What is God trying to tell me?

I turned 35 today. All in all, it was a great birthday. I slept late. I laid by the pool with my kids. My family took me out to dinner, where I got serenaded by Mexican waiters - long story, pictures to follow shortly. No complaints from me here. And I don't mind being another year older. With age comes great wisdom. Ha! Anyway, I really don't mind. Really.
However... the past 2 weeks have been filled with some odd happenings. Lots of stuff seems to be "breaking" around me. Strange things have been occurring.

1) I made mention in a previous blog about what happened on July 4th in front of thousands of fireworks-watchers when our van broke down. Thankfully the "group" from church was there to save us and get us home... however, it ended up being the transmission. We also had to get several other things on the van fixed and it all rounded up to a whopping $3600 for a 6 year old van.

2) This happened the week of my brother's wedding. So, as I was trying desperately to get things bought and ready for the rehearsal dinner, we had 6 people in the house and only one tiny car. Oh, and the driver's side mirror on the tiny car broke off, too. Lovely.

3) The only thing my sister-in-law-to-be asked of me was for me to get "Cowboy Take Me Away" onto a cd so it could be played as they were walking away for the recessional in the wedding. I bought the song online and burned it onto a cd. I forgot to take it to the church for the rehearsal... and when I showed up for the wedding (I was singing in it, too), Jeremy ran it up to the sound booth to test it. You could've knocked me over with a feather when he came back and said "Uh, this cd doesn't work." WHAT? I freaked just a teensy bit. Then, I grabbed Gail - the SUPER-talented pianist and took her into the hallway behind the sanctuary. I sang the chorus of "Cowboy" to her and she said she could play it. I was so nervous, but as they were pronounced man and wife, we burst out into a rousing version of that song! Side note: I got back home and tested the cd and it worked fine on my cd players. I think it worked out for the best because the song starts out too slow on the cd. We did an ok job in a pinch.

4) So Tuesday, the kids and I got packed and headed out for good ole Kentucky for a little vacation of sorts. One of the reasons I don't mind driving there without Aaron is because we have a portable DVD player and it keeps the kids entertained. Well, I plugged the adapter into the cigarette lighter and the fuse had blown. No power. I had some spares because this does happen from time to time. That one blew immediately. So did the next one. Finally I just hit the road. The kids complained of no movies a lot - mainly because they could see the DVD player. A painful reminder. Ugh.

5) Back on our 8th anniversary, Aaron and I bought a 2GB mp3 player. I was really enjoying making trips with this thing. I could hit the open road and be there without listening to the same song twice. On monday - to prepare for my trip - I added around 300 songs to my mp3 player. I have an account that allows me to do unlimited songs for a flat fee so I did entire albums I had been wanting to listen to. I excitedly grabbed the earphones and powered up the player. It worked for about 15 minutes before running out of battery. I pulled over at an exit and bought a battery and was on my way again. 5 more minutes down the road, the blasted player COMPLETELY STOPPED WORKING. I had to try and pick up radio stations, which is NOT easy to do in the mountains of eastern KY. It's either crap or it's static.

6) So, today I had a pretty great birthday... and was settling in to go to bed tonight. All the kids were pooped, I was pooped, my mom was exhausted. As I took out my contacts, as is my nightly ritual, I grabbed my glasses and began to clean them on my t-shirt. CRACK. My glasses broke straight down the middle of the nose. My mom and I tried for 20 minutes to super-glue them. Nothing doing. I'm pretty much blind, so right now I'm sitting her with them cocked onto my nose, trying to sit very still so they won't fall off. It's lovely.

So as you can see... things are just falling apart all around me. What in the world is up with this? Is it just a part of getting older? I sure hope not.

I would like to add a few happy things: An anonymous person gave us $3000 towards getting our van fixed. Priase the Lord for that. While the van was in the shop, my friend Jackie loaned me her car one day so I could run some important errands. Then, my friend Cindy loaned us her Durango to use for the weekend while the wedding festivities were going on. I have the best friends!