Bad, Bad, BAD day.

We were in a car accident yesterday.
I learned how far my girls have come yesterday.

The van is totalled. No one got hurt badly; there was no ambulance. MamaT is one very sore mommy this morning. I'm still processing the accident. I like to pride myself in being a pretty darned safe driver. I was turning at a major intersection, and driving, when suddenly the truck in front of me just. stopped. going. I slammed on my breaks and the car slowed down quickly but not quickly enough. In fact, in fact, using the rear of the truck, the van was at a complete and total stop about two feet too late.
According to the witnesses, the truck was speeding and hit a young deer that was in the road. The had slammed on their breaks to stop too late and I was too distracted by finishing my turn and not getting hit by highway traffic that I missed the deer... No, I think it was just being a deer and standing in the middle of a highway because, as I learned in the mountains, that's just what they do! ALWAYS watch for deer!!! (I almost wish I was the car in front because I learned that already and haven't grown out of the habit from living in the mountains. I would PROBABLY seen it faster, maybe... ) the witnesses said she was speeding and not paying attention. I have the $166 ticket.
We're all a little sore today and my big toe on both feet ache. I have seatbelt bruises on my left shoulder that look like the brakes hit hard three times(???WTH???) my airbag threw my glasses off my face and a passerby was kind enough to find them for me before I could figure out how to stand up because the sudden blindness made me so nauseous I couldn't find my feet.
I think I'm still in shock...
They had to shoot the deer. Sunshine ran to me and wrapped herself around me and buried her face in my chest and cried "mommy" a hundred times when it was happening (just before). I pulled her close and covered her ear and held her and Fe close while the officer shot the deer. :-(

They came to me for support and comfort!!!

Also, yesterday JJ, Fe's little brother, was "having a time of it" during the sibling visit, where I had ALL FOUR KIDS, BY MYSELF, He ,,, called Trini "a mean name" and I made the mistake of walking over to him and asking him to talk. He just kind of disregulated...
There was biting (I have several big, dark bruises), spitting (everywhere, it was kind of funny because he kept making looong lines of spit, swinging them back and forth in the sand, then trying to spin them around his head in effort to throw them at me... Every. Single. Time. it would swing up and cling to his cheek.), kicking (my glasses off my face was fun :-[ ), scratching (I have nail marks where he was digging his nails into the backs of my hand in order to try to get me to release him) . I had him under control but, after almost an-hour-and-a-half / two-hours, I decided that he was not going to calm down enough to drive home and had to call grandpa for help. Grandpa walked over to the school (we were REALLY close, where the kids go to school, I could see the back of his house from where I was) with the helper trailing behind, popped a sedative in JJ's mouth, and he was calm within seconds. That pill under his tongue worked suspiciously fast. :-???
Our girls were also very attempting to be helpful here. When they saw JJ trying to hurt me, on two different occasions (I think a bite to the calf and a kick in the leg/foot), one of them ran over and told him that, "he could NOT hurt THEIR MOM!!!"
I had to call Fe over to pull my shirt back down, JJ tried to kick her and she used her group home experience to trap his legs and feet to protect all of us. I was hard to decide whether to let her hold him down or make her let me be the adult in control. I ended up being the adult. The fact that my almost 13y.o. knows how to do that, makes me sad but grateful at the same time. Of course, needing to be helpful and involved, Sunshine ran over and helped her sister hold him!