Happy Birthday to Mandi!

Today is Mandi's 18th birthday! My baby isn't a baby anymore. I sang a birthday song to her that her paternal grandma used to sing. It's not the traditional everyone knows so it's kind of special to our family. Her boyfriend made her pancakes for breakfast. I had three as they were very small and only 160 calories for the three. I used sugar free syrup, had my usual Morningstar veggie sausage links, and applesauce. It was a nice treat.

Tim and I had a couple errands to run so off we went. I walked at the grocery store today and am very proud of myself for doing so. The electric carts were there and I was tempted to just hop on one, but since we only needed a few things for me to prepare to take to my brother's for Christmas dinner Sunday I made myself walk. By the time we were finished my knees were really aching and my left leg with the lymph edema was really heavy. It doesn't hurt, it just gets very heavy when I do any walking. While waiting for Tim to check out, I found a bench at the front of the store and rested a few minutes.

We loaded the groceries into the car and I started the car. It started a little differently than usual and seemed to be running kind of rough. I mentioned it to Tim and he agreed that something didn't seem quite right. I turned the car and re-started it. Same thing and now the care seemed to be bouncing as if the idle was off. As I left the parking lot, the Check Engine light came on and started to flash. I had to turn around and take the car straight to the dealership where we got it not that long ago. Their mechanic was leaving in about ten minutes. Oh no! The service writer said it sounded like a mis-fire or fuel injection problem but no one can look at it until Monday at the earliest. GREAT!

Thankfully, the car is under warranty and includes a rental car while ours is in the shop. Woo hoo! We waited and the rental car agency came and picked us up and took us to their store. We ended up having a 2006 Malibu for the holiday weekend. Thankfully, we are not without transportation. That is such a relief. I was worried if I'd fit in the Malibu. It is not as big as our Impala. I'm happy to say I did fit. It's a little tight and really tight getting out, but I can manage. I guess we'll find out on Monday or Tuesday what's wrong with our car and they will fix it. Kind of makes us wonder how well they went over it before we bought it, though. It is supposed to be a mechanic certified vehicle meaning they checked over 100 things but now we have our doubts.

We'll be going to my cousin's restaurant for dinner tonight. He called and said he got Mandi a birthday cake ... well so did we ... and wants us to come to have cake and ice cream with them. I will not have the cake, but maybe I'll save enough calories for one scoop of ice cream. We'll see.

At least I got my walking in today. We aren't going to be without transportation over the holiday. We were in town and near the dealership when the car acted up so no added damage. All in all, I'd classify today as a good day!