Monday, May 21, 2007

They say they comes in threes.....

So usually when there hasn't been a post in awhile, that means we've been just living our lives, catching up and making up for lost time. Well for the past few weeks it's been that and some. I'm still trying to eek out three full days at work - not going as well as planned - and the kids are trying to find normal in our lives. We weren't doing so bad until about a week and a half ago when things just started to go crazy!

On Thursday morning, 5/10, in the wee hours, three young folks came through out quiet and trusting neighborhood checking for open cars and taking what they could get. Luckily one of our vigilant neighbors caught one of them in our car before they could get much more than my cell phone. There was apparently a girl in a car parked near by and the two guys with her were running amuck and then tossing the goods into the car. Once the neighbor approached the car to see what was happening they took off - but not before the neighbor got their plate number - ha!

So the neighbor called us, at 3:40am - uhg, and we spent the next hour with the police running down what happened. It's just a shame that our quiet community is now on alert (and hopefully the police too!) to such senseless crime. It turns out all they were able to get for our troubles was my phone and a stack of music CDs from another car. We don't have an update on any arrests following the licence plate, but hope we'll hear something this week. We'll call that #1.

So #2 didn't take long to materialize - however we were not on the alert for a trend or anything. We were just trying to recover from the loss of my phone contact list - what a pain, and we thought that was the worst! Friday morning Mike was on his way in to work when a car cut him off on Georgia Ave, at the 495 underpass. Instead of hitting the offending car, Mike reacted and swerved into the jersey wall smashing the driver wheel base pretty badly. Thankfully Mike wasn't hurt - with the exception of some superficial burns from the airbag explosion. The offending car probably even made it to work on time that day, and of course no witnesses stopped to help! Well yesterday we heard from the insurance company that they will total the car, as the damage far exceeds the value of the car at this point. So in the next few weeks we will get a new car - and a new car payment too - woohoo!

So we were still reeling from these incidents, but getting by day by day - then on Monday, 5/21, we have a minor scare at Sophie's Daycare. Sophie fell and hit her head and a cart fell on her as well leaving a nasty mark on her forehead. We were worried, but the nurses at the facility check her out throughout the day and the mark is all that remains of what could have been worse. Then on Thursday of the same week, Sophie and I start the day walking Zach to the bus stop. On the return to the house, Sophie decides to take a detour to a neighbors house. As I stand in the neighbor's driveway talking to other Moms, Sophie runs to have me pick her up. Well we both missed, and she went backward, first landing on her bum, and then tossed her head back and smacking the pavement, hard. I immediately picked her up as she screamed. The neighbor consoles me that as long as she's crying it should be okay. At that very moment, she stopped, went limp and lost consciousness. Of course my heart sank and we, the other Mom's and I, went into emergency mode and called 911. She awoke crying again about 20 seconds later, but as you can imagine, it seemed like an eternity. Her first thoughts and words moments later were, "I lost my Croc" or more accurately, "...my Cwoc." Apparently, when I scooped her up I dropped a shoe and she wasn't going to let me get away with it, no matter what. Well, by the time the paramedics arrived, she was walking around and sort of playing with the other children. We did decide to bring her to the local emergency room to get checked out just in case. A head CT later that day confirmed that she was fine. And except for a very lumpy head, she's been fine since. That was #3.

So that is our saga of late. In the midst of all of this we had a lovely Mother's day at home - a holiday NOT spent in the hospital for a change! The adults ate and drank and the kids bounced and played. A good time was had by all!

This week we are in recovery mode once again. Mike is in Hollywood - Florida that is - at the Mid-Year meeting for the American Society or Consultant Pharmacists where he works. He will return on Thursday. Then we have a few days at home and head to the beach at Fenwick Island, Delaware, for a week of respite courtesy of a wonderful organization called Believe in Tomorrow Children's Foundation. We haven't been away for almost quite some time now and could sure use a break! Believe in Tomorrow provides retreat housing for families of sick children and has two properties on the Delaware/Maryland shore for families to enjoy. We are very luck to have this getaway and the generosity of this organization! Thanks also to the team at GUH Lombardi who started the wheels in motion for this amazing gift.

Well, that's it for now. We hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day - for you, your Mom, you as Mom to your pet, or whatever! We leave you with a few photos from the past few weeks to show that although we've hit some more bumps in the road, they are all surmountable in the end and we keep on keepin' on and hope you will too! All our love!


Notes on the pics...Stuck in a tree, but feelin fine ...Taking time to smell the, weeds?... Oooh, Fries, Mmmm (at a Hoya Lacrosse game)... All I want for Memorial Day is my two front teeth (there's a story here too, maybe later!)... Gwamma, trying to be a good sport - didn't make it in much farther though!... Gwamma and Paw Paw safely outside the moonbounce with Mike getting tackled inside. PEACE!