You know how they say bad things happen in threes? I am such a believer, especially after our past month. First, Clint was in the OR one day and during a sweep of the on-call room, the janitors threw away his wallet, credit cards, license, etc. After helping out with getting his stuff replaced, I thought we were just so unlucky. Apparently things have been just too good lately, because we were not done.
A few days later, I was woken up at 4:30 in the morning by a very agitated Clint. I was still groggy and completely confused when he told me his car was underwater, his phone got lost in the water, and he had to run back home. What?? After I woke up, the story was still fairly unbelievable. Clint was driving to work at 4:30 in the morning on a very dark road a few blocks from our house. The road was empty and unbeknownst to Clint, a large water main had just exploded nearby. The water rushed down a hill and completely flooded the street (and some nearby garages). Clint couldn't see any water in the dark, and as he was driving, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until all of a sudden, his car was underwater! He got out with most of his important stuff, but his phone got lost in the water. As we were getting things worked out with insurance and the Dallas police, we turned on the TV and realized that Clint's car was quickly becoming famous--we saw it featured on three different channels!
Poor little Honda. :)
A jeep joins the party...
The accident was almost worth it, because you've never seen anyone so excited and stirred up as Charlie, after he woke up and got the full story. He could not bear to eat breakfast; he was just dying to get out to see the car in the water. It was all he could talk about, and we must have watched the NBC clip of the water and the car about 50 times. Charlie had us repeat the story over and over and at one point, when he apparently hadn't heard it enough, he got exasperated with me and Clint for being too distracted and yelled, "can someone please tell me what happened to Dada's car???" As soon as Evie got some breakfast in her belly, we headed down to check out the car. The water had already receded, but luckily we got there just in time to see the tow truck take the car away. This was quite thrilling for Charlie. We also got into a conversation with the NBC reporter at the scene, during which Clint politely declined an interview, especially after she asked him incredulously, "so you just DROVE into the water?" :)
After learning that the car had been totaled, our next task was to find a new (used) car before our rental car term ran out (especially after the rental car developed a flat tire within one day of having it--ugh!). Finding a car for our insurance proceeds was not easy, but we prevailed, and ended up with a nice little used car for Clint. Unfortunately, due to Clint's crazy schedule, we had to fit car-buying in between events on July 4, which made the day a little more exhausting than it otherwise would have been (I forgot how much I hate buying a car!). Car buying is even less fun with two little hooligans running around, although they did give us something to laugh about.
Here is poor Clint negotiating with two crazies on his lap.
After an hour or two at the dealership, Charlie and Evie became CRAZY. Some of their many antics involved Charlie carrying Evie around (below), walking from cubicle to cubicle saying "hook 'em!" and flashing the longhorn hand signal at everyone over and over until they said "hook 'em" back, climbing all over the sofas and desks, throwing business cards all over the floor, eating and scribbling with pens, running away, etc. Fun, fun.
Once we finally had that worked out, I thought things were starting to look up. We were getting ready to meet the Hendersons for a swim a few days later, and Evie and I went out to the garage to get a few of our swim things out of the car. I opened the garage, knowing we'd be heading out in a few minutes. We then went back in the house to put on sunscreen and heard a loud banging in the garage. The kids and I were a bit startled, but I figured something just fell down. Apparently not, because a few minutes later, a jogger started knocking frantically on our front window. I ran outside and he reported that a "big man with a lot of tattoos" had just parked at the end of the street, run back to our garage, grabbed Clint's bike, and then ran off again. We were so sad, and immediately called the police, but they (of course) haven't had any luck finding the guy or the bike. Charlie was very disturbed by this story and asked me why the guy stole the bike. I launched into an educational discussion of working hard, saving your money and buying things versus just stealing things and making people sad. After thinking about it for a minute, Charlie decided that when he grows up, he is going to "get a lot of tattoos, be a bad man, and steal things!" Poor guy got a LONG talking-to after that, and he has since reconsidered. :) I do love hearing him re-tell this story, though--he does it very dramatically and never misses a detail--especially the part about "a LOT of tattoos." :)
Although we were so sad to lose our bike, I was just so glad that the guy didn't come into the house. I felt like we had a little guardian angel with us that day. So no, we didn't miss our swim. We weren't about to let that guy ruin our day! :)
Charlie and Charis relaxing in the pool...we recover quickly. :)
Sweet friends.
Best buddies. :)
Please tell me this is all 3--we are exhausted! (And out of money--apparently cars and bikes are expensive! iPhones are too, but my hooligans and I managed to talk the Apple store into a new phone. :)
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