Thursday, June 28, 2012

Something I Have to Share

Although I realize I have many posts that I keep promising to write {see: Avery is 14 months old and her last monthly post was 10 months - OOPS!}

But this is just too good to share.

Preface: My mom loves finding coins on the ground. She will squeal and grab that penny/nickel/dime/quarter faster then the speed of sound. It can be quite embarrassing. But there were many times all those coins she found and collected added up to help pay for something.

My mom always says that when she is stressed/worried/or in need of money, God always shows her that He is taking care of her by leaving money in strange places. For example, one time she was stressing about a bill and how it would get paid and while she taking her daily walk through the woods by her home, she found a pile of dimes...a pile of dime just randomly on a trail in the woods...

And that bill she was worrying about? It got paid with the money she received from an unexpected place.

While most people will call that coincidence, a Believer (as in a born-again Christian, not to be confused with a Belieber, a Justin Beiber fan) knows that there are no coincidences with God.

I always listened to her stories, because God had shown her many times with a random coin in a strange place, that he is taking care of her. I probably just rolled my eyes and moved on to the next thing.

Here is MY story:

Over this past weekend, our A/C stopped working. The fan was working, but it was not blowing cold air. While my husband has of gift of being mechanically inclined, he went through the possible scenarios of what could possibly be wrong. And they all were super expensive problems.

Ever since we moved into our home, we knew we wanted to replace the ugly, and now gross from 3 dogs and a baby, wall-to-wall carpet that was in our great room with hardwood floors. We saved our money and now have enough to fulfill our goal. Also - I have severe asthma and allergies so replacing carpet with hardwood is not just an aesthetic want as it is a health need.

But with an expensive A/C bill looming, we were coming to the realization that we may have to forfeit our hardwood floor to fix our A/C unit (in anticipation of a sweltering summer and a husband, daughter, and pugs that do not handle the heat well). Such is the life of an <responsible> adult.

Since the A/C stopped working on Saturday and this past weekend it was relatively cool, we decided to wait until Monday to call for a technician to come out and break our hearts and bank diagnose the problem.

Which means I had 3 full days to worry myself about what could possible be wrong and how we would afford to fix it and possibly have to wait longer for the new floors I so desperately needed/wanted. And of course my mom just kept saying "pray about it". 


My husband set the appointment up for first thing Tuesday morning. I was planning on working from home that day because, ironically, I had made an appointment with Home Depot to come out and give us an estimate for flooring the same day. 


Ryan and I both got up before Avery so I decided to run to Wawa to grab a coffee. I got my phone and wallet and headed out to my car. As I was sitting in the car, I remembered that I put my debit card into my bag, not my wallet. I said a quick "hallelujah" for remembering that then and not while I was standing in line at Wawa. So I ran back into the house and grabbed my debit card. 


When I came back out to my car, there was a penny sitting on my seat. I KNOW there was nothing on that seat when I got into the car. I immediately thought of my mom and her coin stories. So I said a quick prayer that what ever was wrong with the A/C, that it would be something we could afford to fix. 

Like most people (I think) we live on a pretty tight budget, which has gotten even tighter since we are actively working on a debt pay down plan. I knew $200 was the most we could afford. And I also "knew" that the majority of possible problems that could be wrong with the A/C would most likely have an extra "0" at the end. And good-bye hardwood floors.

But after I prayed, I felt a calm, a peace, a knowing that no matter what, God was in control of this. I could either trust Him or worry about something I could not control. I chose to trust Him. And that? It made a difference.

So I grabbed coffee, got home, sat down to work, and ate breakfast with Avery. As we were eating, the very nice technician arrived. Ryan showed him out to the back of our house, where the A/C unit lives. Mr. Technician was out there for about 5 minutes, assessing the situation.

He came inside, and I know Ryan and I both subconsciously held our breath, to tell us what he had found.

"It is a burned wire."


"It will be about $67 to replace."


"Plus $89 for the service call."


I almost started crying! 


$156!!!


Not only did God answer my prayer, He kept it BELOW budget! 


He loves me. He listens to me. He cares about the little things. And He answers me. 


I love Jesus.


xoxo

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Midweek Confessions



Instead of writing about all the stuff I need/want to, I am going to keep it simple (and superficial) and choke up some of my midweek (Instagram)confessions...

- I unfollow people if they post too much of either themselves or their cats. One - I am a dog person (duh) but I really do not like cats, nor do I understand people who do. Don't get me wrong, I don't think less of people for being a cat person or loving their cat, well I kind of do of my youngest brother who seems to have an unhealthy, co-dependent relationship with his two cats (who are identical sisters he raised from birth), but I don't want your lame cat clogging up my feed. Sorry, its true and Ima confessin'. Two - I follow people because I like their posts (again, duh) and a few pictures of yourself is totally fine, and kind of nice to know who is behind the feed. But when the major majority ( I know, I know, not proper English) of posts are of one person taking picture after picture of themselves, I do not find that interesting.

- I have even unfollowed my 11-year-old cousin because of the stupid posts she clogs my feed with. They are not even real pictures, just "funny" stuff she finds on the internet. And some of them? If my uncle or aunt saw it, they would not be amused either.

- I always experience a pang of guilt when someone follows me and I check out their feed and do not follow back.

- I get a bit of hurt feelings when people do not follow me back or <gasp> unfollow me, or even ignore comments. Because of my current lack of real friends (which is a whole other post I am ready to let loose very soon), I rely highly on social media for any kind of interaction or affirmation that yes, my kid and/or my dogs are cute as I think is they are, which is made possible by the heart swelling flash of that little orange notification tallying up your likes/comments/new followers. *I believe that may be a little to real of a confession, and make me seem a lot lame, but hey, no one really reads this blog anyway...so boo hoo to me.

- I cannot stand people (usually teenagers) that 1. beg for followers, sorry, I must have missed the point of Instagram, did not realize it was a popularity contest. 2. ghost followers, again to "up" their numbers. I block those mo' fo's.

- The majority of people I follow are pug people. Kind of lame, I know. But it is funny to see other pugs all over the world that behave quite similarly to my herd. And whether you think they are ugly or cute, you have to admit, if you ever met a pug in real life, they are pretty funny little dogs.

Ok, done my bitching confessing for this week.

Cat people be warned.

xoxo