How can we thank Him?

This will be another short one as I'm tired and want to go to bed, but just wanted to type about a couple of things that have happened already this year.

Can you believe it's 2009 already? Holy cow! It's been a whirlwind already. My brother, Ryan, leaves for Air Force boot camp TOMORROW (Jan. 6th)! We had a going away open house for him on Saturday which included making lunch for nearly 30 of our family members. I spent the day before at my parents helping with whatever (mainly cutting vegetables) needed to be done. I was there all day Saturday, then back to church on Sunday! We really should live in Norwalk.

Anyway, the most exciting thing that happened to me on Saturday was when my dad opened their mail. There was a refund check for the loan on our car (my dad co-signed the loan over 5 1/2 years ago so the letters and stuff go to his address). The note said that came with the check said that the car loan had been overpaid and they were returning the money. The first thing that came to my mind was that there was a pre-pay penalty on that loan. So my dad called right away, then came out of the office with his big grin on his face. He said that the loan was closed and that the money was ours. Hallelujah! I said to my dad, "Happy New Year to me!" We were originally suppose to pay off this loan Dec 2008, but we received a letter this summer saying that the payment book was printed wrong and that our actual last payment would be due in January 2009. We've been overpaying the loan just a few dollars each month. By doing that we removed 1 1/2 payments from the loan (and didn't even know it!).

THANK YOU, GOD, for a good start to the New Year!