Close Call

Yesterday did not start out to be the best day in the world.  I had woken up from a very disturbing dream about someone kidnapping Tali and to make it worse, I never found her.  I guess it made me very edgy and I felt like I just had to get out of the house.  

I went to visit a friend of mine I rarely see mainly because she lives about an hour away.  On my way there, I noticed something different about the way the van was driving.  The front driver's side wheel was making a thudding sound as I was getting closer to my friend's house.  I didn't think much of it because I figured I would just check it when I got there (which I forgot to do).

On my way home, I had gotten onto the freeway and noticed the thudding again.  I couldn't figure out what it was, but it was getting worse so I pulled off at the first exit I saw and decided to buy a tire gauge to check the PSI in the tire.  Well, the tire pressure was good but I still could not figure out what was wrong.  I said many many prayers and got back onto the freeway.  About 10 minutes later Brian calls me on my cell so to be safe, I decide to put him on hold until I got off on the next exit.  As I was getting off the exit, my van starts to shake.  Now I KNOW something is terribly wrong.  So I pull into a 7-11 parking lot and try to explain to Brian what is happening.  He tells me to check a few things and I didn't see anything wrong.....at first.  He tells me then to check the weights in the tire and that's when I noticed it.  Two of the five lug nuts on the front driver's side tire were gone.  It looked like they had been snapped clean off. 

I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get home.  With some comfort and help from family and ward members I was able to pull myself together and start thinking clearly enough to know what I needed to do.  I had called one of my ward members (who has been like the protective older brother to me) and he reminded me that I had roadside assistance through my insurance.  Thank goodness we had a DVD player in the van!  It came in handy and was able to help calm both Tali and myself down while waiting for the roadside assistance people.

The roadside assistance people came about half an hour later.  They tightened the lug nuts and gave me some pretty scary news.  Apparently not only was it the driver's side front tires lug nuts that were loose, but the lug nuts were loose on BOTH front tires.  The guy told me that had I kept driving on the freeway, I would have lost one if not both tires.  I remember having this awful (probably not realistic) thought of my tire falling off on the freeway, the van rolling over and us getting in a horrible accident.  I wasn't about to put my daughter or my unborn son through that.  I'm just glad I listened to the prompting (and my husband) to get off of the freeway when I did.  One thing is for sure, God works in mysterious ways and I am just SO grateful he was looking out for me along with other people.  I ended up having my van towed home and I am just glad that we are home safe and sound!