4th of July weekend in short

We headed out to Casa Grande to be with the family on 4th of July. We were really excited about having a nice central meeting place where we wouldn't have to worry if I went into labor and we could make it a nice day trip. It was great to see the family and Timothy had an especially fun time playing with his Cousins, Ashley, Travis, and Ava as well as their 3 dogs and the 2 puppies they were fostering. We went to the community pool which was a lot of fun and had a yummy dinner. Then, we packed up into the car with Timothy, Ashley, and Travis (we were bringing Ash and Travis back to Tucson to their mom's house). We got about a mile when we noticed the engine temperature was well beyond normal. In fact, it was as hot as it could get with only a mile of driving! We knew we couldn't drive home because we'd end up destroying our car, having an engine fire, or getting stranded at night in the middle of nowhere. So, we called Glenn (Allan's brother up) and had him come help us. We tried adding antifreeze thinking maybe the fluid was low and low and behold, it was leaking out of the car! There was a broken hose. In addition, Glenn helped us figure out that the thermostat wasn't working properly. Both the broken hose and the thermostat were to be a nice, easy fix that Glenn and Allan would work on the next day. While rather uncomfortable with the situation less than a week away from the babies due date, I was glad to be with family and heading home the next day. After a night of no sleep and Timothy waking up in the middle the night, Allan and Glenn headed out to work on the car. They got the parts which we were thrilled only cost around $20.00, replaced the hose like the cinche it was supposed to be, broke a bolt while taking the thermostat off, no big deal because we could just replace it when we got home. Then... broke a bolt while putting it back on! Big deal! Car no longer safe to drive. It being a Sunday, no shops were open and we were stuck in Casa Grande another night! At this point, I was starting to panic a little and was feeling rather exhausted after chasing Timothy around for 2 days in a house without childproofing, running on no sleep, and being near the due date of the baby. Timothy was running on high energy the whole time. How, I do not know! He did not have a nap because when we tried to put him down in the pack n' play in his cousin Ava's room, he climbed out of the playpen and proceeded to empty all of her drawers and pull out all of her toys! The girl's went up to get their swimsuits and quietly opened the door expecting to find a sleeping baby, but were greeted by an enthusiastic "mess!" coming out of Timothy's mouth. And, a mess he had certainly made. When day 2 rolled around, we decided to try putting him down in his Cousin Travis' room where there were no toys he could get into anywhere except in the closet and we didn't think it would be a problem since he's never really gotten into the closet before. Sure enough, I go in there about an hour after putting him down because he was fussing and find him in his playpen with pretty much all of Travis' stuffed animals. I guess he had climbed out and then climbed back in? He also emptied a couple of drawers and poured a bunch of legos out. Thank goodness he didn't try to eat any! Day 3 rolled around and we got up bright and early to make sure we were the first ones at the shop. When we dropped the car off, they told us that tapping out the old, broken bolts and replacing them would be an easy job and would only take a half an hour. Thrilled, we headed out to browse some stores while waiting. An hour later, we headed back and were told it would take another hour. Over 6 hours later, Allan called and they finally said they had it done! I was so happy to be heading home. We drove home without incident and arrived to a toilet of a living room. Literally. The dogs had gotten through the baby gate and used it as their litter box while we were gone. I don't blame them. I expected to come home to a mess, especially since they are clever enough to get into their dog food when they are exceptionally hungry. The sad part was that they unintentionally terrorized the bird for 3 days as a bird in a cage, in the same room as dogs feels constantly hunted. When I put the bird on my finger it was so weak it could hardly step up and probably hadn't slept in quite some time. I don't know if I could sleep with the reak of urine and dog poop and some giant carnivores bread and specially trained to hunt my species lurking around. It sounds like some crazy horror film. The poor bird! After a few hours, it was back to normal and now, a few days later, life is back to normal. I lived, the baby wasn't born, the car got fixed, and life goes on!