Growing up it seemed like my family was always fixing cars. I am not talking about just changing the oil, although we did do that as well. I mean whenever something went wrong my dad would have Marc and I out in the garage fixing whatever it was. From my pickup to the tempo we were always working on some car. I grew to hate working on cars, I hated that I wasn't very good at it and Marc and my dad were. I hated that it didn't make sense to me. I can't do things with my hands like Marc or my dad can and that was frustrating. I dreaded the days that were spent working on cars even though it was always with my dad and my brother.

Over the last few years we have had the money to take our car to a mechanic when it needed to be worked on and I have never been so happy. I have always said that I wasn't going to work on cars and since Becky and I have been married that has work for the most part. For the past week though our brakes have been grinding every time I touched them. It was getting bad and you could see the groves on the rotor getting worse. I called a few places to get them changed and the lowest price I could find was $235.00. We do not have that kind of money right now so I had to think of something else. I called around to some auto parts stores and finally found brake pads for $24.00. I told Becky that I thought that I could change them myself since I had changed brakes with my dad numerous times. We went down and bought the brakes and I would change them the next day. When I got up it was raining but I needed to get them done so I improvised and drove over to the church and under the pavilion where I changed the brakes in under 2 hours. I know that 2 hours is a long time but for me it is really good. I once left my pickup on blocks for two weeks because I couldn't get the old brakes off. When I came home Becky was so excited that I had changed them for so cheap she just kept saying how great it was that I had this kind of knowledge so I could save us some money when we needed it. As she was thanking me I just kept thinking about all the cars that I have fixed with my dad. I would not have any of that knowledge without him. It has come in handy a few times but never to save us money. A small fix here or there that has helped out, but this came when we really needed it. So thank you dad for making me hand you tools or hold the flashlight while you were working on your cars. The lessons that I have learned from working on cars are invaluable. Every time that I end up under a car I think about all the time we spent together.

THANKS DAD!