Almost T-boned

It's been awhile since I felt like I had a brush with tragedy. Today was the day that reminded me of how blessed I am to live the life that I live, and to have the people in my life that I have. I have an amazing wife and wonderful children. I have a great family and great friends. I've got a great job that drives me crazy, but I wouldn't change where I work or what I do. Even though this school year has probably been one of the most difficult years of teaching in awhile.

Now, let me paint the picture of my brush with potential death and a certain hospital visit for me and my girls. I was stopped at a red light. I had just finished yelling at Grace and Mia for fighting with each other in the car. If you are a parent of three kids or more, you know how sitting lined up in a row in the backseat can set the kids off. My girls get along most of the time, but 70% of the time that I drive them in my Camry someone will be annoyed by someone else because "she's singing, she's touching me, she won't let me use her iPod, I don't want to sit in the middle, she's looking at me, she won't let me use the crayons, I don't have enough room fro my legs, her breath stinks, she's bothering me, she just kicked me...." You get the idea? I can't take it. I have a confession. I'm not patient. The squabbling in the backseat drives me CRAZY! Tracey has this amazing ability to tune it out. I think it's because she works with elementary aged kids all day long. Because I teach high schoolers, I don't have the same level of patience for conflict resolution. If there's a conflict I want it resolved. Now. End of discussion. But, in the reality of "elbow touching" seven and ten year olds, they just fight. It's annoying to say the least, and infuriating when I'm cranky, tired, or just trying to get home so I can make dinner, check homework, and get children ready for bed. The other issue is, it's distracting.

So, I had just gotten finished explaining, in a rather loud tone that Grace and Mia needed to "knock it off" and be quiet while I drove, because I need to be focused while I was driving. Then, the light turns green and I glance to the left and see the car in the far right lane slow down, and then I start to drive through the intersection.  As I start to look forward, I can see in my peripheral vision to the left that there is a car in the left lane that is barreling down on me. When I turned my head I was looking staright at an older lady with giant dark sunglasses, blowing right through the red light. I instantly punched my accelerator, and she barely missed my car. I would estimate that she missed my car by about a half a car length. She never slowed down.  That stretch of road is 50 MPH and she was speeding through the red light. If I didn't notice her she would have T-boned my car right where Mia was sitting. In the split second after I accelerated, I double checked the light to see that it was green.  It was green as a Sprite can. Somehow, the car behind me hadn't started driving forward. I saw them brake right as they saw the Oldsmobile flying through the intersection.  As soon as I hit the railroad tracks I could feel the adrenaline running through my body. I said a quick "Thank you God for protecting me" and then proceeded to think about how thankful I am that my girls and I were alive and not heading to the hospital.  I then yelled at them again. :) "This is why you can't fight in the car. If I were distracted and looking back at them we would have definitely been in a major accident."

So, after this post I'm going to tell you why I'm thankful for my wife and family. That way if I die anytime soon there's a record of it. The twins are half way to 20. Mia is halfway to 14. Time is flying by, and you really don't know when some 65 year old will be running a red light (so she's not late for church) and killing you in the process.  This doesn't even bring up the lock down we had at Diamond Ranch last Friday because of a phone threat. Nothing quite like hearing the helicopters and SWAT team landing on your roof when your locked in a dark classroom with 30 teenagers sitting quietly and praying that it's just an idiotic prank.

I'm glad I'm alive. If I die I hope my wife, children, family and friends know how much I love them and want the best for them in life.