blessings in a winter wonderland

The past few days have been really interesting for me. I feel like there has been one catastrophe after another and yet I'm still smiling. My family picked me up after work on Friday. I was late getting ready (of course) and so I started off the weekend in a bit of a rush. Coincidentally that is how I spent the whole week with finals and working almost full time. Anyway, I spent Friday night at one aunt's house, Saturday night at another aunt's house and had my first experiences driving in the snow. Somehow I survived all of that and on Sunday night I drove back to Provo with two of my sisters.

I was sure that we were going to do so many things and have so much fun but things haven't quite turned out the way I wanted them to. I knew it would be a challenge since I am working but I planned to take them to my favorite restaurants in Provo for lunch and then drop them off at the mall and then hang out when I got off work. Some little problems have gotten in my way.

When I went to pick them up for lunch yesterday I attempted to turn on the hazard lights in my aunt's car to let other cars know that I was waiting. I succeeded in turning the lights on but the button that turned them on fell into its little hole in the dash. The lights were stuck on and I couldn't get them to turn off. I was stressed because it isn't my car and I didn't really have time to get it fixed before I needed to be back at work not to mention I was driving in a blizzard. I decided to take my sisters to Sensuous Sandwich anyway but I was worried about the car so we didn't even sit down to eat. I took the car to a little auto shop by my apartment, drove into their unshoveled parking lot and got stuck in about 6 inches of snow. I just put the car in park and decided that the repair man was just going to have to help me fix that little mess too. I got out of the car, walked up to the door and pulled. It was locked and there was a sign that said we'll be back at 2:30. It was 1:30. I was supposed to be back to work at 1:45. After reversing out of the parking lot and getting stuck a few more times I called my boss to let her know that I would be late.

I then proceeded to call several people to see if they knew of anywhere else I could take my car. After talking to a few people I realized it would probably just be easier to look something up online. I decided to look up the little shop's number and I called them hoping that someone would be there. A nice man answered the phone and told me to bring it right over. As I was heading out the door my boss called me to let me know that I didn't have to go back to work because the university was shutting down due to inclement weather. I have never in my 2 1/2 years at BYU ever heard of it closing for anything. And I was driving around in that blizzard trying to get the stupid car fixed.

I had parked the car outside on the street outside of my apartment and when I tried to pull away from the curb I got stuck (again) in a bunch of snow. Luckily there were two guys shoveling the sidewalk and they pushed me out. I don't know how I would have ever gotten out of that spot without them. I was so grateful for their help.

When I got to the shop a really nice repair guy came out to look at it. He couldn't get the button out of the dash but after about 15 minutes he was able to get the lights off. At that point that was all I really wanted. I was so done dealing with the stupid car. When I asked him how much I owed him he said, "Nothing. Merry Christmas." What a nice guy! Again, something to be so grateful for. He could have ripped me off so easily. I am a 20 year old girl who knows nothing about cars. If he had asked me for $100 I wouldn't have argued because I was so glad to have those stupid lights turned off. I was really counting my blessings as I headed back to my apartment.

My sisters and I watched Pursuit of Happyness and then I started doing some laundry and packing for Jerusalem while they built a snowman behind my apartment. It ended up being a pretty fun afternoon. Then we went to the dollar theater to see Ghost Town and came home for a late dinner.

This morning I got up early because I was afraid that the car would be stuck in the snow again. I got my sisters up and had them help me kick snow away from the tires since we didn't have a shovel. When I went to open the door to get the car warmed up it was frozen shut. I tried running my credit card around the door to loosen things up but that didn't work. We tried the passenger door but it was just as stuck. We finally decided to just pour hot water over it and that did the trick. I dried off the door so that it wouldn't freeze again and then moved on to clearing the windsheild. Yesterday I just used my coat because the snow was still powdery but this morning it was icy. And does my aunt have a snow scraper? No! I pulled out my credit card again and I was doing my best but it was going pretty slowly. Luckily a nice guy drove past and let me use his scraper. That made things a lot easier and a lot faster. I was so grateful for his generosity.

When I finally got to work I texted my sisters to see what time they wanted to go to lunch and when the time rolled around I went out to the car to discover that the battery was dead. I called my sisters to let them know about the problem and that they would have to figure out their own lunch. I then called my home teacher and my best friend to see if one of them could come give me a jump to get the car going again. Neither of them answered so I called my sisters back and told them to meet me at the Cougareat for lunch.

As soon as I started walking down there a blizzard started blowing all around me. I reached back to pull the hood of my coat over my head only to find that my sister had taken it off while she was building her snowman yesterday. I tried calling to see if they would bring it to me but my sister's phone went straight to voicemail. When I got to the Cougareat I was completely soaked and I couldn't find my sisters anywhere. I tried calling them again and it kept going straight to voicemail so I figured that her phone had died. While I was sitting there waiting for them my home teacher called me back and told me that he had his sister's car for just a little while and that he would be glad to help me out. He picked me up at the Wilk and took me back to the car and got everything taken care of. He really is a lifesaver. I was so glad he came to help me and give me a hug when I was feeling so stressed.

I was still worried about the battery so decided to take it to Checker Auto to have it looked at. On my way there I got a call from a strange number. It was my sisters borrowing someone's phone because sure enough theirs were dead. I told them that since I couldn't find them at the Cougareat I just left to take care of the car. They had a little problem though. They had locked themselves out of my apartment. I told them that I would meet them at the Cougareat in an hour to give them the key. When I got to Checker Auto they said that everything was fine and sent me on my way. Once again it was a simple fix that didn't cost me anything except time. At this point I realized that I should have been back to work about ten minutes before so I called my boss for the second day in a row to let her know that I was going to be late. I hurried over to the Cougareat to meet up with my sisters but once again I couldn't find them and I still didn't have any way to contact them so I took my key back to my apartment and slipped it under the mat.

I got back to work a little frazzled but in reality everything was just fine. Both of the messes with the car were fixed relatively easily and free of charge. I have been blessed with an understanding boss and cool coworkers so being late wasn't that big of a deal. And hopefully my sisters are having a little bit of fun in Provo even though I have been kind of stressed dealing with the stupid car, working and packing.

Anyway, this post got a little out of control lengthwise (I am still kinda in the heat of the moment) but it really boils down to me being thankful for all of my blessings. During this Christmas season I am especially grateful for the kindness of strangers and friends alike. My wish is that we will all be able to embrace this Christmas spirit and carry it with us all year long. Wouldn't that be the perfect gift for the Savior as we celebrate His birth?