Ode to the Green Stuff

My favorite color is green.
Can you think of things that are green? Perhaps this post will help you note some particular green things that affected me today.

This morning, after dropping the girls off to school, I decided I'd drive through the car wash in the 20 minutes between elementary start time and preschool start time. Because I wanted to be super efficient I told Brock and Brevin they could unbuckle from their carseats to help me collect trash as we rode through the automatic car wash. At some point Brevin was right behind me and I noticed, as I turned around, he had some lovely GREEN buildup in his cute button nose. Because he's been suffering horribly from allergies the past week I took a tissue and showed him if he wrapped it around his finger he could essentially pick his nose in a sanitary way in order to get rid of the crud that doesn't quite drip, but crusts over (I know, TMI. Don't puke, Jer.) As simple as the trick was, it seemed a little beyond the kid, and as I was re-explaining the technique, my ginormous Excursion BANGED into something and we all jerked forward and back again. I was completely stunned . . . weren't we still in the carwash??? Brock whined, "Mom, that hurt!" (Remember, unbuckled kids - I know, Mother of the Year!) I guess sometime during my lesson with Brevin I had missed the bump that indicates we were done with the car wash and then I proceded to roll down a decline right into a cement pole. Nothing like a heavy car in neutral to really get some momentum going.

Once I realized we were outside (seriously, it took me a minute to get my bearings) I backed up and pulled around so the guy could dry my car. (Uh, hello! I'd already paid for the soft cloth drying and the armor-all) I hopped out to check out the damage. The kid working said, "Are you okay?" and I said, "Yeah" all annoyed at myself. Now, most of you know I have a tendency to "bump" into things in my car. What can I say? It's huge and a little scratch here and there just shows personality, right? Well, I knew by the hissing that this may have been a little more than a little tappy-tap-tap. I mean, I've watched enough TV to know the hissing is usually followed by some steam from underneath the hood. As I stared at the front of my car I knew that pole imprint was a bit too deep to fall in my "whoops" category and I had to call Tyler. Before I did so, though, I asked the kid working, "Is that stuff dripping down right there, that neon GREEN fluid, your soap from the car wash, by chance?" Unfortunately my fears were confirmed that when hugging the cement pole I apparantly not only dented my bumper, completely cracked my grate, but I also busted my radiator. Nice.

Luckily Tyler was very calm about the whole thing and I kept emphasizing it was because I was mothering my kid when the distraction happened. Unfortunately, my distraction is going to cost us lots of GREEN stuff from our wallet. Blech. What a way to spend a tax refund :)

Special thanks to my father-in-law who let us borrow his truck for the day and my sister who picked up my boys to get them to preschool and then took them home while I did some retail therapy at Wal-Mart. I figured since I will be stranded for the next few days, I'd get some GREEN plants to fill flower pots and our flower beds. And that's how I spent my afternoon. I worked out my frustrations on a bag of mulch. I'll have to post some pictures, but in my efforts to be more positive, I will be working on our landscaping the next few weeks.

So, yes, I am sure you're GREEN with envy that you didn't bust your radiator this morning. I'm just chalking it up to one of those "will be kinda funny in a few weeks" things.