"So, when your car breaks down, when you get in a wreck, when all of this CRAP happens... Are you thinking 'OK God. What do you want me to learn from this? Or do you have a fit?'"

That's a paraphrase of what John said in Sunday School last weekend. So... Fine. What is God wanting me to learn? I must be pretty thick-headed because God's really on me!

We hadn't planned to go out today. Ainsley's been having some anxiety attacks that we'll chalk up to her illness and subsequent hospital visit last week, coupled with exhaustion. You know it's bad when I've taken the time to google the possibility of brain damage due to a sustained high fever. (If you're curious, though, the fever would have to hit 107.6 for brain damage to be a possibility...) But, our insurance agent gave us a quote of $900 for wind coverage which, compared to the $3300 I mentioned in my last post, is pocket change. Aaron had to get an advance from work which we'll pay back monthly but... At least it's taken care of now.

So, we went to ALFA, had to make a deposit at the bank, and planned to run by the post office... And then, my genius self said, "Hey! I can just do all of the errands while I'm out and Ainsley and I can spend Thursday and Friday at home with nothing to do!" Plus, ya know... Gas is expensive! Killing 2 birds (5 errands) with 1 stone (1 trip) seemed cost effective.

So, that meant we'd also run by Lowe's and grab paint samples for the playroom/nursery (as well as the insurance errand, the bank, the post office errand, and getting the a/c fixed). See how frugal and methodical I was??? ...Right. LOL

Well, the insurance thing went OK. The agent had actually given me a wrong quote. But, before I could ruin my Christian testimony with some choice words he informed me that it was only $885 rather than $901. Rock 'n roll. Ainsley was a little antsy while I signed paperwork, but she got a dumdum lollipop out of it, so she tolerated it well. I even remembered to give her insulin for it (have I mentioned we LOVE our pump?).

So, we set off for our credit union. La dee dah... Got there, pulled up to the drive through and... "Closed due to an emergency- please visit our closest branch at _____". What? They don't KNOW where their nearest branch is?? Our bank has 2 branches. One in WeMo (West Mobile) and one just out of MiMo (Midtown Mobile). Believe me... The MiMo one is not convenient for ANYONE without a meth addiction. Rawr. So, we go to MiMo. (Have I mentioned it's not convenient?) And... It's closed. Due to computer issues. Double Rawr! I threw the deposit in the drop box (which I SUPPOSE I could have done at the WeMo branch, but thought perhaps they were being robbed and I didn't want to have my deposit, piddly though it might be, stolen.

OK. Now, we'll run to the post office... Ummm. No. The line was out the door. We'll run to Toyota. We have an extended warranty. Surely the stinkin' a/c is covered? Lizzie is meeting us there to take me back to her place so I can admire it's cleanliness, so I'm expecting this to take a while.

The Bit and I go in, I tell the service manager that my a/c is possessed and could they pleased exorcise it? (No, I didn't actually say it was possessed... But, I HAVE been wondering) He said, "K. It'll be about 30 minutes."

30 minutes? Seriously? That's like, NO time. He must know it's a loose fuse or something. I see Lizzie and Brenna pulling in the lot, so I leave my cell number (and Liz's because my battery is SO dead) and we go across the street to have a nibble and chat since it so doesn't make sense to go to Theodore from the beltline...

Maybe 45 minutes later my phone rings. All done! Yay! Plus, it's all covered by the warranty. Double Yay! Liz and I let our kids wreak havoc for just a bit longer (hey, they're good at it-- mine's running laps around the place and Brenna is growling at her Mama's sweet tea for all she's worth). Then, we go back and I tell Liz thanks and decide to run to the post office.

Ummm. Why is there no cold air? Seriously? They fixed this? We parked at the mall post office since it was closest. I called Toyota and griped, they said to come back and they'd fix it. I said, "Great. Lemme run into the post office real quick and I'll be back in about 15 minutes." (Ha! Hahahahahahahah!) I load Her Highness into the stroller, grab the packages going out for eBay, trot into the mall and... Are you KIDDING me? There are AT LEAST 27½ people in line in front of me. How 'bout NO?

We scurry back outside, just as a nice drizzle starts (but I'm not complaining, it feels better than our oven of a car!). I load Prissy into the car, throw the packages back into the passenger seat, and high tail it back to Toyota. Of course, JUST as we're turning into the lot, the a/c starts blowing cold. RAWR RAWR RAWR!

The service manager says, "Umm. It's cold. What's the problem?" I remove the sweaty critter from her car seat and explain that the a/c JUST came on-- that I had TOLD them it was going in and out... He kinda looks at me like, "Riiiiiiiiiiiiight." Then, he proceeds to tell me that maybe it's a freon (sp?) issue and they need to do a full flush on it. Which is not covered by warranty. And it $150. I protested, pointing out that a car that is less than 3 years old should not have as many issues as our's does. He said, "Well, ma'am, what do you want me to do?" I responded (much more politely than I felt like!), "Sir, I want you to FIX IT. And not charge me for it since we PAID for the stinkin' extended warranty!"

He said he'd see what he could do, but... That because I'd brought my car to them so late in the afternoon (it's now 4:10) that I would have to bring the car back tomorrow because the flush would take about an hour and they close at 5:00. I pointed out that I'd brought my car to them at around 2:00 and they'd failed to fix the issue. He offered me a rental car. I was suspicious and said, "For free?" "Oh no ma'am. It's $50 per day." RAWR. I told him no, I'd bring it back tomorrow and that I was less than thrilled with Toyota in general.

I really needed to get these packages in the mail to we swooped into the post office parking lot at 4:25 (they close at 4:30). and praise the Lord, there are, like, 3 people in line. We can handle that. Everyone admired my little piggie-tailed beastie and told her she was so pretty and sweet (which she ate up!). And the packages went out when I said they would (Small victory for you... HUGE victory in my world!).

I decided to forget about Lowe's as Ainsley needed a nap and... Well... I'm pregnant. I needed one, too! So, we headed for home. Joy. There's a wreck on the road leading to my house. An impressive one, I assume. We sat completely still for 20 minutes (in our un-air conditioned and almost out of gas car) before I turned around to head to my mom's (and a gas station).

She's not there. Mini-rawr. Fine. I ran in to use the hosue phone to tell my hubby to avoid the wreck on the way home and go the long way... Which passes by my mom's best friend's house. We're cruising along and I see my mom's car in the driveway. At the VERY last second, I decide that Ainsley woudl like to see Grandmama, just for a second, so we turn in the driveway and...

...
...

Yup. You guessed it. My car STOPS. As in breaks down. As in that sucker is gonna have to be towed. And ya know what my first reaction was?

"Alright God. WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME?!?!?!?" I mean, obviously, He's not trying to torture me. If He was, I would have broken down on the empty stretch of 6 miles with my cell phone battery dead, right? He at least let me get into Shelby's driveway (BARELY!!!) before my car went kaput. So, I fish out the kiddo and we trudge up her quarter of a mile driveway.

My mom meets me at the back door saying, "What happened?" I resisted my urge to say, "Oh, we felt like taking a walk" and told her the truth. So, then she asked me why the car broke down. I assured her that if I knew, it wouldn't be broken down. Oy. Moms and their questions. LOL And I just KNOW that one day Ainsley'll be thinking the same thing about me. Scary, huh?

I sat down at the counter and chatted politely for a few minutes. Then, I burst into tears. I mean... I'm just SO FRUSTRATED! Mom and Shelby both hug me and mom goes to help Shelby into bed (FYI, Shelby is on hospice due to terminal cancer-- say a little prayer for her. She feels so alone right now. :( ). I picked up the phone to update Aaron on where I was... And then called Lizzie, just to laugh at the situation. And you can ask her. I DID laugh! It was that or cry some more. And I'm DONE crying about this, dang it!

I also have to wonder... Is it because Aaron and I are on the right track that Satan just has to pounce us? I mean, our faithfulness must pose a HUGE threat to ol' Beelzebub if he's this worried about us tithing and getting back into God's Word. And if we're threatening the devil THIS MUCH... Hey! That's pretty darn good, right? In fact, I'm even a little excited!

Fear our faithfulness, Satan. Because you're NOT GONNA WIN. We've got the bigger and better player on our team. And HE certainly won't let us down.

(p.s. I had this entire entry almost done when FireFox went haywire and closed itself down. And auto-recovery on the blogger site didn't work. Coincidence? I think not! So, I sat my rump here and typed it ALL back out again. And WOW I type a LOT more than I talk! ;) )