The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry....

Last weekend was going to be awesome. Jerry and I had a list full of festive fun ideas and great friends to spend time with. On Friday, we scheduled dinner with our friend Nicole who was having a viewing party for her 22 minutes of fame on Wheel of Fortune! Then we were to go to another friend's house for old school game night and fun.

Saturday would be full of yard work and floral design, fetching our christmas tree and spending the evening with friends at an open house/craft show where I could try my luck at selling the flowers. Sunday we would sleep in, go to church and come home to decorate the tree, play christmas music and finish the yard work.

Did you hear that?

It was the sound of the needle scratching across the record that was playing A Barry Manilow Christmas. It was the sound of $$$ flying out of our wallet, and the gasp of air I took between bouts of sickness.

No, this weekend did not turn out as planned.

Jerry and I made it to dinner with Nicole and while she didn't win the game, it was super fun to see her on tv (and in person) and catch up for a while. We also got to chat up the lovely Beth who ever so eloquently blogs about her life's adventures over at Onward Hoe (hi Beth's mom!) It was a good time and we were set for some games! We noticed that the battery light came on while we were driving to dinner and hoped that we wouldn't have any issues. That was not to be however. As we were making our way down I-40 and back toward Raleigh, all electrical hell broke loose and we were stranded on the side of an exit ramp. There we waited in seemingly below freezing weather for over an hour for AAA to come and tow us to the shop. Thankfully, I realized that we were near where my folks meet on Friday nights and I called them to see if they could come and take us home instead of having to go to the mechanic and then find a ride from there. It's now after 10pm. There will be no games this weekend. No siree. Mom and Dad came to the rescue and AAA came about 30 minutes later. Their one hour window magically became 1 and a half and we were finally out of there.

We tried not to let it get to us. It was only Friday, we had the whole weekend ahead of us right??? Saturday morning, despite the previous evenings' mishaps, we awoke in good spirits, put on some Christmas music and got to work. About 2.5 songs in, the phone rang. It was the mechanic. And when I say mechanic, I mean sleezy liar who smoked in my car. But I am getting ahead of myself. Jerry had already planned to have music practice so through the course of the morning we were calling each other, our families, the mechanic and friends trying to decide how to take care of the car. We ended up with a new battery and alternator and a bill that would make your head spin. Basically, we got hosed. Again, we chalked it up to the fact that we both drive cars that are paid for and things don't go wrong often so it was time to cough up some dough. What I did not expect, was to start coughing up my lunch.

As we were on the way to pick up the car, I said, man, that pizza isn't sitting too well. I don't think I feel very good. Fast forward a couple hours and you would find me hunched over in the bathroom, a position I would be in for the rest of Saturday and Saturday night. I'm guessing food poisoning of some kind, but it may actually have been a cruel trick of the weekend destroyer that was wreaking havoc on us for no good reason. Jerry graciously continued his yard work and took my place at the craft fair (he even sold a couple things!) I was more sick then I have been in years and stuck at home.

Sunday we made it to church and back and I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. Jerry worked really hard trying to get the house clean and got some laundry done. And of course, more yard work! I tried to help blow leaves in the front yard and it wiped me out after about 30 minutes. So I went back inside to bed. We never did get our Christmas tree.

Now it's Tuesday and after a half day at work yesterday (I left early to rest more) I finally feel like myself again. Hopefully we will get our tree tonight and get back to normal! Last night we had home group and being around such great friends reminded me that even though we have down times, the ups are always worth the trouble :-)