This is what I keep reminding myself of these past few days. Starting last week we realized we needed new tires for BOTH cars - sounds fun, huh? My sweet hubby almost crashed last week during this horrific storm. I'm not even slightly exaggerating; I know, I generally do, but not now. There was hail covering our windshield so much that the windshield wipers just couldn't keep up with clearing it off...he hydro-planed all the way down the grade on his way to work and called me completely shaken up because there were 4 accidents that took place and he thought for sure he was going to crash...definitely not a call I would ever wish on a woman from her hubby. I was BEYOND thankful he was safe and at work - he even took the ice off his windshield and threw it at his boss when he got to work - at least he saw the humor in it. Needless to say, we realized then and there that old car needed to be completely inspected and "upgraded". The white Honda is the only car we will ever drive Braden in for this very reason - it's 10 years newer, it's a solid car. Then in the process of that it turns our Mr. Green (our green honda, creative name, I know...don't be jealous!) needs not only NEW BRAKES, but also NEW CALLIBERS, NEW ROTARS AND BRAKE FLUID FLUSH...now, I won't begin to pretend to know what the heck any of that is, but I know that the $ amount due is beyond a small shiny penny. I spent the majority of my afternoon today calling our 4 different mechanics trying to "work a deal" (one of which is in LA - he's been my Dad's mechanic since I was a little girl and I'm sure he is always thrilled to hear from me for his opinion!!! LOL!). I got them down by $370, which I felt relieved for - thankful isn't quite the word because I now know they are STILL making a profit on me!...but the amount due is still beyond ridiculous, in my little opinion. So, Jess went to pick up the car and turns out one of the "must do nows" turned into not a "necessity"...this is strictly Jesse's commuter car, so we would rather save the $...so that knocked off $300 - Yeah! WAIT, there IS more...I too thought that was wonderful news, but no, we have a "laundry list" of what needs to be fixed up on this old '94 Accord with 220k miles...2 things of which should get done ASAP OR it just may break down...so that's adds that $370 plus a bunch more back onto our "bill".
I keep reminding myself to "count our blessings" because it could be a LOT worse than an old car needing repairs. We could have car payments on top of this (which actually right now is sounding better than the bill!). We are so blessed that my hubby has a job that provides for us to pay for this stupid bill. But I still can't help but think "man, that money could send us on a very nice "after tax season" vaca!" I am being brought back to be humble, to be thankful for what we have and even more thankful that we are alive & well in this crappy economy. While in between calls with the different mechanics I had Braden obviously in tow and he just started busting up laughing - completely out of no where - and it was SUCH a great reminder of "COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS BECCA!!!" from Jesus. I can be so stupid sometimes and so ungrateful for our sweet little life and my adorable son needed to remind me of this and bring me back to ReALiTy. It seriously was as if he completely understood me and thought it was absolutely ridiculous how much I was trying to "negotiate" my way around all these ridiculous amounts they were throwing at me...oh, I have a little negotiator in the works, I just know it!!!
So, needless to say - I am very thankful, it really could have been worse, we could have needed a new car, but we can thankfully remain car payment free for a bit longer! Yeah!!
We all should be thankful as we have so much that others do not have.
I keep reminding myself to "count our blessings" because it could be a LOT worse than an old car needing repairs. We could have car payments on top of this (which actually right now is sounding better than the bill!). We are so blessed that my hubby has a job that provides for us to pay for this stupid bill. But I still can't help but think "man, that money could send us on a very nice "after tax season" vaca!" I am being brought back to be humble, to be thankful for what we have and even more thankful that we are alive & well in this crappy economy. While in between calls with the different mechanics I had Braden obviously in tow and he just started busting up laughing - completely out of no where - and it was SUCH a great reminder of "COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS BECCA!!!" from Jesus. I can be so stupid sometimes and so ungrateful for our sweet little life and my adorable son needed to remind me of this and bring me back to ReALiTy. It seriously was as if he completely understood me and thought it was absolutely ridiculous how much I was trying to "negotiate" my way around all these ridiculous amounts they were throwing at me...oh, I have a little negotiator in the works, I just know it!!!
So, needless to say - I am very thankful, it really could have been worse, we could have needed a new car, but we can thankfully remain car payment free for a bit longer! Yeah!!
We all should be thankful as we have so much that others do not have.