One of those days..

You ever have one of those days where things go straight to hell?  Today was one of those.  This morning, I took photos of Brian’s awesome train track layout (which I missed yesterday), and one of the snails that Kendall and I rescued from the sidewalk this morning at Goddard school.  Things were cool the rest of the day, and I picked up Kendall like usual on Tuesdays, until I get the call from Brandon, who was over at the IcePlex with Brian for his skating lessons.  At some point during the lesson, a very unsophisticated crook had used a large rock to break out the right-side window of Brandon’s van, and had stolen his work bag.  Brandon was waiting for the cops, and asked me and Kendall to come and retrieve Brian.  So, that’s what we did.  But, on the way, it became very obvious that we were in for the thunderstorm of the century.  I know from storms, but this was looking like something else entirely.  It took forever to get to the IcePlex, as there were four separate accidents on the beltline.  I ended up taking an earlier exit than usual, and went a back way, and things were looking up, until the last mile..  That’s when the sky got entirely dark, and the bottom dropped out.  Visibility was effectivly zero, and I had to creep that last mile.  I was worried about the window being completely broken out, and the van getting flooded, but luckily, Brandon had gotten some trashbags from the IcePlex staff to sort of patch it up some.  He also used one of the Hello Kitty blankets I’d made for Kendall to further cover the place where the window used to be.  Brandon brought out Brian to me when I finally arrived, and went back in to wait for the cops.. But, I couldn’t drive home in that storm.  The white-knuckle horror show I’d just been through was too fresh in my mind, and thinking of all the accidents I’d seen..  Including a rear-ending we’d heard the sickening sound of happening just a few cars behind..  So, I parked next to the van, and decided we’d wait it out.  I showed the kids funny videos on my phone, and we watched the storm, whipping about the clear plastic trashbags and the Hello Kitty blanket.  That was okay for awhile, but, after about two hours (and absolutely NO breaks in the storm) Brian had to use the bathroom.  I called Brandon and he took Brian inside..  Kendall was oddly silent, but, by the time Brian returned, she’d wet herself, all over the carseat, etc.  At this point I had to go, no matter how bad the storm was.  It was already past the kids’ bedtime, and I still needed to feed them.  My mind was blank, and all I could think of was the one fast-food option on the way home–the McDonald’s behind Crabtree.  Now, if you didn’t know, Brandon and I compromise on a lot of our ideals from our idealistic youth, but we do NOT take the kids to McDonalds.  Not ever.  But I could not think of one other option at the time, so the kids got their first Happy Meals ever, along with admonitions to not complain.  We got home, cleaned up Kendall, started some laundry, had a picnic on beach towels on the floor and watched a Tinkerbell movie–Secret of the Wings..  I dunno, I guess I thought sweetness and light was what we needed. Brian’s prize was a Spider-Man car, and Kendall’s was a Barbie sunglasses keychain thing.  (She liked Brian’s prize a lot better!)  I took a quick picture of Brandon’s laptop, which was sitting safely at home, and sent it to him.  Of course that’s what the thieves had been after.  The kids got to bed late, and Brandon eventually got to talk to some cops (they were delayed for hours, due to the fallout from the storm).  He finally made it home around midnight.   Sorry no other photos from today, given the situation, I wasn’t up for being my usual shutterbug self.  :/  We’re going to have a time of it, what with all the glass in the van (from the windshield to the back lift gate–really–with the majority of it all over Brian’s booster seat.  We’ll have to replace both Brian’s window and the front passenger-side window as well, since the crooks tried to smash it first, and took some chunks out of it.  Ugh.  Those dumb criminals’ momentary smash-n-grab is going to be weeks of hassle for us, with cops, insurance, window repair.  Ugh, just ugh, it makes me sick.  Or maybe that’s the Mickey D’s. 😛