I was a crash test dummy

Yesterday I was headed to Peoria to do some shopping. I picked up my big one from school and started driving. I had originally planned to go to my parents' house to drop off some piano info for my mom, but the info I had was outdated. I kept feeling like I should go there, so I called Mom to see of she was ok. She was, and actually wasn't even home so I continued on. On the way out of town I considered turning around in 4 different spots, but I couldn't rationalize doing it. In fact, the whole drive there I kept thinking, "well, I could go to Walmart, or Kroger, or Goodwill, or somewhere." But I didn't have a reason to. I was very focused on driving and even had to remind my daughters a few times that I couldn't read things or look because I was driving. PLUS, when I got into Peoria, I was reliving when I got rear-ended in my Jeep and the hitch really trashed the other car.
2 miles later I look over to see a new restaurant and when I looked back, WHAM! I barely had time to slam on my brakes when I hit the tailgate of a truck. The guy driving it was trying to turn left from the left lane of a 4 lane road when he should have been in the turn lane. The car in front of him stopped, so he stopped with the bed of his truck half way in the lane. I looked away for a moment and then I hit him.
The thing was, once it happened I thought, "oh great, THIS is why I wasn't supposed to be here!" Good grief, how much more of a sign did I need?
The airbags deployed and the driver's side corner of the Jeep was pushed back against the wheel. The windshield cracked and the radiator was busted too, so the front end is probably shot. I smashed it and I smashed it good!
The girls are ok, they aren't even sore today. I'm ok, my neck is stiff today, but not too bad. I don't think that we really hit that hard. It felt like my cheek just brushed the airbag.
So, what have I learned from this?
Don't tempt fate.
There's probably a reason that you're getting a million messages to not do something.
My guardian angels were working overtime and they're probably a little peeved at me.
God is really, really, really good and I am thankful for that!

I woke up this morning at 4:15. That's actually a good thing because it meant that the little one slept in her own bed that long. 7 hours. Of (potential) sleep. For me. Ahhh.
But, this morning I had planned on getting up at 5 to go to the gym. You see, I haven't been able to run for 2 weeks. The weather has taken a nasty turn around here so my daily walk to school and hours to run around town with the little one in the stroller are gone. I have so much tension built up that it's scary. I even bought 'Tension Tamer' herbal tea in hopes that it may calm my nerves. It didn't.
I woke up this morning with the little one and planned to stay up. Then, the big one woke up from a bad dream. I laid down with her to get her back to sleep, only to go back upstairs and see that the little one was awake again. I angrily got back into bed, assuming that my window of opportunity was quickly closing but knowing that I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep.
Enter my dear husband who, for any who know him, is not a morning person. In fact, he is basically a zombie until 9 or 10 in the morning. (This is especially unfortunate, considering his required early mornings.) He insisted that I get out of the house, at least for a little bit. And thank the dear Lord that I did! I feel like a new girl this morning. Granted, I had an hour less sleep than I would have liked, but I feel like my well of tension is being shaken loose a bit.

This is my big one with her little snake friend. My husband found it one day while he was mowing. I still get the heebee-jeebees (you know what I mean) whenever I see this. I've always wanted to like snakes and I've always been impressed by those that can/want to pick them up, but I am not one of those people. My daughter, on the other hand, played with this poor little guy for half the day until he was as limp as a noodle. He was still alive, thankfully, so she set him free and hopefully he continued his life thereafter.

Halloween

Halloween came and went without a hitch. Thankfully the costumes went together really easily and quickly. That was good, considering that I started them the day before. The big one was Silvermist, who is one of Tinkerbell's friends in this new movie that a) I'm sure we'll own soon and b) I'm sure will be watched back to back to back to back.

Silvermist in not normally an angry fairy.

The little one was Tinkerbell.

The girls played thier fairy parts well, flitting about gathering candy from door to door.