Today just needs to be over already. How much more can we possibly take much more of this.  It’s only Monday so that doesn’t hold well for what the rest of the week has to offer us. Today got off to such a rough start and to make matters worse, I forgot to give Gavin his meds this morning. I realized this after we rushed out the door to get Lizze to her appointment this morning. I figured no problem, the appointment is at 9:15am and we should be out no later then 10:00am. I was thinking that we would swing by and pick up the boys from my parents house and then grab Gavin’s meds and give them to him at school. An easy fix to a serious problem, right? WRONG.

As we are driving to pick up the boys the power steering goes out and smoke pours out from under the hood. I manage to pull over into a Steak and Shake parking lot. Then the van just stalls out. Have I mentioned just how much I HATE this van. I get out and pop the hood and wait for it to stop smoking. I can smell the burning coolant but can’t see where it’s leaking from. Upon closer examination I found the leak. I actually got video of it this time because Lizze had something similar happen while she was driving the van a few weeks ago but we could finds a problem. Well I definitely located the problem. My mom came to pick Lizze up and I decided to avoid the tow bill is possible and so I drove it home. I managed to get the van to Waterloo Transmission (as it was on my way) and one of the guys came out to take a look. It appears to be a metal tube that comes off the water pump.

The power steering loss is because the coolant is spraying onto the belt and so the belt is slipping causing us to loose power steering. I HATE this van. It’s a never ending money pit. We have electrical issues and the rear passenger doors won’t even unlock much of the time anymore. I made it home and parked her [van] in the driveway. It will be sitting there indefinitely until we can do the repairs.

The reason I’m sharing this (aside from venting) because the impact this is going to have on us. The special needs family is a very fragile entity and things like this come up and are very destabilizing to say the least. We have doctors appointments and therapies to be at this week. We are supposed to be in Cleveland this Friday for Emmett but that won’t be happening now. I’m just frustrated a lot right now and overwhelmed right now.

On a positive note, at least Lizze wasn’t the one driving the van when this happened because with everything she has going on  she wouldn’t have been able to steer the van. Also Gavin should be ok as far as his meds go because the are only going to be late today. He’ll get then the second he walks in the door this afternoon.

In this video you can see the coolant squirting out towards the left side of the screen.  The video is shaky because I’m SO stressed out I was shaking.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpQwweBvC4[/youtube]