It's a Brand New Year!

2014 started out AWESOME for me!  I woke up this morning to discover that my son and his girlfriend spent the night!  They had been at a party in town earlier in the night and decided to spend the night here!  I'm fairly certain that God knew this was going to happen.  Why?  you ask . . . well, let me backtrack a bit!

After work on New Year's Eve, I stopped at the grocery store for some small lobster tails ($6.99 each).  While I was wandering around the store, I spotted some maple breakfast sausage links that were on sale.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  We rarely make breakfast, but sausage and pancakes sounded good to me!  So, off I go to the baking aisle to pick up a box of Bisquick to go with the sausage.  What other reason could there be for me to decide to make breakfast on New Year's Day?  AND, to have a LOT of it available?  Yep!  He was telling me!

So, I woke this morning to find Aaron and Rachel (and Rachel's room mate, Lauren) here, together with Erica (Abby spent the night at the neighbor's house).  Greg started the sausage and got the Bisquick together, when Aaron's former roommates (Robby and Pat) showed up to give him and the girls a ride back home (about an hour away).  They were THRILLED to have some sausage and pancakes before driving home!  So, because I decided on pancakes and sausage, rather than eggs or something else, I had PLENTY for everyone!  I stood at the counter and cooked the pancakes on the griddle I haven't used in YEARS, while the kids all chatted and enjoyed a hearty breakfast!  What a PERFECT WAY to start the new year!

A short time later, our friends called needing our help.  Their van needs a new alternator, but it was stuck about 40 miles away.   We had to find a U-Haul place that was open on New Year's Day so we could rent a trailer to tow the van home.  Finding one within a reasonable distance was NOT an easy task. (Remember, I live in the middle of nowhere!)   We ended up finding one that was about ten miles out of the way, and that I would have to return tomorrow morning before work.  This was NOT the ideal situation, because that would mean I had to park my truck outside, and being a diesel, it was already cold in the mornings.  My block heater is broken, so I can't plug it in, otherwise I wouldn't have cared.  But, oh well.  I'd manage.  Our neighbors need their van, so OK.  Let's go.  About a mile down the road is a place that rents U-Hauls, and as I'm driving past, I see that they have a car trailer sitting there!  YAHOO!   We pull in, even though they didn't answer the phone earlier in the day, and I knocked on their house door.  They were HOME and were quite willing to help us out!  YAHOO!  That meant that once we were done, I could return the trailer right away and park my truck in the garage overnight!  

We drove to where the van was, and only drove about five miles out of the way (I then decided to get exact directions, before we got too far).  We got to the bar where they left the van (long story on why it was there), and I pulled up in front of the van to give it a jump.  Nate figured we had about three minutes before the van would die again, so we had to move quickly.  We got about 3/4 of the way up onto the trailer, when the van died!  ARGH!!!!!   OK, now what.  Well, Greg and Nate went into the bar to ask if there were some guys in there who could help push it.  A guy and his older son came out to help push it up.   There's another VERY long story here, but suffice it to say that we needed yet one more person to help.  (Greg is not able to do anything so physical because of his heart and pacemaker.)  A gentleman in a pickup truck pulled into the parking lot, so we asked him to help.  Problem was, the tire of the van was too close to the edge of the trailer, so it had to be moved over.  We weren't able to get it moved with the steering wheel, so he ended up getting a tow rope out of his truck and tugging the van a bit sideways and then forward to get it on the trailer like we needed!  YAY!!!!!!   Mind you, this was all being done in balmy 5 degree weather!  Yea, it was kind of cold . . . 

So, we were able to take off!  Only problem was, the van was still in neutral, and we couldn't get the door open because of the fenders on the trailer.  ACK!   We had it tied down good and went about ten miles down the road.  Nate and I were both nervous about it being in neutral, so I stopped at a gas station, and using my scarf as a "hook" he was able to grab the gear shifter and get it into neutral.  Remember, we couldn't open the door all the way because of the fenders on the trailer. Once that was done, we had no problems driving it the rest of the way home.   Nate and Jess don't have the best driveway for trying to back a trailer into, but, I gotta tell ya . . . I'm good!  LOL!  I had the trailer/van backed into their yard, right in front of the garage door in about five minutes!   As we were trying to figure out how to get the van back into neutral, without the door opening all the way, Nate discovered that the fender on the driver's side of the trailer had some little doohickeys on it that allow the fender to fold out so you can open your door all the way!  SERIOUSLY?  WOW!  We laughed and joked about this and decided that when Nate saw it, it was like he got slapped upside the head by God and He was saying "look here, stupid!"!   Ha, ha!

Not only did I back up the trailer PERFECTLY, but it was SO perfect that when they pushed it off the trailer, it was able to go straight back into their (single door!) garage so Nate could work on it and change the alternator. 

We then went to return the trailer and I was able to park my truck in the garage for the night!  YAY!    Although this was NOT what I had planned for my day off work, I was happy to be able to be a blessing to our friends.  That's the most important part about all this.  I was able to be a blessing to someone else.  Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be able to help our friends in need. 

I hope everyone else's 2014 started out as AWESOME as mine did!  

Blessings to All,

Julie

PS, this is kind of funny -- when we brought the van back to Nate and Jess' house, I had to use their bathroom.  My shoes were wet from the snow and made a bit of a mess on the floor.  I apologized to her and she said to me "You brought my van home for me.  You could have peed all over the floor and I wouldn't have minded!"  HA!