Broke.

Van Broke. Camera Broke. Wallet Broke. I'm goin' fishin'. Wait, I don't know how to fish. Dang it. Fish Broke.

Crash.

Dear Kids,

It is 4 in the morning but I can't sleep. So I write.

Last night at 5:45 we were in a car accident. The insurance says I can't talk about it but the public record states that it was right near our house, I "failed to yield" and all of the airbags on the drivers side deployed.

That being said everyone is okay, only Mommy is damaged with only scrapes and bruises and soreness. The driver of the other car walked away as well.

I have learned I was not the cool and collected Mommy I always hoped I would be in that situation. Once I found my glasses, I couldn't find my cell phone because it was in the cupholder. I kept trying to get out and ask someone to call your Daddy but the car was still in drive and therefore locked, and it wouldn't let me out and I might have called the car some naughty words in my efforts.

I finally found the phone and made one fairly incoherent call to Daddy, who was 45 minutes away in rush hour traffic. Apparently the only understandable words were "car accident". Poor Daddy. I then called my good friend Brittany who's husband is our Home Teacher. He was there in 5 minutes and eventually loaded all of you, your car seats, the stroller, the diaper bag, the dry cleaning, and babbling Mommy into his car to bring us home.

Our minivan was towed away. For hours when I thought of the minivan, I would cry. In my old age I have learned that women have emotional attachments to their cars and when things go wrong, it is a season for tears. Maybe from the prospect of having to deal with mechanics, maybe not.

But now I cry from gratitude. That thing is like a tank, I used to complain that it drove so heavy and cumbersome. Never again. It took a really good beating for us and really, we are just fine. The other car crumpled like a tin can, but the cops told me it was designed to do that.

The cops. The emt's. They were so nice. They brought you all cold water and gave you stickers and joked about how much leftover food you guys had stored in the back seat. Seriously the minivan was messier than it had ever been, it's just been so hot for so long that I haven't cleaned it out. I felt like that adage, "Always wear clean underwear in case you get in an accident." I have now changed it to "Always drive a clean car because you never know when 20 medical personal and every single driver on Warner Road is going to see the inside of your minivan."

By 6:45 we were home and by 7, Grandma and Grampa were there for comfort and blessings. Jonah and Marcus, you promptly started playing video games and asked for pizza for dinner. Grampa asked if you were alright and Marcus, this was your response.

"It was like being on a roller coaster at Disneyland. I liked it. But a roller coaster I wasn't supposed to be on. But I still liked it."

You later commented, "Mom, now that the airbags have been popped on my side we can't have any more accidents on my side." Jonah, I could see your response to that rolling around in your head but you wisely kept your mouth shut.

And let me finish with this. By 7:15 the first batch of cookies arrived. (after all, there is nothing that chocolate chip cookies cannot make better) Followed by a visit from our Bishop and wife and more cookies. The last batch arrived at 9:45 pm. Before I went to bed there were 10 texts and countless voicemails, all from our ward members and friends, offering concern, dinner, and help with the kids in the upcoming car-less days.

There are those that say that Mormons aren't Christians. ( I know, right??) This experience prompts my response, How Do Ya Like Them Apples!!

hehehehehehe

Lessons in Life

Dear kids,

School started yesterday and really I should be blogging about that. Yes you guys are really cute and yes it was almost heartbreaking waving good bye and driving off with only one baby in the car. And yes, I get all kinds of anxious when I think how fast the time flew with Markie as my baby and now he's my big boy and when exactly did this happen???

But what's in my heart today is last Sunday night. Before Daddy gave you Father's Blessings for the new school year, we had our good friend Liz and Mark Kelly over for dinner with their 4 beautiful boys. I really wanted to take a picture but I couldn't find a socially acceptable excuse to randomly pull out the camera for a Sunday dinner.

You see, Mark and Daddy grew up together. They have more memories of each other than I will probably ever hear. Mark is one your Daddy would call "Good People". He's steady and real and funny and has a deep testimony. His wife is his equal in all things. I find her beautiful and instantly fun and easy to be around.

A few months ago Mark was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It's when your nervous system progressively just shuts down. It started in his left hand and is slowly moving from there. He is one of the youngest ever diagnosed with it. He's 29, one year younger than Daddy.

He walked in with a marvelous looking staff which he uses to walk, to stand, and to whap his boys. Boys need that sometimes. A good whap. His hug isn't what it used to be but his smile is.

Even though we hadn't seen them is so long, too long, he was easy to talk with, talking both about his disease and the future with ease and confidence. You get the sense that he knows he's losing some things, balance and strength, but he's so grateful for what he has. A testimony that his family will always be together, a faith that he is only given that which he can handle.

While I greatly admire his testimony, his endurance, and his great faith, the strongest thing I am taking away from Sunday night is the need to not take the future for granted. I have today and today, with you my children, is wonderful.

....seriously.

My Babes~

Our last full day in California started out with a kink. Literally. I woke up at 5 am, stretched and hurt my neck. You (hopefully) aren't aware that Mommy does this regularly unfortunately. But I've always had someone to lend a hand, Daddy or friends or someone. But it was 5 am and I was all by myself with 3 sleeping babies. I snuck out for some ice, took a handful of ibuprofen and called your Dad. It was 8 am in Chile. After a good cry, I laid on the bed to try to relax.

At 6:30 Marcus, you woke up with a seal-bark cough. I can't imagine why, since the day before you took a dip in ice water. But whatever. By 8:30 I called Grandma Jane and asked for help. She was already on her way but called her chiropractor and asked for an appointment even though it was his day off. In the meantime she took you boys swimming and Kariah took a nap.

The chiropractor did the trick and we went by the farm to pick up Grampa. Lo and behold, Susan had a pony for the boys to ride!!! Jonah went first and was a little scared. Mostly because the pony kept whinnying loudly for her boyfriend and Jonah is always a little nervous around new loud sounds. Marcus begged for, and got, two turns and he grinned the whole time. Kariah wasn't impressed. Period.

Then we went for a drive to find the ocean and real clam chowda, as Grampa says. We found the good stuff at a restaurant perched on a cliff over the ocean. Turns out Jonah loves it, Marcus is not a fan (what a surprise). But he did have to go pee (another shocker). So Grampa takes him outside to the port-a-potty also perched on said cliff.

Well, the story goes Marcus, you went in the potty, but forgot to turn the latch. So when you were done you turned it the wrong way and couldn't get out. So Grampa told you to turn in the other way and push. PUSH you did, and you came flying out of the port-a-potty, head first towards the cliff but first into the ground. Luckily Grampa knows how to tickle tears away.

The next day Grampa took us to an overlook of the Golden Gate bridge. We parked on yet another cliff, this one without a guard rail, and he asked if we wanted to get out and take a picture. I thought over our wonderful (and oh so exciting) vacation and decided, "No, the view is just fine from Marcus' seatbelt. Thank you very much."

We ended the trip checking out Sausalito, houseboats, and gourmet grocery stores for a picnic at the Larkspur park. It was a wonderful vacation which taught me a lot. Namely, with Grandparents at her side, a Mommy can do anything!

cool pic with the dog, Tess running with all four feet in the air!

Seriously? Seriously.

Dear Jo and Marc ~

It was our first full day in California. Grampa took us to the outlet shops in Petaluma, I hadn't brought enough warm clothing, especially for Kariah. You boys also desperately needed new sneakers for school. We had a great time shopping and Grampa helped you find super-fast shoes. Kariah needed a diaper change so I took her into the women's restroom and Grampa took you boys for a potty break.

I emerged 5 minutes later to find you all sitting down, Marcus' face buried in Grampa's chest, and a security guard talking sternly. Marcus has dialed 911 on the nearby payphone.

Seriously??? I was in shock. See, in my imaginary "I'm a perfect mommy" world, we had had a family night all about 911. We had unplugged the phone and everyone practiced and we talked about when to use 911, when not to, what to say, what to expect. Wouldn't that have just been great, if we had actually done that?!

Instead we were getting lectured by rent-a-cop. I assured him I would take care of it and Marcus received a stern talking-to. Okay, brush it off, move on, enjoy vacation.

We headed towards Dillon Beach, about 30 minutes away. As we drove through the beautiful hills, fingers of fog floated over the road making it feel so surreal. We finally parked and you boys exploded from the van. You took off running for the water and Grampa tried to catch up with you. "Isn't that cute" I thought, as I snapped a picture. I took my time getting Kariah out of the car, trying to get my new camera all set to take darling family beach pictures.

I climb over the dunes and try to find you. There's Grampa, stripping your sweatshirts off. "What?!" I think. It's like 58 degrees, what in the world is going on????

You had both barrelled right into the water. The water that is barely 50 degrees. You were soaked. Grampa wanted the sweatshirts off because they weighed like 20 pounds soaking wet and were going to take you under with the next wave. By the time I got to the water, you were both down to your pants and grinning ear to ear.

Grampa and I stood in the sand. Speechless. Seriously? Seriously.

You had five minutes. And then back into the van, stripped to your underwear, heater going full blast, while Grampa, Kariah and I sweated. As I told Daddy the story later on the phone, I realized. I had paid 7 bucks to park there. We averaged a buck a minute. Awesome.

Back to the outlet mall. More winter clothes, dressed you in the parking lot. But the story doesn't end there.

25 feet from the freeway entrance, "I have to pee." I thought Grampa's eyes were going to bug out of his head. Denny's bathroom to the rescue. Back on the freeway. Back to the hotel. Back to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be.....less eventful.