Sophie's Solo

Sophie's 4th grade play was this morning. She was super nervous, but she did great. They performed it yesterday for the school, and today for the parents. She had a solo at the very end.  She gets super nervous in front of people, so this was a big, big deal, and she did great!  Our friend Carly came too, and she has a sweet truck, so Sophie got to ride to her performance in a "Country Limo".

Our original plan was to pull the kids out of school right after the play and head for Shasta. However, life, or rather...the van's brakes, had different plans.

Yesterday while driving, I went to brake and the brake went all the way down to the floor w/no resistance....and the car did not stop.  It slowed down, and eventually stopped....but lets just say it was not a good feeling.  Then the dash started flashing all types of warnings - Service traction system, Service stability system.....then the emergency brake light came on even though the brake was not set, and then the Low brake fluid warning came on.  Thing is...we just got new brakes not even 2 months ago, so I refused to believe anything was wrong. It's not allowed to go wrong - first we just spent a ton of money on brakes, second we have no money to fix anything, third we are leaving to go camping. So I pulled over, turned the car off, then turned it back on thinking maybe the computer just went wonky and nothings really wrong...but after pumping the brakes a few times, i knew something was really wrong.
To keep this short, and not reveal anything that would freak my parents out....I got the van to the bart station (where brian would be getting back from work), spent 2 hours at starbucks, discovered a pool of brake fluid by the rear right brake, took a scary ride to Chevron for brake fluid, then home w/Brian, and he's now sitting at Les Schwabb waiting for the part to arrive at 4 this evening. Yes, since we only have one car, Brian has to sit there all day, then it has to get installed (new brake line).  They did say they should have caught it when they replaced the brakes, so we only have to pay for the part, not the labor.

It is without fail that when Brian has a long weekend something like this happens. Every time. He called me to say he reserved a patio boat for a day on the lake...within 5 minutes the brakes quit working, I texted him that something was really wrong with the car, and he immediately called back the boat place and cancelled it. I feel so bad for him that something always happens.  There are very few things that Brian really really enjoys and looks forward to getting to do, and being on the lake is at the top of the list. We are to the point where we are just waiting for something to go majorly wrong whenever he takes time off. 

Anyway....hopefully the part does come at 4, is installed today, and we head up either tonight or early tomorrow.  : )