From Kristin

Hello, friends! Today has been SO successful, despite an unpleasant start. Get ready for a thrilling tale.

This morning was New Way Church's first service ever. We met in a hotel conference room a few miles north of us. Excited and nervous, we were running a bit late (waiting for cornbread to finish baking) when LO, we noticed that my car had a serious problem. The right rear tire appeared to be almost flush with the inside of the wheel well; in other words, the frame seemed to have partially collapsed onto the wheel. Now, I got this car a week and a half ago, and right away knew that I was in for a rough ride. At about 45 mph, the thing starts to shake like a helicopter; at 55 mph, you start to fear for your life. So when I saw the wheel I had these horrible visions of damaged suspension, bent frame, broken axle...I didn't know what to think and I thought if we drove it it might break entirely and ruin the car. Foolishly, we drove it around the block and it felt normal (that is, the didn't vibrate and rattle any more that usual), so we went ahead and drove to church anyway with the car full of body weight and music equipment. A couple of times we'd hit a bump and hear this horrible crunch of metal on metal (knowing that the muffler was already damaged and riding low, I crossed my fingers and kept driving. It was stupid.)

But then! Then we got to church, safe and sound, and had an awesome first service. There were about 40 people there, tons of kids, and one or two total newcomers. Mac and Ethan both did an excellent job. So that felt great, and then Edwin Uber and his roommate Jon (who came down from Dallas this weekend) looked at my car and guess that it had a suspension problem. They figured it was safe to drive at under 40 mph. Also, before we left I chatted with the receptionist at the hotel, and she is interested in coming to our church, and is also new to Austin. We're going to get together soon for lunch. So I feel awesome about that.

We got home safe and relatively happy, though I still didn't know how I was going to get the car fixed. Then Ethan and Dylan came in to announce that a man had come and wanted to buy Ethan's minivan, and he was a mechanic, and a great guy. So I waited for this mechanic to come back from the ATM, and made friends with one of my neighbors in the interim. (Keep in mind, these two women bring my list of new friends up to two.) We're going to throw some kind of housewarming/meet your neighbors party together, and I said I'd put her in touch with Blair at Head Start because she and her fiance are looking at maybe moving to Philly next year and both work with innercity/at risk kids.

So then the mechanic comes back and test drives my car. He's a really friendly, honest guy. And LO, like a true auto genius, he observes that the car features THREE different tire sizes. The one that looked cramped is like that because it's way too big for the car. And so this explains the vibrating, wobbling, shaking, all of it. It's possible that new tires are going to completely fix my car. So I'm taking it in to this shop tomorrw, and I'm looking at less than $150! Isn't that WICKED??

This was such a successful Sunday.