Yummy mummies - part 1

This morning I struggled to get my act together and couldn't get enough coffee to save my soul...  We got out the door late and then on the way to drop A off at school, I bumped a curb and popped a tire.  Now, I don't claim to be the world's greatest driver...  but I'm certainly not the world's worst driver, either, and this was a first for me!  (Uh, the tire popping, not the curb bumping! ;)  hehehe)  I've never had a flat!  Well - I had one once, but it was flat before I got in the car and I didn't get very far from home before I realized I was down one tire.  Close enough, in fact, that I was able to drive the car back home and call the tow truck.

This time, however, I literally popped it at the midway point between home and Yochien.  The tire had a BIG hole - and it was raining and the kids were panicked.  (Uh, me too.)  And I was right on the side of a relatively busy road, partially blocking a side road.  And, just to ice the cake, I forgot my cell phone at home.  FUN times.

I stood beside my car for about two minutes, waiting for a "Y plate" car (in Okinawa all the Americans drive cars with "Y" or "A"  on their license plates - the locals all have kanji characters preceeding their license plate number) and for the first time ever, none passed.  Finally, I saw a familiar car - one of my friends (and also the mother of other children that attend A's Yochien).  She recognized my car and pulled over right away and I called my husband at work with her phone to beg for help.  Somebody really should have taught me at some point how exactly to change a tire!!

My friend dropped A off at school for me and I sat with C in the car for nearly an hour waiting for my husband to arrive.  (His commute sucks.)  Finally the workers at a nearby pallet yard took pity on me and changed the tire for me.  Language barrier hooray, but they were extremely helpful and didn't seem to be too annoyed by my total lack of knowledge about anything car and tire related.  (Spare??  I have NO idea where that is.  Jack??  Uhhhh...  Maybe my car didn't come with one??)  They managed to find and use the donut spare and the jack and then even let me use a cell phone to call husband with an update.  Gomennasai!  Domo arigatou gozaimasu!!  My husband was close by and followed me to the on-base auto shop where I left the car to get fixed up.  (By the way, my donut spare was just about flat too...  No telling when the last time that thing got used was!)

Grrrr...  In the five years I drove stateside, I only had to replace tires on one car one time.  In the two years I have been on Okinawa, I've had to replace SEVEN TIRES on two cars!  And the tires here are horribly overpriced.

Ok.  Enough ranting and venting.  It was definitely a nerve-wracking morning for the kids and me.  At least A will have a fun bento to enjoy at lunch time.

Kiwi, roasted chickpeas, edamame-on-a-stick, corn on the cob and a halved PB snowball

Yummy mummy mini pizzas!  Mmmmm, spooky.

Here's to a better afternoon!  (I'm cautiously optimistic.)