24

welcome to these 24 hours, ladies (and dad).... fyi, long post alert.

5:30 pm, Thursday- leave driveway for 12 hour drive to the STL (St. Louis)

5:32pm - (end of block - see previous post) - child chimes in with first "are we there yet?"

7:37pm - Phillies winning; Thomas falls asleep. Trip going splendidly, haven't even had to dip into my "treat bag", but where the "h" are we - don't people need gas out here?


8:15pm - stuck in a holler, no Phils reception, husband pissed....damn you "Wild and Wonderful" WV! I am thinking I sure hope I don't need the bathroom cause I haven't seen one for miles.


9:00pm - oldest child says, "Are we there yet?" as he finally achieves sugar low coma/sleep from Twizzlers, Scooby Doo, and Milk


10:31pm - O-H-I-O!! Yay Yay!!! Raaaaauuullll home run! Phils beating Dodgers.


12:07am - Phils still winning, excitment and convo with the hubs, apparently such great convo that Bambi wanted in.... THUD. Smack. Thud. Smack. -insert explatives--. Silence.


We hit a deer. A. big. giant. deer. Oh, snap. You know your spouse. You have your everyday voices and you have your "come running somethings on fire in the kitchen" voice, and you have your - "my dashboards lighting up with stuff that no longer works but I know your Irish so don't freak out voice." Guess which one AJ was using? Yep, the dashboard one.


We coasted for about a 1/2 mile. We coasted right off the exit ramp. By the grace of God, we were dumped into civilization. We looked around and we were on a well lit street. We looked further and saw the Fairfield Inn within walking distance (Bonus- can you say Marriott points!). AJ realizes that all kinds of fluid is leaking from the engine and using his "please don't freak out voice" says, get the kids out of the car and don't worry about anything else. WHAT!? So we grab the kids - PJs and no socks... no phone, no wallet, no COMPUTER! :) Did I mention it's like 40 freakin' degrees? Anywho we start walking to the Fairfield. Trying to keep the kids calm- oh we're just in a really big parking lot... lalala isn't this a fun adventure. (yep, super freakin' fun-can't wait to do it again....never).

Here's where I feel like I walked a fine line between crazy nut case and logical. As we were walking the maybe 1/4 mile to the hotel with our barefooted children, a "police man" in a Lexus stops us.

PoPo (showing badge): "Do you all need help, I am a police officer...i'm not on duty, but here's my badge"
Me: "Aj, keep walking."
AJ: "Kel, he's a police officer"
Me (thinking of the Elizabeth Smarts and Jaycee Voights): "OH, SURE HE IS... ALLLLL the police officers i know drive around white Lexus' at 12:30 at nite.... And, I think Jack has that same badge from the dollar store... (in fact, I think it is in his bag of treats!).
PoPo: How about if i call the local police and have them go to your car.
Us: Great, sounds perfect.


The kids -- who think it's morning-- and I get settled in the hotel and proceed to watch two hours of the disney channel (which by the way is on at 12-2 in the AM) while AJ goes and tends to the car sitch. You should see the deer.... We did or at least 1/2 of him.

The kids were so awesome. They were real troopers, we had no major freak outs from them. Just me :). They were troopers on the way out and troopers on the way back... Just proves how powerful twizzlers, scooby do and McDonalds Happy Meals can be.

We call her Shloopty... This was our phat (yep, that's phat with a PH) rental ride the good folks at enterprise "hooked" us up with. They're really snazzy out there in Reynoldsburg, OH. We call her Shloopty and she is THAT red.

5:30 PM, Friday - home again, home again jiggity jig. Just literally 24hours later, after driving to COLUMBUS, OH, hitting a deer, and joy riding back, we are back to our home. No visit with the cousins in ST. Lou.

As much as AJ and I have had many giggles about this experience, mostly to save us from going nutty on the fact that we drove 16 hours with 2 kids under the age of four to .... hit a deer.... I truly believe that God is present in our daily lives. Sometimes he makes himself more obvious than others. I am so thankful to Him for keeping us safe, providing an easy place to get to safety for the boys and a good samaritans like the po po to help us out and make us feel safe...

You know I'll be at Church on Sunday morning giving thanks, having a moment of silence for Bambi, and praying we don't get swine flu...