more car trouble

This morning I was dropping the kids off at childcare, so I could run errands, and that also would get me a break about halfway through spring break. So I got everyone dressed and ready to go, and jump started the car and dropped off Austin and Joseph at Main SAS (school age services) at 8am, leaving the car running so I wouldn't have to jump it again. When we got inside the building , we discovered they were taking kids on a field trip to White Sands (basically white sand dunes in New Mexico). The kids were really excited, so I signed there permission slips, happy that they were going to get to do something fun. Next I dropped of Betsy and Samuel at Main CDC (Child Development Care), again leaving the car running. I got everyone off okay, and then drove to a car dealership not far from our house and picked up my friend Chelsie and her two daughters, and drove them back to their house (they had dropped off there car to be fixed). Next I drove to Auto Zone, thinking that would be the fasted way to get a new battery. (I was getting tired of jump starting the car every time I needed to turn it on). So I got inside, and couldn't figure out which battery to get, so I asked a guy for help. He said he would test my battery first, so he came out and did that, and it said the battery was fine. But he also saw that I had purchased it from Wal-mart and that it was still under warranty so I should take it to wal-mart and they would replace it for free. So I tried to jump start the car again to drive to Wal-mart and it wouldn't start. Thinking my charger had just run out of juice since I'd been using it so much, I went back inside and asked the guy if they could jump start my car for me. The guy brings out their charger and hooks it up, the car still won't start. So he goes back inside and brings out a new battery, he hooks it up to my battery, and the car still won't start. The guy says my battery must be really dead, so he hooks up both the new batter, and charger to car and we try that. It still won't start. He asks another customer with their car in the parking lot to come over and we hook up to their engine, it still won't start. So I figured that was it, and I would just have to buy a new battery from these guys. But, the guy says he can try one more thing. So, he brings out a new battery, takes out my old battery, and puts in the new one. The car starts (yeah!!) then while the car is running, he takes out his battery, and puts my old one back in. I must say I was impressed, I didn't know you could take out the battery and the car would stay running. So I thanked the man and drove to wal-mart. I explain to the lady mechanic my problem, and she tests the battery and it says it's good, so she says she can't replace it. I talk with her a few more minutes, and she tells me that they have a more extensive test they can run on the battery but it takes about an hour and a half, so I say OK, and go shop. Wal-mart is sure getting a lot of money out of me, but having all these car problems, it's too easy to spend money when I get to walk around the store for hours at a time with no children. Anyway it ended up being two hours, and the battery tested bad, so they replaced for me free of charge. So here it was already noon and I had only accomplished one item on my to-do list. So I took home my groceries, and then took Joseph's bike to be repaired, and then took the vacuum to be repaired. The vacuum guy was really nice, and fixed the vacuum for only the price of the parts, and even gave me a free box of girl-scout cookies (saying he likes to give them to soldiers and their families) Next I got WIC took that home, then went to Costco. I got that stuff home, then dropped books off at the library. Finally I went and got Samuel and Betsy at 3pm. We came home and filled up the back of the van with recycling, and relaxed for a little while. Then we picked up Joseph and Austin, and dropped off the recycling. We came home and cleaned up a little, and had dinner. I made spinach tortellinis, edamame, and cucumbers in honor of St. Patricks Day, the kids liked that everything was green. I realized as we were eating dinner, that Joseph, Austin, and Betsy were all sunburned. Betsy had it the worst, being light-skinned, freckled, and having red hair. Samuel wasn't sunburned, because he wasn't nice to the teacher, and couldn't go outside at childcare, and Betsy was really good, so she got to go outside a lot. So I cut pieces off my aloe Vera plant and rubbed it onto sunburns. After that I cleaned and got ready for my girls night out game night that I had planned. I try to have one every month, they are a lot of fun. I made spinach and feta triangles, cut up cucumbers, and made mint brownies. I had my friends, Chelsie, Bridget, and Aimee come. We had a good time eating, talking, and playing games. Apples to Apples was our favorite, we had quite a few laughs over that one. Now I'm really ready for bed, and hope to have a good day tomorrow