Friday night I had to take Ryan to basketball practice, run by Target to pick up a gift for a party Ryan had on Sunday, drop Kelsey off at a friends house, swing back by school to pick up Ryan and then I was done for the night. It had been bitter cold all week and I couldn't wait to soak in my bath tub, put a fire in the fireplace, wrap up in a warm robe, watch a little TV and relax for the rest of the night.

Well the first glitch in the plan was when Ryan asked if one of his buddies could spend the night after basketball practice. I said fine, I could still relax provided they didn't get too rowdy. My second glitch was when my big screen TV broke. Maggie was playing Mario Cart when the power went out. I tried to turn it back on but the power light would turn on for two seconds and click back off. I decided to try and see if it would work with the TV remote instead of the power button on the TV. We normally use the remote with the cable box not the original TV remote. The batteries were dead since we never use that remote. I was standing in the kitchen looking for batteries when Dave called me and asked, "Have you talked to Lauren??" I said "no, why?" Then I heard a mother's worst nightmare. She had been in a bad car accident. She was rear ended by a big snow plow truck, luckily the snow plow was not on the truck. When he hit her it caused her to hit the car in front of her and bang her head on the metal frame that connects the door to the windshield. The policeman told her that if she wouldn't have had her seat belt on she would have went through the windshield. Erin was getting ready to go out with her friends, I asked her to wait until Ryan's friend got dropped off before she left to go out. I instructed her to pretend as if she is a nice involved sister and welcomed this kid to our home so his mother felt comfortable leaving her son at our house. She can really pull through and pretend to be loving and nice in a pinch!! Thank God it wasn't Shannon home instead of Erin. I'm not so sure she could have pulled off loving and kind.


We took her to the ER to get checked out. She doesn't even remember pulling over after the impact. She hit her head pretty hard. The ER doctor said she may be a bit forgetful for a few days and prescribed some pain medication that has made her sleep most of the weekend. When they took her back for ex rays she had to take out her earrings and take off her necklace. Her mother's love was proven when she gave me her smelly earrings to hold. They smelled like a cross between belly button lint, toe jam and vomit, thank God she's pretty because her ears stink!!!! The X-Ray tech asked her if her tongue was pierced before he took her back. She said "yes," and waited for my reaction. I said "very funny, if it was I would have yanked it out while she was sleeping ages ago. She said he asked her if she was pregnant when she got to the X-Ray room, She said "Oh I wish you would have asked me that in front of my mom, that would have been fun to watch her squirm when I said yes." Oh what a comedian I have!! We were very lucky she wasn't seriously injured.

She bought that car at the end of June, right after she signed all the papers she noticed scrapes all over the door left over from a bad ice storm at the dealership and they scraped the ice off and chipped the paint in the process. They were good about it and fixed it for her. A few weeks later, we had a flash flood and her car flooded with over a foot of water. She had to take it to get detailed and they had to take all the carpet and back seat out to let it air dry. When they put it all back together, they scraped up the inside plastic pieces as well as the paint job where the door closes. Now her back end is smashed in, her tail lights are all broken, her back window is shattered, the side of the car is buckled and her right front quarter panel is smashed. I have begun to refer to the car as "Christine."

I never did get to take my long hot bath, or sit in front of the fireplace. My TV is also still broken. My kids are dying because they can't play any of their Wii games and a little birdie told me that Rick Springfield is going to be on Don't Forget the Lyrics this week and my DVR is hooked up to that TV. Whatever will I do???