A Whirlwind of a Week

Before I get started, I wanted to let you all know that something was going on with the last Chip In button so I have made a new one. I was getting e-mails from people saying it wasn't working or wasn't always showing up on the sidebar, so I just made a new one. If you used the last one, your names have been recorded and will go in on the drawing for the i-Pad, jewelry, and gift cards. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can check it out here


Because of the holiday last week, it was a short week for everyone. The kids only went to school on Monday and Tuesday and that is all I worked. We were all looking forward to the relaxation and break. In fact, we (Emma, my mother-in-law and I) had planned a trip to Chicago on Wednesday for Emma's birthday (December 11th).

It seems lately things do not always work out the way we want. Tuesday morning Emma woke up sick and didn't go to school. She was cold, sweaty, and she couldn't keep anything down. At first I thought (was hoping) it was just something she ate the night before. I didn't want her to miss out on her Chicago trip. She has been saving her money for China but since we can't afford to take her, she was going to go to American Girl. As the day went on it was pretty evident that it was some sort of nasty bug because by noon that same day Matt was home in bed with the same thing.

To kick off the Thanksgiving holiday, Mylee's Kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving Program. For weeks we have had to listen to the songs that the kids sang so I felt like I was a at a concert singing along. She had such a great time. She LOVES performing. A few parents even came up to me afterwards and told me how much they enjoyed watching her and all her enthusiasm. She really gets into it.







I know I'm biased, but she was the cutest little Pilgrim there.


Because the program was towards the end of the day, I picked up Gabe and Mylee from school. Usually if it is nice out they just walk home (we live about a block from the school). Just as I was turning into our neighborhood I felt a bump, and heard a screeching sound, they screaming and crying from all four kids (I had Mylee, Gabe, Drew, and Isaac, the little boy I watch with me). I looked over and there was a SUV literally in the side of my van. Luckily everyone was fine. The kids were scared, but no one was hurt. Apparently the lady of the SUV thought I was turning left even though she said she knew I was turning right. She went to pass me and instead t-boned me and drove me off the side of the road. I felt so bad for her, she was so nice and overly concerned about making sure everyone was okay. She kept saying over and over "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." I just kept telling her it was okay and that no one was hurt. Apparently Gabe got tired of hearing this because he chimed in with "she said it's okay, geez."

Anyway, she has taken full responsibility, but we were without my van all week and were put into a four day sedan which is obviously not big enough for our family. Luckily our Thanksgiving plans were in town this year.

My van...




Her car...




We heard back from the body shop today, and unfortunately it isn't great news. They may have to total our van. Her insurance is going to do their own appraisal so we are hoping they will just work it out so it can be fixed. It took us forever to find a van big enough for our family that we could actually afford. The good news is that her insurance is paying for our car to be upgraded to a mini van so even though we still won't all fit, we can make it work a little better.

We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with family. My sister, her husband, and their daughter, Riley came up. We all ate until we were stuffed, then ate some more. And yes, my sister and I were one of the millions of people standing in line and shopping all night. The funny thing is neither one of us really got anything, we just had more fun watching and talking with other people who were as crazy as us.

We finished off the long weekend by putting up our Christmas tree. This was bittersweet for me this year, and I think for the kids as well. Last year we talked about how we would have Kalia home to help us this year, and instead, we were hanging her ornament on the tree again.















So, all in all, we had a great week despite the wreck. Please pray though that this gets resolved quickly and that we will have OUR van back sooner than later.