Wow, God is Good on a Horrid Monday

Monday was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

I think I've written on here before how much I dislike Mondays...it involves a lot of back and forth action of taking the kiddos to and from places all day long.

Add to this that Nick has started his new job and had to go to Illinois for the day.

Not too bad except he took my car and left me his older car to drive.

Oh fun.

Also, add to that that Monday evening I had a meeting I had to attend for the children's resale organization I volunteer with.  I was so super excited to go!!!!

Until I got the phone call that Nick was stuck on the Dan Ryan and would get home too late for me to go to my meeting.  Bummer.

He got home around 7 (my meeting started at 6:30).  I had a JCP coupon for $10.00 off a $10.00 purchase and we had a gift card so we decided to get the kiddos out of the house and do some shopping.  The coupon expired the next day and I really wanted to see it used.  (By the way, did you know that they keep track of if you are using your coupons or not?  If you don't use them then they might not send you anymore...just a heads up :)) Which by the way, Nick found track pants for the gym and we bought two huge Christmas presents, and paid $3.00 out of pocket...woohoo!

On the way home oddly enough we stopped to look at a car lot, thinking maybe it was time to start looking for a new ride...and that is where all of our lights got dim and things started going wrong as the "Check Charging System" warning came on...

Ugh. Oh.

We managed to drive to a restaurant parking lot and that's where it died died, dead friends.

Eck.

We called my parents who lived super close to where we were but they were out of town.  So we called Nick's parents and waited the half an hour it took the poor thing to come up.  I felt so bad we had to drag her out.  The weather had been about 50 degrees that day but it was now raining and the temperature was dropping.

As we waited we let the kids climb into the back of the Explorer and, well, explore. They loved it!  I think they thought that was such an adventure and helped to take their mind off of us being stranded.

When Nick's mom arrived he charged our battery from hers and it started, but only made it about half a mile.

We did this 5 more times.  By the time we got close to home...our end stop was right across the river from where we live, it was only lasting about a quarter of a mile before it would die.

So stressful, but in the end thinking about it, I was so thankful God was looking out for us.  Everytime we died, it was somewhere where we could pull off and be okay...a side street, a gas station, a curb out of the way.  In the dark and the rain we could have very easily gotten hit since each time our car died we had NO lights, meaning NO hazards even to flash!  I was so thankful Nick's mom was happy to help.  We had a very nice police man help us right before the last time it died and he stopped traffic so we could get across an intersection.

All in all, as much as it sucked, we knew God was with us and helping us.  And that is what we hope this taught our children.  Every time Nick had to get out in the pouring rain to charge our battery we started praying.  And he answered our prayers.

The next morning Nick went and bought an Alternator and went to where we left it and replaced it.  I am so impressed with my husband that, while certified mechanic he is not, he can fix anything.  He just amazes me and it amazes me the talents that God has blessed him with.

It is running great now and an Alternator was the only problem!  The only other things were either 1) battery (no biggie) or 2) the computer system (way huge-o biggie!)

So there was our horrid Monday and through that we were given the reminder that the Creator of the Universe is always there watching out for us and loves us through the great times and through the storms (literally!) of life!

God is crazy in love with you my Friends!