Reality and Make Believe

Brett left us for Florida on Monday morning and got back on Thursday afternoon. I knew we would be fine, but things are admittedly much easier when Brett's around to rescue me at the end of the day. The boys really missed their Dad. Noah's becoming quite a Daddy's boy and I was pretty worried how he would do without him. The week stayed full with Joy School for Hyrum and I prepared fun activities to do each day. Since he's been home the boys have been pretty clingy to him though, which is kind of nice for me:)

On Friday I packed my 'errand running and need to keep the boys happy' bag full of snacks, treats, camera, etc. We started drive. Just before the Freeway on-ramp there was a big Ford truck stopped. I was just passing the sign that said we did not need to stop if getting onto Freeway, so I gave a friendly double beep of the horn. He didn't move. As I started to get closer I slowed down some more and honked again. He didn't move. I continued to put my foot on the break, but then I hit some black ice and couldn't stop. I put my hand on the horn and didn't stop honking. The truck wasn't budging. There was a big Yukon behind me who also was gliding on the ice. Crash. Crash. Noah was silent at first and then he started laughing. Hyrum was crying and screaming. I turned to see if they were alright. I calmed Hyrum down. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. We were all fine(Miracle 1)Then I pulled out my handy dandy bag of miracles (miracle 2) and gave them both some juice and fruit snacks while I got out to talk to the other drivers. The Ford driver was a 70 year old man that didn't seam to know what happened or what was wrong. He insisted that there was a red light. . . hmmm, funny since that lane has no light. He evidently also didn't hear my continuous honking, or see the two cars out of control coming right for him. I called the police and then got out my camera (miracle 3) and took pictures of everything including the no-stop sign and the icy conditions. The officer arrived and was amazing. He was friendly and calmed us all down. He told us to go ahead and wait in our cars, and he would come to each of us to get our info. I went back to my handy dandy bag to find that I somehow forgot to put my wallet (which was in my usual purse) into the bag of wonders. . . ahhhh! The officer came. I was so nervous and stressed about the accident and then forgetting my wallet that I couldn't think strait. He asked me for my birth-date and I seemed to be able to remember my phone number several times, my boys birthdays, maybe even historical dates, but it took about the 5th try before I could finally recite my birthday. I think the officer felt sorry for me. When he went back to his car I said a little prayer with the boys in thanks that we were safe and also a plea that the officer would show mercy. No tickets or citations were issued. (Miracle 4) The front and back of the car look a bit squashed, but the car was still driveable (Miracle 5). Hyrum had a lot to say about the whole thing. In general: "Do not like car sandwich!", "Do not want car sandwich again, Mom!". Geared toward other cars involved, "Not very nice! You did not listen to Mom! She honk lots of times. Supposed to listen to honk, when you make bad choices! Supposed to say sorry!" He was pretty worked up about everything and it was his topic of pretty much all conversation for the rest of the day. I really feel that everything went ideal, considering. It could have been much worse, the officer could have been less nice, the boys could have been more hysterical. . . I have much to be grateful for, and I really felt that we were watched over that day. Brett was home from his trip and in his office only miles away (Miracle 6) and was able to comfort me and be such a great help after it happened. He even took charge to call all of the insurances so I wouldn't have to worry.

One of our errands we were planning on running that morning was to go meet Santa. I have to admit that despite my Santa Vs. No Santa post last year, I still struggle a bit with the concept, but I'm trying. As evidence of my efforts I wanted to take them to see the big man. The boys were very nice that morning when I told them we would have to see Santa later because our car was broken. We were so lucky that there were no lines when we got there and the boys were able to chat with him for awhile. All Hyrum could talk about was the accident, so Santa jokingly said that he would give us AAA for Christmas.:) The boys had fun, and it was a nice distraction from the previous events of the day.