Mysterious Ways Indeed

Wow, long time no blog over here! I promise to get the rest of the pics from my week with Bug up soon. We had such a great time and I can't wait until she and lil Bean come stay with me for two nights in July - Double the Fun!

But I wanted to tell you guys about the awesome event that happened to me today. I'm so stinkin' thrilled!

First, you should know that I am HORRIBLE with money. My finances have been a mess since I graduated from college and was actually put in charge of my own bills. Truth be told, no one ever really taught me about money management. So, I sucked at it for a very long time - and I've been trying to dig myself out of that hole for the last 3 years or so. I live pretty much paycheck to paycheck and only recently even opened a savings account again. Since about February I've been doing slightly better. My bills are getting paid on a regular basis, I'm overdrawing my account less frequently, and I actually have money in a savings account! Yay me!

So then yesterday I went to the auto repair place to get an oil change. I was pretty excited that a $40 oil change wasn't causing me all kinds of stress over whether or not I could eat for the rest of this month. I was totally patting myself on the back for being so good with my money.

Then, the mechanic told me I need $400 new brakes and rotars.

UGH! I was so ticked off. It wasn't just that I needed to spend $400 - it was that it would pretty much wipe out my savings. The savings that was allowing me to not worry as much about paying my bills. The savings that was supposed to allow me to take a real vacation sometime this year. The savings that have helped to have less anxiety - which is greatly needed in my life.

To say I was upset would be an understatement.

But today I got a phone call from my old, old, old job. During a brief period of unemployment I'd got back to work at the preschool that I'd worked at during college and gradschool. Apparently, at some point during those couple months, there was a paycheck that I never cashed. So, they told me that they could reissue the check and I could come pick it up.

I wasn't too excited.

I expected it to be no more than about $80 - my daily rate of pay for substituting.

I mean, there has never been a time where I wasn't depending on every paycheck to get me through the week - especially since I was unemployed at the time!

I picked it up a few minutes ago.

It covers my brakes.

Completely.

Almost to the penny.

God is good.