Breakable

This week has been a crazy one. It's funny how God gives you trials in your life and tests your faith. I would say that this week I probably failed that test.

It was one thing right after another. First we were shorthanded at work every day but Thursday. We are technically fully staffed right now in dispatch and evening shift (my shift) has the most people on it. We always have at least 4 people in the room, and on most days there were up to 6. On those days every chair in the room is filled. This past week though we had 2 girls gone to Little Rock for a class and 1 person in a pd in-service. That combined with people calling in and being on vacation, we only had 3 people every day I was there except for Thursday when we had 4. When we only have 3 people we don't get to leave for lunch, and we can't take any kind of extended break. We have 3 positions that have to be manned at all times: fire side and police channels 1 and 2. Especially on our shift because it's the busiest one.

On Sunday I ordered food from Jim's Razorback Pizza. Monday I ordered Jim's again. I was tired of ordering food out after that, because it gets very expensive having food delivered. On Tuesday one of the officers brought us Rockin Chicken because that's where they were eating. Yes, very nice of him. On Wednesday we were pretty busy the first part of the shift and we were shorthanded on the streets so we couldn't ask an officer to bring us food. Crystal's fiance brought her something, but Teresa and I didn't have anything. By 8 that night we were feeling sick because we were hungry, and the call volume had died. I made a super quick Taco Bell run to get us dinner. Thursday we had 4 people again so we all got a good lunch break!! Hopefully this week will be better, but I know we have some people gone to the fire dept in-service class I went to 2 weeks ago, so who knows!

Then on Friday Grace and I got out to run some errands. Our first stop was Salwa's to get my eyebrows waxed. Then we stopped to get my tires balanced and rotated on my car. When they finished and I got back into my car and started it it made a weird noise. I didn't think much about it, because then it was running fine. Well, we had to travel a few blocks down Sunset (Hwy 412) to the insurance office so I could pay the insurance on our cars. As I was fixing to turn into the parking lot my car died. My steering wheel got stiff and all the gauge lights came on. Not a good thing. It scared me to death, and I was just glad I was able to get it up into the parking lot. I tried starting it back up and it wouldn't the first time, then I tried it again and it did just fine. We went on in and took care of business, and I called Gene to let him know. I started it back up to leave and it did just fine. Then we headed to the east side of town to see Mom at school and I pulled into McDonald's to get Grace some lunch. It did fine all the way to school.

Grace and I hung out at school with Mom until school let out and then she took Grace home with her because Gene was going to the football game in Charleston and I had a girls' night planned at Jennie's house. My car hesitated to start the first time, but then it went ahead and turned over. Well, I didn't make it far. I got to the edge of the school driveway before it died again on me. It didn't ever even try to turn over this time when I tried starting it back up. My eyes filled with tears and I called Gene again. He was already home from construction and loaded up some tools and headed my way. He told me he didn't have any jumper cables though, and there weren't any in my car either. I called my dad to see where he was and he was down on Hwy 45 almost to Fayetteville. I'm sure he and Gene passed each other! He told me he had jumper cables and would come if we needed him. I told him to wait until Gene got there and I would call him back. Gene called Eric (his best friend and also an officer at Springdale) to see if he would come over and block off the intersection so he could get to my car. By the time Gene made it to me the streets got busy and when I called Eric back he was on his way to an injury accident, but Sgt. Kirmer was on his way to help!!

Gene was able to back his truck in perpindicular to my car to try and jump it because a dad of one of the students stopped and offered his help. Thank you nice man!! He had jumper cables he let us use. Yea, they didn't work. My car still wouldn't even try to turn over. So, the nice man left. Kirmer finally made it there and they were able to get my car into neutral and push it back off the edge of the street. He stayed there with us trying to figure out what was wrong, but nothing was making sense. After several failed attempts at figuring out the problem Gene called his friend Brian who works on cars and he told us it was probably some kind of relay from the starter to the motor. I know, over my head too! Anyway, we were going to have to have it towed down to Fayetteville. Not an expense we were wanting to pay. We called A&B Towing, which we use ALL the time at work because we tow cars ALL the time. They are such nice people, and Lee (the owner) was at an accident (the same one Eric had to respond to) and was going to have to drop off that car first. We had to wait about 30 minutes for him to get there and then of course when he backs up to hook it up he gets into my car to look at it and it starts right up. What?! Yea, I know. We all looked at each other like "you have GOT to be kidding." Anway, Lee popped the hood and told us he though he knew what was wrong. He thought maybe the cables to the battery were corroded (which is exactly what my dad thought also). However, he pulled the caps off and they were fine. Gene had checked them too and hadn't seen any corrosion. So, we were back to square one in not knowing what was wrong. FABULOUS!

I was getting more and more upset by the minute, because it was 5:15 by this point and I was supposed to be at Jennie's at 6:30 and Steph was meeting me at my house around 5:45 or so. We shut the car off for a minute and then tried starting it back up. It started again. Go figure. So, Gene drove it home and I followed him in the truck. We're holding off on getting it fixed until finances are better, and I can drive the truck and Gene can drive the Bronco that we also have.

I was just glad to make it home safely. I was even more relieved that Mom ended up taking Grace with her, because I don't know what I would have done if she had been with me. Yes I do, I would have called Mom to come get her probably!! Ha! Anyway, I got in and took a shower because I felt gross and about the time I got out Steph made it out here. I had called Jennie and told her we were going to be late. I felt much better just after having a shower and refreshing myself. We got dressed and left to meet Teresa. We met up in Farmington and drove over to Jennie's.

We had a BLAST!!! Jennie had tons of food laid out to eat and we all filled our plates and our bellies, then sat down to play the game Apples to Apples. Sooooo fun! We laughed so hard we almost cried! The whole idea behind our girls' night was to watch Sex and the City, because we all LOVE the show! When Steph and I lived together in our apartment we watched every episode in order from start to finish. All 6 seasons! We had fallen in love with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda! Of course as soon as we found out the movie was coming out we were pumped! Steph, Teresa, and I went and saw it 2 days after it came out. It was incredible, and it stayed so true to the show!

Anway, so Jennie loves it too and we decided that as soon as it came out on DVD we were going to get together and watch it. So that's what we did. After 2 rounds of the game we put the movie in. Oh boy, we got upset because it kept sticking and wouldn't play. We tried everything from blowing in the DVD player to cleaning the disc and nothing worked. It still kept sticking. Jennie then put in a different movie and it worked just fine. We came to the conclusion that it was the disc so we all loaded up into Steph's car at 10 and headed to Wal-Mart to exchange it! Oh my, that was hilarious. We were like a group of high school girls! Once again we laughed so hard we almost cried. Jennie's friend Diane was also there so we had a whole car load. They exchanged it for her with no problems and we headed back. It still stuck just a little, but I told Jennie I think the player just needed a good cleaning. It was ok though, because we were able to make it all the way through the movie! We laughed. We cried. It was just sooo good. It was 1 am by the time it was over and we were all about to fall asleep! We all helped Jennie clean up the kitchen and then headed home. I crashed hard when I laid down!

Saturday morning Gene came in and woke me up earlier than I had intended on waking up because he had made breakfast. I got up and ate then laid down on the couch. I eventually went back to sleep for a little bit and then got up to take a shower. Corey and I left around 3 to meet Mom and Grace to shop for a little bit. We met up at Kirkland's and Mom found some new pretties for her house! I refrained from spending any money in there. It was hard. After that we went to Guido's to see Uncle T! Grace LOVES her Uncle T, and ran straight to him as soon as we put her down. He made us some pizza and we ate yummy lunch. After Guido's we headed to Target because Mom wanted to look at some Christmas ideas for Grace. She ended up getting some good stuff for her this year. I picked up a few things in there and then we headed back to the truck because my next stop was Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. Mom headed home. While we were grocery shopping Gene called Corey's phone and that made me start looking for mine because I figured he would have called mine first. My phone was no where to be found.

We finished all of our grocery shopping and as we were loading it up into the truck we were searching for my phone. It was no where to be found. Corey called Mom to see if it was in her car. It wasn't. I searched the diaper bag, my Target bags, the truck, my purse, everywhere. It wasn't there. We drove back over to Target to check and nobody had turned it in. Corey even re-traced our steps in the store and couldn't find it. We headed home and then Gene searched the truck and couldn't find it. I called Mom again and she searched her car again. No luck. Corey called Wal-Mart and nobody had turned it in there either. Fabulous. It was gone. I called AT&T and had them de-activate it so no one could use my SIM card.

We all went to bed, and Grace ended up waking up at 3:30 and climbing out of her crib. I went and got her and she slept the rest of the night with me. Again.

Sunday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, and I told the boys it was going to be a day of cleaning!! They were really excited. Gene called (Corey's phone) and asked me to bring him his air soft gun so one of the other officers could take it home and shoot it. I changed and grabbed Layla to take her with me and we headed in to Springdale. When Gene pulled in he handed me the AT&T bag with a new phone in it! I was sooo excited! We hung out in the parking lot for just a little bit then Layla and I headed home.

Once we were home the cleaning began! We cleaned everything. While I was cleaning my bedroom I started vacuuming and realized it wasn't really sucking anything up. After a few more minutes it quit on me. It's dead now too. One more thing that's broken!

I had put a big roast in the crock pot that morning and then added some potatoes, carrots, and onion to it! I told Gene to call Jennie and Steve and invite them over for dinner. They ended up coming out and we ate a great dinner and then I was ready to crash! Grace went to sleep quickly and I laid her down then put myself to bed! Grace woke up fussing around 4:30 but it was a tired pitiful whine and I never heard the thud that comes with her jumping out of her crib so I laid there for a few more minutes. Next thing I knew she was snoring again! I guess she was just too tired to climb out of her crib. Thank goodness! I went right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 9! Gene was the first one up and he grabbed the monitor to listen for Grace. She didn't wake up till around 8:30 and then he brought her in to wake me up. It felt good to get a good night's sleep.

So, I'm hoping that this bad streak is hopefully over. When things start going bad they keep going bad for a while it seems, and I have struggled big time this week to keep my faith. I've been praying and praying for things to start looking up, but I know that's selfish of me. I've now started praying that God keeps my head up and that I am able to keep my faith in Him that everything is going to be just fine. No matter how bad it seems and no matter how "breakable" things are, they are just wordly things and aren't what really matter in the long run.

This has turned into a really long post and I'm sorry that I was so wordy. If you made it this far then thanks for sticking with me!!! I'm also not going back through to edit because I need to take a shower to get ready for work. I hope everybody has a great week.