Giant Mes

I stink.  I should totally be in the shower.  Housekeeping is going to be here and I look and smell wretched and Annika got chocolate smeared on the sheets, so I have to personally remove the sheets so that the housekeeper doesn't think that my daughter dirtied the bed.  It's super important that I don't offend the housekeeper, obviously.

Well.  This has been an interesting few days.  I think you all know about our stressful last week.  To add to the pleasure of a completely messed up car and the stress of shoving every last bit of our junk into a POD and quickly slamming the door shut, Josiah was sick all last week.  He missed his entire last week of school.  We stopped by for five minutes so he could wave from a safe distance and pick up his yearbook and desk contents.

That was Thursday, also the last day in the house and the day that I smashed into someone else on the highway.  Okay, just in case you're one of the people who haven't heard the story, here it is, one last time, for posterity:  we had just come out of a construction cone zone and started speeding up when the car in front of me suddenly swerved to the right (to avoid hitting the car in front of him/her.  We were doing about 45-50 mph and suddenly the car in front of me disappeared to my right and there was a GMC Yukon sitting there in full brake.  What a horrible second of realization to know there was nowhere for me to go but into his rear end (it was like seeing the tree coming at us, Hans and Peder).  One giant smash, air bag deployed, the kids started screaming--as reassuring as when they were born and started screaming.  Every one was okay in both cars, thank the Lord. 

I keep reliving the moment and wondering what I did wrong, how I could have missed brake lights, even though there was a car between us.  Maybe I should have swerved right too?  But then I think, if I would have swerved right, we would have gotten side-swiped and then someone would have been seriously injured.  Better to go in head first and count on a well-made vehicle, safety restraints and air bags.  There was almost no damage to the GMC.  They'll have to replace their tailgate and bumper.  Somehow Hans' car wasn't hit--he was in front of the GMC. 

Anyway...as of this morning, there's no news on whether the Audi will be fixed or totalled.  We have done a little car shopping just in case we do have to pull the trigger and buy a new car.  And yes, you all heard right, I drove a minivan and lo, it was glorious.  It has such amenities as 2,102 SF of cargo space, seating for eight, voice-activated navigation, a DVD player with wireless headphones for the kids (so Hans I could could ACTUALLY CARRY ON A CONVERSATION, HOLY CRAP!), and a little refrigerator drawer for our Coke.  I was sold at the little refrigerator drawer. 

We'll see.

Okay, so about the giant mes, which is the title of this blog post and has all six of you who read this blog wondering what the hell I'm talking about, is that French or what?  Annika now has the flu that Josiah had and last night, she had some very interesting dreams.  She freaked Hans and me the hell out is what happened.  She woke up screaming at 10:00, 1:00 and one other time when I was too exhausted to turn my head and check the time.  Each time, she was screaming about giant Annikas (giant mes!!) being in the room with us and screeching at me not to go near them, they were going to eat us.  I am dead serious when I say that I was strongly considering seeing if the all-night 7-11 had holy water.  What a strange nightmare--eating yourself?  Self-cannabalism?  Weeeeiiirrddd.

Anyway, I still need a shower.  Pray that tonight she has peaceful dreams about unicorns and baby rabbits...