Whew!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been a rough couple of days. I think I've mentioned it before, but every time I try to go to Lucedale to see my mom and family, something always happens to keep me from going. Well, this time it was the car. This is going to be a long one, just because I need to get it all out and I feel like typing.

One day last week our car started making a strange noise. We couldn't quite figure out what it was, but everything seemed to be working fine. All of the gauges were reading properly, no warning lights came on, the car was running fine. But we figured we would stop by Mr. McHacker's mom and dad's in Meridian and get Dad to listen to the noise to see if he could figure out what it was, since we were on our way to Lucedale anyway. So we get to their house around 6:00 and they met us in the yard to listen to the car. Dad say something like, "hmm, that's a strange noise," and right about that time, the water pump started pouring water. Then dad says, "found your problem."

They were sweet and let us borrow their car to go to Lucedale for the weekend. Dad is great and offered to change the water pump for us over the weekend while we were gone. I think they felt bad for us since we've been trying to go for a visit since July and stuff keeps happening. My sister is getting married in November and I really needed to take her the slip I wore under my wedding dress, so she wouldn't have to buy one, and her final fitting was on Saturday. So we went to Lucedale and spent time with my family and had a really nice time.

We got back to Meridian Sunday afternoon and Dad wasn't quite done with the car. It was no big deal since Mr. McHacker found out he was off work/school for fall break on Monday and today. So yesterday they finished with the water pump and were going to take it for a test drive. But it wouldn't start, the engine was locked up and wouldn't do ANYTHING. Dad worked half the day trying to figure out what else was wrong with it. After trying many different things, he figured out that a valve was broken. I felt terrible. I figured that it must've been something I had done, but Dad assured me that it wasn't my fault, it was something that was just going to happen. And was totally unrelated to the water pump issue. So that money was spent for nothing. So anyway, the car most likely can't be fixed, and if it can be fixed, it's going to take more time and money than we want to spend on it at the moment. It's an older car that has a lot of miles and didn't cost us much to start with.

So there we are, stuck without a car. We started weighing our options. With me not working right now, we really didn't want to get into debt over a car. And we didn't want to deplete all of our savings either. So I swallowed my pride and called my mom and asked if we could borrow her old car that she's been wanting to sell. She said yes we could and that we could keep it until we got something else. But that it's been "sitting up" for a while and she wanted Dad to check it out before we drove it.

We got up early this morning and Mom and Dad drove us down to Lucedale to get my mama's old car. It's about a two hour drive. We got there fine and Dad checked out the car and said it was fine, we ate some lunch with my mom, got a new tag, and filled up with gas, then we were on our way back to Meridian. We ALMOST made it out of town. The car died at a four way stop and wouldn't start back up. Yeah, that was fun. Dad and Mr. McHacker went out to Wal-Mart and got a can of starting fluid, which I had never heard of before today. They sprayed one squirt of it in the air intake and it started right up. YAY! So then we were off again.

The old car was running great with no problems. We drove for about an hour and stopped at a gas station in a little town called Buckatunna to get something to drink and use the restroom. When we got back in the car, it wouldn't start AGAIN. And it had been running fine. So Dad and Mr. McHacker sprayed the stuff again. It didn't work. They sprayed some more. It still didn't work. They ended up using the WHOLE can and it still didn't work. So then we drove over to the next town so Dad could go to the Autozone and see if he can get some info that might help him figure out what was wrong with the car. It was a bust. They weren't very helpful. So we went back to the gas station where we left the car and Dad talked to the guy in the store and arranged to leave the car there overnight until we can come back and tow it. We got back to Mom and Dad's, had some dinner, then went to Uncle R's house and borrowed his truck and car dolly so we can leave at the butt crack of daylight in the morning to go back to get the car.

Dad's been trying to figure out what's wrong with it, and has several ideas. He's going to work on it and let us take their car back with us. We'll be coming back again this weekend, so they say it's no big deal. I have the best in-laws ever. They really are the nicest people you could ever meet. I truly don't know what we would do without them.

So now I'm hoping and praying that everything will go okay with getting the car back to Meridian, that Dad will be able to figure out what's wrong with it, and not kill himself trying to fix it, and that it won't cost a fortune. This has all been a great big hassle, but I know God has been watching out for us and it could have been a lot worse. I'm trying to do as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says and "give thanks in all circumstances." I'll let you know how it all works out tomorrow. I hope you are all doing well, I'm reading your blogs, even if I haven't taken the time to comment lately.