Taking Note of the "What Ifs'

A year ago today at 6:01 PM, while on our way to church, Mattie May, Katie and I were hit by a drunk driver. You can read about it here. In this post, I talked about the what ifs that I had then. I still have them, lots of them. And when I see a report about a wreck caused by drunk driving, I get them all over again. This scripture will always remind me how blessed we are to have had only bruising and soreness. There are so many others that had so much worse. It is almost always so much worse.

We still can't drive through that intersection that Mattie May doesn't remind us that it's where the crazy lady hit us. We asked her this morning if she knew today it had been a year that we had been in that wreck and she reminded us that we were going to church to eat lasagna and cake. She still remembers.

I am too lazy to go back and check if I ever posted the girls blood alcohol level. In Texas, the limit is .08. She registered a .38! If you don't know, .40 is alcohol poisoning! From the time I saw her car, I knew she never tried to stop. I thought maybe she had reached for her cell phone, but I will always believe now that she was completely passed out. Her blood was almost 50% liqueur!

So just a reminder to everyone, please don't drink and drive. Don't let anyone drink and drive. It really isn't worth it.

God Bless

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Five From Her Journal

Wow! The day almost past me by again! Here is her next journal entry. Note the picture is a bit better than normal. She just insisted she couldn't do this one so she enlisted Grumpy's help. Smart girl!

i will eventually get back to some of my own post and pictures, but hers are just to good to pass by!

God bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Four From Her Journal

Oops! I missed two days! Sunday ended up being a pretty busy day for us and I really try to stay off the internet (not the computer) on Sundays. Yesterday (Monday) was an accidental holiday for Frank and I. Mattie May was out of school for MLK day. One day last week Katie had mentioned that if one of us could take off work to keep her that it would help her out a lot. Well, we both asked off and didn't tell the other one. Wow! Great communication skills there! Oh well! It ended up being a great day. We started by taking Tramp to the vet for his follow up puppy shots and just a check up by our doctor. Good news! He is very healthy and in overall great health. And he wasn't to afraid of going to the doctor! It was good too for Mattie May to be in on the responsibility of talking to the doctor and to see that Tramp didn't cry when he got a shot like she does!!

After breakfast at McDonald's we had planned on going to the zoo but it was still a bit too chilly, we went to the movie instead. Mattie May and I finally finished reading "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Dawn Treader" right before Christmas, but there was so much going on we never made it to the movie, so that is where we headed. It was a good movie but not as good as the first two in my opinion. The first thing I noticed was it was not a Disney movie. Why did Disney not do this one? I guess I need to do some research and find out.

Now to be perfectly honest, I have not read the books that the first two Narnia movies were based on so I don't know if this was the case in those movies, but Dawn Treader was all out of order! That really bothered me. And I guess that is why they had to add some things that were not really in the book, to make the movie flow. I am glad we saw it, but I am also glad we waited until we had finished the book. Mattie May is only five, but she kept noticing and telling me what was different in the movie. Hopefully this will keep her interested in books and not rely so much on movies!

We did manage to make it to the zoo. When we left the movie, it had warmed up considerably with just a little wind. We had an enjoyable time. I just love watching Mattie May (and Frank) try to get the animals to interact with them!

Now on to Mattie May's journal entry that should have been posted yesterday. It is from the fourth day of our trip which was her birthday. I think this was my favorite day of the entire trip. Maybe it was because of all the attention she received from it being her birthday, or maybe just the way she was able to interact with the people in the different countries pavilions in EPCOT. Or it could have been that was the day Frank got my pearl earrings! I don't know but enjoy her entry!

I just love her artwork!

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Three From Her Journal

I have been working on my pictures tonight, the few we have from our phones. I can upload them to my PhotoPass account and they will be on the CD I order. My neck is so tired! I was so intent on getting them finished that I almost forgot to post this page of Mattie May's journal! I hope you have a great night, what's left of it anyway. Until tomorrow...God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Two From Her Journal

I love her concept of things. Look at that castle on the bottom of the page. She loves to write and draw so what better way to record her thoughts on our adventure. This is something I will probably do on our trips from now on.

God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day One From Her Journal

I finally had to time to scan her journal. It is in my writting but in her words (mostly). At night we would quickly go over what we had done that day, talk about who she had met and got autographs, and she would give me one or two of her favorite memories from that day. She would start out dictating to me, but most of the time she would fall asleep. The next night, I would have her draw her picture and then we would start on what we had done that day.

I think she enjoyed doing this! I have always hated keeping a journal or diary, but maybe this will be a start to her keeping one.

If you have trouble reading it, I think you can click on it to make it larger. Enjoy!

Until tomorrow, God Bless!

Mattie May's Excellent Disney Adventure - Day Two

Even though day two was long, there seemed to be quite a bit of down time. We had time waitng at the airport, flying to Florida, riding the bus to the hotel, checking into the hotel, figuring out what we wanted to do first. But at the same time, we seemed to be busy the entire time. It will be easier to tell about this day in pictures. Enjoy.

Watching this video, you wouldn't think this child was going anywhere special. Not much excitement here!

Mattie May and I chillin' in the airport. This was just before I realized I left my camera in the shuttle!

Grumpy and Mattie May checking out the sun rise and our airplane.

On the plane finally! Just love that smile!

She was trying to play on her DS using earbuds but they wouldn't stay in her ears. So... we used the orange belt off of Googily Bear's gi to hold them in place. Katie calls this picture

Tu-Pac Sha' Mattie! LOVE IT!

For the first time today, she finally shows some excitement of being at WDW!

Our first look at our home for the week, The Contemporary. We loved this place. Nice rooms. Great employees. Fantastic food. If you have never been, I would recommend anyone to stay here.

We were so happy to see that we were getting to see the Christmas decorations. We understood that the decorations would be taken down that night, however, we got to enjoy them all week in each park. They are simply amazing!

It didn't take Grumpy long to loose all his inhibitions! LOL! Another video I absolutely adore!

And finally, after five years of waiting, five years of watching Disney movies, looking at this in the opening, she saw Cinderella's castle for the first time! And let me tell you, this picture was taken after she calmed down a bit and let everyone within hearing or really shouting distance know that this was the first time she saw this castle!

I love this video. It is hard to hear Mattie May, but I'm sure it will bring a smile to your face too!

See you tomorrow for day three! God Bless!