I am SO smooth...like sandpaper!!

Okay, so I'm not the most graceful person on the planet as it is. (My college roommate atually nicknamed me "ouch" because she heard me say it so often.) In a pregnant state, I go from bad to worse. Yes...I'm foreshadowing.

Yesterday Mitchell and I took his tricycle around the block while Chris hosed down the garage. (He likes to change the oil in our cars himself and for whatever reason, the box of yucky oil leaked this time.) I wanted Mitchell to be out of the way, so that was my strategy. The people who live by our mailboxes had a whole rack of what looked like really cute little girls' clothes at their garage sale, so on the way back around I stopped to tell my neighbor to check it out. (She has a 6 month old and a 2 year old...both girls.) Anyway, we get back and Chris is almost done but he's scrubbing and rinsing the last of it out. Now...I can't fault Mitchell for wanting to get in there and do some major splashing damage, but two things were in my mind: (a) I didn't want semi-oily shoes on my carpet, and (b) he had on his CU jersey for the game and I didn't want it all nasty. Of course he goes parading over to stomp and splash, which means he is doing his job as a 2 year old boy to a tee. With the above in my mind, I grab his hand with my left hand to pull him out of the water so we can watch Daddy work but not be in the water ourselves.

Dum, dum, dum.......

Well, I had on my flip-flops (which my husband and mother have now declared off limits to me for the duration of the summer) that happen to be like two years old with no traction. As I pull on Mitchell's hand and step backward, I have begun to slip. Now, were I not pregnant, this would have been very amusing...almost cartoon like...my feet were slipping like I was on a treadmill and I was like a sinking ship. We all knew I was going down, the question was how and when. The good news is that I had time to brace myself with my right hand, but I never let go of Mitchell (in hindsight I was thinking our little herculean toddler might actually save me) so I fell akwardly, but not very hard, on my left butt cheek and hit the tire of Chris' car with my lower back on the left side. Scared me quite a bit, but I was okay.

A couple of minutes later, I was like "You know, I think my back could hurt." A couple of hours later after sitting on the floor with Mitchell for a couple of minutes, I knew my back hurt when I started to get up. I decided to call my mom (who is a physical therapist). She had my do some little exercises and told me she'd call me when they left Boulder (they were at the CU/CSU game). She called about 1/2 hour later and told me she'd feel better if she came to take a look on their way home (oh...and we're about 1/2 hour out of the way home...she was being sweet). So, she came and looked...thinks I have a bruise brewing and that I might be sore. She wants me to call and at least let my OB know about the fall if I'm worse today. I think it's fine, I really do. I'm just such a clutz.

You know what's completely dorky? I'm really quite upset about the no flip-flop thing...and shhhh....I just won't wear them around those two!! There's no way I could cut them out completely; I'm an addict!!

p.s. - I woke up at 4:45 again. Sigh.

Shaken...

...to the core by what I've seen from this hurricane. I don't even live there, really don't know too many people who do or have, but it is FRIGHTENING on such a huge, heartbreaking, life-changing scale. It just does something to your insides when you see people interviewed on TV who have lived in New Orleans all of their lives and they say "This was it. This was the one we've heard about our whole lives." I mean, the ENTIRE city is underwater?? It's just nuts, and so is all of the stuff that follows. I guess in some way I sort of understand it, but in many ways it just makes me more sad for that whole community and for people in this country in general. The one that made me go from teary-eyed to flat out crying was the lady coming out of the store with a stack of diapers and wipes and she had them covering her face. Sigh. What in the world would you do?? I mean, what if you were a new mom and couldn't breastfeed? How would you handle it if you had to try and deliver a baby in all of that insane chaos? They showed a spot on the NICU at the only functioning hospital and this mom was standing next to her teeny tiny little life and saying that the machine keeping him alive depends on electricity. Can you even IMAGINE that kind of dread and fear??? I can't. The ironic thing is that I spent a few days all weepy and feeling sorry for myself over some (what I realize now is EXTREMELY trivial) "stuff" with life, and am now somewhat embarrased for even having had those thoughts. I'm luckier than I ever could have dreamed and need to live that way every day. Too bad it took seeing thousands killed, homeless and in desperate need for everything to make me realize. Someone slap me with the stupid stick, quick!!

My hope is that it brings out the best in people. Not just the rest of us who are lucky enough to be sitting on our couches, watching it unfold on our TV's while our kids eat snacks in their clean clothes and clean diapers. I think it goes without saying that we all need to give what we can. Look and see what we have two of that someone else might only have one of and give...I heard that on the radio today. Besides that, the obvious, I'm also talking about the victims themselves. My prayers for them have been to restore their determination and will, to not let this tragedy diminish their faith, and to somehow hold onto to hope through the kind words and actions of others. I know that will be tough to do, but that's my hope for them.

I don't really feel like writing about anything else today...it would feel pretty trivial.