Another Girl Power Moment!

So this weekend I had another girl power moment.

Since it was back in Feburary, I'm pretty sure many of you might not remember, but I had a girl power moment when I changed my car's headlight without assistance. It seems a small thing, but I was so proud of myself for doing so. This weekend I one upped that (and yes that phrasing sounds a little weird to me too): I changed my first flat tire, with supervision of course.

The other day Smirk and I were on our way to the park to go run/walking. I was concerned because I thought I heard a noise coming from my tire that sounded like air coming out, but Smirk didn't hear anything, so I thought I must be mistaken. I watched the tire carefully for the next few days but didn't notice anything amiss. I drove all the way to my sister's house on Friday for my nieces' dance recital and, again, everything was fine. However, after our little late night jaunt to Wendy's (because we were all starving after the event), I noticed in the pouring rain that my right front tire looked awfully low.

The next morning my fears were confirmed when my sister and I drove to the gym for Zumba class (wa-hoo!! it was awesome!) and I saw that my tire was completely flat. Normally this would distress me, but in this case it was okay because I knew both my dad and my brother-in-law were around so they could help me.

After returning from the gym and helping prepare breakfast, my brother-in-law and I trooped out to my car to address the problem. I was pretty insistent that I didn't want him to do it for me; I wanted him to show me how to do it. That's mostly what happened. I struggled just a little bit with pumping up my jack and initially loosening the lug nuts. He also made me think carefully about which way the donut should be put on my car so I could figure it out, which I did with some guidance.

I was delighted a few hours later to go back and get my car once the tire was fixed. I had helped bring this about myself and was so happy about that! Yay for brothers-in-law who are willing to help out when you need it and yay for another experience that reminded me of what a strong, independent woman I am.

A Girl Power Moment!

Today I totally had a girl power moment, and I'm so proud of myself that I have to share it with all of you.

This week I completely jinxed myself. I was looking for a recipe in a drawer and found the extra headlight I had purchased back in June when my headlight burned out. The guy at the store assured me I needed both because they usually go out within a short time of each other. As I looked at the headlight, I started thinking about the fact that seven months have now passed and my other headlight appears to be just fine, so that guy must've been wrong. . .

Little did I know what such thoughts were going to bring.

I was leaving the parking garage the next day when I noticed that in my car's reflection on the glass, my driver's side headlight was out. Yup, I'm sure it was the power of thought alone that caused my headlight to burn out. Okay, not really, but it was certainly ironic.

Last time my home teacher was kind enough to fix my headlight for me. I felt kind of silly because when he did it, he asked me to pull out my owner's manual so he'd know exactly how to do it. I hadn't even thought of that, but I decided this time would be different. I was determined to take care of it on my own.

As soon as I got home on Thursday, I pulled the manual out, found the correct page and started reading up. I even opened the hood, but then I decided I'd better wait because a) my engine was still hot (not that a hot engine should affect changing my headlight, but I thought it better to do it when it was cold) b) it was already dark outside and c) I was still in my nice work clothes. I didn't expect I'd get filthy, but I still thought it would be better to be in more casual attire.

I waited until today to fix it. Before I took off this afternoon, I read all of the instructions again, more carefully this time, then popped the hood. The process was much easier than I'd expected. There was one part where I got stuck and briefly considered asking for help, but I was pretty determined to do it on my own so I persisted and out the light came. After installing the new bulb and putting all the pieces back in, I slammed the hood and checked to make sure my light worked. It did. Yay!!!

I know this is a small accomplishment, but it was a great girl power moment. It also reminded me that I'm a strong, independent woman, which I sometimes tend to forget. Hooray for small victories!