Long Day - Blah,Blah,Blah,Blah Life Goes On

I know it is very unlike me to have so little to say - but I am just bordering on a mental coma right now. I had to take my car to the dealership to have it looked at and it turns out that what we were worried was a major deal turned out to be that my tires just needed balanced. So $39.99 all said and done - not bad. Making a big trip at the end of the month to WV - so it definitely needed to be all checked out.
And just in case you are wondering, I got an email today sharing this secret recipe with me! Aren't you so jealous! I'll never share fatty's secret - never - never. (Maybe if you share something better with me we can make an arrangement!)
And just in case I gave you the impression this past week that my husband is Mr. Charming - let me just tell you that last night the man made hysterical fun of me for posting on my blog about WHERE to put the trampoline. I explained to the prince that if I had made any real-life, living and breathing, come-on-over-and -tell-me-what-you-think- about- where-I-put-my- trampoline friends, I might NOT have to blog about it! (Just between you and me - I would anyway - but we'll make him suffer guilt a bit longer - dragging me all the way out here and then making fun of me for having cyber buddies that I share it all with! Hmpf!)
I hope that everyone is visiting the Quirky Quote Qontest Voting Poll daily to cast at least two votes for your favorite quotes. There are only 3 days left to make your opinions known.
I went to Dollar General earlier this evening and started having a very bad episode of some sort of rapid heartbeat - my pulse was racing and I feel very shaky so I better just say goodnight. Nighty night y'all. Hope I am back to myself tomorrow - I hate feeling this way.

Nail Breaking - Part II

I wanted to clarify for my gentle readers that in case anybody wonders, I am not a girly girl - and most of the time you can find my nails in various stages of growth, usually quite uneven. What I was complaining about that night when I wrecked my car was the violence, and depth with which my nail was ripped off the top of my pinkie finger. It tore it down in the quick where it smarts. But I wanted to share with you that specific part of the experience, as it has me laughing now days afterwards. The Sheriff's officer that stopped to help out was checking us over with a flashlight - the blood matted in my hair over my ear, whether my pupils were dialated - and I was in shock so I didn't feel anything at that point - not my nose, my arm, NADA. But the first thing I remember feeling pain from was that darn ripped fingernail. I said to the officer, "I broke my fingernail." He turned to his partner, without missing a beat and said, "Bob, I think we're going to have to call for transport." Yeah, funny cop on the side of the road - the guy should be a comedian!!!!

I Broke a Nail! Oh Yeah, and I had a Car Accident Too!

About 10 pm this evening, after a full evening of rehearsals at the theater, I went grocery shopping. It had been a nasty, wet, rainy, muddy, foggy sort of day. By the time we left Walmart, it was around 11 pm. We were heading home up the windy mountain roads that I am very familiar with - and just around a curve to the right, at the peak of a hill, my car started pitching left, right, left, and right one last time when BAM! we were off the road and into the woods. Both front airbags deployed in the full frontal impact, the car was full of the gunpowder smoke that ignited the airbags, the front windshield shattered and glass blew everywhere, and our ears were ringing from the sound of the explosion that rapidly inflated the airbags. I am thankful that we are all in one piece - both of my girls and I, and their friend Devan. Kaitlyn has cuts all over her forehead, and I have them on my right ear and in my hair. I had glass imbedded in my shirt and all over my face so much that I couldn't wash it with a cloth - but rather had to rinse it quite extensively first. My arms are injured from where the airbag blew the steering wheel open and scraped against them violently. AND to top it all off, I broke a nail!!! Thank goodness I'm not a girly girl. It was a traumatic experience, topped off by the fact that we just recently got the car after almost a year of not having one! I think it may be able to be fixed, but my husband, (we'll just call him the pessimist for now!) is not quite sure. I don't care - my kids and I are all in one piece and that's all that really matters. I am so thankful that the Lord was watching over us tonight. I need to go to bed now, my head aches and my neck is hurting. Sweet dreams!

Sweet Ride

So, even with the "Napoleon Dynamite"-ish title, you still decided to read this entry? I guess I could write pretty much anything now, and I would still have an audience, huh? Just kidding! I know this is an highly intelligent community and you would expect way more than that!

I have exciting news, and I have hesitated to share it before now, because someone who was involved asked that we not say anything - but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE and we are very thankful.

My news is {drumroll please} I have a car!!!! I know it may not sound like a big deal for a middle-class family in middle-America, but there is much you don't know. This saga started out last year - the week of Christmas, my dear husband cracked the block on his car. It was DEAD - even after hours of CPR, no pulse, flatline - gone! Christmas was only days away and I had much shopping to do and preparations to make, when he gives me the news that his car is gone... and.....that he will have to drive my car to work.....and.....that since he worked an hour and a half away at the time it would make no sense for me to drive him! I handled the news with humility dignity and grace (NOT!) Over the past ten months, I have gone round and round with these wrong attitudes. The Lord has been a gentle and patient parent, showing me that His timing is perfect.

Also, my husband and I don't do credit cards or bank loans for anything other than our house - because he has always been convicted that you save up for what you need, and then you buy it - not the other way around. So for months we waited - and saved. We were finally able to buy a little truck that was for sale down the road from our church - but that was to be short lived - because on the way home with the "new truck" it broke down! And even though he had asked permission to leave the truck there, the next morning the owners of the driveway his truck broke down next to, had it towed away! After much TLC from my friends wonderfully talented husband, we determined that it was un-fixable, or at least not worth the expense it would take to fix it!

Over the ten months of car-less-ness, the Lord has taught me so many things - but he couldn't do that until I stopped kicking, screaming, crying, whining - and they have made me a better person. I am not good at depending on other people - and over this past year, I have had to depend heavily on all my wonderful friends who have taken me here, there and everywhere. I am sooooo thankful for a vehicle to drive. But he didn't just provide any vehicle, it is more than I could have ever asked for - the desires of my heart. And even if there wasn't a car in the driveway this morning - I would still say He is good! Better than a new car, he gave me a new joy in my heart. He didn't just effect a change in my circumstances, He made a humongous change inside of me.

Tuesday night around 10:00 when Travis brought the car home, we all went out and took a ride in it. Kullen summed it up perfectly when he said it - and not just about the car, about life, "Daddy, this is a sweet ride!"