What's Up Buttercup?

Well dear readers, my life has been full of joy, sadness, trepidation (isn't that the coolest word?) and downright fear the last few days since my last post.

We had a annual 4th of July gathering at mom and dad's last Friday, it was lovely. Fireworks were great, no one was injured (always a blessing) and a good time was had by all. The boys went to Charleston fishing on Saturday so Kiersten and I went to get haircuts and just hang out which is always fun. I love bonding time with her because I know eventually I'll be stupid mom and so uncool she won't dare be seen with me. Sunday was good even though Jared and I missed church. I think the sun, 11 honeybuns and little sleep don't mix really well with a certain young man. He was feeling "off" and I kept him home and he ended up sleeping until 11 a.m. We also had Olivia's baptism on Sunday evening and it was really nice. Kiersten said Olivia looked like a princess, which she did.

Monday I got in my car to go to work, the engine light was flashing and it made the kerplump noise that's never good so off to the mechanic it went. Tuesday we found out that the car had a cracked head gasket (whatever that is), and would end up costing $2000 to fix. Apparently if you have to do engine work on my van you have to take the engine out (bad). This is where the trepidation comes it-wait for it, so, Mike and I made the decision that instead of having another car payment, I would learn to drive his car (it's a stick) and he would drive his truck to and fro work.

Here's where the downright fear comes in now-I'm scared to death of driving Mike's car. All I can see is me in downtown Cola town in the middle of a massive pileup and it just gets uglier from there. However, last night we went practicing because I am determined to do this and I will not let a car get the better of me. I must say that I did pretty well although by the time we got back to the house my feet were cramping and I think I had bleached my knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel so hard and I think I actually sweated. Mike said I did great ( this was actually the 3rd time I had driven his car but it's serious now), we even practiced starting out on a hill. I drove from Lugoff to Camden and then back home. I'm still scared pale but I'll get it.

By the way, I was thinking last night about feet. I know, this is a crazy topic but work with me here. Aren't feet a wonder? The skin on your feet has to be tough enough to walk on rough surfaces but sensitive enough to be ticklish. Also, your feet have hundreds of pounds of pressure on them every day and generally don't complain. I wonder if it's because of the way feet are shaped, the pressure is distributed. Don't know, a topic for internet research. If you have any thoughts, let me know. It's just one of those random thoughts that came up.