"When life gets crazy, hold up your ears and stick out your tongue." ~The Dude MaGoo~
Have you ever had one of those... times in life... where everything crappy happens all at once but you kinda still feel okay about it because over all life is still better than it has been? Have you ever noticed how most bad things happen in threes? Welcome to our lives at The Rabbit Patch!
James got an amazing job, (super proud of him,) and to get a raise we needed to get him a personal vehicle to get to and from work. So, we saved a little money, got our taxes back, and went and bought a 2006 Nissan Murano! The kids named her Big Blueberry. (She's blue.) We have never had a car as nice as this one. Heated seats, sunroof, dvd player, backup camera, sirius xm radio, gps... ect. The day after we bought it, we took a trip up to Montrose to go grocery shopping, and buy some new baby chicks. (Love this car!) By the time we were all done shopping, it was about 6pm and getting dark. Good thing the new car's headlights were so bright! In fact, they were just bright enough for us to see the GIANT buck right as it jumped in front of the car! We hit that damn buck at 65 mph. The buck was thrown to the side of the road, (died on impact), the airbags went off, and James pulled to the side of the road. The children were fine, just frightened. James suffered a little whiplash, and I received chemical burns on my hands from the airbags. The box of baby chicks in my lap was smooshed in, but all the babies survived and are growing without any problems. Basically, the buck and Big Blueberry were totaled. 25 hours after buying the new car, we no longer had a new car. The first of the series of unpleasant events.
3 of the baby chicks, (the others move to quickly to take their picture).
My step mother and I haven't ever gotten along. I'm a grownup, I understand it's okay to not like someone. It is not okay to treat them like garbage because you don't like them. Over the past 2 years, my husband and I have been screamed at, called horrible names, and been humiliated by this woman. (I will not say her name as I refuse to create more conflict. I only provide this small story about her in that it is part two of our series of unpleasant events.) Since we have moved into the downstairs apartments of my father's house, the harassment has progressively gotten worse. It all came to a head one week, to the day, after our car accident. (Again, I won't say to much about this at this time, just that it happened.) The night turned ugly fast and ended with me almost being pushed down the stairs. Thank goodness for my Hulk husband.
You just have to love the wisdom of some fortune cookies.
You might be wondering, "What else could happen after hitting a buck and almost being pushed down the stairs?" Well, how about loosing all of our family memories and heirlooms?
If you've been reading our blog since the beginning, you'll remember we sold pretty much everything before our grand (stupid) adventure. Anything we didn't sell, ie. pictures, children's baby blankets, my grandmother's antiques, my favorite photography props... we put all of those things in storage. We thought we have been paying on both our unit as well as my mom's until we received a letter in the mail, (4 days after the run in with my step mother) saying they didn't need the payment for our unit because the unit had been sold a month ago due to non payment. Turns out both payments were going to my mom's unit and non to ours.
So, to recap:
Bought a new car, lost a new car;
almost thrown down the stairs;
and lost every material thing we cared about.
And yet, at the end of the day, I still feel happy. Yes, I'm upset we lost the new car. Yes, I'm bitter about almost being killed. Yes, I wish I still had all of our beloved possessions. But, really, in the grand scheme of everything we've been through in the last year, this was nothing. We have given away/ lost everything and been made stronger for it. We have been hurt, scared, and humiliated, and yet we persevere. We have fought with others and amongst ourselves, but we have never been closer as a family.
While we know there will surely be more battles of the head and heart to come, we will always have each other.