Sunday Morning Miracle

This is the right rear tire off our big 12-passenger van. We were on our way to Stake Conference this morning when this tire blew. And it is SHREDDED! We were in the high speed lane and all of a sudden there was a weird thumping sound. Shane and I both thought a motorcycle was coming up on our right side. But, then Shane said it was us and he started making his way quickly over to the right shoulder of the freeway. Unfortunately, their was a guard rail as far as the eye could see. So, we had to park just outside the line of the right hand lane.

When I first met Shane and we were dating he was the king of changing tires. And he still is. In those days he would actually have me "time" him. He could change one in less than 5 minutes. We were blessed today to have Michael, Jessica's boyfriend, riding with us. He and Shane worked quickly and had the whole process done in 29 minutes. (This was Shane's first time changing a tire on this van, so he was unfamiliar with the equipment. The part that took the longest was getting the spare to drop down from it's spot under the back of the van onto the asphalt. I know next time he'll shave off quite a bit of time!!!)

After about 20 minutes of sweating in the hot sun, and having the van rocked back and forth by the passing tractor-trailers, Mike and Theresa Jungkunz drove by, pulled over, and backed up dozens of yards on the shoulder to see if they could help. They sure did! We sent Savannah and Mikayla on to the meeting. Savannah was terrified by the passing traffic.

Shane and Michael were able to keep their church clothes pretty clean. I was in charge of passing out the baby wipes to try to get the grease off their hands. Just as we got all packed up and got ready to pull back on to the freeway a Sherriff pulled up. But, it was too late, we were all done and she didn't even turn on her flashing lights!!!! What a rip-off!

I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for keeping us all safe. Gratitude goes to Him for not having ME behind the wheel when the tire blew! I'm also grateful that I was not alone when it happened. He kept us safe on the side of the freeway. No one veered into us while the tire was being changed. The spare tire was in good condition and able to be used. And BEST OF ALL, we had left home early enough that we were only a few minutes late to church!!!!! I think we got there just as the opening prayer was concluded. That is truly a miracle.

Sweatin on Saturday

Last Saturday "Pink Princess Racing" hit Winton Woods with a vengeance. Well..... we went there anyway. We decided to try our legs on the trail and had a great time. Mikayla and Samantha are on the Intermediate School's Cross Country Racing Team and have been practicing for almost two weeks now. Sylvia and I wanted to go around Winton Woods Lake together, so we met there last week. (I brought Jessica, Mikayla, and Sam for good luck!)

We all did some running and walking. And Eric, as our pit crew, kept track of our times on his watch. It was a beautiful morning, nice and cool and we all had a great time! It was a good way to start the Saturday off right!

Lost Links

I am so mad!!! I tried a new format for my blog and lost all my links to my friend's blogs. So, Friends, be patient with me as I try to find all of you again!
Maura

CARS!!!

My kids like to line things up! (Mikayla lined up everything, even Halloween candy.) Now, it's Jared's turn. He is currently in a "CARS" phase. Luckily, CARS is one of my favorite movies!

He carries his cars around in an old wipes box with Lightning McQueen on it. He takes the cars to bed with him, he gets them out and lines them up on the kitchen counter while he watches the CARS movie, or eats his meals.

Here, he's got them all lined up on my bed. So cute! Of course, where did Jared get this love for cars???? Duh! Have you met my husband??? :) We call him Limoshane!

Biggest Loser Blog

I've decided it would be fun for those of us who are competing in 2008 Health Challenge to have a place to check in every day and report how you are doing. So, I set one up and here is the address:

sistersinsweat.blogspot.com

p.s. you don't have to be doing the 2008 Health Challenge/Biggest Loser Game to post your workouts!

Happy Days are HERE Again!!!!

My treadmill is ALIVE!!!! It just needed a good cleaning and a lube job. Shane is recovering from a procedure on his knee, so I had to do it with him watching and coaching. It runs BEAUTIFULLY!!! I had to get on it and run/walk 4 miles tonight!

I'm so happy!

Outside the Box

I have been working for a friend of Sylvia's, named Sherrill, for several months. I began working for her to help her clean out and organize her basement. Sherrill likes to have her friends over for dinner and games fairly often, so she has lots of really nice "party" things like fun serving dishes, a large trifle dish, serving platters, etc. Now, here's the problem, Sherrill needed some shelves to store all these nice things on! For months, she and I have struggled with this problem because the shelves she wanted are sold in big 100 pound boxes and were not yet in her basement. They were still at Costco. We have tried several times to arrange things so she could buy the shelves and have them at the house so Shane could carry these impossibly heavy boxes down the stairs to her basement. We never could get the timing right.

Now, today, the miracle happened. I had just arrived at Sherrill's and I took a bunch of her 4th of July party things down to the basement and once again I saw how much she needed those shelves. We needed a MAN to help us!!!! Then, it came to me. We could go to Costco, have them load the shelves into the back of my big van and then when we got to Sherrill's I could open the boxes of shelves while they were still in the van and haul the shelves down to the basement in pieces...... WHAT A BRILLIANT PLAN!

It worked beautifully. The shelves were SO heavy, but piece by piece, it was manageable.

I have been reading a daily devotional book and it has been packed with positive thinking for every day. This mornings reading was entitled, "Program Your Mind for Success". One of the suggestions was to expect good things to happen in your life. Well, HELLO! Today my mind finally figured out the answer to a problem I have struggled with for MONTHS! It was truly a miracle.

I really experienced thinking "outside the box". What a simple solution. Take the shelves OUT of the box while the boxes were still in the van. Sherrill and I did it!

............................and we didn't need a man! :)