The inner thoughts of a bus rider

Something awful happened on Friday, well two something awful's, but only one of them directly affected us.  Friday started off with my sister texting me that our apartment building that we used to live in had burned down.  We moved out 3 months ago when we bought our house, but we lived there for 2 years and loved our time there.  It was our first house together.  We had many, many "firsts" there and it is just so strange to think that it burned down.  Not only is our building gone, but the heaviest damage was done on our floor, on our wing and to be exact in the apartment directly next door to where we lived.  It was a surreal feeling to think that if we had not made the decision to buy a house this year we would have been homeless.  I got to thinking about our neighbors and how they must feel.  I decided that I would try to do what I can to help our old neighbors in their great time of need.  I made some calls and I felt better about it, at least for the interim.

The something awful that happened that directly affected us happened on Friday night.  My mom was coming down to the cities to stay with my two nephews, so I decided to go over there after work and have dinner and hang out.  Ron was coming by later on to play with the boys, but he was taking longer than usual.  The boys were looking out the windows for him and decided that when they saw him we would all hide and wait for him to find us.  He drove up to the house and we all hid in the pantry. After waiting for like 5 minutes we emerged and yelled, SURPRISE, but there was no one there.  I went outside and found him and he was inspecting his car.  He had just been in an accident and his car was leaking oil.  We knew that it wasn't good and we decided to have it towed.  The guy at the repair shop called and said, "I just want you to know that you were VERY, VERY lucky."  He went on to say, "if this piece of metal that flew off of a car and hit the underneath of your car would have hit 2 cm's away from where it hit the car would have likely imploded on impact and you would not be here right now."  Wow!  Scary stuff.  Two bad events in one day.  It felt like someone was really watching over us!

Oil leaking out of the car.

Hauling the car away!

We still have to pay to fix the car, we have been a one car househould instead of two and we know that we will be tight on money for a little while until we can put back from our savings what we have spent on repairs.  We are alive though and very thankful for that!  The rest of the struggles are managable compared to the alternative in either scenario.  It got me thinking this morning that life is so, so precious.  Make sure you tell someone you love them today and make sure you're doing what you can to make the best "you" that you can.  For me this meant starting to ride the bus (which saves money and means more walking) and saying "NO" to the cookies in the breakroom this morning.  It means going home and working out rather than plopping on the couch and making a dinner that Jillian Michaels would approve of! (I have started this new thing where I pretend that Jillian Michaels COULD potentially walk into my house at anytime and if she did would she be okay with what I was putting in my mouth?  If not then I just can't take the risk :)