A Crazy Carlson Day

The day started innocent enough.  Waking up groggily with nothing to do, for once, but lay in the bed for another 10 minutes.  The day was already planned out for us, in our minds.  This day was a special day.  My niece, Katharine, was to be baptized at 11:00 am.  Then a reception.  Then back home for a relaxing Spring afternoon.  But first, I was off to HEB for a normal Saturday morning juice/milk run.  To add to the excitement of the day, I also stopped at Shipleys for some yummy donuts. 

The morning was going splendid.  We left the house on time and consequently made it to the baptism on time.  Now, while this may not seem like a very important point, I do want to stress that getting all three children and a pregnant wife out the door for a drive across Houston does not always end up in the most punctual of timings.  Let me also just take this moment to ready and prepare everyone in our lives .... when Joseph gets here ... we will continue to attempt to be on time with our appointments and meetings, BUT if and when we do show up late, please know, we tried our hardest to get there on time.   :)

The baptism was beautiful, and now it was time to go celebrate!  The reception was great.  It was a beautiful day at the country club where the reception was held.  We got to catch up with my grandparents and parents.  All the kids played under all the tables.  And there was cake.  What more need be said?

Sounds like a beautiful day, so far, right?  Hold on, it gets better.  We left the reception at around 2:00 or so in hopes of Jansen sleeping on the way home and then a fun afternoon of playing in the backyard and in the cul-de-sac.  Up 59.  Onto 610.  Getting onto I-45 North.  Life is good.  Driving in the family mini van, listening to Jonathan Park live his own adventure in an art heist.  And its always a good feeling when we start actually heading north.  I start feeling like we are finally moving in the right direction towards home.  But as we are merging onto I-45 North, I start feeling more.  A vibration.  And there is a weird noise outside the vehicle.  I look over at some trucks a few lanes over to see if its one of them, and then I finally put 2 and 2 together.  It's MY car that's making the noise.  It's a flat  :(  On the freeway!  Gripes!!!  Luckily, by the grace of God, I am at a really good place to exit the freeway and quickly get off the main roads and in front of a building.  We'll call that God's intervention #1 for this portion of our story.  Some may chalk it up to sheer luck or coincidence, but I believe in God's sovereignty, and this was nothing short of it.  I only say that because for a good portion of my freeway driving that afternoon, the van had felt loose.  And the tire pressure indicator light came on while I was driving on 59.  But I digress.

So I stop the car. Take a deep breath and gear up mentally for the tire change ahead - lol.  I actually like to change tires, but I'm in my khaki's and its hot outside - haha.  Some guy in a truck was leaving the building we were parked in front of and he offered to help.  I decline.  I know how to change a tire.  I ain't calling AAA.  Oh, what's that you say???  You have a better jack??  Oh, in that case. YES, please give me a hand.  We will call this random act of kindness, from the stranger in the truck with what appeared to be his wife and child in the truck, God's intervention #2.

But our story has another twist.  While changing a tire seems simple enough, my endeavor today seemed a little more challenging.  I can't get the lug nuts to loosen with the 'wonderful' tire iron that Toyota includes with the vehicle (its not even a foot long - good luck with any leverage with that, buddy).  Luckily, our hero in time of need also has a four bar that I can use.  Even with the four bar I can barely screw off these lug nuts.  We had gotten new tires put on a few months ago, and the guy who put the lug nuts on must have gotten torque happy or something because I think he stripped out the studs that my lug nuts are on.  And because of this, we sheared off two of the studs trying to get the lug nuts off.  WHY ME!!!!!  Not only do I have a dinky donut to drive home on, but now, I am going to be using only 3 lug nuts to hold the donut to the car.  This is not good.  But eventually we do get the donut on, we thank the God sent stranger and we head up the road to Discount Tire Co. - which just happened to be only 2 miles or so up the road on the north bound feeder.  If you are keeping count, that God's intervention #3.

Intervention #4 came quicker than we thought.  As I pull into the parking lot, I see someone we know from the church we used to go to!  I waited in line and he was the employee who actually talked to me first!!  This is awesome to me because I was already planning on telling Discount that they will be paying for the new studs.  It made it so much easier that it was someone that I had a relationship with already.  What a God send!!!  Not only did it make the 'you're paying for this not me' conversation easier, he was able to get us into an auto shop not too far away to get the studs replaced.  He sent us on our merry way with a brand new tire in the trunk and he also filled the donut with air (apparently it was low - ha).

The guys at the auto shop, NLine off of Ella and 610N, were very easy to talk to and they fixed us up in a jiffy and we were finally on our way back. Oh yeah, by the way, did I mention that I had 3 children with me the whole time and a wife that is TWO DAYS AWAY FROM HER DUE DATE OF OUR FOURTH CHILD!!!!!!!  Let's call out sanity after this adventure God's intervention #5.  I would like to take two asides here. 
1)  Everyone that we dealt with in this adventure was VERY easy to talk to.  Very helpful.  How often, in Houston, do you deal with multiple people and multiple car repair stores and not have any hassle.  It may have happened to you, but in my experience its rare, and I am thanking God for that facet of this adventure.  And I highly recommend this NLine place if you are ever in that part of town.
2)  In the middle of this adventure, Julia - our oldest child, asks us, "Mommy, do you think God is testing our faith?"  What a great chance for us, as parents, to share God's love for us, His sovereignty!!!  I am so excited and in awe at the responsibility that God has given us, as parents, to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  To God be the Glory!

Back to our story.  We made it home around 5:50 or so.  We got a new tire.  God strengthened our faith in Him and we had the opportunity to teach our daughter more about God.  And we still had time to play in the back yard and the cul-de-sac.  It was a special day, indeed.