Friday the 13th!

When I heard that Friday is the 13th, as in Friday the 13th, my heart skipped a beat or two and nearly went in to atrial fibrillation!  I am in fear of this day this year!  I usually don't pay much attention to the dreaded day because I have never experienced much bad luck on it with the exception of falling from a playground slide in the 4th grade.  I'm really not superstitious and so it's never been an issue for me....until THIS year!  I'm almost afraid to drive or run right now!

This year, even though we are only into it for 12 days, has been like Friday the 13th EVERY SINGLE DAY!  I feel like for the past few weeks, we have had a black cloud hanging over our heads that won't leave!  It's almost getting to be a joke!  Today that dark cloud was looming heavily.  I lost $300 cash!

They say these things come in threes.  Around here it's been in 33's!  PLEASE STOP!  

Here is the short  list of a few of the things that have gone wrong since the cloud has been hovering:

• Our four year old fridge which we just spent a small fortune on in repair calls and had the compressor replaced a couple months ago, went out again and is irreparable this time which means we need a BRAND NEW FRIDGE!
• My phone fell in the tub when I was leaning over to pull the plug when Carson was in it.  I just had the LCD fixed 10 days ago and a new screen put on it 6 weeks before that amounting to almost $200. As soon as it fell in the tub, I put it in rice and did everything to help it recover, but after six hours of iQue trying to fix it, it is also irreparable which means I need a BRAND NEW PHONE! 
• My computer has stopped working efficiently and a message popped up this week saying the storage is full and unless I make more space, it says it will crash and I will lose everything.  Thousands of photos!  That problem is ongoing and we have been trying to free up space.  
• The laptop has quit working properly.
• Our cable TV quit working ("somethings not quite right") and we had to have a repairman come and replace the box and remote.
• My gas fireplace in my room quit working during our sub zero temps and the repair work is quite extensive.
• The VCR as well as the DVD player are no longer working right.
• The heater in my car went out the week it was 15 below zero!  
• Dave's phone he has had for at least five years, will no longer hold a charge.
• Two of our shower heads are not working right.
• Dave sat on his glasses and broke them.
• The command strips I used to hang up my garland so the paint wouldn't rip off, ripped off a HUGE chunk of my newly painted entry way when I removed it!  
• The Escalade brakes are not working right and we just had them worked on a few months ago.

*I just noticed the above list contains 13 things.  Maybe 13 isn't a good number on Friday the 13th!  I'm going to add a few more just to be safe! And I say I'm not superstitious!

• The vacuum broke (right when I need to clean up pine needles!) and needs to be taken to the vacuum ER for some care.  This may sound minor BUT it's huge to me!
• Dave has falling ceiling tiles in his office at the clinic due to the heavy snow and flooded his office and all his paperwork.  Luckily, the computer was okay.  Bryce shoveled the snow off the building's roof taking him two NINE hour days!  And he already has a bad back!
•  I made 21 miniature muffin houses for the refreshments for my Homemaker's meeting and only 7 women attended.  

But today topped them all.  I had $300 cash in my back pocket to pay for my new phone and when I went to get it out to give to the girl I bought it from, it was gone!  G.O.N.E.  I was sick!  Wanting to puke SICK!  I retraced my steps and went back to every single store I had been to.  Luckily, there were only five.  If I hadn't had to kill 90 minutes waiting for her to get home, I would have gone right to her house and it wouldn't have happened.  As I was retracing my steps, I kept praying to Heavenly Father that I would find the money but I told Him if I didn't find it, then to PLEASE make sure whoever found it was someone that needed it more than I did.  As I was praying while driving, I drove past a blinking sign at a gas station that had the time and temperature on it.  The time said 4:44.  I KNEW that was Heavenly Father's way of informing me that all was well and to not worry about the money, even if I didn't find it because He was in charge and it was meant to be.  The number 444 is significant to me because I heard it means angels are near and when I ran my first marathon and felt the presence of Tyson helping me to that finish line, my final time was 4:44.  It's a long story, but those numbers are special to me.

I never found the cash.  I knew it was a futile attempt to even go back to the stores, but sometimes people are honest and will turn in money they find.  Not this time.  For all I know, I dropped it in the parking lot.  The craziest thing about it is the fact that I put the money in my back pocket of my jeans but I had a very long sweater on and so I know I couldn't have been pick pocketed.  I am not sure HOW it happened because it makes no logical sense how it could have got out of my pocket, but somehow it did. Sigh...

So basically my new (used) phone cost me $600!  UGH!  I could have had a brand new iPhone 7 for almost that!  I kept thinking of all the things I could have done with that money, and it just depressed me.  So, I changed my thinking and thought of all the good it could do for whoever was lucky enough to find it.  I pray it will go to good use and the person that found it was praying for money to drop from heaven to help with their problems and I was an answer to their prayers.  I am totally fine if that is what happened to it.  But, I will most likely never know. 

Things are going to wrong no matter what. I understand that.  That is the nature of life.  I'm just not used to having so many happen all at once. And like I said, that's just the short list.  There are MANY more that I didn't add to the list.  However, almost all of the problems we have been having are fixable with money.  Dave always says, "If money will fix it, it's not a problem."   So, I guess that means they are not problems, just inconveniences. 

On my way home, I said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for my family, my warm home, a body that is healthy,  a wonderful network of friends and extended family, and for the things that are going right and not broken.

It would be easy to FOCUS on all these things that are going wrong, but...I have the power to choose to instead FOCUS on all the things that are going right!  Those things far out number the ones that aren't.  And for that I am extremely grateful!  And... I am even grateful for the bad things, even when they come in droves, because enduring them makes me a better person.

Blue skies from now on!  And even if a black cloud appears in that blue sky, it's still mostly a blue sky!  And that is all that matters!

And sometimes amazing and wonderful things appear in that blue sky right next to those black clouds IF you are looking for them!

But, I am still thinking I might stay in bed all day tomorrow so as not to push my luck! Hah!