HOME!

We are finally back home. It's been a LONG trip, but most of it was fun, and in the end we all arrived safe back home, which is the important part.

For those of you who don't know yet, we ran into a bit of a snag in Atlanta on our way home. While driving through the downtown area we were involved in a traffic accident where our car got sandwiched between two other cars. Matt was driving at the time (poor fellow was rather bummed that his perfect driving record has now been tarnished) and the car in front of us stopped. Matt was able to stop our car (although he did have to slam on the brakes quite hard) before we hit the person in front of us, however the person behind us wasn't able to do the same, so it pushed our car forward into the car in front of us. Of course it all happened super quickly and the girls began crying because they didn't know what had happened. Thankfully everyone in our car (including Mozart) was totally fine. The other people in the car in front of and behind us also seemed uninjured (although we learned later on from our insurance company that the woman in front of us said she was hurt as a result of the accident, but no one needed to be taken to the hospital or anything like that and everyone was up and walking around the cars swapping insurance info).

Even though everyone seemed unharmed, I can not say the same about our poor car. I wish I had thought to take a picture of it. It looked pretty bad and beat up. The whole front end was smashed, with the engine having been pushed way back. All the lights were busted and the radiator was cracked and leaking out all the car fluids. Both front doors were difficult to open because the panels had been pushed back. Even though the front looked so awful, our airbags did not deploy. The back of the car didn't look quite as bad as the front, however the trunk was unable to close and there was some damage done to the lights and bumper. So our little blue car had to be towed away (it took Matt three tries just to start the car to get it off the interstate to the shoulder, and then it was shaking violently until we were able to turn it back off). The tow man (who was SUPER nice) asked Matt what year it was, then took one look at it and said he'd be really surprised if the insurance company didn't write it off as being totaled.

We also had some of the nicest police officers respond to the accident call. They were all very nice and really seemed to sympathize with our family. After interviewing all the drivers, they didn't issue Matt a citation and were also very helpful in getting us all into the tow truck. One even offered to help get us set up into a hotel if we had planned on staying for the night. Then once we got to the tow place, everyone there was super nice and helpful too. The girls were able to play in the waiting room and thankfully I had actually packed a picnic lunch for that day, so even though the accident happened right before lunch time I was still able to feed the kids while Matt took care of accident related things (like talking on the phone to insurance people and renting a car so we could get back home, as Matt had to be back by Monday morning for work).

It was VERY sad leaving our little car in Atlanta, especially not knowing if we'll ever actually see it again. The insurance people said that it would be taken from the tow yard to a collision center where the people there would give the insurance company an estimate of how much it would cost to repair. Then the insurance company will determine whether or not to cover the repair or just say it's totaled. However, none of this was going to occur before Monday morning. So now we are just waiting to find out the fate of our Corolla. (By the way, I have a lot of sentimental feelings for my car since it was the first car Matt and I ever bought and we got it a few months after Adrianne was born. Both Matt and I had dreams that one day Adrianne, and the others, would learn to drive on our little car. It's rather silly, I know.)

Thankfully, our insurance policy did cover the cost of a rental car so after loosing about 5 hours, we were able to get back on the road and arrived home yesterday (Saturday night) around dinner time. Since we've been home I have been trying to get us all unpacked, laundry done, groceries purchased, and the like. Matt was able to get the yard mowed (which was TERRIBLY long after three weeks of not being cut in what has turned out to be a rather wet summer). I am also now trying to work on getting all of our car seats replaced (you are supposed to replace any car seats that are involved in a wreck) which is turning out to be more trouble than I thought that it was going to be. I have driven to FIVE different stores in this city and I can not find the models that I have on store shelves, so it appears that I shall have to order them online and wait until they are delivered. I guess it's a good thing that I am pooped from our trip and I don't really feel like going much of anywhere right now!