Day 139: Expecting the Unexpected

I suppose that at this point in my life, I should know to always expect the unexpected. Yet, when such instances arise, I still feel caught off guard. Today was one of those days. I took my car in to have an oil change and quickly found out that the rear brakes, rotors, brake pads and ABS sensor needed to be replaced. Oh, and the shop only had some of the parts so the installation was delayed while they waited for them to be delivered from another store. A minimum of 4 hours was the expected time of repair.

90 degrees outside. 2 kids. No stroller. Lunchtime. 1 bottle. 2 diapers. 40 minutes from home. UGH!

I'm not going to have a pity party here. Did it royally suck to have to unexpectedly pay $447 out of my pocket? You bet. But, I found a few things to be thankful for out of it all:

1. My friend Carrie and her husband Chris let us hang out at their condo for the afternoon so we could eat and swim.
2. The manager of the car shop felt so bad about everything that he actually DROVE us to Carrie's. 
3. I didn't have to put the fix on a credit card.
4. My car is repaired and will be super safe to drive up to the mountains in and across the country in a week.

It was a long day and I know without this blog, my outlook on all of this would have been completely different. I'm not mad about the money or even irritated at the major kink it put into the kids' schedule. I'm just...fine! So perhaps, once again the unexpected has taken me by surprise....