When my daughter was heading off to her grandparents, we packed up and hit Dunkin' Donuts on the way out of town. I needed caffeine for the drive to the halfway point (and then drive back home alone) so I grabbed some coffee and to save time, Hayley ate breakfast in the car - a donut and 16oz Chocolate milk.

My jeep isn't the tidiest of vehicles, I admit that freely. It is the car we use to travel in, the shuttle from school to soccer to horseback riding to every other darn thing my child does. It has camp chairs in the back, jackets for everyone and enough junk to plan for pretty much any disaster that could befall us.

I dropped off Hayley with my mother-in-law and headed back home. Two hours later, I plopped down the couch and didn't move for awhile. In fact, I didn't get in my car for TWO days - after all I work from home and with Hayley away, no carpool to school, sports or camp.

Well I've paid for my vegging.

I went out to the car and smelled something repulsive. Hayley had loosely put the top on her chocolate milk and left it in the back seat. On the way back, it opened up and spilled everywhere. And then it cooked for two days into a foul paste that lined the carpeted backseat of my SUV.

The stench was horrible. I have no idea how I cleaned chunks of it up with our green machine cleaner. Two days of scrubbing did very little but gross me out.

The car was too bad to drive anywhere much less two hours to get our daughter so I sent my husband to get her and I found a car detailer who could work on my car on a Sunday.

I managed to find a place where the owner answered and was thrilled to have the business - only a car wash owner would be happy about that.

$180 late my car now smells like citrus and old baby formula. And beleive me, that's a step up.