Happy College Football Season!

I find myself thinking this more and more the older I get: where the crap has the year gone?! Are we seriously in September already?! Not that I'm complaining...between the ridiculous heat and my general distaste for summer [and my general LOVE of fall], I'm ready for it to be September. Maybe it will bring temps in the - gasp - 90s. Ya know, temps that we were supposed to see all summer instead of this 113 degrees ish.

Anyway, so it's September. Which means one thing y'all:

IT'S COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON BABY!!!!!!!!!

Yes. I'm THAT excited about it that it warranted all caps. Ever since the national championship game way back in January, my life has felt a little empty without college ball. I miss Saturdays camped out in front of the TV [or at Boone Pickens Stadium, if there's a home game], watching games, seeing Lee Corso put the mascot head on during College Gameday, wearing orange around my crimson-dominant hometown...it just hasn't been the same. But, starting today and all the way through January 2012, college football will be back in my life. I'm so, so, so excited. First home game is on Saturday, and I'm totally ready for it. I've got my outfit picked out, our tickets ready to go...just waiting for game time. :)

But I digress. How was August, you might ask? August was rough - which is why I really didn't blog that much. Between evicting my gallbladder, a car repair every week [literally], having way too much fun in Vegas and school starting, the last 16 days of the month were crazy. Add in a sick kid and hurt back - both happened yesterday - and the month got even crazier. I'm almost positive I pulled a muscle in my back...it hurts like a mug, lemme tell ya. I'll be using heat patches and walking like I need a walker for days, I'm sure.

And don't even get me started on my car. Suspension system was replaced in July...in August, I needed a new A/C compressor [that's finally being replaced this weekend], new transmission pan/gasket [replaced last week], oil change [done last week, 1K miles overdue], I still need to get a safety switch removed since I can't get my car to move out of park since said switch is stuck, and I'm praying there isn't anything else that needs to be done since I hit a speed bump too hard yesterday [I'm still mad about that]. Dropped a good $400 on repairs last month alone, which is ridiculous. My car's nine years old, I've had it for five, and I'm thinking a trade is in the future. Sigh.

But anyway. I'm banking on September being a much better month. Especially since college football is back. So here's to you, college football - I missed you. A lot. Thank you for coming back.

And uh - GO POKES!!!

A series of unfortunate events.

Today has literally been a Monday times four for me.  I thought Fridays weren't supposed to be like this?!

For one thing, I woke up late this morning.  I've been doing that all week - falling asleep [with the TV and lamps on in the living room...I need to stop doing that], waking up at 4am, going back to sleep and waking up past my alarm.  Ugh.  To top it off, JJ woke up when I woke up [which was 30 minutes before his wake-up time], so I had to do everything with my little man following in my footsteps [poor guy].

I got us both ready, got the car loaded up, started it, and...the car started revving up on his own.  I thought the gas pedal was stuck, but nope - it wasn't. And, my check engine light was on.  So, I called the local Ford dealer [who told me to tow it in and not drive it, because if a valve or something was stuck, there was a good possibility the car wouldn't stop], called USAA to see if they'd have my car towed [they did - so glad we're paying for that in our insurance], and waited almost 1.5 hours for the tow truck to arrive.  Sigh.

Got the car off, then walked to the bus stop to drop JJ off at daycare.  This AMAZING woman drove by, saw me with three bags and a toddler, and offered to drive me to his daycare.  I wish I could find her and give her a big plate of cookies and a hug.  Dropped JJ off, did a speed walk/run to the bus waiting up the way, then rode the bus to work.  Got to work at 10:20 this morning - awesome.

THEN, I realized at 2:30 that I only had two of the bags I left with this morning...and panicked.  I called the bus station - no bag.  Called the daycare - they put me on hold for awhile, so I thought they were digging around for it.  Called back, and hallelujah!  I left it in his room!  That bag had his shoes, toys and socks in it...so if I'd lost it, I would've had a breakdown.

It's now almost 4pm, and no phone call from the dealer.  I called at lunch today to check on it, and they didn't know what was wrong and suggested I rent a car for the weekend.  Called at 2 to see what time they close so I can get JJ's car seat, and still no word.  I'm so, so nervous.  I don't want to fork over a ton of money to fix the transmission [if that's the problem] - it was running fine yesterday!  And, I'd just stay in town this weekend and wait it out, but - alas.  My precious little guy turns 2 tomorrow, and there's no way we're not celebrating with family.  So now, I get to figure out how to get my car back whenever it's done - risking the fact that it might not be done by Monday.

I'm trying to take it all in stride, but this is just the icing on the cake of a very, very long year.  I don't have $2500 to drop on a new transmission, if it comes to that.  If they can't figure out what's wrong with it, then what am I supposed to do?  Sigh.  I'm going to try and put it aside for the weekend and make JJ's birthday weekend the best ever.  But...if you could send good car juju my way, that would be great.