Keep The Bad Times Rolling

If you have read my intro page you know that I truly believe that bad things happen in multiples in my life. I have never had a time where I only have one stressful situation/one bad instance to handle at once. Well today has just been another one of those days. And you want to know the worst part? I wanted to call in sick this morning and stay home... well I should have just stayed home.

The day started off with my daughter waking up miserable. She is in the first phases of the cold that I just struggled with all weekend. I could tell the body aches started for her this morning when she kept crying and moving her hips and legs (where my aches set up camp too). I brought her into bed and turned on one of her favourite movies so I could attempt to get ready for work. I think I stopped what I was doing maybe three or four times to take inventory of how awful I still felt and debated calling in sick. But I have only been at my current location for a month and have already used a sick day, so I decided I would put on my big girl panties and take some cold medicine to work and just push through. Lily cried the whole time I got ready and refused to let me cuddle her, but once I picked her up she also refused to let me put her down... the princess of mixed signals.

I got her into the car, had everything packed up and decided last minute to run back into the house and grab a coat because it was colder out than I expected. I stopped at Tims and grabbed two large coffees to try and help me get through the day and we were on route to drop Lily off with her Grandma for the day. We were barely out of town when a truck started breaking and coming into our lane almost hitting us on the highway. We were about to pass an off ramp so I figured they were trying to get off last minute from the fast lane and I was starting to grasp my surroundings for a plan when a dear jumped into the front of my car. Her hips hit the driver's side head light and hood and she bounced into the passenger's side of the windshield and I thought she was coming into the car. I can feel the tingle of the glass hitting my face thinking about it. I watched her body hit and felt my eyes start to burn from the glass. In an instant I could no longer see out of the windshield and I realized what had happened.

My first thought was Lily. I turned to see the deer wasn't in the vehicle first and then back at Lily. I panicked thinking that if the deer made it into the car Lily wouldn't have stood a chance because she hit on the passenger side of the windshield. I looked back at her and she was staring at me, I think trying to see how she should be reacting from me. I saw she was fine and started to pull off to the side of the highway. The truck pulled off in front of me and made sure I was ok, apologizing for swerving towards me, explaining they were trying to block it from me. Once I assured them I was ok they left and I took a second to try to collect my thoughts.

Nothing. Nothing was processing. What am I supposed to do now? I'm here alone with a car I can't drive on the side of the highway with my baby. Who do I call? Why can't I think? Ok, first thing is first lets get Lily out of this situation. I called her Grandma and quickly said we are ok but have been in an accident and I needed her to come get Lily. Ok, Lily is taken care of, now the car... what the hell do I do with the car? Where am I? I haven't had an emergency situation in so long my first thought was to call Lily's Dad. I quickly remembered that's not an option anymore, but I should probably let him know his daughter was in an accident and is ok. Alright called him, now who? Why am I drawing a blank. Finally I realized my Dad is always the one to call in an emergency, the man that will always show up to save me no matter what. Don't ask me how explaining my whereabouts went... it was as if I was in a new town and didn't grow up on these roads. The deer took all my common sense with it and splattered it on the windshield.

I pulled the car off the highway (thankful it happened at an exit!!) and looked around unable to believe that in two seconds flat the inside of my car had exploded. Glass everywhere, my face burning, both my coffees sprinkled with fun little shards of glass to spice things up. I got into the back with Lily and checked her out, took her out of her seat and cuddled her looking her over until her grandparents arrived. Her bravery amazes me everyday. She was unphazed by the whole thing, she just wanted to go to bed and not be sick. I'm so grateful I had Dylan's parents and my Dad there to help me in this situation. Having people that love and care for you and your children are so important, and I know that I can count on my family and Dylan's family any time something like this happens.

I sat and wondered if I had done one little thing differently this morning how we wouldn't have been in that deer's path this morning. If I hadn't went back in for my coat. If I only got one coffee instead of two. If I was going a little faster or a little slower. So many little things had to happen for us to be there in that exact moment. Obviously it was meant to happen, and maybe had I been going slightly faster or slower the deer might have hit the car differently and we wouldn't have been so lucky, who knows!

Anyways skip forward a few hours, I have submitted the claim, set up for my rental car to be picked up, I am about to try to relax for a minute when there is a knock at the door. I answer the door to the local bylaw saying "You've been expecting me right?" as she holds out a fine in my name.

Ahh yes, perfect, of course we picked today to charge me for an incident that happened weeks ago. Happy friggen Monday. Why would an accident be the only thing I need to deal with today? That would be too easy!!!!

A few weeks ago, Lily and I were out front of our home playing with Arlo (our dog). Arlo requires a haltee as he is leash reactive and I have known this for about two years now and have been able to control him with the use of the haltee. On this particular day a man walking his large dog was walking by our home when his dog started getting aggressive and dragging him towards us. Long story short he got too close to Lily for both Arlo and I's comfort and I let go of him at the same time he somehow got out of his haltee to go grab Lily away from the dog and Arlo went and bit him. Fast forward a few weeks and some nasty emails with said man and I have bylaw on my front door step saying she wishes she didn't have to add this on to my plate today but her hands are tied and here is a fine. I hate Mondays.

All I want to do is crawl into bed, turn off all the lights and sleep until tomorrow and try again then. Avoid any more possible situations for the day. If I hide in bed, what else could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately that is not how I am wired. Instead I showered to make sure there was no lingering glass in my hair. I need to go through everything I had to take out of my car and I will need to figure out how to get all of the glass out of Lily's sherpa coats that were in the front seat. I need to see if her car seat needs to be replaced, I need to figure out how to pay that stupid fine before I forget about it or lose it in the move (because of course I'm also in the middle of moving so my house is a disaster with boxes everywhere...). Life doesn't slow down just because you are having a bad day. There is no mercy for the wicked, and I must be really wicked considering how much life likes to kick me while I'm down.

No one was hurt (except the deer, sorry friend) today so I need to be thankful for that. Arlo is not in trouble with the town, and the bylaw officer could have been so much worse so I need to be thankful for that. I have an amazing support system and have people that will drop everything to run to me so I need to be thankful for that. I have a home to come to after a bad day, shower and put clean clothes on so I need to be thankful for that. No matter how bad a day seems, there is always something to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family and friends. For my daughter's safety and my dog laying sound asleep on my bed as I write this. There is so much good in my life to focus on, and put my energy in to, laying in bed hiding is such a waste of myself. Life doesn't slow down, so neither will I. Time to put my big girl panties on again and get shit done. Maybe I will just do the things that need to be done in the house for the rest of the day...

xoxo T1D Mommy