Sunburns, bumper cars and bellies

On a lovely afternoon last week I spent the day at a small water park/pool with a good friend and her 2 boys. The boys had a blast and it was so fun watching them show off for us in their Spiderman swim trunks and blue and green goggles. There are times when "Hey... Hey...Heyyyyy, watch this!" Can get old but not this day. They were sweet and fun angels. We ate lunch by the pool and my good friend and I gabbed and caught up on life. When I ran out of sun screen I thought nothing of it. I figured I had been in the sun enough recently to be safe with my very light base tan. I was wrong. Within minutes of being in the car I realized I was burnt. I was also tired as the sun has a way of stripping you of all your energy, at least if you are over a certain age it seemed those kids could have gone for hours. I was driving home singing along with the radio, country if anyone was wondering I stopped at a four way and while waiting for my turn BAM! was hit from behind.

In shock and having never been rear ended before I had no idea what to do. There was lots of traffic and people around so I pulled over and got out to meet who ever had the audacity to hit a pregnant women driving her new treasure of an SUV. I wasn't shocked to see the driver of an old beat up Toyota Camary to be a tall 19 or 20 something guy with a completely dazed and shocked look on his face. After surveying what only looked like a couple of scratches on my bumper and his dangling headlight I figured I had won the battle of the SUV vs. the small 2 door sedan and tried to be nice about it. He swore he didn't want to turn it into his insurance he would rather pay for it out of pocket. Assuming a few scratches would only cost a few hundred bucks. Well, we were both wrong an estimate the next morning tells us $1000-1500. Now I feel awful. Do I have his insurance info? No. Just a name and phone number were all I could get out of him. Once we reached him and explained that it would cost that much to fix he was shocked, angry and decided he wanted to turn it into his alleged insurance company. He didn't have the card with him at the time to give us the information but would call us back, 2 days have passed and he will be getting a phone call here shortly requesting such info. I sure hope this works out.

I have learned a valuable lesson. Call the police no matter how big or small the accident before you even exit your car. For a few reasons. I didn't know who I would be meeting when I stepped out of that car for all I knew he could be a psycho killer. Second, if there is a police man handy then you can sit back in shock and not have to worry if you are doing the right thing or the wrong thing or did you get all the information you needed. And lastly, its plain and simple what you are supposed to do whenever you play bumper cars in the real world, report it to the police.

After arriving home I had the realization that something could have happened to my dear sweet boy. I called my doctors office and while waiting for a call baby James got the hiccups and gave me a real strong kick in the gut to alert his crying mother that he would indeed be fine. I managed to pull a muscle in my back and had a migraine for a day or so but as long as baby James was kicking and hiccuping away I couldn't complain. Well I did manage to get a few choice words out about the guy that hit me once the shock wore off and I realized what had happened.

Below are pictures of my growing belly as I promised to post monthly. This one is a few weeks late but here just the same.

Charm & Character

I often hear an old home referred to as having lots of charm or character. Whether that be that the mail is delivered into a slot that can be checked from the living room, beautiful hard wood floors that allow no one the ability to sneak off the rest room, or unique built in cabinetry. Our home while only 11 years old has a bit of character itself. You see a few of our doors happen to gently swing themselves closed with no assistance whatsoever stranding you either in a dark bedroom or an even darker bathroom.

Our 3 year old Golden Retriever, Jemma, has found this characteristic very challenging for her. She has also found that it is very difficult for God to open a window when there isn't one. Jemma is a very loyal and social dog and in an effort to be sure she is with you at all times she will often go searching to find you. The bathroom door posing a problem for her because while not latched shut she can't tell if anyone is in there. So she pushes the door open saunters in and finds no one there then turns around to leave finding the door closing. Soon from some where in the house I will here the door snap shut and know she is locked in our dark bathroom. Now if she hadn't tried to open the door it wouldn't have snapped shut and Duke is waiting on the other side of the door pushing with all his might to free his poor sister who has yet again locked herself in the bathroom. Shortly after I hear the door shut if no has rescued her in her preferred time frame the whining and shrill barks begin. This was funny the first few times but now this happens a few times a night, often in the middle of the night while you are sleeping, leaving one to question her once proven intelligence.

Jemma found the other day that while God had no window to open he was busy orchestrating another door to open. One that led to a large park with a pond, ducks, kids to walk and pet her and a fountain. Now the unfortunate part about this park was that she and Duke had to stay on the leashes so here you see them wishing with all they are that they could chase the ducks and swim in the pond. Later, Duke made friends with Joshua whose family had invited us to come along with them to the park. Joshua decided that he wanted to take Duke's dog walking into his 5 year old little hads so they were off. Duke listening to Joshua's every command and not tugging him along like he does to me. I was very impressed and slightly envious that a 5 year old was better at walking my dog than I was. Just then Duke spots it, the fountain. Full speed ahead with Josh jogging behind Duke pulls Josh up the stairs and plants his whole head and front two paws into the fountain. Joshua quickly decided he didn't want to be responsible for our wet, crazy, water obsessed dog and handed him over. While the six adults discussed whether or not dogs were allowed in the fountain. Deciding that of course dogs, especially our dogs, should be allowed in the fountain Mike and I ditched our shoes and escorted our two dogs into the very cold fountain. Duke put his nose down and sloshed through the water as if this was the only thing to do when faced with a fountain full of cold water and plunged forward demonstrating for Jemma who was too busy daintily pulling each foot completely out of the water before replacing it a few inches in front of her cold wet body.

It turned out to be a great outing with new friends and one in which my dogs throughly enjoyed!P.S. I added a little baby tracker so you can all see how much time we have left till our little bundle joins us in the world.