Rear Ender Fender Bender

Taylor and I were involved in a rear end auto accident this evening. Taylor had finished Tae Kwon Do class and we were driving home. The biggest thing on my mind was what to make for supper. Then BOOM! We were hit by the car behind us after coming to a stop at a traffic light. The impact threw the car forward a good 3 or 4 feet, but no serious injury or damage was done. Thank God for seat belts! Taylor had eyes the size of tennis balls, but after I explained what happened and checked her over, she said she was fine. I had to count to 10 before I got out of my car though. I felt like the guy in the cartoon! It's wild what threatening my kid's safety does to my equilibrium.

I've only been in one other car accident in my entire life, but thought I knew what I was doing. I got out of the car, greeted the other driver, made sure that no one was injured and then spent a good 10 minutes getting insurance information and closely looking over the damage to both cars. We both agreed that we didn't think either car had incurred enough damage to warrant a call to the police, so we made final agreements about how to proceed and both drove off.

Well, it seems that car repairs are even more outrageously expensive than I was willing to suppose. One bumper, one muffler and a quarter panel adds up to well over $2 grand. (Insert whistle of disbelief here). I'm lucky the other guy was fully cooperative and our stories matched, or I could possibly have been left footing the bill for anything over the first $1000. Lesson learned!

We take the car in at the beginning of next week for repairs and will get to drive around a brand new rental car for a week. I'm probably a huge dork, but I'm a little excited at driving a brand new car around for a week, even if it's a Ford Focus. I'll just wear my sunglasses and a huge hat whenever I get in it... ;)

Kristin

Another Beauty

Same spot, different day. Glorious.

Kristin

Flocking au naturel

I left for work last night amidst drizzle and fog. I came home this morning amidst dazzle, agog.

Kristin

Cookie Crazy

Taylor participated in her troop's cookie booth today. For those of you who call Colorado home, I'm sure it is no surprise that we FROZE TO DEATH! As Murphy's Law would have it, the only truly cold day this entire winter (so far) came on our cookie booth day. The good thing? 7 and 8 year old kids don't care. Even better? They have so much fun it's infectious--then the adults don't care either.

Taylor was thrilled to get the chance to wear the Thin Mint outfit at today's cookie selling spree. She spent a great amount of time waving at passing cars, greeting potential customers and trying to figure out how much change to give back. Tricky math!

Happiness is.......being the Thin Mint Girl!

Pressure tactics are surprisingly effective coming from two
enthusiastic young girls...

The girls sold an incredible amount of cookies today. I'm not sure if Valentine's Day had anything to do with it or not. When we asked customers if they were buying gifts for the holiday, most replied with a shocked "NO! These are mine!". Yeah! Get your own box! :)

Before heading home, we stopped at the store on the way home so Taylor could pick up her dad's Valentine's Day gift--a Lindt chili chocolate bar. Hot stuff! While we were shopping, one of the workers at the floral counter came over and gave Taylor a beautiful rose. She was so happy she got tears in her eyes. Sometimes it's the littlest of gestures that really touch the heart. Thank you Grocery Store Man!

The cookie frenzy continues next weekend with another booth set up in front of Sam's Club. I always have a hard time at this booth, mostly because the covetous consumer monster I usually keep well suppressed comes to the fore every time I am within 100 yards of Sam's. *sigh*

Kristin

Happy Heart Day

No shoving! There's enough for everybody!


Happy Valentine's Day!

A New Kind of Ninja

"I got sunshiiiiiiiiine...on a cloudy day...."

Way to go Miss Yellow Belt Ninja!

Movie Day with Mom

When dad is working all weekend and the weather outside trashes your play-in-the-park plans, what's a girl to do?

MOVIE DAY!!!

Lookin' good in my 3-D Wonder Glasses!

Taylor and I went to see the show "Coraline" today. Prior to going, we'd seen a thousand previews, making-the-movie spotlights and sneak peaks, including one that showed how all the stuff that made up the movie was, well, made up. As in handmade. Right up my alley!

So why did I nod off in the middle of the show?

Hmmmmmmm.

Taylor didn't really care, as long as I didn't spill the popcorn. I cared. Not since the midnight showing of the movie "Dracula" in 1992 have I searched my eyelids for holes over the course of an hour. My insomnia must be affecting me more than I thought...

Anyway. Taylor loved the movie, loved the popcorn, loved the smokin' hot 3-D glasses and loved that for maybe an hour of her life her mother wasn't watching her every move. Even better, it was dark and the 3-D effects were amazing. A quote.

I loved the first half of the show--Tim Burton can do no wrong! But, I'm going to have to take Taylor at her word for the rest of it until it comes out on DVD. If it's anything like "Dracula", I'm going to love it and buy it for my home stash. We'll see.

After the movie Taylor and I goofed around in the lobby arcade, waiting for the scuzzy weather to improve. If you ever want to make a 7-year old's entire day, give her 50 cents to play with the Crane Grabber. 47 tries later, she will manage to get one Tootsie Roll (with a life span that has exceeded hers) and chortle with glee as she tries to chew it with her loose tooth. Bliss!

Mom calls this contraption the Torture Machine.

Ask your Mom for $500 to play the interactive snowboarding game.
If the weather is nasty enough, she'll seriously consider it.

Check out the cool new viewfinder!

Once the weather let up a little (hair plastered to head, but able to find car) we headed to Super Target for some last minute Valentine's Day shopping. I won't bore you with details about how much chocolate we bought, just that it was drool-all-the-way-home good and some of it actually made it's way into valentine envelopes.

Kristin

Trying for Yellow

It's that time again--testing!

Taylor has worked for the last two months on round kicks and double blocks, side kicks and self defense. Tonight it was time to put it all together and show her instructors what she knows. The routine was more familiar than last time, thank goodness.

After the meet and greet, it was time to warm up as a group.
Start with some stretching...

After warm up, have a seat and wait for your time in the spotlight.
Try not to lose your lunch. :)

Get really excited when you get the unexpected opportunity
to help higher ranked kids with their self defense display!

Show 'em your stuff when the time comes.
Taylor starts off with a set of sparring moves.

And goes right into another set. RESPECT!

And the finale? Her form. 23 steps learned in a specific sequence.

The hard part? Waiting! Taylor won't find out until next week's classes if she scored enough points to advance to yellow belt status. Don't worry, though. She's pretty confident she made the grade!

Kristin