We're All Going to be OK

Saturday, I had posted on facebook about my bad day.

I was wrong.

It was actually small inconvenient moments

on a good day.

A day that the Lord had made.

I typically try to steer clear of a negative attitude,

but on Saturday, I let pessimism get the best of me.

Later, the more I thought about it,

the more I realized just how blessed I was on Saturday.

And how foolish I was to focus on the negative aspects and translate that into my whole day.

There were plenty of things to be thankful for.

So many blessings.

 

Let me just tell you what happened,

and you can see for yourself how God protected us and blessed us...

 

It all started with milk, or rather the lack thereof.  I have to have milk with my coffee, ahem, I mean coffee with my milk. ;)    And we were out.  Matt had left for work at 5:30am.  It was 7:30, as I sat in the kitchen on Saturday morning debating whether I wanted to run to the grocery stores 3 miles down the road and pick some up, or drive slightly out of my way to Dunkin' Donuts and pick some up on the way to church.  The easier choice won (not having to get the kids in and out of the car and run into a store), and so it was a no brainer.. Dunkin' Douts. 

 

So at 8:45, I got my much needed cappuccino (like that? needed? ha!) plus a 1/2 dozen donuts, for energy of course!  :)  As I was about ready to leave Dunkin' my friend who was setting up with me texted and said she was stuck by a train.  That's ok., because I was only a few miles away.  No biggie.  I was thinking about my plan for the day as I was leaving the parking lot and pulled up to Rt 119. 

 

Lots of traffic.  Typical for 119.  I waited, and waited, and Oh!  An opening!  I can make it!  I left off the clutch and gunned it so I could get into traffic.  But what I didn't realize, was that I was in the wrong gear.  I had committed, so I quickly put it into first and stepped on the gas.  I don't know how I missed it, or actually how I hit it, but I slammed into a curb.  Sounds silly right?  But my car is very low, and the curb was very high.  The front tire went up over it with ease, and the car frame slammed down on it.  Then the back tire went over and the car slammed down again.  I don't know what traffic was doing around me while this was happening, because all I could think was, where in the world did that curb come from?! and I had just ruined my alignment that I got 3 weeks prior!  I think the cars that I pulled in front of were very gracious.  Even though when I had initially started to pull out there was plenty of room.  A wrong gear and a curb made me cut them off.  I was still in shock that I had hit the curb and was driving slowly (thankfully) in bewilderment. 

 

The light in front of me at the 119 and I-65 intersection turned red.  I pressed the brake.  It went to the floor, easily.  We didn't stop.  I pressed the brake again, and again with ease it rested on the floor of the car.  We weren't stopping.  Now, you know how things can fly through your mind so quickly when something bad is happening?  Like how everything around you goes in super slow motion but you can think at the speed of light?  All I could think was, I have the most precious cargo in my car, I can't stop, and I'm going through one of the busiest intersections in town.  I immediately began to downshift into lower gears and got the car to slow down.  I pulled into the right turning lane, because thankfully, that's where I needed to be to get to church.  And eventually, we slowly rolled through the stop.  You know what I mean, the kind of stop you typically make at a stop sign when you're turning right. ;) 

 

There is something amazing about this next part.  There were no cars in front of me, and no cars behind me, and there was one car in the turning lane across from me wanting to turn down the same road I was going on.  I pulled out into thick traffic, but when I got to the light, there was hardly anybody around me.  Did they all pull around me yelling obscenities when I pulled out initially?  Did they pull into other businesses before the light?  I don't know.  Because as I said before, my mind was preoccupied with trying to stop my car and not to kill my family.  The car that was trying to turn left onto my road didn't turn either.  And I've been at that light before, it's left turn yield on green; there is no red light at that left turn lane when the straight-away lights are green.  But for whatever reason, he didn't turn.

 

So here I am on Oak Mountain Road with no traffic around me.  This is a very strange sight, especially since Oak Mountain is a state park that is always hopping on the weekends in the fall.  Traffic getting off of I-65 would use this road to get back to the state park.  But it was empty. 

 

My oldest son kept on encouraging me that we were going to be okay, God protected us, and it could've been much worse.  I kept replying, but we have no brakes.  Sometimes you just need to shut your mouth and listen to your kids.  Some of the most profound, truth-telling statements come out of those little mouths.

 

I had two decisions to make.  Pull off to the side of the road, and call AAA, and have no way of getting home  (did I mention that my cell phone is basically dead and can't hold a charge for any real length of time?  Calling AAA would've drained it.) OR continue driving and stop by downshifting and using the emergency brake and drive the 3 miles to church where there would be plenty of people who could help me.  I chose going to church, and I prayed like a mad woman. :)  I knew I'd be driving on the only two roads that lead to the entrance of this side of Oak Mountain Park, but I didn't know what else to do.  So we continued slowly.  Here is the amazing thing.  There was no traffic in front of or behind me the entire way to the church.  None.  At the first stop sign (the entrance into the state park) there were two cars.  But both of them turned down the road I was turning off of.  If you don't live around this area, you don't know what a huge blessing that was.  I couldn't believe it.  The next stop sign, there was absolutely no traffic.  And then, there I was, pulling into the church parking lot.  I stopped the car with the emergency brake as I pulled into a space. 

 

I got out and looked underneath of the car.  If brake fluid was blood splatter, you would've thought that there was a mass murder under there.  Brake fluid filled the inside of the wheel well and  was dripping off of the underside of the car and tire.

 

I looked up and saw my friend who had texted me earlier pulling into the parking lot.  And I let the floodgates open.  I had made it.  God had protected us.  And I had a friend who hugged me, prayed over me, and let me know that everything was going to be okay.

 

And there are so many other blessings...

A gentleman from our church towed me for free.

His son is going to work on my car for free.

A friend went out of her way to take us home where we could be comfortable.

Friends prayed for us,

And my family was safe!!

 

It makes my complaints about a bent up Shutterfly book,

Health insurance issues,

And fire ant bites seem silly.

 



My negativity had kept me blind to the bigger picture.

My son was right.

We were okay.

God had protected us.

And it could've been much worse.

 

And as my dad reminded me,

"God is good all the time, and all the time God is good."

 

A lesson learned at very little expense.

Negativity will only make you feel horrible.

There is absolutely no benefit to it.

None.

On the other hand,

A positive attitude and

Seeing the blessings through trials

will give you a happy, joyful heart.

There is no better feeling than joy.

And no one, nor any circumstance can take that away from you,

Unless you let it.

 





Crabitat for Crabmanity

My kids have been begging us for a pet, for years.

I grew up in a home that did not allow pets in the house.

Well, most of the time.

There were those few stray cats that my dad had found on the railroad tracks that were starving.

He brought them home to me,

Breaking his rule of no pets.

And now I find myself breaking my own rule of no pets.

Before we left on vacation,

my daughter had mentioned,

"One thing I really want when we go to the beach is a hermit crab."

That stuck in my head the whole time leading up to the vacation,

And during it too.

On our last day there, I asked Matt if it was okay.

 

My reasoning?

1. They're cheap. (Ha! - But we'll get to that in a bit)

2. They don't make noises (ie barking, howling, meowing, etc)

3. They won't get hair all over the house (I do that enough as it is) ;)

4. We won't have vet bills.

5. It will teach the kids how to care for another living thing.

 

So we did it.

We went down to that purple souvenir shop in Gulf Shores and meticulously picked out our hermit crab.

The kids picked a very good sized one.

We bought a container.

They were extremely happy.

Oh wait,

He needs to eat, so we bought food too.

And he needed a sponge to drink from, so we bought one of those too.

And that was it!

(or so we thought)

 

{Inserting note here: Always research before you buy.}

 

Okay, so the kids name him Mr. Crabs.

I like it.  Matt likes it.

Mr. Crabs it is!

But one kid wanted to name him Crabby, so we decided that would be his nickname.

 

Mr. Crabs took the 5 hour drive home surprisingly well.

We set his home on the counter,

And wha-la!

A cheap easy pet.

Mr. Crabs and the kids after we got home from the beach

Mr. Crabs partly out of his shell

And with that statement we SCREECH to a halt.

 

Day 1

Mr. Crabs is ransacking his new home.

He didn't seem happy.

He seemed almost psychotic.

Did we buy the only delusional hermit crab they had in the display?

We began nicknaming him "Moyer the Destroyer".

 

Day 2

Same story.

 

Day 3

I did research online.

Oh boy.

 

1. Hermit crabs are social.  They need to have other hermit crabs to live with.

2. Hermit crabs need plenty of space.  The little container we bought was great for transporting, but not sufficient for everyday life for Mr. Crabs.  Hermit crabs need at least 5 gallons of space each.

3. Hermit crabs need to stay moist.  They are tropical pets.  They require purified water for drinking and bathing.  Tap water has chlorine and it will kill them.  Plus they need a saltwater/calcium spritz regularly.  Oh and the humidity level needs to be between 70-80%.

4. Hermit crabs love to exercise.  They need things to climb on, up, and under.  But you can't use metal.

5. Hermit crabs love to burrow and hide.  So the sand needed to be deep enough for that.  Plus having a few little homes wouldn't hurt either.

6.  Oh, and did I mention, Hermits love to change shells?  Yeah. They do.  So you need a variety of empty shell sizes.  We are struggling to find one for Mr. Crabs, because he is so big as it is.  We'll keep looking.

 

So pretty much everything he needed,

We were not providing.

 

Off to the pet store,

Praying that it wouldn't break the bank.

 

And I would love to report that it didn't.

But I'd be lying.

It actually probably wasn't a horrible price tag considering we were getting a pet and starting from scratch.

But still.  I spent way more money than I had intended.

Remember, my plan was for a cheap pet.

 

A much better home and play space for the hermit crabs

Mr. Crabs enjoying the view of the Crab Shack, but bummed he can't fit in there with his huge shell.

 

So, a few very distinguished presidents on greenish tinted paper later,

We had 

*A 20 gallon crabitat.

*One very large hermit crab - Mr. Crabs

*And two pretty small hermits - Climber and Crawler

(I'm still trying to get my kids to change those last two names, but I think they're not budging) Ha!

*Two hiding places for the smaller ones

Because as we found out, Mr. Crabs, AKA Moyer the Destroyer, AKA Crabby can be very...

well, crabby.

He was showing the littles who was boss.

They needed a retreat.

*Plenty of shells to change if desired.

(except for Mr. Crabs - we're still looking for one)

*A bathtub

*A lot more sand to burrow in

*And plenty of other things to play with, climb up, climb in, climb over,

you name it.

 

And when I woke up this morning and went down to check on everything,

Mr. Crabs had not destroyed the joint.

He was happily laying in a large seashell.

The crabitat was still intact.

The little ones were eating.

All was well in the hermit crab world.

 

And here is some surprising information (at least to me it was).  Hermit crabs are bigger and cheaper at the souvenir shops at the beach.  Mr. Crabs cost us $5.  He is considered a large crab with a fancy shell.  Climber and Crawler, we bought at the pet store in the B'ham area for $6 each and they are considered very small with a non-fancy shell.  Who knew?  A tourist trap had lower prices and bigger product.

 

So now we are the proud owners of 3 family pets.

Welcome Mr. Crabs, Climber, and Crawler to our home.