&$*# YOU!

I swear to GOD, if my children EVER get in the driver's seat of a car after they have been drinking, I will kill them myself.

I was rear-ended tonight. Scott and I are in the car heading out to dinner (the kids were in my parents' car, which hadn't caught up to us yet) and I see this bronze-looking Grand Prix weaving down the road behind me. I think, what the hell is that car doing? They're going too fast and they're weaving all over the road.

I pull up to the stop sign, and like I always do, make a full stop (I swear I'm one of the few people I know who actually makes a 3-second stop at most stop signs). I look in my rearview mirror and sure enough, Weaver back there slams into my rear end. MY BRAND NEW, LESS THAN TWO MONTHS OLD REAR END.

So I get out, all pissed off, and when I see that there's just a scrape and the indentation of a screw on my bumper I was about to call it good, especially since there wasn't any apparent damage to them too. Then I walked up to their car.

And about got drunk off the fumes.

I swear, they must have had open containers in the car, and all 5 of them (big people too, 5 big people) sounded, looked and acted like they were drunk, high or both. At that point, I started asking for insurance information and some guy in the backseat got out, started apologizing and said it was his car. The woman in the driver's seat barely said two words and completely ignored me when I asked questions. I told him I wanted insurance information, and after getting some papers out of the glove box and rifling through them he goes, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have insurance." This was after he told me he just bought the car.

So while I'm talking with this guy Scott gets the phone out so he can call our insurance company, but he hadn't quite gotten to calling them, and when the guy said he didn't have insurance I told him to call the police. I knew they were going to try something at that point, because really, why start going through papers if it's YOUR car and you know you don't have insurance? I got what info I could from the guy, his name, address, phone number, and the woman's name (or at least what they SAID their names were) and their license plate.

So the really nice couple who witnessed the accident were very helpful, and while I went to talk to them for a second, the guy told the woman who was driving to get out of the car. At this point, my dad and mom (who had pulled up behind them right after it happened, they were going to dinner with us) heard the woman say something to the effect of "I'm wanted, no cops" and the guy got into the driver's seat. I'm standing in front of the car at this point, and when it becomes obvious that they're going to try to leave, I planted my feet while Scott told them that they'd get in even more trouble for leaving the scene of the accident. I stood there while Scott tried to reason with them, but then he said that it wasn't worth it, so I got out of the way. And the assholes drove off.

Drunk out of their minds, flipping us off as they went.

Mother fuckers.

And really, I could care less about my car, and I may not have even called the insurance company, much less the police - IF THEY HADN'T BEEN DRUNK. If it had been an accident, someone not paying attention, who was cooperative and helpful, I may have said, ok, you don't have insurance, let's keep this between us. BUT THEY WERE DRUNK. And trying their hardest to hide everything they could from us. And what if they hadn't been on a residential street, and they were going faster? Or my kids were in the car?

The police showed up a few minutes later, unfortunately too late to see them, but we had our story, my parents' story, and the couple who lived at the house on the corner. There really isn't much they can do, but because I got the license plate they at least ran that, hopefully to get them off the road.

The woman who drove even bitched me out because of the "couple of scrapes" on my bumper, but I ignored her and the guy who got in the driver's seat told her to shut up.

I sincerely hope that they either got to where they were going safely so that no one else got hurt, or that they got picked up. I doubt anything will happen to them, or that they'll even get caught. But the police did everything they could.

Now I just hope that I don't have back issues because of this. The woman could barely walk when she got out of the car, she was so wasted. And I really just want to hit something right now, I'm so pissed off. My CHILDREN ride in the car with me, and people like this are on the road. I somehow doubt that any of the 5 people in that car were sober enough to operate that vehicle safely.

Thank god we're all ok.

One

Dear Emma,
Words cannot express how you have changed my life since you joined our family. You are the little girl I always dreamed of, the one I get to play dressup with, the one who makes my heart soar when I see your smile. And while I have to say that your brother is just as special to me, this is your letter so I'm going to talk about you and you only.

The past year has been one of the happiest of my life. Part of that comes from being healthier mentally, but a large part comes from your being such a happy, easygoing and lovable little person. You have obliged me this year by being slow about hitting your milestones, and I've been able to watch you not only as you suddenly burst into a new word or sign but watch the progressions up to that as well.

You slept through the night at 2 weeks. You constantly have a smile on your face. You LISTEN when I say no! Like, seriously, when you reach for something and I tell you no, you drop it or pull your hand away. You smile when I walk into the room, you reach your hands to me to be picked up, you wave bye bye and say bye at the same time. Dog was your first word (which has definitely pleased your animal-lover mom). You sign more, hi, bye, please, thank you, milk and eat, and you say bye, dog, Luh (Lucky), pillow, Aasssh (Ash) and cat.

You sleep like your father and are hard to wake up in the morning. When I get you up, you shake like you're freezing and it takes at least 20 minutes for it to stop. When I put you on the floor you will spend 20 minutes putting things in a box and taking them back out again. You entertain yourself and giggle at things you do by yourself. The hamster bit your finger once a few months ago and you will now touch only the green part of the cage, not the wire part. You LOVE your piano and not only play it with total abandon, you dance like nobody's watching. You dance to anything - even if I just say the word dance, you start dancing.

You are so easy to take anywhere - whether you've had a nap or not, whether you've eaten or not, whether your diaper is dirty or clean, you never fuss. The only time you get upset is when you fall down or are so tired you just can't take it anymore. You climb stairs, cruise along furniture, splash in the tub and help me dress you.

But most of all, you make me happy. Your beautiful eyes and your smile light up my life. I can't wait to go in your room in the morning and I miss you when you sleep. I ask Grandma to send me pictures in the middle of the day so I can see what you're up to.

And I can't wait to see what you become.

Happy birthday, Ping.

Love, Mommy

It sure FEELS like the flu...

So the nurse called back last night and said the tests for Influenza A and B were both negative, so I don't have the flu. I have all the symptoms, just not the actual flu. It really feels like bronchitis mixed with a sinus infection plus allergies, and I don't remember being this sick in a very long time. Fun, right? :-) I also slept all day today. I mean ALL day, like I woke up at 7:30, got Scott to get Emma and Alex taken care of, passed out and didn't get out of bed until 3:30. That's P.M. I wish I wasn't sick so I could have actually enjoyed that. :-) Anyway, taking it easy, staying away from people, hoping this goes away by Monday because with this swine flu crap everyone is extra special scared about the slightest cough or sneeze - and me being the workaholic that I am, I go to work sick all the time but people are yelling at me for it now. Ugh.

Isn't irony a bitch?

So I just posted a joke site about how it's most likely that you DON'T have swine flu.

And my doc just told me I could very well have it. Or at least Influenza A or B, which is pretty much the same thing.

What the hell...that's karma right there.