Snowstorm of life

I sure wish I had the time and energy to put down in words all of the blog posts I have scripted in my mind over the last week.  The topics are endless and some very entertaining.  I titled this post the snowstorm because it feels like that has what has happened in our lives over the last couple of weeks.  I almost put whirlwind, but since it is so close to Christmas and since it is so stinking cold, I thought snow worked better.

In brief, (or probably not so brief), we have survived our van, teenage girls, numerous family get-togethers, Christmas decorations, a clean house, nightly events of some sort or another, thyroid dysfunction, hormones, and having to use my brain.  (yeah, that is a feat in and of itself these days.  Ask my brother.)

I guess I will start with the van.  If you will remember, during David's last hunting trip the battery on our van died.  Fortunately, it was at my grandmothers's little retirement place so I could leave it knowing it was safely under diligent security.  I succeeded (with my brother's help and my dad's advice) to get a new battery ($).  Yay, me!  Well, Thanksgiving day, the check engine light came on.  So on black Friday, I borrowed my mom's car, so we could take the van in.  It was some oil and gasket leaking combo thing.  Got it fixed ($$).  Well, that Sunday, two days later, that light came on again.  Yay.  So, Monday, we took it in.  Some sort of different thing, that was caused by the oil and gasket thing.  Got it fixed ($$). 

Oh, I think I have failed to mention that this all happened about around 1,000 miles after our warranty.

That it would have only cost around $50. 

God knows.

Well, this past weekend I was driving 6 girls back from Oxford on Saturday afternoon.  We were just about 15 minutes down the road, with Taylor Swift blaring, when all of a sudden I see deer.  Running.  Across the median.  Towards me. 

My geometry tells me we will meet at some point of intersection.  Hoping she would react like a dog and stop, I honk. Dumb deer decides to keep running.  She skidded, just enough to slow down and hit me broadside, not full head-on collision.   She hit my front left fender and door.  The damage totalled up to a dented front fender and drivers door (and maybe some alignment issues).  We are all very thankful that the damage wasn't worse, that no one was injured and that we could drive home.  And thankful for car insurance. :)

Did I mention the damage to my eardrums from the 6 screaming girls?  Or the avoided damage I with-held from them upon the inquiry of "Can we go back and find the deer?".  Umm, no.

So my van is in the shop again.  At least this time, we have a deductible that is less than our other repairs.  And it covers a rental.   With leather seats.  :)

There is the van saga.  Let's pray that this is all of it for a while.  A very long while.

I did forget the best comment of the day.  It came from David.  "See, this is why I need to hunt so much.  To keep those deer from running into your car."