A very scary day

Well, we had an interesting weekend. Let me say, "interesting" is definitely NOT the right word. But I don't have a good word right now, so we'll stick with that one anyway.

Friday, my mom and I drove out to Milwaukee to have Christmas with Paul and see his show, "A Christmas Carol" (Romelie stayed at home with Chason). Despite the foot of snow that was dumped on Milwaukee in the previous 24 hours, the drive out there was not too bad. The show was great and it was fun to see Paul for a short while at least. The drive back was a bit snowier - we saw dozens of cars in the ditch - but we made it back safely.

Then yesterday I aged about 5 years.

I borrowed my mom's car - which has 4-wheel drive - to drive to AM church. I left Romelie at home, something I never do, because it was really cold out and my mom offered to watch her. I got on the highway and drove less than a mile when I lost control of the car. I don't think I hit a patch of ice; I think it was the wind trying to push me off the road. But I swerved nearly off the road, then back on, then off, then back on, and then I spun out and started going sideways. I spun over 180 degrees, crossed into the other lane, and finally stopped - facing the wrong direction - maybe a foot away from the guard rail. Still can't believe I didn't hit it. Then, what's more amazing, no one hit me. Cars went around me (some slipping and sliding past) until both lanes of traffic were finally able to stop and I did a 3-point turn around and continued on my way, shaking and thanking my car angels.

Then, after making it safely home (via side roads), I went to feed Romelie her lunch. Pieces of meatball, pieces of bread, and fruit. And my little tiny toddler got a piece of meatball stuck in the back of her throat and couldn't get it out. She wasn't choking (I could see the food), but she was gagging and turning red, and then she got scared and started crying and gasping and I was so so scared she was going to suck it back into her windpipe. I grabbed her out of her chair and ran outside and screamed for Chason. We had her in the kitchen, holding her horizontally with her face down, and Chason was trying to sweep her mouth. Finally, after this had gone on for what was probably a minute but felt lots longer, she threw it up.

And we're fine. I'm fine, she's fine, everyone's okay. But it took a long time for me to calm down yesterday. I don't know why we had two horrible, ultimate fear moments happen less than 6 hours apart, but I'm very thankful neither turned out worse than they did. But I do feel about 5 years older today.

Believe it or not, the day did end up alright. We got to celebrate early Christmas with my mom, which was fun. And just to clear your mind of some of yesterday's trauma, here are some cute pictures for you to enjoy. And pray for good weather for the 24th, both for my brother's travels home and our trip to D.C. via Chicago.