God always Shines....even when your car breaks down.

So, I spent most of the day at Dorins today. Dorin, Jody and I took Tanner to see Santa which was cool. We went to a local Animal Feed Store which has an outside covered area, and they had this Country Christmas theme set up with Santa, and of course a professional photographer to take pictures. It was nice though because they had bails of hay on each side of Santa (and Santa was sitting on one too) so a child didn't HAVE to sit on Santas lap to get a picture.

First off, I took him up to Santa, I then sat down next to Santa and put Tanner in my lap and Santa got out a book and we were all reading it together. The photographer got some really good pictures of that. Then Dorin came into the picture and we had Tanner stand up next to Santa with Dorin standing behind Tanner and me standing on the side of Tanner and we got a couple cute shots of that, then I got out of the picture and Jody got in and we got cute shots of that too. Jody is so generous. I knew she was going to be wanting to buy a picture, but she totally bought the most expensive package so that I (well Dorin and I, but Dorin just told me to pick what I liked) could pick a picture that we liked of all of us and get a package of it. The package that she purchased was called the "Best Deal Package" and it came with any 2 packages and a CD of all the pictures taken from the sitting with Santa...all for $40.25....which I thought was kind of expensive, but then again I have never bought professional pictures before.

Jody completely included me on all the choices, she asked me what two packages we should get, there were like 5 different packages (1 package had just 1 8X10...another had 2 5X7s...etc), so I suggested to her that since Dorin, Tanner and I are already going to be getting our Christmas pictures done soon, we didn't need an 8X10 but that maybe she should get an 8X10 of her,Dorin and Tanner since she wasnt going to be going to the Christmas pictures with us. She totally thought that was a good idea and chose the picture she liked the best of the 3 of them in an 8X10...and then she was just like, okay so what package do you want? So I got to choose what picture I liked the best of Dorin, Tanner and I and picked the package I wanted, I contemplated getting some wallets, but I knew that we would be getting plenty of them when we get our Christmas pictures done, so I just chose the package with 2 5X7s. I told her I had cash, but she told me not to worry about it. It was so sweet of her.

After that we just all went home and Tanner was completely ready for his nap, he went right to sleep when we got home. I decided to also take a little nap before I had to work at 4:30, So, when I woke up, I got ready for work, and said goodbye.

Well, I was like 2/3rds of my way to work, on Meridian, and my car starts to die...thankfully slowly. I noticed because I couldnt accelerate, so I got in the slow lane, noticed that my engine light was on, and turned into the first turn off I saw (which was really hard because all of a sudden my power steering wouldnt work either!)....and lucky for me...it was an auto parts store! I almost made it completely into the parking lot before my car completely died, so a couple of guys that worked there pushed me the rest of the way in. I immediately called my work and told them that my car had died, but luckily I was at an auto parts store, and that a guy from the store was looking at my car so I would probably be late.

Well, the guy couldnt figure out what was wrong with it, he said the only way to find out what was wrong was to get it towed to a body shop. I thought, Great!. So I called my work again and said that I was pretty much screwed, that the guy had no idea what was wrong with my car, and that I didnt really know how I would get there without having to call someone from Graham to come and get me (and then leaving my car in the dark for the night!), and that I wouldnt have a car to get to work with tomorrow (for a double shift) if I didnt get this taken care of. I really didnt want to leave my car just sitting there all night, and I thought they would tell me to just get my car taken care of and not worry about coming in, but for some reason they said, "Well, we will just worry about tomorrow tomorrow, but we need you to get here as soon as you can." And I was kind of like, "Okay, well its gonna be a while, I need to call someone to come and get me." and blah, blah, blah.

I was irritated that they really still needed me to come in (when in my mind, I knew I wouldnt even be working for very long anyway), so I called Dorin, told him what happened, and asked him if him and his dad could come and get me and take me to work. He said they were on their way. I then called my dad, told him what happened, and asked him if he could call his mechanic to come look at my car. Luckily, my dads mechanic was home and my dad said that him and the mechanic would come look at my car while I was at work. Thank God.

So, Dorin and his dad get there and look at my car for a few minutes, Dorins dad guessed it was the timing belt.

Once I get to work, I have to worry about somehow finding a ride home, because I didnt want to have to make Dorins dad come and get me again, and I knew my dad would be busy working on my car so he couldnt come get me. Thankfully, a super sweet friend and co-worker of mine Chloe told me that she would give me a ride home, and she didnt seem annoyed by the idea either. She is just so super sweet.

Anyway, I only had 3 tables and then Chloe got phased so I had to find someone who also got phased to stay for me so that I could get a ride with Chloe (who by the way, only lives like 3 minutes from work, so it was totally out of her way to take me home but she was still super sweet about it anyway). Thank God, I found someone.

So Chloe, her dad, and I all start on the way to Graham. We stopped at Auto Zone (the place my car was) to see if my dad and the mechanic were still there, but they werent. So, I got into my car to see if it would start, and it still wouldnt! I was so frustrated because I knew that it had to be something kind of serious then.

I then immediately called my house and my dad had just gotten home. He told me that the timing belt had snapped and it would take a couple of days to fix, plus we have to get it towed to the mechanics house. I asked him if he could pick me up at Safeway so Chloe and her dad didnt have to drive me all the way home (because the farther we were going towards my house, the more it started to snow harder!) and he said yes.

So I gave Chloe some money (which I had to force her to take) for gas and waited at Safeway for my dad. Once him and Cheryl got there I felt alot better, like everything was going to be okay. I was with family, and my dad said that I could use his van (or even his new truck!--which I would never drive) to drive to work and stuff until my car is fixed. That was such a relief.

I dont have a day off until Friday, but atleast I have a vechile to get there until my car gets fixed.

In the end, I realized that God was definately still in control of the situation even though it sucked. He blessed me with the fact of breaking down right next to an auto parts store that also gave me premission to leave my car there overnight, he blessed me with amazing people that took time out of their own days to drive me to and from work, he blessed me with a great dad who took care of getting my car diagnosed while I was working, he blessed me with someone at work who was nice enough to stay a couple extra hours so that I could get a ride home, and he blessed me with a vehcile to drive while my car is out of commission.

God is awesome, even when I think the situation sucks, He still shines through.

Night Night.

PS. I will put up the Santa pictures as soon as I get them from Jody.