Valentine's Day 2011 - interesting to say the least!

I wish I could say our Valentine's Day was full of fun and excitement and all sorts of neat things. Unfortunately, it was anything but that. For those of you that haven't heard, Jeremiah was in a car accident last Friday. He's fine and the speeds were very slow, so no worries about him or the other driver. So while the insurance company sorted everything out, we patiently waited all weekend for news on the final outcome. Unfortunately, because our truck was so old and the angle at which the collision occurred, it would have cost more to fix the truck than just total it.

So we were basically left to say goodbye to the truck that has served us well the last 5 1/2 years and begin gearing up for buying a new one. Of course because we were now down to one car, I began the tedious task of getting Jeremiah to work (which is in Spanish Fork and a good 30-35 minute drive one way on a good day with no traffic) and getting each of the kids to school and their various activities.

So rather than a relaxing Monday morning, we woke up the kids early, got them fed, dressed, and in the car by 7:20am so we could get Jeremiah to work on time. After that we headed home, fed Tate, and got Zach off to school. I then spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working, talking with the insurance company on the phone (numerous times), and taking care of Tate and Hailey. We then got a call from Jeremiah saying he was ready to come home, so as soon as Zach walked in the door from school at 2:45, we all jumped in the car and headed back to Spanish Fork to get him. We then flew back to Lehi to get Hailey to cheerleading at 4pm. We dropped her off and then headed over to the towing company to clean all our stuff out of the truck, drop off the keys, and give them permission for the insurance company to take it. Then we went back to the Legacy Center to pick up Hailey (it was now 5pm) and we headed home. Once we got home, we fixed dinner, ate dinner, got homework done, and did a little mini-Valentine's Day celebration (it was less than 15 minutes long) as Family Home Evening before reading scriptures, saying family prayer, and getting the kids in bed on time. After that we were so exhausted from the day, that Jeremiah and I were in bed and asleep around 9:30pm.

So that was our Valentine's Day. Nothing like we were hoping, not even close. But as I reflected later than night on the day's activities, I decided that we were blessed just to have made sure we had everyone where they needed to be and home and we all were healthy and together. I've come to realize that sometimes blessings come in the form of not having any more bad news! So we're content that the day, although extremely hectic, was a success and more importantly - OVER!

To let you know where we are right now with things, I wish I could say we found another vehicle right away and everything is now back to normal. But we're still looking and we're hoping that we find one that suits our needs and budget in the next day or so. In the meatime, the rest of this week has been a bit crazy. Luckily, with some help from my wonderful mother and father who have been on hand as needed, we were able to send Jeremiah our other car Tuesday and Wednesday, and my mom watched all the kids while I dropped off and picked up Jeremiah yesterday, and they both even went to Zach's game last night to support him while I was at my Relief Society Activity. She even watched the kids for a few hours on Wednesday afternoon so Jeremiah and I could go look for a bit. I really don't know what we would have done without them and all their help!

Luckily our only activity that required us to have the car today was cancelled, so we were able to send the car with Jeremiah again. He's hoping to get off a little early today so that he can drop by a few dealerships on the way home and check out some trucks we saw online. So we're hoping that by tomorrow we'll have a spiffy new vehicle for him to drive around. I sure hope so because next week is going to be crazy as well and I'm not looking forward to trying to get everyone to where they need to be with just one vehicle. I'm hoping it won't be much longer until things are back to normal around here (at least the chaotic normal we're used to)!

Wish us luck! I have a feeling we're going to need it!