Good Friends with Great Hearts

I'm not the kind of person who is able to ask for help easily...call me independent or just a control freak...I struggle with it. In fact, I laughed when I read a fellow MilWife's blog posts about the top 10 ways to help a MilSpouse during deployment http://militaryspouserollercoasterride.blogspot.com/2010/05/top-10-ways-to-help-mil-spouse-during.html because although we're grateful to not be going through deployment right now, we are separated and while Joshua trains to be his best, I'm learning that my best is pretty far from perfect and one of my biggest imperfections is the misconception that I can do it all or even most of it myself. I can't. As was evidenced this week when my truck's brakes decided to die. Please understand, I know how to change a tire, even change my own oil but I married a man with mechanical skills for a reason...I DON'T LIKE TO DO THOSE THINGS...but regardless, I knew brakes, even just the pads would be FAR outside my capabilities. So I sucked it up and asked a couple guy friends to look at them to confirm my suspicions. One is an Airman with the Oklahoma ANG and the other is a firefighter for Oklahoma City. Good guys. They said it was time for new pads and probably new rear rotors too (apparently that's unusual...who knew) so I arranged with Joshua's help (thank God for a couple extra phone calls this week) to pick up brake pads and rotors. My Airman friend just returned from his annual two week training and is preparing to go on an unrelated trip to Africa so rather than bug him and his wife, I decided to ask my firefighter friend if he could switch them out. I'm a little embarrassed to admit how difficult it was to ask for help but I knew it had to be done (the sounds coming from my truck were quickly getting worse). Boy, am I glad I did because not only were the pads AND rotors bad, but one side's caliper (probably not at all how you spell it but again, that's why I married a man with mechanical skills...I have no interest in anything mechanical whatsoever) was broken (yes folks, that's the technical term)...my firefighter friend described the problem with a few more details but it all boils down to, yup, it's broken. After a quick run to the parts store and another half an hour of work, my truck is in perfect working order again. YAY!

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Knowing you have good friends who will go out of their way for you is probably the best feeling in the world. I can't say how much I appreciate my friends right now. It fills me with joy but it also makes me sad because tomorrow, I have to say goodbye to two other great friends who are PCSing for the very first time. I'm excited to see what God has for them and what new adventures await but they'll be missed...and I think I might try to convince them to meet us at Walt Disney World in the fall... lol...just joking, kind of...