& where have you been?

we spent the christmas day & weekend with wes' family, in avon lake. usually they have a white christmas, but *sniff sniff* that didn't happen this year (the snow waited until we drove home. glorious.) it was a good christmas & i'm sure sometime this week i'll bombard you reader with pictures & maybe even a video (oh yes, feeling crazy like that). i mean, the girls got some crazy doll accessories, just you wait to see them. until then...

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...i'll share a heidi-kissing-the-ground story.

saturday we had lunch at the very yummy pizza shop where wes' brother & sister-in-law work (danny boys, in rocky river, oh). you must go, if not for the breadsticks, then just to leave bri a nice tip. so we ate & then decided that wes & i were going to take the afternoon off, with the ever so kind grandparents driving the girls back to their place & hanging with them (while wes & i got all crazy at the outdoor mall, freezing our baduchkas off {if that is the incorrect spelling/meaning, sorry, that's just a saying i use}). this trade off went best if the grandparents took our car with the kids in their car seats & we took their car (no car seats! no kids! hooray!) & there was some discussion about wes' dad grabbing their garage door opener so they could get back inside their house. good idea!

so we were driving along lake road, a busy 2-4 lane road alongside lake erie, with the grandparents/kids following us in our car. wes & i then notice a garage door opener attached to the visor. we were like 'oh no, they left the opener in the car, oh no...' & then we pulled up to a red light & wes sorta handed it to me, gave me a GO! RUN! look, & i opened the car door & ran back to them behind us only to hear once they opened the passenger window: {chuckle, chuckle} "that's cliff & bri's opener! we already have ours" {chuckle chuckle}. so then i notice that the light was turning green & gave them a return chuckle & took off running back to the van (wes thankfully didn't start driving away).

then. somehow, i totally tripped. it's as if my feet were yanked out under me. i remember thinking it felt like my legs were tied up... folks, i don't usually fall like this. i'm not super coordinated, but i don't really remember a fall *like this*. wes says all he saw was me running, then he saw my gloved hands fly through the air, then there was nothing (then he wondered, 'where is heidi?'). bruce says i went down hard & sue thought i fell out of the car somehow b/c it just happened that fast & i was suddenly kissing the ground, face-planted, arms stretched out above my head.

to top that off, my upper body landed on a street gutter grate. i then had my ralphie moment, you know, "OOOOHHHH FUUUUUU%&@#@#" as i looked down & saw the garage door opener laying in the street gutter--which was thankfully very full--& i could almost get my arm through the grate...but couldn't. cars were honking & i was still just laying there in my ralphie moment, saying it over & over (oh fuuu...). then wes & sue were there helping me up, brushing off all the crap that's on the side streets. my finger was bleeding & i have some impressive bruises & scrapes on my hand & knees BUT i didn't rip or tear anything (*go* wool coat & gloves).

wes found along the side of the road a long piece of thick wire. i think this is what i tripped me, who knows really, but wes the ever-thinking-&-useful-man used that wire to pull out the garage door opener! (ahem, miracle worker). i was in some pain, but could not stop laughing about it...i wish somehow i could see it on a video b/c i totally did a superman dive. just imagine the other drivers behind us all, what they were thinking & saw--this crazy woman running up to other cars, then suddenly running back to her car but not making it & instead flying through the air, landing on a street grate...

soon after i was hurting not necessarily where i fell, such as my knees on hands, but more my neck, head, & incision hurt. we were good enough to check for spinal fluid in case i tore something along the incision (i know, i think after 5 months that would heal, but we were being *cautious*). i felt like i had some sort of whiplash & within 20 minutes a very painful migraine had set in but was taken care of my my meds & ...

...car heating seat! (my christmas present! i love my husband beyond words). so we went back to my in-laws & sue cleaned up my knee like a grandma knows how & we left to shop 15 minutes later. today, two days later my bruises are even more impressive & my neck has this twinge of pain that wasn't there before, so i'm sure it will go away soon. but i can NOT stop laughing about this incident. my ralphie incident, when i totally kissed the ground on the side of a busy road. in front of mega-mansions & my in-laws & another 100 folks driving by. & all i could say was 'oh fuuu$#$#$#$##$' & laugh.

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wes is home this week & already is a bit like is this how they are all day? & has this minor grumpy look on his face. until amelia wants him to hold her & then he's all glowing & has this smirk of she wants me instead of you. we are slowly putting away christmas gifts & getting settled back into our house, now that the furnace temperature is turned above the 55 degree mark. so *goodbye* until we finally download pictures & such...or until we have another story to tell...