Thank You, Walmart

So yeah, blogging does get put on the back burner sometimes. And last week was no exception. I thought I was recovering nicely from cleaning my house, hosting my in-laws and getting through Jonathan's birthday. But this persistent sore throat I had just kept getting worse, and when I finally woke up Friday morning with my one eye stuck shut, I broke down and went to the doctor. So now I'm on antibiotics for 10 days and eye drops for a week. No big deal - I'm getting better and feeling much better now that I was 4 days ago. Just trying to keep the kiddos from getting it - not an easy task, but one I've succeeded at so far!
So yesterday, I felt good enough to get up, get dressed, get the children dressed, and we all headed out for church. Mark was driving, and to his credit, it really wasn't his fault, but well, he was driving. He hits a rock. A big, sharp one. Our tire blew out instantly, and we were in a part of town called "The Narrows" - a very narrow portion of road that twists through the river valley, a solid rock wall on one side, and a guardrail and river on the other. No place to pull over. We were half on the road, half in the mud, no way we can change a tire, no way we can drive out of there on our rim. We're dressed in our Sunday best, well, okay, our Sunday moderately best, and with two little kids in the car and it's 30 degrees. Why does this sound like a chapter out of "How to Survive"?
I'll make a long story short. We called 911, who called us a tow, and kindly sent us a state trooper to sit with us. We were towed to Walmart, where the automotive guys were only too happy to replace the tire, rotate it to the back, and do a wheel-balancing - all at 9 am on a Sunday morning. We were out of there by 10:30, snuggled into our favorite booth at our favorite restaurant, with plates of steaming breakfast. No, we never made it to church. But the effort is what counts, right?
And here's where I must sing Walmart's praises. I know a lot of people don't like Walmart for whatever reason. But Walmart is always there for you. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At least our Super-Walmart is. Where else could we have had our car towed at 9 am on a Sunday morning and gotten a new tire put on the rim? I'll answer that: nowhere. The next best thing we could've done was had it towed to our driveway, where Mark would've spend half the day figuring out the jack, finding the spare, putting it on, and then half the day today running to automotive repair places to get the real tire replaced. But we don't have to worry about that now - it's done. Paid for. And while we waited, the kids got to see the Easter Bunny. Jonathan even sat on his lap. We watched the fishes swimming in the tanks. We found DVD's for $5 and picked one out for Matthew. We checked out ceiling fans and made some plans for this Spring. We even bought Matthew a new pack of undershirts and a brand new shirt after he spilled a drink down the front of himself and was soaked AND changed his clothes in the bathroom. And before we knew it, the automotive department was announcing over the loudspeaker that our car was ready. So a huge thank you to Walmart - you already have my business, so I'm doing this to try to get you more business!