Florida loves my baby!

Well, I'm just assuming the entire state is a fan, but I happen to know that a special group of people definitely are.  One of my bestest friends Kimberly threw me a fabulous shower last weekend in Gainesville and we were joined by lots of family and friends (some of whom I hadn't seen in awhile which makes it extra special). 

I told Kim months ago what my ideal shower would include; have it short, no stupid games, great food, and plenty of time to visit.  Well, she nailed every single one.  I was concerned with lugging baby gifts back to Texas with me, so I brought an extra suitcase and Kim asked everyone to ship my gifts or request in-store pickup from Babies R Us.  Anyone who thinks this in-store pickup thing is a good idea, you are wrong - very, very wrong.  I swear they tried to make the process as difficult as possible.  Luckily for me, I have smart friends and so we managed to make it work and avoid any serious disasters.  Only a few gifts were canceled and had to be re-ordered.  Grrrr...

Here are a few pics from the shower:  (Please excuse my massive thighs and fat knees....I will stand by the idea that it is just a bad angle...right after I go jogging.)

I had lots of great helpers to open my presents.  They kept things moving at a very brisk pace.

How freaking cute is she?  Loved her tu-tu.

The only game we played.  It turned out to actually be pretty fun.

My delicious and adorable cake amongst the smorgasbord.

The hostess with the mostest!

The real adventure happened on the way from Jacksonville to Gainesville though.  My mom and I drove my grandma's 1994 Buick for the trip and on the way back to Jax (which if you have never made this drive is mostly on a county road that passes through about 4 teeny tiny towns that pride themselves on being known as speed traps).  As we were driving through the biggest town of the 4 and were made to slow down from 65 to 35 in about a 1/4 mile span, the car's temperature light came on for a few seconds and then turned back off.  This car doesn't have a temperature gauge, just a light, so I had no idea it was heating up or how hot it actually was....great engineering Buick!  My mom called my dad to ask what he thought we should do, but he was in a meeting and got off the phone pretty quickly.  Because the car is so old and the check engine light randomly comes on when several diagnostic tests have been done and nothing is wrong, when the light turned off, we decided to ignore it.  (This part of the story is known as mistake #1.)

Everything was fine until we reached the next small town and the light flashed on again.  Because it quickly turned back off, we thought it was definitely just a fluke and kept driving (aka...mistake #2).  Not 2 miles outside of this small town, we'll call it Lawty...cause that's what it's named, the light came on again, the car made noise when I pushed on the gas and refused to accelerate, and smoke started pouring out of the hood.  There were 2 semis quickly approaching behind us and we were frantically trying to turn on the flashers, but they didn't seem to work either.  I put on my blinker and prayed as we coasted into an abandoned welcome center of sorts. 

We sat in the smoking car on the side of the road in the parking lot of the abandoned building with boarded up windows on this cold and rainy day wondering what in the world we were going to do.  About that time, a man who looked just like these guys:

and was missing a good number of his teeth, came walking out of said boarded up building and approached the car.  I instantly regretted watching all of the Lifetime movies I have seen over the years because my first thought was that he was going to kidnap me and try to steal my baby.  I rolled the window down and he offered to help but I assured him help was on the way...although we hadn't found anyone to save us yet. 

My aunt has AAA, so we tried to call her so she could come get us and call them when she got there...but she wasn't answering the phone.  My uncle in Jax doesn't have AAA, so we told him not to bother.  I then remembered that on my parents' Amex, they have free roadside service and free towing.  We called them only to find that it is only good for $50; great, that will get us about a mile and a half!  That's helpful!  My aunt finally called to let us know that her AAA will only tow you 4 miles.  WHAT!?!?!?!?  We called some family friends who said they would try to head that way but it would be about an hour.  I then began to text Steve and it went like this:

That's for the concern Steve.

Frank and Susan finally came to save us and I was very concerned that we would have to pile into their car and have my grandma's towed because our car was full of luggage and baby gifts.  Frank came prepared with lots of water and was able to get the car running enough to get us to the next gas station.  We then proceeded to stop every 6 miles the rest of the way to my aunt's house to add more water to the engine.  Thank God for Frank! 

As if the trip hadn't been traumatic enough, about a mile from my aunt's house while sitting at a red light, we were REARENDED!  I can't make this stuff up!  I pulled into the nearest parking lot and when I saw there was no damage, I was so relieved I hopped back in the car, and went home to where I hoped I would never see that car again.  If I had been made to wait for a police report, I think I would have lost my mind. 

Oh, have I mentioned that I am in the point of my pregnancy where I have to pee a minimum of 3 times an hour?  Yeah, we left Gainesville at 2:30 and didn't get to Jax until 7:30.  Do the math.