Life is what happens while you're busy making plans...

So after my last post I thought things were looking up. I got to go play with Caitlin again and we spent some fun time gathering decorations for the baby shower we are hosting next month. And although I had already left for the day, my sweet Aunt April came down to help me out by doing my laundry. Just knowing that she was willing to help me was a big boost to my spirit.

So fast forward 4 hours, Caite, I, and my kids are on the freeway on the way home after a very successful shopping trip. We were driving along making plans on how to spend the rest of the afternoon and suddenly there was a very strange, loud noise. I looked around for a semi or piece of large machinery to come driving passed me, or a plane flying low. Nope, it was a flat tire on my van... I would say it never rains but it pours... but then it started to rain. Fortunately my brother-in-law came to the rescue like a knight in shining Passat! Only to realize that we did not have a lug wrench in the van and the one from his car was the wrong size. He did help enormously by taking Jake with him to go try to find a lug wrench the right size... So then we were 4 girls hanging out on the side of the freeway waiting to be rescued. Help came in the form of an incident management truck of the Highway Patrol. A very nice gentleman had the tire changed in less then 10 minutes. Unfortunately it traumatized Evie when he used a pneumatic drill in the van to unlock the spare tire. It took a half hour of singing primary songs and a batch of chocolate chip cookies to calm her down. (Chocolate makes everything better.)

Friday dawned to the melodious strains of arguing children. I made them get back into bed with me, but that pretty much backfired as they talked and laughed and kept me awake rather than going back to sleep. Oh well. We then spent the day with Uncle Josh working on a top secret project that turned out so cool. ( I can't wait to post about that.)
Then we had dinner at Pa Dave's and Evie even got to help Caite cook!


But a cumulative lack of sleep made my children unbearable so I took them home and put them straight to bed. Fast forward another couple of hours to when Brian gets home and we are finally eating dinner. I went to get some ice from the freezer and... long story short... I sprained my thumb.

(The long story involves me jumping around the kitchen howling and saying some bad words, so this is the G rated version.)

The silver lining to that particular cloud is that it is my left hand so I am not completely disabled. Well, that and Brian's arms still work so we have a symbiotic relationship right now. I am the legs and he is the hands, and together we can do almost anything!


Today we spent a really fun day at the Zoo with all of my family. We got to see all the animals, ride the carousel and have a great picnic lunch. The only bummer was that the heavens opened and the rain poured down before we got to ride the train. Evie was very disappointed by that, but she got happier when she got to pick out a souvenir.

This is her new giraffe that she named Caite (yes after her aunt) and she picked out a matching baby giraffe for Lila.

Sisters got to match!

Jake picked out a tiger head grabber and a pair of binoculars that he used to read licence plates all the way home. He had plenty of time to do that, because we were forced to drive rather slowly when the streets started to flood because of the rain.

It was a little scary, but Brian is a good driver (no matter what the backseat drivers in his car think...) and we made it home in one piece. So that has been our eventful weekend so far, if we can just make it through Sunday with nothing bad happening.... knock on wood....

(I will post a slide show of the trip to the zoo later... so many pictures, so little time.)