The Stop Sign Incident: Body Shop Version

The stop sign incident is now fully in my rear view mirror (love that car humor), but some of the life lessons I've learned are still fresh. 

Thankfully, after a trip to the body shop, my "new" van looks as good as before and the physical evidence is no longer.  I'll admit I'm so happy to have it perfect again. For a few weeks, it was almost like my hood was laughing at me.  I might have even closed my eyes each time I walked in front of the car. Call it avoidance, but I think of it more as protecting my damaged heart.

The office staff at the Jr. High says that while the "incident" will always be a part of school lore, they hope it doesn't stop me from bringing my famous chocolate chip cookies to spoil them.  I think I might have told the secretary that calling me the 'stop sign lady' might take her off my Christmas Camels list. Not that I'm petty.

I will say that the grace and kindness I've received from my husband has been a real blessing.  Not once did my insurance agent husband raise his voice or call me on the carpet for such a "dumb act" of driving.   Even when I told him the final estimate price, his response was "it's just an accident, no harm" and he was willing to give me his car for the three days I was "carless.'  Of course, he did get to drive around in a Honda Accord Coupe in pristine condition thanks to a kind coworker.  I think he only put about 15 miles on it, but he loved every minute of his return to youth.  He used to drive a Acura Integra before kids and I think there are days he really misses the sport car life.

I was also humbled by how kind and honest the Body Shop workers were,  Not once did they laugh at "how" I ended up in their shop.  They not only gave me assurance that my car would look good again, they said I was fine to drive it for a few weeks until I could fit the repair into my schedule.  Their price was nearly 100 dollars less than the competition and that was before I told them they had come highly recommended from our old body shop friend who had retired.

Driving away with my van last week, I was shocked that the car smelled like a new car again; the seats and floor had been vacuumed and they had left me with a box of Russell Stovers Chocolates as a thank you. While I hope I won't be needing their services anytime in the future (please God), it's nice to see such honest hard workers who go above and beyond.

I'm chalking this whole experience up as a learning lesson in grace, patience, kindness of strangers, and the need for stop signs to be permanently placed in curbs and sidewalks.  They just don't belong in the middle of the road.

I'm just saying.

Cornicopia or Hodgepodge Whatever You Want to Call It...

Just for the record books or in my case the scrapbooks that keep sitting on the craft table starring at me, here are few real life things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. None are all that exciting, but they are the glimpse of our day to day life that I don't want to forget in the years ahead. It is in list form because it's easiest and doesn't require complete sentences!

1.  P and I celebrated our 18th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday November 6th. Amazing. We enjoyed a great date day on Saturday when we went to the NU Game and saw the Huskers lose to Northwestern. Shocking.  I told my parents I don't think I've been to a winning Nebraska game in years. We tend to go every year around our anniversary or when they played Texas.  Maybe the team should ask me to stay home next year!  It was a great day for football and we had so much fun talking without interruption.  Score, I even knitted on the car ride.

2.  Our actual anniversary was spent at church and then at a pancake benefit for one of Mr C's classmates families.  I hate Pancakes and all Breakfast food, but ate some as it was for a good cause. My husband actually tried to say it was like taking me out to eat!

3. Mr C wakes up about 30 minutes before he needs to go to school each morning.  He calls this his "transition to awakeness time" and its crucial for him.  He also wakes up each day and says "I think I might dress up today?"  Hello, he has no choice; its his uniform.  Sadly, he's grown a little more lately and all the dress pants we bought him in October are beginning to look short. 

4.  Miss A was helping me the other day before school to sort the dirty laundry.  She loved it. The piles of colors and whites were so fun for her make.  She did everyone in the family's overflowing laundry basket.  She told me not to ever do this again without her help.  Where is that enthusiasm from the other children.  No one offers to help put it all away when it's clean either.

5. Miss M has her first dance competition this weekend.  Its a local event and includes an all day dance convention. She told me that she's so looking forward to this weekend, but she needs me to purchase some more hair spray.  Can't have that dance bun falling out I guess.  For the Saturday event, she told me it's OK if I bring my knitting along, but I need to remember to watch when she performs.  As if I'd miss it.

6. We boxed up our Operation Christmas Child boxes last week and I've never been so excited to think of the boys and girls getting their packages.   Friday night, the whole family went to the Dollar Tree and filled the boxes to the brim.  Mr C picked out some fun things for a little boy and, of course, the girls picked girls their ages to shop for.  It's very hard to go shopping to buy things for others and not leave with anything for yourself, but it was a great life lesson for the kids. 

7.  Finally, we are a little old fashioned about Christmas decorating (at least I am) and won't allow anything up until after Thanksgiving.  I always feel so bad for this non commercial holiday, it gets lost in the commercialism of Christmas.  So sad.  Anyway, I've obviously been too vocal on it.  On the way home from Church on Sunday, Miss A announces that she plans on going to the house on the edge of the neighborhood and tell them you must take down your "Halloween decorations before you put up your Christmas decorations.  Come on people, it's lets not forget about Thanksgiving!"  We kept a close eye on her Sunday afternoon and did not let her ride her bike too far away!

Whew.  I feel a lot better getting all those "things" off my chest.  Now, I can know these memories are safely kept right here and giving me more brain room for Thanksgiving planning.

Not My Best Monday

Accidents really have a way of putting a damper on another wise stellar day.  I was excited for Miss M's Balcony Girls/Girl Scout troop meeting, I'd gotten the house ready for the meeting and it had been a perfect fall Monday.  I'd been to the gym to work out, ran a few errands and even had time to work on my Bible study.

I'd arrived at the Jr. High a little early, anxious to meet the girls before the bus and drive them to my house for our first meeting of the year.  The first parking stall I'd chosen didn't seem right; I thought if I exited the car others would be stuck behind me.  Listening to the radio and planning in my head the next few hours of the day, I did not see the Stop Sign in the middle of the road ahead.

Now to give you a little background.  It's a short stop sign and it's not always there. Really.  I ran smack into it. My lovely ten month old Honda Minivan (that I'd just washed and vacuumed that very day) ran over a five foot stop sign and it was now wedged under my car.  I tried backing up. Nothing. Going forward. Nothing.

I ran into the building as cars loaded with parents watched, and said I needed help ASAP to get the stop sign out from under my car.  You see not only was the sign stuck, I was stuck in the middle of the road.  Blocking traffic with just seconds to spare before the bell rang.

The Assistant Principal came out and said," Mrs. B let's see what we can do;" and between the off duty police officer and himself they directed me to backup and get out of the way of oncoming traffic.  By now, the bell had rung and hundreds of 5th and 6th graders are piling out of the building and snapping pictures of my car and laughing.  I'm holding it together, but worried about the Girl Scouts, my car and how I would ever explain this to P.

The principal comes over to offer his condolences, er help, and then it becomes evident that we'll need to jack the car up to get the pole out.  In the course of the next fifteen minutes, the asst. principal jacks up my car, my husband arrives ( Miss M had frantically called him from my cell phone, poor guy thought from her screaming that I'd been impaled by a stop sign), and it's still stuck.

By now, most of the kids have been picked up sans my little group of girls and the entire staff has been notified of my "situation."  The Junior High Football Coaches arrive and offer to lift the car up just a little bit more so my husband can pull it out. It appears that the base of the sign is just caught up under the undercarriage with no significant damage underneath.  One big grunt and the car is up and the sign it out.  Hurrah!

The damage to my car really is very little, just a small dent on the hood and I'm thankful to say the damage to my ego really isn't as bad as it could have been.  A friend saw me in my moment of stress and offered help and a hug, the staff at the school jumped into my rescue, and my husband said there was no need to apologize, I'd beat myself up enough already with the whole school watching.

All in all, it was a good lesson for my Girl Scouts, to stay calm in a crisis, to ask for help and receive it openly and to really pay attention where you are going and not get distracted.  Accidents can really mess up your day if you let them or they can be just a little glitch on your day. 

We Must Be City Folk

Driving to Preschool today, we were talking about all the fun A would have with her grandparents. She was giggly with excitement.

We started talking about how other grandparents would be there and how much fun it would be to meet them. She reminded me again that I was not invited.

G's grandparents will be there she said. G is her future husband.

His grandparents are farmers she said.

I know I replied, isn't that cool.

They grow bacon on their farm.

They grow bacon?

Yeah G's grandparents have bacon growing in their garden.

A, do you know that's not where you get bacon?

Well I know you buy it at the store, but his grandpa grows it in his garden.

We are city folks. Yep, no other explanation.

The visual picture of bacon growing in the garden has caused me to crack up more than once today. I think the person on the treadmill next to me at the gym this morning thought I was loosing it!

G's mom Jenn has volunteered to take my city children to her parents farm this summer to show them the reality of rural life and agriculture. I'm thinking that A might just become a vegetarian when she figures out where both bacon and chicken come from.

City Folk.

Don't Try This At Home/Hair Color Catastrophe

I got my hair cut yesterday and made the realization that I have few grey hairs. Yuck!

In my mind, they were the leftover blond hairs from the summer; you know how when you are young and your hair lightens from being at the pool and lake all summer. Well, I guess I'm not so young anymore. I have grey hair mixed into my ever darkening blond/brown hair.

I decided last night that I would take my hair into my own hands and color it; to cover the grey and get my hair an all-over-color. I used to highlight my hair regularly before children. Before dance classes, boy scouts, preschool and ever needing to be replaced shoes/coats/clothes took over the hair care extra budget. I mean seriously; $95 for hair color that costs $5.95-8.00 at the store.

My mom used to give me at home perms. I loved them. Hated the smell and the no wash rule for 2 days, but I think I figured I could duplicate her hair skills.

Hmmmm. Maybe not!!!!

I choose a Light Ash Brown. It made my hair the color of black licorice. Not exactly what I was going for this morning at 7:00 a.m. when I started this adventure. The beautiful woman on the Loreal box looked just like I wanted to look. Young, hip, and with flowing brown hair with streaks of sunshine mixed in. I looked old, Dracula-ish with streaks of tar mixed in. So much for advertising!!!!

I called the handy dandy 800 number to find out what to do. I admitted I had not done the strand test, but that it certainly did not look like me in the mirror or the girl on the box. Quick fix buy two new hair colors wait for my hair to turn apple red, then apply more till it's pumpkin orange, then apply the next color and keep waiting. It was 10 a.m. before I was done with this little adventure. My husband asked if I would stop at the Hardware Store on my way home. Was he kidding? No way was I going to allow anyone to see me as Elvira.

Today my hair looks auburn. Not red, or brown, but a mixture. It's not me yet, but its a lot closer to me than me of 7:00 a.m. this morning. It's even closer to me than the grey hairs I found yesterday at the salon.

Warning, if you are suddenly inspired to take up home hair color/hair care think again. I'm sure I took a few years of my life today with stress over my hair. I should have gone to the expert, spent the time and money at the salon and saved myself a few more grey hairs. These words from a sermon a few weeks back rang in my head this morning during a moment of sanity.

Matthew 6:25-29
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

Maybe I should insert the word "hair" to this list. God I know that "this" doesn't matter. I could have gone to church tomorrow in rags, with dracula hair or body beat up from the world and you would have welcomed me with open arms. Lord help me to look at the world with these eyes.

But I'll tell you it's hard not to give into the flesh and try to convince my kids to stop growing so I could maybe keep the greys away for good. Seems like a fair trade as before them I had perfectly blond hair perfectly coiffed.

(Edited to note: If you know me in real person pretend you didn't read this post. Not that anyone reads these posts anyway!)