I had to make a presentation to my MIL’s church ladies yesterday, to request a sponsor for our Girl Scout troop.  Yeah, they voted unanimously to sponsor our troop! 

As we were driving to town, the Suburban made a whining noise – it didn’t last long, but it sounded like a belt or the water pump (yeah, I’ve driving OLD vehicles long enough to know lots of sounds and the awful things they can mean).  It quit pretty quickly, but as I continued to drive, I said to JD, “I think the transmission is slipping.”  Now, if you know anything about me, you know I’m a numb-nuts when it comes to autos.  I know enough to be dangerous.  But hey, I’m married – and my older brother (now deceased) was quite happy to turn over my auto duties to my husband once that marriage contract was signed that I can tell when something is wrong – but, not really what.  But, yesterday, I could *really* tell that something was wrong.  ;-(

We got to town, he dropped me off at MIL’s church and he went to main street to get the license renewed.  And in the middle of my speech, my MIL’s phone began ringing.  And then it rang again. 

Oh crud.

Seems JD got to the tax office, and tried to leave, but the car wouldn’t go in reverse.  He knew, as I did, that it was the transmission – same symptoms as last year.  The receipt for the work that the transmission shop did was in the glove box, and he called them.  They sent a tow truck over the hill (in record time, I might add) and tied up main street in the big burg of Medina, Texas, to load my wheels and carry them back to the shop.  One year and four days after we got it out of hock last year.  Thank the good Lord that the work they did was guaranteed for THREE years.  Oh m’dear, I was praying so hard.

But, the biggest issue right now is that my MIL’s auto has a big rear main seal leak that she can’t afford to fix until after the holidays.  And our second auto, an Explorer, won’t hold all six of us at the same time.  Last night, we left DD#1 with MIL to go caroling with the youth group at her church – while we took the other three kids over the hill to our famliy Advent night at our church.  Now, what in the world are we going to do come Sunday, when we ALL need to go to church?!

Thoughts for this Christmas Countdown Day:  There’s always chaos and calamities that occur when we’re stressed.  I’m thinking I need some more quilt therapy, to de-stress my life and calm the soul.  The car will be fixed and we’ll deal with it, once it’s done.  Right now, all we can do is pray that it won’t cost us anything…and hope that our chaos returns to ‘normal’ after the holidays.