12 Hours of Driving, - 40 and A Flat Tier

Well we did not have to wait till this weekend to see Darcy, he called last Friday morning and told me that he would be getting Sunday off. This was at 10:00 am so in a rush the kids and I hurriedly packed our things. My van was not putting out as much heat as it should and seeing as how the temperature was steadily dropping I asked my great neighbour to put some cardboard in front of the radiator. Which he came home from town to do so (Thanks Jeff). By the time we left the house it was 12:30 pm and the snow was starting to fall, but as I drove the Lord allowed me to keep ahead of the storm. We made it to Ft. McMurray by 5:30 and checked into our hotel room. The kids and I spent most of Friday evening and all day Saturday in the pool visiting with Darcy a bit in the evenings. Sunday we spent as a family and went swimming and drove out to see where Darcy is working. Monday morning we all got up at 5:30 to say goodbye, it was - 40 and we had to let the van warm up for an hour. When we did check out the lady at the front desk told me to drive safe as there was freezing fog and the roads were very icy. So away we went into the very frigid early morning darkness, going was slow on account of the roads being so slick. Once the sun came up the roads seemed better for awhile, but just before Grasslands the wind had picked up the snow was coming down and blowing all around, making visibility next to nothing. It was at this point that I heard the sound that no driver wants to hear in a snow storm "thunck, thunck, thunck" yes you guessed it a flat tier, front driver side tier to be exact. My van is equipped with an on board air compressor, that I have never used I might add. So like any well trained farm girl I got out the manual to figure out how to use it. The maintenancy princess side of me was crying and a little distraught. I figured it all out and managed to get 20 lbs. of pressure into the tier before limping the last 11km into Grasslands.I was however a little put out by the 50 some odd vehicles that passed me with my tail gate up,  my kids hanging over the back seat and an air hose stretched to the front of the van. I found the Okay Tier dealership and had them look at it. They did not have a new tier and the old one was just not safe so they took the rear tier off the driver side and put it on the front as my van is front wheel drive then they had an used tier that they put on the back. Not of course before they dropped the spar to see if it would work but it is only a dummy tier, this took reading the manual as well because they were unsure as to how to get the spar out from under the van. So after an hour and a half we were putting more gas in the van just in case we had more adventure ahead of us. Thanks to the Lord we made it home by 1:30 with no more incidence! So that was our trip in a nut shell but even with all that went wrong I would not trade it for spending that little bit of time with Darcy! Love and miss you my man!

8 Sleeps!

Counting down sleeps started when our kids were little and we still use the terminology today. For any major or even minor event that our kids or us were looking forward to we would count the sleeps. We are counting down in our home. Not for a vacation but for seeing Darcy again. Darcy went to work in Ft. McMurray on Nov. 28Th. and has been away from us for 38 sleeps in all since then. He was home for a short time in Dec. and now it looks like he will not be back till the beginning to mid Feb. So this means that next week I will brave the roads and drive me and the kid to see him. We all miss him desperately but I keep reminding myself of how good God is to be providing us with work and the means to go and see him. Please be praying for me and the kids as we travel and for Darcy who is working!