Another Miracle and Time with Friends

This week, we took our new vehicle into the shop.

It was making some strange sounds when we'd first start it up, and so we decided to have it checked out. Grig dropped the car off in the morning on Monday (it's awesome that he works right behind it, so he can take it in during break), and then we waited to find out what was going on.

I felt pretty peaceful about it, so I wasn't worried. I figured something was just loose or something.

However, when Grig called me that night, he informed me that we were looking at $800+ in repairs. He told me that the sound was caused by our timing belt, and that it was pretty expensive to replace. I was pretty surprised.

That night, I prayed pretty hard. Due to our recent expensive purchase, we no longer had $800+ extra in our account. In a couple of months we will, but at the moment, we do not.

The dealership we bought the car from agreed to pay around $250, even though we didn't have a warranty with them, but that still left us with around $600.

It was hard not to second guess ourselves. We couldn't help but doubt and wonder if we had bought the wrong car after all, or if we should have put less money down for the down-payment?

However, on Tuesday, Grig called again after work to inform me that it was going to be far less than predicted. It turned out, though the timing belt did have a small slice in it, the biggest problem was that someone that didn't know what they were doing had tried to install it and it was loose. They tightened it, and told us that it should last for at least a couple of years. They also found a valve that had some problems, but again we were told that it wasn't any immediate danger, and we could bring it back in a couple of months.

That was the biggest miracle for me! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father. It was a nice reaffirmation that we had been following His council and he was going to take care of us.

It's also been super hot lately. As in, over 90 degrees every day.

I went to mow the lawn yesterday, and after about 30 minutes, the lawnmower quit on me. It died completely and wouldn't start at all. I started to panic. Money is tight right now, and we couldn't afford a new lawn mower or repairs. To de-stress, I called my mother. She's really good at listening and letting me vent, and then helping me to have more faith and hope. She told me that the lawn mower may just have overheated. She told me that sometimes their lawnmower does that in really hot weather.

So, a few hours later, I tried it again, and it started back up. I feel like that was another major answer to prayers.

Kevin had some friends over to play in a boat pool that we were given by some other neighbors. They had a fantastic time, and our dogs enjoyed playing together. With their mother's permission, I'm going to share a few photos.

 There was a lot of jumping and splashing involved from everyone. Sometimes the kids couldn't jump in the pool because the dogs were in it, but everyone was having a great time.

 In this picture, you can see Arkhon and Siff playing with their dog. He only has three legs due to a preexisting injury that occurred before they got him. That doesn't stop him though! He plays as hard as the other two. They don't care that he only has three legs. They love it when he comes over! He's a sweet dog too.

Kevin is so funny! He loves being cold,and he was wet all the way to his neck, though it wasn't on purpose at first.

At one point, Kevin jumped in and slipped, landing on his bum and chest deep in the water. He stood up and said, "Cold, cold, cold!" and then, two seconds later, jumped in and deliberately did it again.

His friends weren't quite so sure about sitting in the cold water, but they weren't afraid to get wet either.There was a lot of splashing and fishing, but eventually, everyone started getting hungry and tired, so we had to end the pool party.

It's so fun to have friends!