Drama

One of our favorite book series (meaning ones that I can deal with reading over and over again and the kids will actually sit still and listen to) are those about Llama Llama. A phrase that always sticks with me from one of the books is when the Mama Llama begs little Llama to "please stop all this llama drama." Yesterday, I definitely felt like begging for all of the drama to stop! Most people reading this (since you are the special ones privy to knowing how crazy I really am) know that my anxiety levels ratchet up tremendously when on the interstate and especially when there is merging and tractor trailer trucks involved. Well, imagine that all of that is compounded by being a disabled vehicle on the side of a busy interstate while trying to manage two children who keep questioning "why we don't go, momma" and you get a glimpse of the state of panic and fear that I was in yesterday when my car tire blew out.

In my mind we were in the absolute worst place for it to happen since it is a part of my daily trek that I dread every day (cars merging from one interstate to the other with one lane oblivious that cars will be IN THEIR LANE in no time at all), and is embarrassingly not an interstate that I was totally sure of the name or direction of (I know now) since I literally merge for 1 minute and then take the first exit from there. After pulling off to the side of the road I immediately called Lance and as I was watching in the rearview mirror was becoming more and more afraid and hysterical. I have had to drive on the shoulder a few times because people failed to let me merge, and I could see that others were doing the same thing and coming dangerously close to us at high rates of speed. Plus, it being right at the end of morning rush hour, people were also unable to get over (move over law) to give some separation once they saw the car on the shoulder and were whizzing by, shaking the car and freaking me out even more. I was admittedly in a state of extreme panic, unable to stop crying (even though Katie kept telling me "it's ok mama." I opened the door to get a look at the tire and realize that I could not continue driving at any speed, and then edged as close to the guardrail as I could manage and didn't move until Lance pulled up (and then I still crawled across, not about to open that driver side door again)!

Lance saved the day and came to give us his car while he ended up sitting for over an hour waiting for the wrecker (and he said that it really was a very frightening spot to be in so it wasn't just me being an interestate wimp). It was an unusually busy morning in Nashville with accidents around the whole city, which accounted for the long wait. Nevertheless, USAA roadside assistance was again fantastic and I am so glad that we "accidentally" signed up for their driver program years ago. It was one of the scariest experiences of my life because not only was it a nightmare situation for me personally and my phobias, but also because I could not get my kids out of that situation and all I could think about were the numerous reports of disabled and emergency vehicles in accidents from the same type of scenario. It didn't help that Katie refused to keep her arms in her carseat straps, and Tyler immediately opened the car door on the traffic side when we put him in Lance's car!

The day ended with going to the mailbox and receiving what I thought initially was an audit notice from the IRS (which probably would have been worse news), but ended up being a correction to our 2010 filing which means we owe money. Katie has been somewhat of a nightmare lately, testing all boundaries of every kind of discipline we can throw at her and she was proceeding to have one of the biggest tantrums of her life as I was reading the incredibly difficult IRS jargon. They are both definitely testing us at every opportunity now, but for the most part are just fun, fun to be around these days and tantrums, whining, grunting and screaming (in Katie's case) are not overly abundant (knock on wood). Luckily too, we have a trip to Gatlinburg planned this weekend. It will be great to get away, to spend some time in the mountains, and enjoy some fun activities with the kiddos! I think a visit to the aquarium, some yummy rainbow trout, and a trip down the Alpine Slide are great rewards for dealing with some drama!