More provision & a birthday party too.

Why does work always seem so hard the day after a vacation or the weekend? Ugh, I just sit and think of how badly I want to be outside, with my husby, or with the pup…anywhere but in the office! Oh well – I can still remember how much I wished I could be in the office back when I was laid off a year ago. Crazy how things change.
Speaking of that, I was privileged yet again with another obvious {hit-ya-over-the-head-type} blessing. Saturday, Eugene spent most of the day with my dad attempting to replace the alternator in his car. Unfortunately, because of the make of his car, the alternator is in a super tricky spot so they had to pass the torch onto a professional. Fast forward to Grismer Tire’s shop & 400 buck later. {p.s. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL.}They “fixed” the alternator, but on the drive home, Eugene’s car broke down. This time, we think might be the fuel line {?} which may or may not have anything to do with what Grismer fixed.
 
http://www.autopartscorner.com/alternator/dodge_alternator.html
Regardless, we had the car towed back to Grismer in hopes that they’d check it out for free {seemed reasonable to me} just to see if they happened to cause it to break down on the way home from their place. No such luck. They want to charge us 90 more bucks just to look at it again. {Ridiculous.} Not to mention, they lied to Eugene on the phone too. Lovely.
So now we’re having the car towed to another shop. All this to say, last week we got a check in the mail from Cedarville University. Eugene just assumed it was the first payment for his new position as the JV Women’s basketball coach. But, just yesterday, he got a text from the baseball coach that said the check was from him and it was some left over baseball money that he owed Eugene from months ago. {Wondrous thing!} So this check, a little over $400.00, was a completely unexpected, unbudgeted blessing that will cover our alternator fix for our car. Perfect! {God is such an amazing Provider!}
After work, I stopped quickly at home to pick up the pup and then to pick Eugene up from school {since we’re down to one car now} and we headed to his parents’ house to celebrate Eugene’s mom’s birthday. We had a dinner of her comfort foods – PB&J sandwiches, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans & a full dessert of apple pie, pumpkin pie & ice cream.

We celebrated this beautiful woman’s birthday…

I’m so blessed to have her as my mother-in-law. She’s a wonderful role-model for what a caring, selfless, kind mother should be. Over the past seven years, she has been a great encourager to me, and I am so grateful for her.
We sat on the deck and watched the sun set.


While the the dogs played like crazy {as usual.}

And we listened to Eugene’s grandparents tell stories of rationing panty hose, the siren sounding that the war was ending, & stopping at “filling stations.”

It was a very nice evening together.