The Blessings of a Flat Tire

Today while on the way to the church for story time, the van suddenly started shaking like crazy! It was really quite surprising. Then I thought oh, something must be wrong I better pull over. Well, something was wrong. It's called disintegrated tire. Not just flat but serious damage. (I wish I had had my camera so ya'll could see it.) First I called Keith (It was his day off today so he was at home with Jeffrey just a few blocks away.) then I got the jack out and started to work. Lucy, a sweet lady from the ward, also on her way to story time, stopped to see if I needed help. She said she knew nothing about changing tires but she took all three girls to story time for me. I tried with all my might to loosen the lug nuts but to no avail. It didn't help that the wrench was a size too big. I'm not sure why the wrench that came with the van didn't fit the nuts that were on the van, but anyway. Keith arrived and confirmed my suspicion that the wrench was too big. Luckily for us NAPA was within view. So we bought a new wrench, the big X kind, thinking one of the 4 ends had to fit. We were right it worked great! The next trial was getting the spare off the bottom of the van. After much ado and a few more people pulling over to help, Keith checked the owners manual. I guess we should have looked there first 'cause when you know the right way it is really simple to get the spare off. So now we have new tires on our van just in time to head out on our road trip on Saturday. I feel very blessed that the flat happened in the middle of town here. There was a safe pace for me to pull off the road. I'm grateful that I have friends who are willing to help me out when I'm on the side of the road. I'm glad that Keith had today off so he could come help me and take care of getting the new tires. I'm grateful we were in walking distance of NAPA (even though we drove there) so we could get a wrench that fit. And finally, I feel so blessed that this didn't happen in the middle of no where on our trip up to Utah. What would I have done with a car full of kids in the blazing desert heat without a wrench to get the lug nuts off? At least now, if something does happen, I have the right tools to fix the problem.