Cars...they stink.

I tell you, I have had more car trouble since I moved to Austin then I have ever had in my entire life of driving. Since I was 16, I had only had one accident and not tickets. I had never even been pulled over before. I moved to Austin when I was 26. Since then, it has been 3 years, I have had the following:

3 tickets-2 of which I got within the first 6 months of being here

2 flat tires- Ironically enough they happened almost exactly 1 year apart from each other

1 accident- which totaled our brand new used van that we had been paying on for a whopping 3 months

My most recent car trouble started at the end of Oct. when I got in the car accident and wrecked our van. See post here http://nursemom-thompsonfam.blogspot.com/2010/10/car-accident.html . We are now a one car family. So, we have to get up earlier every day so I can take Landan to school, and then Kevin to work. Or, on days I work, we have to get up even earlier so that Kevin can take me to work, take Landan to school, and then get to work. Then do it all again in reverse at night. Makes for a lot of time spent in the car. I was on my way to pick Kevin up from work yesterday and then we were all going to go to Landan's therapy before heading home when I got a flat tire about a mile away from my house. I was stranded on the frontage road of a major highway with another flat. If you'll remember, I did this almost exactly a year ago. See post here http://nursemom-thompsonfam.blogspot.com/2009/11/humiliating-night.html . Except this time it wasn't at night, I had all the kids with me, and I actually had a working spare tire from the last time. The only problem was, I don't know how to change a flat tire and I didn't have the tools to do it with anyway.

So I spent the next 15-20 calling around to people in the ward hoping one of their husbands would be home at 4:00 in the afternoon. Not an easy thing to find. Kevin can't help me, he's stuck at work waiting for me. It just so happens that Russell, our babysitters husband, happened to have gotten off work early and came to my rescue. Thank you very much, I don't know how long I would have been stranded there. So we went and got Kevin but by that time we were late for therapy so Landan didn't get to go. What a mess.

I am so sick of car trouble. There must be some bad karma between my cars and Austin. Anyone know where I can buy a trouble free car?