Living further out in the suburbs means a cheaper house with more space. We had quite an adventure in house searching. Tim's dad was graciously our realtor, but he was retired, only doing it part-time on the side, and we honestly ended up doing most of the leg work.
This was our first home buying experience (6 years ago), and we were not convinced we'd be able to find exactly what we wanted in our price range. It was during the big booming house market when everyone was buying, getting into bidding wars, etc. We saw 75 houses in 9 1/2 weeks and we bid on 5 of them.
What?
Yep, really. It was exhausting and stressful. Ultimately, we did get what we wanted. Really far from our workplaces, but in the same town as where our church was about to open up a new satellite campus that we were really excited about.
I've always been thankful for our humble abode (read more about that here), and despite initial hesitation about the distance, we went for it. We wanted to be close to our church and our friends from there. We thought perhaps one or both of us would be changing jobs soon.
And as the years went by, and we were met with some difficulties, and then we grew to love our jobs more in various ways and decided that both places are where God wants us... I couldn't help but want to scream inwardly.
Ahhhh, I have to keep this crazy 45 minute commute... for... how long?
I went from a place of wanting to leave my job, to wanting to leave my house and move closer to my wonderful job. But here we still are. And don't get me wrong, we still talk about it but in this economy, we're concerned our house wouldn't sell and it's not like we have to move. Thereby being an unwise decision for us.
When I started this long commute, we shared one car, a not-so-great, but thankful for it, old Plymouth Breeze. Within a year or so after we bought the house {so about 3 years after we bought it}, it went kapooey. We had a second car at that time for Tim {an old Toyota Celica; a few years later it died and he now has an 07 Toyota Corolla}*. For me, we thankfully were able to find a wonderful AWD vehicle that was deemed super safe {Subaru Forester} in Dec 2004. After driving that for years, I knew that fighting winters with this commute had to be in an AWD vehicle. Pretty much once you go to one, you never want to go back. I could if I had to, I'm sure. But God has provided faithfully, and I'm so grateful. It's just safer. Which is a big concern for me. By biggest fear in life is car accidents. I get easily stressed out on the road with all the crazy drivers around here. Then my Fibro flares up and the leg and back pain becomes too much to bear. So, if we're going to continue to live this far away from where we work, then I made it clear to Tim that I needed to get another really safe vehicle to replace the Forester this year.
*We are very blessed, but by no means rich. Remember, we don't have kids. And we care about getting to work safely and in one piece.
You can read more about the recent vehicle change here. There's just really something to be said about being safe. After having grown up where I did {middle of nowhere in the country}, and getting stuck in crazy Chicagoland traffic every day, I just didn't feel there was an option if we could afford to have something safe again. Thankfully we could and we were able to get a very safe vehicle. I already feel so much less stressed every day with an even safer vehicle.
Yes, I can tell that quickly. Don't question it.
The point is that the check engine light came on 5 days after we bought it. Given that it was a big issue on the Forester, I couldn't help but laugh when it happened, convinced that God was making me laugh that morning only to find out it was the catalytic converter when hubster plugged it into the code-reading-thingy {yes, that's the technical term} that night.
Grrrrrrr.
Looking back on the past few months with the car issues, I know God has been using all this for my sanctification. I'm thankful he's growing me and molding me into who He wants me to be.
Now, I am very careful not to complain about hubster here, well, because {ahem} he reads this every day... but I do have to blame this one on him. {I love you honey. :) Remember this post and don't be mad, k?}
Okay, so we bought the car 2 months ago over Labor Day weekend. The light came on 5 days later. We tried on 2 Saturdays that month, to no avail, to get it into the dealer's service department to fix it. They couldn't do it, we went home frustrated, and... that was 1 1/2 months ago. It was my wonderful, loving hubster's responsibility to call them. I didn't nag.
Until yesterday.
I just really didn't want to wait until winter to attempt driving a dealer's loaner car {thinking I was likely to get a real junker}. So kind hubster called 'em up, got it set for this morning, we arrived {it's like 5 minutes north of our house}, filled out paperwork and what not, got situated in the loaner, and we were both off for work {thankful for flexible bosses given that we were both a bit late}.
They called me later, it is the catalytic converter and it's covered under warranty so it's no cost to us {whew!}, and they're getting the parts in and fixing it tomorrow.
Now I can tell you with certainty that this is pure torture from the dealer. Seriously. Why would they give me a car wayyyy nicer than my own {which I already totally love except for the check engine light}? That's just mean. For the next 2 days, I'm driving around in a 2010 Hyundai Santa Fe, Burgundy {one of my fav colors}, black leather interior {ahh smells like my dad's car}, and every single bell and whistle that my car is missing... like a sunroof, outside temp gauge, compass, 6 disc CD player, radio controls on the steering wheel, multiple options for the odometer settings, passenger temp controls, more space, AWD constant instead of hitting a button to turn it off and on {which at first I thought was cool but now I think is a bit of a pain}, and on and on I could go.
Okay God, clearly you are teaching me some things through this. But seriously? *sigh*
Maybe I should ask the dealer to accidentally forget to work on my car, lose a part or something, and let me drive this one around for a month?! Hmmm....
Satan knows attacking me with money-related objects is a downfall and that he can get me there. So in the meantime, I'm reminding myself that I can admire and enjoy it for 2 days, and then walk away and not think of it again.
Sanctify me, Lord.
I will not covet... I will not covet... I will not covet.........
Okay, I'm working on it.
{Thank you to anyone who put up for my longer than intended post. :) You guys rock! Also this in no way means I'm not incredibly thankful for my new car. I hope you guys understand the true intention of this post. :)}
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