It's nice to feel loved....

I had to take a half-day this morning to go to a follow-up doctor appointment. I usually tell my students that I'll be out but I forgot to mention it yesterday. When I walked in the door at 11:30 this morning, their faces lit up and I was greeted with a group hug. They are usually pretty happy to see me but in a "look up, see me, smile, look back down" kind of way. They were nearly jumping for joy this morning.

They hadn't had a bad morning. My sub said everything was wonderful and so did the kids. They just missed me. Aw....That made me feel so loved. :) I've had such a great year this year. I'm going to miss my class!

Live Like You Were Dying...

I'm in tears this morning watching the story of the woman who had the face transplant. She seems so thankful and positive. It's a good reminder of how we should be thankful for the small things in life as well as not take for granted the big things. She said her favorite song is Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying." This was a great reminder to me this morning to live life to the fullest. I'm so blessed and I don't take enough time to enjoy it and praise God for it.

You can see more about her at this site...

Dave Ramsey would be so proud...

I found out on Monday that the Honda has been considered totaled and I had until Friday to get out of the rental. All of the paperwork stuff started stressing me out so I took today off to deal with everything and start looking for another car. Anticipating a total loss, I began searching over the weekend for "new to me" cars in a price range that would maybe give me an upgrade, yet only be $1000-2000 out of pocket once we combined the insurance money. Jonathon and I both decided we did not want to buy anything new and finance right now. We've been on the pay off debt kick and we get giddy each month when we update our debt spreadsheet to see how much closer we are to our goal.

Last night Jonathon called me with a great idea....He said we should look for a car a couple years older than my Honda and then pocket some of the insurance cash to put toward our debt goal. I was so proud of him and us for deciding to do this.

I began searching the Internet last night for good deals and I found a steal at a lot outside of Lexington. After I did the paperwork thing this morning I drove all the way out there to test drive the car. I called early this morning to see if it was still there. At the time I called I didn't think I would be able to drive there today and thought it would be sometime over the weekend. I told the guy we would see him in a couple days so he was surprised to see me come just a few hours after I spoke to him.

When I got to the lot, it was already being test-driven...oh no!! I thought it was over. The guy liked it a lot but had another car down the road he wanted to look at as well. I was in luck. I test drove it and weighed the pros and cons. I went to McDonalds to sit and think about it and to call Jonathon to get his blessing/input. I drove to the library in town to run a carfax report and then went back to the lot. I bought it!! We now have a reliable 2000 Honda Civic AND about $3000 to put toward our debt. I feel so good about our decision and I can't wait to write that check to pay or debt down...

Here's our replacement car....

I will admit there was one down side....the car smells like cat. It will have to have a detailing job. The same woman owned it from the start so I'm guessing she took her cats on occasional joy rides. :)

Vests for Valor

Last night I went to the Vests for Valor fund raiser at Silver Creek High School. It was organized to raise money for better bullet-proof vests for the area SWAT team. My friend Tim is on the SWAT team so I went to show my support. It was a lot of fun watching the policeman play basketball against formber high school basetball players.

Here's a picture of Tim with his little Lilly....

Weekend...

Jonathon was working the Derby this weekend. He had parked his truck in Frankfort and flew a helicopter to Louisville so both nights I drove to Bowman field to pick him up and drove him back the next morning. He basically came home to sleep and that was all the time we had this weekend. :(

On Saturday, I went to Kristen's for dinner and hung out with the kids. They are so much fun!

On Sunday, I had to take Jonathon to back to the airport and missed church because of the timing. I kissed him goodbye for the week. He has a trip to PA and won't be home until Friday. The poor thing was sick as a dog last night. He caught some kind of stomach bug.

I went by a furniture store on the way home and found out the couches I have been keeping my eye on until I saved the money to get them have been discontinued. Rats! They are doing a search for them because they are on clearance. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they find them somewhere.

We had a mission meeting tonight and I'm getting more and more excited about my upcoming trip. We separated some school supplies and other donated items to put in our suitcases for the kids. We also polished up the plans for our worship concert this weekend. Even if you can't afford to give a love offering, you should think about attending our worship concert just for the praise music!

Accident update: Many people have commented, called, or emailed concerns about the accident. Jami and I both are feeling pretty good. I will admit that I had some tightness in my neck and eye yesterday that came with a headache. Today I woke up feeling 100% but throughout the afternoon I started getting tight again....then a headache. I decided to get checked out to be safe. I'm 99% sure everything is fine but I want to be sure. So thanks to those who have worried...I'm going to get checked out. :)

Okay, here's to the start of a good week...

Another memory about yesterday...

One of the funny moments was when we got back to Jami's house and we were starving...I ran across to my house to grab stuff to make sandwiches. While we ate our sandwiches, Jami said, "Is it bad that right after we got hit I was hoping we'd still be able to make it to eat?" LOL! I had the same thought. Until I saw how bad it was, the thought crossed my mind that we would do the paperwork thing then go and enjoy our queso. I knew we were friends for a reason. We both love food! :)

My Daddy Saved Our Lives...

Today started out very fun. I had the day off because of the Kentucky holiday of "Oaks Day" celebrated here in Southern Indiana as well. I planned to take my friend Jami out to lunch for her birthday. She turns 30 this weekend!

We met at 9:00 and went to get our fingers and toes pampered with manicures and pedicures. We shopped a little bit around Walmart as well. It was so nice not to rush around. We left Walmart and headed to El Nopal for lunch. We both LOVE Mexican food and couldn't wait to get some queso.

I pulled up to the entrance and turned on my signal. We sat patiently waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear so I could turn. All of the sudden, BAM. We were hit from behind. I was in shock for a good couple of minutes. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the trunk lid was up and knew it was a bad hit because of the loud crash. I just sat there for a minute, kind of in disbelief. A couple people drove by to see if we were okay. Jami called 911 but before she could complete the request there was an officer on the scene. He asked us if we were okay and wanted to know if we wanted an ambulance. We said we felt fine, but he asked, "Are you sure?"

I was really shaky and kind of in shock for a few minutes. I kept looking through my pile of papers in the glove box saying, "Registration. I'm looking for my registration. Where's my insurance card? Registration." I think I sort of sounded like Rain Man for a couple minutes. Jami got out of the car and then got back in. She said, "It's bad."

The policeman had us pull over into a nearby parking lot and I finally got out of my car to take a look. I can't tell you how impressed I am with the safety of the Honda. The trunk is caved in and the back windshield completely shattered but if we had been driving with a baby in the back, everything would have been just fine because everything caved in so the back seat wasn't harmed.

Apparently the guy didn't even apply his breaks and just plowed right into the back of my car. There was a very nice witness who pulled over with us. He was determined to give the police a statement supporting that I was sitting still with my signal on. He was almost in disbelief as well.

The policeman brought Jami and I back to her house and I began the insurance nightmare. I ended up getting a rental car for the weekend until they can get things figured out on Monday. Everyone who has looked at the car seems to think it's going to be totalled but I've also heard that body shops can do amazing things with the repairs. I only snapped one picture, but I don't think it shows the worst part. I should have taken it from the side so you could see how mangled the side and trunk are. Under the hanging bumer there is a whole piece of the main frame that got stripped off. That seems to be the part that could "total" it. My trunk was full of track hurdles from JJ in case you are wondering...

Okay, so now to the part about how my daddy saved our lives... On the way back to Jami's house the police officer complimented me on not having my steering wheel turned and ready for the left hand turn. He said most people do that anticipating the turn so they can react quicker when the traffic breaks. If I had been in position for the turn already when the guy hit us we would have been sent into the oncoming traffic instead of being pushed straight ahead like we did. He said, "I don't know who taught you to turn left like that but it probably saved your friend's life." (Jami would have been in the receiving end of the on-coming traffic.) I proudly said, "My daddy taught me that." I think it was part adrenaline but I almost got emotional. Dad always passed on his "professional driving" tips because he saw so many things as a truck driver. It was a good reminder that my parents are still with me.

Praise God for watching over us today! I can't forget Him either.