Sweet!

Because Mabes hasn't been napping, it has made her nighttime sleep worse and caused her to wake up earlier and earlier. This morning, she was up at 6:15. I woke up with a sore throat and general achiness, so when seeing if she'd play quietly in her room didn't work, Dave played with her while I tried to go back to sleep until 7. But the sore throat made that difficult.

It's been hot (mid-90s) and humid (ewww) lately, so I decided the best thing to do would be to head to the park before it got too hot and then go grocery shopping at Super Target. It was ridiculously hot when we got to the park, but oh well. Mabes had a blast saying hello to the turtle, hello to the duck and her ducklings, and playing in the sand with a new friend. I was chatting it up with new friend's grandma when the girls decided they were ready to leave the sandbox. Friend went to her grandpa, Em ran to the swings. I was saying good-bye and heading towards Mabes when she started screaming. Now, if there's one thing to know about Mabes it's that screaming/general loudness is very common when she's excited or mad, but not when she's hurt. When she gets hurt, reactions range from "Ow, I bumped my elbow" and it's bleeding now or crying for a whole 30 seconds when she scraped up her face. So I immediately started sprinting towards her because it had to be something serious.

Instinctively, I blew the giant black bug off her leg before getting a good look at it. I picked her up and she was sobbing, but I think it probably only lasted maybe a minute and then turned to little whimpers. The grandma came over and was looking at it, and I was just wondering if it was a bee sting or a wasp--and what do you do in those cases? There was no swelling, though, no stinger and her leg looked fine. The grandpa said, "Oh, it was probably a horsefly! Those things hurt!" What? They bite? When he said that, it made sense--it seemed like the bug looked like a giant housefly, but why on earth would Mabes be screaming about a fly on her leg? But as we were walking out to the cars, the grandma swatted something away and said, "Yep, it must have been a horsefly--one just landed on me!" Poor Mabes; in reading up on horsefly bites, they don't sound fun.

Thankfully, due to the heat, I had packed our drinks in one of those collapsible coolers with ice packs--that was great in helping her leg feel better. Guess I'll be toting one of those all summer, since you never know when you'll need ice water or an ice pack! Then Mabes decided that she needed to swing, and she was completely fine after that.

Then we headed out to do some grocery shopping, and I was rear-ended. The lady was really nice, though when we pulled over she was really concerned about Mabes. Showing what a great mom I am, I hadn't really thought about that. In my defense, it was a really just a bump and Mabes said, "DUDE!" (as she does whenever I slam on my breaks) and then "Oh, that's a crazy noise! Freaky!" So I guess I had just assumed that since she was saying dude, crazy, and freaky, she was fine. We exchanged info and the damage is very minimal, but I don't like dealing with any car issues.

Rather than looking at it as the pickle on the crap sandwich that has been my day, I'm trying to be more positive. You know, "when you've reached the end of your rope, tie a knot and start swinging!" (Let me clarify that this is a bit of an inside joke that Dave quotes often and makes me both laugh and want to punch him in the face--just so you don't think I've turned into a total sap who would like a copy of "14,000 Things to be Happy About" for Christmas.) So for the good things: Mabes is taking a nap, which automatically boosts my day by about 1000 points, I love air-conditioning, I'm making a "summer dinner" using a new pasta salad recipe and pairing it with watermelon and corn on the cob, and I got ice cream sandwiches at Target and I plan on devouring all of them tonight. Okay, maybe not all, but I reserve that right should my afternoon not go well. Oh, and DDO (aka Dancey Dance Off, aka So You Think You Can Dance, but it's easier to type DDO. All possible future references to the show will be DDO) is on. It takes a simple person to be satisfied with reality TV and ice cream sandwiches, but hey, I never claimed to be complex.

And a special birthday shout out to Becca--happy birthday, poops! We called and sang to her voicemail, and Mabes wanted to make her a cake and have a party, but that will have to wait until she comes to visit next week. And I'm putting one picture at the top of this post because it makes me happy, and therefore should be the first thing you see. Not the most flattering picture (sorry, Bacon!) , but it perfectly describes their relationship--Becca and Mabes are kindred spirits. It kind of scares me, but mostly I just laugh. Becca is awesome, and I'm so glad she pulled out of that annoying/selfish/bratty teenager stage (not a slam against Becca, we all acknowledge we had an annoying age), because I now consider her one of my best friends. We always thought Mom was slightly delusional, if not completely full of it, when she said someday our sisters would be our best friends. As always, Mom was right. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BACON!

And a high-five for Doov in passing his driving test and getting his license on the first try. Sorry, Dave, I didn't see your text until today, so congratulations! I can't believe you're driving. When I was looking at the license of the lady/girl that hit me, she was saying something about dropping her daughter off at daycare and I saw that according to her license, she was born in 1984. My first thought was, "How can you have a daughter, you're 16!" Then I realized that she was actually 24, and I felt old. And now I feel even older knowing that "little Dave" is driving. Just be careful and don't rear-end anyone.