That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

About this time last year, the kids and I were headed to Office Max to buy some paper for the computer. It was a beautiful day. Weather was nice. Traffic was minimal. Kids were quiet in the car. I'm stopped at the light to turn left. The left arrow turns green and all of a sudden - SCREECH! I was hit by a man in a really old, big, heavy Ford pick-up. He landed in the grass of the bank building. The children - especially Sunshine and Little Man- freaked! Li'l Man had actually banged his head, his eye, on the seat in fron of him because he wasn't sitting in a booster like he should have been. I was physically shaken but we were all O.Kay. You know I tend to freak out. So I did. I called M at work. He was on-call, so I had to put "911" into his pager after my phone number so he'd know this was serious. He calls and the minute I start talking I start crying. I couldn't get the "what ifs" out of my mind. What if I had been just a few seconds faster? Kathryn and/or I would have taken the brunt of the blow. I couldn't stand to think about it. Obviously I'd rather take the brunt, but the thought of the kids seeing me like that was so upsetting. We were safe. I was O.kay. Why can't I just be thankful? Why do I have to re-play all sorts of scenarios in my mind that are so difficult to think about? Is it normal to torture yourself with tragic thoughts like that?

Anyway, the police arrived rather quickly. I managed to drive my car to the Panera parking lot. The police visit the man in the pick-up truck in the bank parking lot first. After about 20 minutes, the policeman comes to talk to me to get my side of the story. I explained to him that I was sitting on "go" waiting for the light to turn green. When it turned green, I started to go, and the pick up truck ran the red light and hit us. He says, "Ma'am, the witness and the driver of the truck said that your light was red and that for no apparent reason you started driving." WHAT?!?! He proceeds, "Do you think you saw someone else's light turn green and you just started going." I was so confused! How could he even suggest that? Of course I didn't do that! So I say, "Look. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it."

So, of course, who do you think M believes? And who do you think everyone else believes? NO ONE believes the mom in the mini-van with four kids and a cell phone. So we paid our deductible and our insurance took care of the rest.

But the story can't end there! We rented a Navigator for a little over a week while the van was in the shop for repairs.( Sidenote/Question: Why do people/moms drive SUVs. No room for groceries. Kids have to climb over each other to get to the back. Miserable driving experience.) Anyway, on the day that I'm supposed to return the rental car, I decide to vacuum it out. It was actually in good condition. The kids hadn't eaten in it all week. No one had fallen asleep and TT'd in their seat. All was good. I just wanted to return it in the same condition. So I find the orange extension cord and grab my upright vacuum cleaner. I set the vacuum on the leather seat and start vacuuming. Do you see where this is going? I sure didn't. I vacuum out the car, unplug the extension cord, and pick up the vacuum. Uh - oh. The bristles from the vacuum burned a HUGE hole in the seat. There's no denying it or hiding it. How am I going to tell this to my husband? This is a double-whammy. It's bad enough that he thinks I ran a red light. But then I burn a hole in the rental car?!? "Umm, honey. Um. I was trying to clean out the rental car - I was really trying to be a blessing to Hertz - and um, well, you might want to take a look at the car." Ouch!

Sorry for the abrupt ending. It just didn't have a good ending and I couldn't make one up.

So I'm looking back and thanking God that it was just a car seat and a messed up mini-van. It couldv'e been much worse!