Grease Monkeys

This morning the kids and I were on the deck planting some grass seeds for th kids to take care of and watch it grow. Of course planting anything with them involves lots of dirt. Then of course add in some water. That all equals to very dirty, messy kids. I wash them off before we go out in public. I really don't want people thinking my kids haven't had a bath for 3 weeks. After Max goes to school, the rest of us go the the car shop to get my oil changed and tires balanced and rotated. On Sunday my "service engine soon" light came on. So Monday morning, still on, I call to make an appointment. Of course shortly after making it, the light goes off. Still, better get it checked out since we will be driving - A LOT- here pretty shortly. We wait in the waiting area. I don't think that floor has EVER been swept, mopped or scrubbed. It was very nasty. But 3 little kids are not going to stay seated for the long wait. They had 2 chairs there. They did have a TV with a bunch of VCR kids movies (do people really still use VCR's?) We watch some of those while we wait. Sam found a little bouncy ball and played with that most the time. Joe brought cars and trucks to play with. Ike could only seat in the stroller for so long before he really wanted out and was going to make it out one way or the other. Fine, I give up, crawl all over the nasty floor. Well, then Sam had to go to the bathroom. I ask where one is and the owner of the shop kinda paused. "That is kind of tricky" um, OK. He tells me where it is and says it doesn't flush right. You have to fill a bucket of water and pour it in first plus the toilet is very loud when it flushes. Lovely. So we hike it on over to the bathroom. I tell her we are not coming back in here and this is her only time to go to the bathroom. I scrub the kids off while I have the chance as well.

Alright, back to the nasty waiting area. About 20-30 minutes later, Sam says, you guessed it, "I have to go to the bathroom." I tell her she has to wait. Shortly we see our van back in the lot. They must be done and hopefully we will be leaving shortly. There is a guy in there talking up a storm to the owner and must have been in there for roughly 30 minutes, just talking. I finally caved into Sam's pleas to go to the bathroom, yet again! Knowing we have to be leaving soon I really scrubbed the kids this time. They all 3 looked like little grease monkeys. Ike had black feet (top and bottom), black legs and hands. The other 2 have super dirty hands, legs and clothes. So clean, we go and wait again. This time I don't let Ike down or Joe out of the stroller. I wait by the counter and finally get checked put. A little over 2 hours there and they only got my tires and oil done. The check engine light history showed an ignition coil going bad and only takes 15 minutes to replace. Yeah, could they really have not just done it? they knew I had to leave at a certain time so I was home when Max gets home. He also suggested we replace a tire since one has a chunk out of it. How? No idea! So, we will be going back the the car shop very shorty. I am hoping just to drop it off this time.

The mechanic really is a nice guy and he is pretty reasonably priced. If I find someone cheaper, I tell him about it and he will beat the price by a few bucks. We usually drop off our cars but really, who would have thought oil and tires would take SO long?