Just how fast.....

In case you have ever wondered just how fast one can drive a 15 passenger van before it begins to vibrate uncontrollable, the answer would be 91 MPH.

I can upon the answer to this question quite by accident earlier today. It was a fairly typical Saturday morning. Emily needed to be at the dance studio by 8:20 AM for her private lesson and Jacob and Grant boys needed to be at the football field by 9 AM. Usually, I take Emily to dance and then Hannah, Sophie, Will and I run to a few yardsales and met up with Jay and the boys at the football fields. This being said, the football helmets and shoulder pads tend to stay in the trunk of Jay's minivan, so that they don't clutter up the living room.

Well, this morning, it was cold and wet. Jay wanted to run errands and neither of us wanted to sit at the football fields in the cold for over an hour waiting on the games to start. Knowing that Jay would be in a bad mood if I didn't let him get the errands ran, I told him that I would drive to football if he took Emily to the studio. He agreed and said he would try to make it to the fields by the start of Jacob's game, but that he might be a bit late. A few minutes later I hear him walk out the front door. When I don't hear him walk back into the house, I walk into the living room and peer out the window to see that he has already pulled out of the driveway and is heading out of the subdivision. As I step onto the front porch, he is at the end of the road....do you see where this is going? Those damn shoulder pads and helmets are in his trunk!

OK, unlike the majority of Americans, we don't have a cell phone and I know I am totally F*CKED if I don't have the shoulder pads and helmets! I yell to Brett and Hannah to finish getting the boys ready and the baby and Sophie dressed. I don't think to tell them to try to call the dance studio to tell Jay to wait on me. It isn't until I am pulling out of the driveway I realize that I have to CATCH UP with him BEFORE he heads out on his errands since I have no idea exactly were he is planning to go! The pursuit begins....

Jay is a creature of habit and I know I have a chance to beat him to the main intersection if I take Summerside instead of Beechwood. I barrel down the main road at a steady 55 MPH, just barely over the 45 MPH speed limit. I pass the old man out for his Saturday stroll and actually make it to the main intersection at almost the same time as Jay. If the intersection was a clock, I would have been at 6 and he would have been at 3. I am HONKING the horn like crazy, everyone else is rolling down their windows and looking at me, but not my husband who is absorbed in his own world. I guess having 8 kids tends to teach one to block out annoying noises. His light turns green and he heads onto the expressway, I have to sit through his light and then have to make a left hand turn onto the main road and then merge onto the expressway. I can't see his minivan, but know that he NEVER exceeds the speed limit, so I figure I can catch him if I EXCEED it SLIGHTLY......as the van begins to vibrate and I look at the speedometer, I make a note....passenger van vibrates excessively at 91 mph. I see him barely ahead in the right hand lane so I pull up next to him, again HONKING my horn. Does he look over? NOPE! Not until I get slightly ahead of him and roll down the van window and am still honking the horn......he looks at me confused and rolls down his window and I shout "SHOULDER PADS" at the top of my lungs. The look on his face was priceless. Of course we had just passed an exit, so we had to drive another 2 miles to the next exit. We exchanged equipment at the top of the exit ramp. We both went on our merry ways.

By the time I got home, everyone was ready to walk out the door. We actually made it to the football fields ON TIME!

Jacob's team won for the first time this season. Grant's team continued on with their impressive winning streak.