had leaked out. Special thanks goes out to Ivan at Wal-Mart automotive who worked on our car...we almost died!

Lesson #2 Don't ever buy a Pontiac. I think you probably already realized that via lesson #1

Lesson #3 Don't ever sit behind Abram while he is in the passenger seat. I was in the backseat and had leaned forward to talk to him. He leaned his seat backwards and bam! The seat slammed into my nose, knocking my glasses off. As my glasses came off, it ripped the flesh from off my nose. Boy, did that hurt. I screamed. Then I felt the blood running down into my eyes. I screamed even more! Then I saw the flesh hanging off of my glasses. I wanted to throw up. I am doing okay now. It still hurts and I totally look like a beaten bare-foot housewife. (Pictures to follow...)

Lesson #4 Don't ever eat at the KFC in Kingman, AZ. On our way home, we decided to stop for dinner. After much confusion over where to go and how to get there and which exit to take(perhaps listen to your son, maybe he's right could be another lesson), we finally made it to KFC. Big mistake! The first sign to go somewhere else should have been the "peach cobbler" on their food bar. It looked more like really old, dry brownie but perhaps it was peach cobbler from maybe the early '80s. We still ordered and sat down to eat. The chicken looked a little too done or something. It was really dark and disgusting. We still ate it. Now we are reaping the consequences. It seems now we must be suffering from food poisoning or maybe gastrointestinal disease. To help you better understand how sick we are, I'll end with something my almost 5 year old said to me this morning, "Mommy, why do I have to go potty all the time now?"