Last Sunday, Greg had the idea that since it was a beautiful, sunny day; that we should go for a drive after church. We picked Long Beach, since we haven't been there in quite some time. Maybe even a couple years. Since Celeste hates the car seat, we've just been sticking pretty close to home since she's been born. But, that gets kind of boring after almost a year. We ventured to Portland a couple weeks ago and had NO crying, the whole day. Yay! We feel so liberated!
But, back to the drive. I packed up a lunch which we quickly threw together to eat at the church and then we'd be off. This all worked out well and we drove along quite swimmingly for many miles. We had just reached the Naselle/Astoria turnoff when we heard a loud clunk. Being the conscientious husband and driver he is, Greg pulled over to check for damage. Sure enough, we heard a loud hissing as our back tire quickly deflating. He took this as an opportune time to teach the kids how to change a tire and we were quite thankful it was a sunny day rather than a rainy one. A local lady stopped by and assured us that the Les Schwab tire shop in Warrenton was open, and if not, Costco would be. So, instead of going to the beach as planned, we turned around and headed for the tire shop (on the little donut spare). The Les Schwab was closed (as predicted by Greg) and so we went to Costco. They wouldn't even look at the tire without us being members. They did check the donut's air pressure, but that was it.
 |
| James checking how tight the lug nuts are |
We then pondered what to do. It's quite a long drive home on a super-busy highway. We didn't want a Costco membership, but the membership lady assured us that we could buy one, get the tire checked out/fixed and then cancel it. Hmm. Not sure we supported that idea either. We finally decided that maybe we should give them a try again. It's been 7 years since we had a membership, and our life situation has added 3 more kids, so maybe we should see if we could try it again. Last time we had one, we had bought tires and then got the membership "free" because of a gift card from the tires. In that whole year, we didn't buy hardly a thing. We even went to the store a couple times and came out with nothing. It's still almost an hours drive to our nearest store, but we'll see how it goes. We paid for the membership and then Greg went around and had them take a look at the tire. Sure enough, the hole was too big to fix, so the only option was to buy a new tire. Our checking account was rather depleted as I had just paid a bunch of bills (and wasn't expecting to buy tires), so we then didn't have the funds available to even buy a tire if we wanted to (which of course we didn't). Since they don't take Visa, we ended up just driving home on the donut, rather slowly and stopping frequently to let the line ups of traffic pass us.
 |
| Dad showing Luke where the spare tire is |
It was already getting dark when we left Costco, so no beach for us that day! We did have some good family time, and got some good visiting in on the drive (which is a favorite thing to do when out with your husband and children anyhow). We were probably less than a mile from the beach while sitting there at Costco, but extra driving just wasn't a good option, nor was driving overly slow in the dark either. Then Celeste decided she was sick of the car seat and fussed most of the way home too. Oh, well...you win some, you lost some. Life's just like that!
After wandering the store, I prayed that if this was a sign that God wants me to explore this option for our grocery situation, that He would give me the direction and strength to do it. I know buying bulk is a good idea for a larger family, but figuring it into the budget requires brain power, and finding creative ways to store it in a home with little to no storage does too. I pray that He'll show me how to make these two things happen if this is a way to make things run smoother for the stage we're in. Plus, they have awesome fresh roasted coffee at the Vancouver store where we'd be going the majority of the time. That'd be a bonus!
 |
| Elise trying to smile for the camera but the sun is a bit distracting. Thankful this happened on a sunny day |
Greg already checked out car rentals and was able to find one for $20 cheaper than the previous one we had reserved for our trip in February. So, we're saving money already. He wants to keep a tally and see how much we actually do save for the amount we spend (on things we normally buy anyhow). Just walking into the store made us both kind of nauseous with the blatant expose of consumerism and cult-following, but we're trying to remain open minded and just use what we need and not be distracted by the spend, spend, spend more mentality. I'll keep you posted!
The next day, we had our neighbor look at the tire and sure enough, it was too damaged to fix (the belts inside were torn too), so we had him take an old tire of ours and mount it on the rim so that we can use that one on the van. He has one of those handy machines that does that, which is pretty nice. Then, Costco called us back as they had some questions about our account, and the lady said, "Were you the people whose car tires were slashed?" "No, ours was just a road hazard, thankfully." She says, "Well, someone else that day needed tires because their tires were slashed and the vandals had written "home wrecker" all over the car in spray cheese!" Yikes! No, thankfully that wasn't us, although perhaps the recipient deserved worse... Who knows!
 |
| 3 year old grinning |
All's well that ends well. No buying of new tires, and thankfully Greg had saved our old ones for a use such as this. He then mounted one of our studded snow tires under the van so that if something of this sort happens again, we have a full size spare to use rather than the tiny one. In 8 years of owning this van, that is our first flat, so we can be very thankful. I can't recall that we've ever been left stranded either. It's been good to us and doesn't owe us anything.
 |
| Saddle Mountain in the distance |
