Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Planner

I am a person who loves having people and purpose in my life.

Give me a group of friends and tell us to do something just real quick and I will have a joyful experience.

Put me in a classroom and tell me to learn... I will be happy.

I love being busy, having things to do, and people to do them with.

What is there to help me accomplish all that I need to? Well, that is where my planner comes in.

Yes. I use a planner. I love it actually.

Every night I plan my next day and make sure I have everything done that I need to do. I write down thoughts, ideas, things to do, and the occasional drawing throughout the day. At the end of the night I am able to review my day and see where I can improve the next day.

I love a day where my planner is full. I know that that day was time well spent.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Stolen Blessings

Just real quick, this is a semi long story made into a blog about my first experience in buying a car.

It started awhile ago with me deciding I wanted to save up money and buy a car. I worked really hard and saved up money as best I could. And finally I had enough to buy a decent car. I budgeted to make sure I could pay for all of it and wouldn't have to go into debt.

Then came the searching.


My dad and I (because first car buying should always involve your father) looked online at the car ads and wrote down six or seven we wanted to visit and then went to bed for the evening. We slept well, knowing that we had some good cars and a plan to make this purchase happen. I needed the car that next day and we knew we would get it.

The next morning we went on the website for "one last look" for deals.

We found an awesome deal. A really nice car, and a very good price, and needing to be sold quick. At the time it was exactly what we wanted.

My dad called the man and spoke to him. He told my dad that he needed a down payment on it so that he would hold it for us. My dad then called me and had me go meet the man and give a $400 down payment. We got a receipt for it and had his promise that he would hold it. The excitement filled the air and I was so happy with the thought that I would be a car owner that night.

That night came and my parents and I went to his house to meet up with him. We drove there and were suprised by what we found when we got there.

He apparently lives in the cemetary.

He lied to me. He stole my money. The happiness at the thought I had for the future with my own new car was gone. I felt empty. I had been robbed. What a horrible man?! Why oh Why?!?! These thoughts were just a few of my thoughts.

We called the police and started an investigation. What else could we do? We prayed that all would work out. I have faith it will.

Funny thing about car shopping though is:

I still needed to buy a car.

With four hundred dollars less of a budget we went back to car shopping.

We went to the next one on the list and saw a car that didn't run very well, had a super bad paint job and needed a lot of work. I told my dad "it isn't as nice as the fake one" and we moved on.

By this time I was done with the whole car shopping thing. It had been a horrible day and I felt like I had be robbed by Satan himself. I asked if we could go home.

On the way home my mom said that she had a friend who was selling a car we could look at, so we decided we would look at one last one.

He was asking $2000 dollars for a pretty nice car that needed some minor fixes. I felt really good about this car, but wasn't about to go handing my money away.

I offered him $1000.

He said, "How about $1500?"

I said "$1000 cash."

Deal.

It ended up being a really great deal. A blessing. With the four hundred stolen and the one thousand dollars it was less then I had budgeted for. Some of the repairs were simple fixes that saved me about four or five hundred dollars that I thought I would need to spend to get the car running again.

A man stole from me, but still I was the one blessed.