Got to back it up!

I was talking about prayer in my last post when we'd lost the dogs. I want to talk about prayer again regarding my car.

I used the Aircheck voucher the state of Texas sent me, which was like $3,000 cash just to leave my car at the dealership and let them get rid of it. Texas is trying to to get older model cars (anything 10 years and older) off the road. Mine qualified. Casey's car qualifies too, his being an 1988 and near 150,000 miles on it. I'd applied for both cars, but got the voucher for mine. I doubted I could have gotten much for my car because it was 15 years old and had nearly 120,000 miles on it. So, $3,000 was huge to me.



The day we got our dogs back, the dealership called and told me I'd brought the wrong car in for the voucher. I argued, saying I'd looked at the voucher and it had my car on it. They said the VIN was for an 88 Chevy Caprice. Casey's car. Apparently the state had put the description of one car and the VIN of another car on one voucher. Oops. I explained what must have happened and they told me they'd call the state the next day.



I called the state the next day, too. For two days the state told both me and the dealership that it had been my fault and I'd have to reapply, but they were not issuing any more vouchers until next September. So, the dealership told me I either had to bring the car back or come up with $3,000. This broke my heart because I really liked my little car and for two days I was a little upset. I must have called the state at least a dozen times arguing that this was not my fault; I'd filled out two separate applications with the insurance card with the vin for each individual car and I'd checked them several times. They acted like I was an idiot.



On Friday, after three days of trying to figure out what could have gone wrong and lifting it up in prayer, the dealership asked me to bring it in on Saturday. They'd talked to the state several times, I'd been a pain in the state's butt for three days now, and they figured there was nothing else to do. Casey called me that afternoon, still at college. I told him what was going on, which I usually don't bother him with problems. He said "Mom, God gave you that car, it's your car. Tell Satan to release it and take control of the situation. You don't need to worry about a thing." Wow, you're right son. I'd been playing the victim card with God, 'woe is me', asking Him for the car He'd already given me. I sat out in that car on my lunch and prayed, rebuked Satan's hand on that car and thanked God with all my heart for the car He'd given me.



I came in from lunch and called the state one more time. Trey answered the phone. I told him what was going on and he said...and I quote "That's crazy. Jay is the head of our program here and I'm going to shoot him an email and put you into his voice mail". Jay called me back within minutes. He told me he'd look into it immediately. I explained that I had to take the car back the next day. At 5:13 he called me, I was on my way home. He told me that it had been the state's mistake and that he'd already called the dealership and had it all straightened out. He said "That car is yours, don't worry about a thing".



I kid you not.

Prayer plus faith...can't beat it. Period

Still Around

Where in the world have I been? Seriously, not a clue. I looked at the date of my last post and it's like the time has just disappeared. Alien abduction? I don't know, I can neither confirm nor deny. I know I have very little spare time for myself, but I'm not sure whether that means I'm simply bad at time management or if I'm just as swamped as I feel...dead tired by the end of every day. But it's a good kind of tired, the kind that puts me to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow...with my last thoughts praising God for how blessed I am.

Let me try to play a little catch up, quickly, because it's late and it's time for me to call it a night. Yup, shocker there.

I got a great review at work, nothing but extremely kind things said about me and my job performance and a pretty decent raise. Much appreciated...very much appreciated. As much as I appreciated the raise, I was more thankful for the kind words said about me.

Y'all know we have three dogs. Recently when I'd came home from work, I let them out. When I went to let them back in, only the little dachshund was in my back yard. Some one had been in my back yard and removed the locks from both of my gates. That's scary enough, but all I could think of was my dogs were loose. Charlie and I searched for 3 hours, till way after dark. It was a terrible night. Rocky is our oldest, nearly 14 years old and I'm surprised that he didn't tire out before he got off of our street. But he didn't. We couldn't find them anywhere. Charlie asked me around 8 p.m. if I'd prayed, which surprised me coming from Charlie, so we prayed together. The next morning I left for work early so I could search for them, but nothing. Rocky had his collar with his tag on, but Porter didn't because he gets ear mites and we were treating him for them...which causes him to shake his head and the rattling the tags keeps me awake. That morning at work, I got a call on my cell phone from a woman who'd found our dogs around 8 p.m. the night before. Apparently she houses rescue animals and someone on her street, about 2 miles from my house, asked if she knew where the dogs belonged and she took them in for the night. The phone number on the tags was our old number, I'd forgotten to have new tags made, so she had to call the city to try to find my number. I don't know how the city has my cell number, but I'm so glad they did. So, got my dogs home safe and all new tags on all of them. I'm so thankful she and my dogs were led to one another. Never underestimate the power of prayer, seriously within minutes of praying, she found them.

I bought a new car! Well, nearly new. It's a 2007 Kia Spectra EX 4 door with 9,000 miles on it. I love this car. I filled it up for the first time this past Friday and I got 31 mpg driving to work which is all city! Yup, love this car. I was getting 13 miles to the gallon with my old car. I took advantage of the AirCheck program the government has where it will give you a voucher for $3,000 to use if you trade a car in that is 10 years old or older. They're trying to get all the older vehicles off the road, and they got mine off! The cars are 'retired', and the dealership isn't allowed to resell them. Charlie and I test drove a few 2008's that came basic, with no power anything, because even with the $3,000 I couldn't afford all the extras. But when I started researching cars with great gas mileage I was drawn to Kia. Then I find out that their 'standard' is fully loaded and it has 8 air bags! So, we test drove and fell in love with this car. Funny, I've never had a ticket in my entire life, not even a parking ticket, but now every time I look at the speedometer, I'm going at least 10 miles faster than I thought I was and I keep looking in my mirrors to see if there is a red light chasing me. This car has so much power and pickup it's crazy. I really do love this car.

Casey came home last Friday. He looks like he's full grown. He'll be 19 in July, but he looks like a man instead of my little boy...my baby. I've enjoyed every minute of his being home so far. The boys made me a video of them for Mother's Day. It's really personal, and though I'd love to put it up on my blog, I'm not sure how they'd feel about it, I'll have to ask. It made me cry, Charlie just sat and talked to the camera, it was amazing. He said things that I thought went unnoticed, things he appreciated and had made a difference in his life. This is something that I will keep until the very last day of my life. For Mother's Day we started off going to my favorite church, The Potter's House, and afterwards we saw the movie Iron Man. I love Robert Downy Jr., and he didn't disappoint me. After the movie we went to eat at Cheddars and had such a good time. My kids are the best company. They're funny, they're smart and they're mine.

Hope all my mom buddies had a great Mother's Day. Kids are the greatest blessing, I'm so thankful for mine.