Last weekend, Lovebug and I traveled back to Mom and Dad's for a few days of what we
thought was going to be quality grandparent-granddaughter bonding and R&R for me :). Sunday afternoon/evening was great! Mom and Dad surprised me with this!!!
Oh yeah baby! Lovebug and I got ourselves a new bike trailer! Of course, we had to take it out for a stroll after Dad showed me how to take it apart, fold it, unfold it, and hook it back up again. Ahh... I love riding bikes. It was somewhat surreal to be riding around the same streets I used to cruise... only this time with my
not so much a baby baby on board in a trailer :). The streets were the same as I remember.
We chillaxed in their 3-season room while Lovebug kept everyone entertained. We followed that up with a yummy steak dinner. For dessert? Ya know, besides the cupcakes that Mom made, Mother Nature whipped up a big ol' thunderstorm. So big, in fact, that Mama Sy-ya made everyone go down to the basement because we were getting some wicked rad 60-70 mph winds. When one has winds like that two months after a tornado, one heads to the basement. While down there, we got a phone call from their neighbor...
Mom: "Hello?"
Neighbor: "Part of your tree fell down and is blocking the street."
Mom: "What??!? Dale! Our tree fell down in the street!!!! Oh great!"
Neighbor: "I'll call the com center."
Mom: "Thanks!"
Once the winds died down enough, we all went upstairs to see this tree that had crashed. Unfortunately, the pic below isn't my greatest photog work ever, so bare with me. When you look at it, you will see their front deck and the sidewalk leading up to it. In the middle of the sidewalk is the severed limb. The limb went all the way into the street and would only allow for one vehicle to get through the street.
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| {sorry... hard to see through the screen door} |
The city guys came and hauled away the majority of the limb that night, but it left many smaller, yet annoyingly large branches left scattered around their yard. Fun times. All in all, the storm dumped almost 2 inches of water in not much time at all.
Monday morning brought Papi Dale headed off to work, and us girls to hang out. Mama Sy-ya and Lovebug decided to play dress-up with one of my old hats...
...while I cleaned and organized some stuff in their house. I even used a toothbrush to Old English some of their furniture. I know, right??!?! Craziness!!! While getting ready for lunch out, I answered their phone to a frantic, not-so-good sounding Dad. He was asking for Mom... he'd been in a car accident. I rushed the phone to Mom then rushed to get Lovebug and I ready. I threw a bunch of stuff in a bag, loaded Lovebug up, and drove all of us to the scene of the accident {after Mom called 911 to tell them where Dad was}.
We followed the fire & rescue crew from town out, and I dropped Mom off and she ran to Dad who was standing in a ditch with the rescue crew. He was holding a towel on his forehead. I knew I was going to be in the way of others who needed to get to the scene, so I drove past. As I looked over, I saw Dad's windshield. You could see two spots on his windshield where it was obvious something had hit it, and it was spiderwebbed all over. Needless to say, not what you want to see on your Dad's truck! As Lovebug and I sat in our van, I watched a sheriff and two ambulances pull up... then saw a backboard get taken to the ditch, then saw them load Dad into the back of the ambulance. Insert complete hysterics from me... followed by quickly realizing I was upsetting Lovebug. I stopped, pulled myself together, and waited for Mom to come back to the van.
We followed the ambulance to the ER and there we stayed for 5 hours. Some x-rays, CAT scan, 20 stiches, and a split later, we left. Poor Papi Dale was broken :( He'd broken his nose, had a deep laceration on his forehead requiring 4 internal and 16 external stiches, had dislocated his right ring finger, had a nasty cut on his right-hand thumb, and lots of other cuts.
Now, when my brother and I both had
our car accidents, Dad took pictures of us as proof/evidence... ya know, to make sure we never did it again. It was turn around time.
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| {still managing to give a small smile} |
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| {ouch!!!} |
Fun fact: my mom and I are both petrified of other peoples' blood, so you can only imagine how she and I were handling seeing Dad look like this. However, something took over and I turned into Nurse. I helped clean his head, made sure he took his medicine, gave him his ice packs and told him when he had to take them off. Ya know that "fight or flight" thing? Yeah, it's true.
Moral of this story folks... rain+gravel roads+unmarked field entires=no bueno :(
Tuesday brought a very sore Papi Dale, and haircuts for Lovebug and I. Since Papi Dale couldn't work, he got to go with us girls today! Lovebug was quite the big girl for her haircut and sat
ever so kinda still :). Caryl worked her magic, which is good, because these beofre pics show you how truly insane Lovebug's hair can get!
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| {white girl fro} |
Even though Papi Dale was sore, it wasn't going to stop him from getting some unexpected quality time with his granddaughter. So while Mama Sy-ya mowed, Papi Dale took Lovebug for a ride on my old tricycle :)
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| {legs aren't quite long enough to reach!!!} |
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| {notice who is doing all the work here :) and notice Papi Dale's right hand :(} |
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| {Not sure who had more fun here, Lovebug or Papi Dale} |
Wednesday came which meant we had to go home...but not before we all headed to Carroll to watch Coach's team play! Again, since Papi Dale was still off work, he got to go, too! Another unexpected bonus of a car accident. Ya know, if you want to look at the bright side of a car accident.
Coach was one happy Daddy when he saw Lovebug strollin' up to the fence. And Lovebug was one happy girl when she saw her Daddy :).
There you have it. From R&R to TLC. Though I hated that my Dad had to go through all of that pain, it was nice to be able to help take care of him for a change.
Update: Papi Dale found out that he's on work comp for 2 weeks because he has torn ligaments in his right hand thumb & ring finger. And one super sore back :(.
