Car crash

August 16th I was driving on the way to church and stopped before turning left into the church parking lot because there was a car coming the other direction. I had been stopped for several seconds when we got hit from behind. I got out and tried to open the doors to get the kids out, but the sliding doors wouldn't open, so I climbed back in from the front doors and got them out. By that time people from church had run over to help us, so I handed the kids out to them. The kids were all crying, but were ok, not hurt. Jacob had something hit him in his face, maybe his hand, which made his glasses cut into his face by his nose, but other than that he was ok, just a little dazed.

We got out and it looked like everyone was ok. Someone called 911 and they said they wouldn't send anyone out to the accident since there were no injuries. So we decided to head in to the foyer to exchange our insurance information since it was already hot out even though it was just 9am. Some young men took the other lady's kids in to the nursery to play and some people from our ward took our kids in to sacrament for us. A police car that seemed to just be driving around on patrol stopped to see if we needed anything. They talked to us, then the lady that hit us, and ended up doing a sobriety test on her and taking her in. Apparently she was on meds that she shouldn't have been driving with.

 When we got home from church (thanks to some friends who gave us a ride), I realized we never did get the lady's insurance information. All we had was the police report number. It was a pain in the neck to get the insurance information. After several calls, an unproductive trip downtown, and a few messages left, the detective investigating the case finally called me back on Thursday and got me the insurance information. I was very happy to find out that they had Allstate, too. I know from experience that claims through them are relatively painless.

Anyway, by the following Monday we got the news that they had declared the car a total loss. They gave us $1000 over blue book value for our car, and we got started looking for a new car. Which is to say we called a friend who shops auctions to find us a car.

 We had to go sign the car over to the insurance company, and while we were there I got out the rest of our belongings that were left in the car and took a few pictures.

 This was the most disturbing.

 Annie was sitting in that seat (in a booster) and it was a bit disturbing to see how close the car's crumpling had gotten to her. We said many prayers of thanks for all our protection. Even tonight, 2 1/2 weeks later, Ryan included in his prayer, "Thankful that we were kept safe when our car crashed."

Saturday we got our new car delivered. It's a 2011 Sienna. We named it Sally and I have high hopes that in a year or two maybe we'll get around to painting it a lovely shade of light blue. :)

It drives real nice and we're enjoying the new car. But sad for the money that we weren't planning on spending on a new car yet. Oh well. Such is life.

Looking back, we can see some blessings that came through this experience. There is no better place to get in a crash than right outside our church when our whole ward is there to help. We felt the true meaning of "ward family" that day. There were so many helping hands and offers of help.

That night when I was helping Ryan with his prayers before bed he said, "I want a priesthood prayer. But I don't want you to do it. I want Dad to do it." So Jacob gave him a blessing of comfort. Then Rachel asked for a blessing. After her blessing she told me, "That blessing made me feel loved." I told her that was the Holy Ghost comforting her. Sometimes trials are great for spiritual experiences.

One other blessing I realized in hindsight was that the day before we had driven up to Mesa to go to the temple and visit with Susie and company, so we had changed Megan's car seat so it was facing forward instead of rear-facing so she would be happy for the long drive. That morning before we left I thought maybe I should turn her back around, but just left her seat forward facing and buckled her in. At first I was kicking myself for not turning her around because rear-facing is safer, until I realized that rear-facing is safer for a head-on collision, but forward facing is safest when you're rear-ended. So having Megan forward facing probably saved her from any whiplash or injuries that would have been sustained had she been rear-facing still.

And now my kids pray for safety with more faith, knowing that God does answer our prayers for protection. :)

Since school started

We've settled in to the routine of the school year now. Annie likes school now and started going for the whole day last week. And they started letting kinder kids out 15 minutes early so we can escape the horrible after school traffic since we HAVE to get out of our car to sign the kids out in their classroom and can't just wait in the parent pick up loop. It's way better than when we had to pick up at regular let out time and it we'd be leaving her school 20 minutes after school got out. Now we're gone 5 minutes before school gets out. :)

With Rachel and Annie at school I get some one on one time with Ryan when Megan is napping, and with Megan when Ryan is at preschool. And some much valued solo time when Ryan is at preschool and Megan is asleep. We also get a few adventures with just the three of us. We went with Grandma to the playground at the mall when it was still too hot to go to the park to play.

 Megan and Ryan loved it, but this is the only picture I got that wasn't blurry. Ryan ran constantly the whole time we were there. :)

Jacob's cousin, Susie, invited us to bring our kids with us when we go to the temple so our kids could hang out with her kids. She also invited their cousin Ben who also has kids the same ages. We all had a good time visiting and the kids had a blast getting to know their second cousins. This was a rare sight that day, having everyone was sitting still in the same room:

 It was fun and we look forward to doing it again in a few months. The kids didn't do too bad on the drive, but where Megan normally has two 1 1/2 hour naps, she fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of our drive up, then took a 10 minute nap a while later when we sneaked out to head to the temple. Thankfully I left under the impression that she would sleep for an hour, so I didn't worry about her being cranky or nervous around new people while we were gone. I enjoyed our time at the temple and came back to a happy Megan (and other kids).

Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Curtin came for a home visit. Rachel showed her around, played some piano for her, then they spent the rest of the hour playing games.

 I really like her teacher this year. She's been teaching for many years and seems to have a good grasp on how to challenge Rachel and keep pushing her. Rachel is loving school.

Megan is protesting her high chair. She is much more likely to eat when standing on a chair at the table than when sitting in her high chair. And even more likely to eat when she finds a bowl of food that is meant for someone besides her. Here she is eating Ryan's yogurt that he had left unfinished.

 Annie's class has a class pet. It is a guinea pig named Elsa. Mrs. Xochitl lets the kids take Elsa home over the weekend sometimes, so we brought her home last weekend. The kids loved it.

 The spent the entire weekend around the cage. Poor Elsa. But she survived.

 And we had a pet for 2 1/2 days, which should be sufficient for another 2 years. :)

Jacob took Ryan on a man-date. Ryan kept calling it a daddy-daughter date. Jacob tried to correct him: it was a father-son outing. I don't think it sunk in for Ryan. :) They went to the Pima Air and Space Museum and had a great time.

 Ryan's favorite places were the air control tower with all the buttons and lights and switches,

 and the cockpits where he could play with all the levers and buttons and pretend he was a pilot.

 Apparently the chairs that were placed around for waiting for kids to get done playing/exploring were also a big hit for Ryan. He liked that the seats went up and down.

 The boys came back happy from their outing. And Annie was very sad to have missed out. Not necessarily because of the cool stuff they saw. She just wants it to be her turn for a daddy-daughter date every time. :)

That's just a few of the things we've done since school started.