Car Accident

So, the day before my mom and my brother came into town, I was driving to the doctor's office and I got in this super lame fender bender. Luckily I had just dropped the kids off at a friends, so they weren't in the car with me. We have these lame/nice frontage roads in Texas and they're by every freeway, so yielding to freeway traffic can be a little....frustrating at times. It's hard to see people coming in our van, so we really have to look and be very cautious. There was a car in front of me, which I saw. She was going slow, but I knew she was there and no one was coming off the freeway.  I had glanced over to see if there was any off coming cars, and when I turned around and saw that she had stopped for no one, I slammed on my breaks, but it was too late. Her's wasn't even a quick stop...like a stop and go. It was a stop and sit. I wasn't going very fast, but I hit her maybe going 15-20 MPH. I was super bummed, but we were both ok and that's what's important. I actually barely felt it, so when I got out and saw what my car looked like, I was shocked. It was so much worse than I thought. Maybe it was the angle I hit the car? 

Awful way to start the day, but my car still worked, so I drove to the doctors and made arrangements to take the car in a week later after my mom and brother left. I needed the van to fit everyone in one car while they were here. It still worked, so I saw no rush. 

After we drove my mom to the airport (5 days later) and remarking that I felt the transmission was shifting weird, things started to get a little crazy. I've had a transmission go out before and I've also had the transmission repairmen misplace cables, which then burned through on the hot engine and made driving scary and crazy. This was the same feeling. We were all driving home from Brian's work praying that we'd just make it home. The car wasn't shifting gears, felt like it was going to quit at any moment. We had 6 people, 15 miles away from home on the freeway, and it was nearly 100 degrees outside. Not really a big deal as far as life in concerned, but it would have been majorly inconvenient. So, we made it home and it died in the driveway. 

Had the car towed the next day awaiting inspection. I really thought that the repairs would be no big deal, but now I had this pit in my stomach and really wasn't surprised when they called to tell me that my big, beautiful van was totaled. Sad news. A real bummer. Insurance adjuster said that he couldn't believe I was ok because the front of the car went under the battery, punctured a hole and leaked battery acid all over the engine. AND I DROVE IT FOR A WEEK! I didn't tell him that I drove it around tarnation, but chose, "Wow! I can't believe I drove away from the accident" instead. He agreed and we started our hunt for our next car. We had very limited time because our now 1 car was a rental and we had a very small window to shop. We bought a car the next day....very fast purchase. I don't like buying a car that fast nor would I want to do it again unless I had to. I like shopping around and looking at various options. 

I'm pretty happy about it what we got and we just pray that it lasts us longer than one year. :) I miss my blue van, but this one is pretty much the same, a year older, a little more miles, and a different color. The kids were excited for a new car and said, "But it's the same!" as soon as they got inside. Yes, dear children, nothing exciting for us. Haha. 

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the outside with the bumper on, but I was too upset about the whole ordeal to take a picture. It made me really upset. There is supposed to be space between the battery and the radiator....there's not. There's also that huge tube that's supposed to be connected and it's not either. Don't know how I drove it for a week....

The inside. Totaled and in awesome condition. Insert small sobs.

Goodbye old car, hello, "new" car.

Family Vacation

I'm nearly a month late on posting this, but I take that as a good indication that life has been happening and hopefully I'll just have more to blog about. One can hope, right?

So, Jason and my Mom came to visit us last month and it was busy and wonderful and WAY TOO FAST. We now have an Anderson vacation disclaimer: If our family wants to visit, it must be no less than 7 days. Seven actual days. Not, "Well, I flew out on day 7". That doesn't count as a day. It was too short for me. I needed about 3 more days to really soak in them being here.

Jared was delighted to have Uncle Jason to play with all the time. I think Uncle Jason isn't used to being climbed on all the time and he's probably basking in his kid-free life of not being touched every second of the day.

With so much help around, I found the time to paint and hang this beautiful eyeshadow magnet board. It is amazing. It cost me a whole $3 for the picture hanging kit and $3 for the magnets and it the most incredible thing in my bathroom. I could go on and on about how useful and amazing it us, but I'll just post a picture. 

My mom and I also finally made it over to Bare Escentuals to do a make under. So fun! It's probably my favorite free thing to do. I told the girl to do whatever she wanted so she contoured using only bronzers. Kind cool. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like with that dark brown, it it turned out awesome. 

               

The second day Jason, Brian, and I went to Six Flags. Where did my pictures go of us standing in line???? I don't know. (Jason will contribute....right??? Then I will update.) Anyway, Six Flags was incredible. The lines weren't long, we went on all the rollercoasters. I nearly cried at how fun the  Mr. Freeze ride was and definitely cried laughing at Brian being afraid of heights. He will go on almost any ride, but pulls the most ridiculously hilarious faces. I'll have to post them all one day. We had SO MUCH FUN! I haven't done anything like that in what feels like ages and I wish I wouldn't have had any responsibility that I felt like I needed to get back to. I would have stayed all night long. Thank you Jason! 

Friday was spent with my and my mom going to Sam Moon. That store. Sigh. I always spend too much $$ on cheap jewelry and it's why I limit myself to going twice per year. We had a blast. Then we went to the outlet malls where my mom got outfitted in a new dash of awesome at Anne Taylor. Going shopping with kids just isn't the same though. At one point I had to run Jared to the bathroom and told Jason, "Stay here, I'll be right back." Three short minutes later, they were not in the store and they had my phone. I wanted for almost a half hour, finally went to Banana Republic and called them. They had walked to the bathroom a billion miles away when there was one right next door. Silly family. Never leave a brother with your phone. :)

Friday night was our "big" race day. We did a night time race and it was super hot and super fun. I'm glad it wasn't hotter, but we were just big sweaty messes by the end. It was Jason's first race and I thought he'd for sure place, but he came in fourth in his age group. He was so close. Luckily I run with the slow girls and I came in 2nd in my age group. 

Getting ready to race.

Warming up. I couldn't help taking pictures of them. :) 

Lookin' good, guys! 

Siblings.... 

I love my mom's face here! I laugh every time. 

In my head, this picture looked so much cooler. You can only do so much in the dark with an iPhone.  

Darn! I thought I took a picture of my time. I think it was 27.23. Pretty positive anyway. I was really hoping to get under 25.30. Next time. It was just so hot!

 On the fourth of July we kept busy going to the Irving parade, which was way more awesome than I thought. I haven't heard good things about it, but it was totally a small town parade....and I love that! There was so much candy throwing, so my kids finally got to learn what a parade is supposed to be. Some parents don't like their kids getting that much candy, but I try to take it from a kids perspective and that means it was awesome. We are still eating away at it and it makes Jared so ornery when he doesn't get some, but that's all part of the game. :)

After parade slurps

Look! Spiderman is on "God's Team!" Oh Texas....

Fireworks that night. Brian's not a big 4th of July person and we never go watch fireworks, so I was really excited to have a reason to go. They were kind of underwhelming, but oh well. Maybe next year. Maybe by then the kids will care instead of watching one and moving on.

We had a little Birthday party for Claire while the fan was in town. We made her favorite pie and she got an easy bake oven. She loves to bake and share with everyone. Brian usually cringes at her concoctions, but we'll eat them and say they're amazing. Fortunately the kids eat every bite and love it.

Of course everyone gets a present when Grandma comes to visit.

I was NOT ready for these two to leave. I think they were ready to go home to their piece and quiet, but I thoroughly enjoyed them being here. COME BACK! I miss living so close to family.

I'm

Tile floors

Wednesday was a super fun day. Fun in the worst sense of the word. I thought we were going to have this craz-mazing day. Brian was staying home from work, we went to the park by 8 am to enjoy the non-heat, and we were ready to go somewhere else by 9. Claire and Jared were playing as they normally do and were running around the house. I was laying on the couch ready to pass out and didn't even hear Claire fall down, but Brian got up and ran back to her super fast, so I decided I'd go check out what happened. Brian has a tendency to over-react and I thought I could help out. 

By the time I got back to the bedroom, Brian had Claire in his arms and he was kind of scary-yelling at her, "Claire! Claire! Are you....What happened? Claire!?" He had her in her arms but she was straight as a board, not relaxed, her arms were twisted funny, and her legs were shaking. I wasn't sure what was happening or even where she fell from, so it all just looked crazy and scary. He set her down on the floor and was panic talking to her. Luckily, way back when, my lovely 911 operator told me to calm down and talk to her as normal as possible and just tell her everything is going to be ok. It's like if you're sleeping and someone wakes you up in a panic, you're automatically going to be going 100 mph upon wakeup and it can be a little jarring. Anyway, I wasn't sure if she was having a seizure, but it sure looked like one. I talked her through it and it ended faster than any previous we've seen. Total it was probably about 15-20 seconds long and she came out of it terrified. 

She rolled over and kept saying, "No, please stop, please stop." But she looked really scared and then started crying. No one saw her fall, she couldn't remember Brian picking her up, and she didn't want anyone to touch her. She finally let me hold her, but wouldn't stop crying. Normally after a seizure she zonks immediately. Partly why we didn't know if it was a seizure of if she blacked out. Maybe both? After a few minutes and Brian researching seizures due to falling or hitting your head on something (a normal thing to happen), we called the doctor and they made an appointment for noon. It was now about 9:30 and I was surprised they didn't have be bring her right in. She said she felt a little sick, but was acting ok...not happy or sad...just ok. 

I jumped in the shower, trying to get ready as fast as I could and by the time I was putting my mascara on, she wanted to throw up. I called the doctor again and they told me just to bring her right in. By the time I made it to the toll road to go up to her pediatrician, she was throwing up in the car and I felt like the pediatrician would be a waste of time, called them, and turned around to go to the hospital. 

I don't know why this happens, but whenever you're in a hurry, people like to go 20 mph under the speed limit. Ugh. I had kept it together pretty well all morning, but Claire looked awful. She was bobbing all over the back in her carseat, kept throwing up, tried to sleep. Her lips - you couldn't even see them, they blended in with the rest of her incredibly pale face. I tried to keep her awake (even though I knew it didn't matter for them to sleep or not) just so she could tell me how she was feeling. She threw up a 3rd time and started to get a little more color back into her face, but she was acting more and more strange by the minute. I nearly lost it in the car thinking we wouldn't even make it to the hospital, but apparently I have tear ducts of steel and managed to keep myself together and let my legs and arms shake for whatever emotion I couldn't spill out through my eyes. 

We got to the ER, checked in, luckily made it to the waiting room with NO ONE IN IT!?!!? That's a first. We still had to wait 20-30 minutes and during that time she vomited a 4th time. She had a really bad headache, wouldn't talk to me, told me not to talk to her, didn't want to watch Big Hero 6, which she loves, and we sat there in silence. These really nice women next to me grabbed her a drink and some tissues while she was throwing up (luckily we had our trash can). I thought that was so kind because I probably would have grabbed my stuff and moved not knowing what illness this barfing kid had. To be honest, I was terrified. I wasn't keeping it together very well as far as I was concerned. I'd lie her down, get up and pace, and then run back to her. I'd try to talk to her, anything. Maybe I was over-reacting, but the unknown was so scary. We've been through so much with this kid and this was the last place I wanted to be. Sweet Claire, there are other ways to spend time with your parents. 

So, we head back to our room finally, doctor comes in and checks her, looks concerned and says, "Well, we try not to give them, but her case is concerning enough that we will probably do a CT Scan." I was hoping for one anyway because I wanted to go home sure that everything was ok or not ok. In the back of my mind I had this Natasha Richardson scenario and I really didn't want to go through that. 

So, Although I didn't really want to broadcast our mishap to the world at the time, we didn't have time for Brian to give her a blessing before we ran out the door, so I posted and asked for prayers on Instagram. It's amazing what prayers can do. Brian was at home sobbing and thinking the worst. I was composed, but my insides were a hot mess. Brian put her name in the temple, my brother did the same, and almost instantly I felt more calm. So, thank you to everyone for helping us out in this way. It made all the difference. 

Claire fell asleep while we waited for the head pediatrician. He came in, said the same thing the previous doctor said and ordered the CT scan.  Since she knew the answers to his questions, he was optimistic, but because she met at least 2 criteria for a CT, he ordered it. While we waited, Claire slept more.

Her criteria was: Fell from higher than 3 feet, vomited 4+ times, had a seizure, got hit with a forceful object, acting more and more loopy. I think that was all. 

Finally, we went back to the CT room and she did awesome. Her little nap must have done wonders because when we got back to our room, we turned on Big Hero 6 and she told me the entire storyline and wouldn't stop talking. She got stickers from being such a good girl during her scan and she was so happy about them. I told her we would get her doughnuts afterward because she had to put her head in a giant doughnut (the CT was a giant circle and thinking of it as a doughnut really calmed her down).

The long hour to see if her brain/skull was ok. 

Drinking water. Finally! It's amazing how the little things are so important when you need them to happen.

CT came back completely normal....hallelujah! We still couldn't leave her alone for 24 hours, but things were looking up. I felt very peaceful that everything would be just fine and our "watching" would be pretty easy. 

Brian's sweet parents treated us (THANK YOU!!!) to dinner and dessert for our long fiasco and Claire was REALLY excited that she got to eat at Taco Bell (barf!) and then again for eating her big bowl of ice cream. It's really sad how much we really love ice cream. 

They said she would self-limit her play, but she didn't do anything out of the ordinary. She wasn't extra tired, she wasn't extra ornery, her headache never came back. It was almost like it never happened. Again, I thank everyone for the prayers. It could have been really scary and I'm so glad we asked for reinforcements! 

Next day I thought she'd be under the weather, but she had extra energy to play with all these lovely hooligans!

And...she has been a lego building machine! My phone has a billion pictures of lego houses, animals, towers, faces, you name it.

And...because we really need to give a shout out to cute Jared. I asked if he wanted a peanut butter sandwich or a grilled cheese. He looked at me thoughtfully and said, "Boy cheese". Apparently "Grilled cheese" sounds like "Girl Cheese" to a 3 year old boy.

We now have "girl cheese" and "boy cheese" sandwiches at our house. 

Cutie.

Now...I'm hoping that Brian can get a job soon and we'll move to a new house without so much tile. Blast this tile!