Sometimes, bad things happen.

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle a crisis. Well, I’ve heard it before, but I’m not sure who said it. I can tell you this: I SUCK IN A CRISIS. I’m that bumbling idiot who really shouldn’t have been the one to place the 911 call. The one who talks so fast but says nothing. And can’t follow a simple instruction to save her own life, much less anyone else’s.

I also heard someone say once that, if God only gives you what you can handle, He must think I’m a total pussy. He really must. I guess we just get so comfortable floating through life and confident that nothing will really happen to us. After all, we don’t do anything too risky, break any laws, we wear our seatbelts. What could happen to us right?

Anything can happen. Nobody is immune. Life happens and it’s real. And we can eat well and take our multivitamins and wear our seatbelts and get hit by a car jogging. When your number is up, it’s up. I’m not sure if that’s really true, but it certainly makes the uncertainty of life easier to swallow.

A couple of things I’ve learned this year are: Just because a toilet seat only costs ten dollars, that doesn’t mean you should actually buy one. (A toilet seat that doesn’t’ handle moisture well is never good. Actually, it’s just plain gross.) Another thing I’ve learned is that I really need to learn CPR. I have three kids, for crying out loud. I have no reason not to absorb every single bit of information that I can that could take care of my kids in a crisis, or anyone else for that matter. I am useless in a crisis. My brain seems to shut down completely. Actually, my emotions shut down and my brain just turns to goo. Useless, stupid goo. I’m not a basket case by any means. In fact, I don’t make it a habit of crying. Ever. I’ll get a little weepy during a movie or reading something powerful or seeing something that just really touches me. In fact, I can honestly say that the birth of a baby (no matter how cheesy and sitcom-like) can bring a few tears every single time. 13YO has been hooked on that show ‘The Nanny’ on Nick at Nite. In the last episode, where she has the babies…even that puts tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat.

We had something happen around here. Something really real. My family is okay and everything, so don’t worry. But I’m having trouble processing it all. Things are normal one minute, then there’s panic, frantic phone calls to 911, waving down paramedics and pacing. I want to feel like there’s something I can do. But why? To make me feel better? This isn’t even about me. But I was there. And I cannot imagine being without the pins and needles I sit on now.

I’m sorry to be so vague, but there is still so much to process. The full story will probably come out….eventually.

WE HAVE A KNITTER!!!

13YO has a few goals this summer.

1. Learn Spanish.

2. Read two more of the Twilight books.

3. Memorize the Preamble of the Constitution.

4. Learn to knit.

She has checked out a few books on learning Spanish from our library. She's taken notes and practiced pronouncing things. She likes to try to 'shush' everyone around her when she's 'studying.' We sort of laugh her off and tell her to go to her room if she needs silence. There are, afterall, four other people in this house! And it's SUMMER VACATION for crying out loud!

She's almost done with New Moon, then she'll be ready to take on the next one. Between school and softball, she had little to no time for reading for pleasure. She loves to read.

The Preamble thing is coming along pretty well, too. She gets a little hung up on one part, but the rest of it is pretty easy for her. It also helps that I still know it all by heart from when I had to memorize it in the 8th grade myself. I think that I didn't really learn all that much when I was in junior high and the few things I did learn really stuck or something. There's no other way to explain why I still know some Dr. Demento thing, the McDonald's Menu Song, and both my locker numbers and combinations for my gym locker and my outside locker from the 7th grade.

Just don't ask me where I parked my car when I'm walking out of Target...and, if you find me wandering aimlessly in the parking lot don't worry: I always find my car eventually!

The last thing on her list is also in the works. She's plugging right along on the knitting thing. She knitted a couple of little practice swatches and now she's attempting a scarf. Her knitting really doesn't look any different than when I started knitting myself. Toward the end of the scarf, I'm sure her knitting will have already improved in leaps and bounds.

All she can really do is the actual knit stitch, but we'll soon be working on how she holds the yarn, purling, and reading patterns. It will be nice having another knitter in the house. Once school starts again, I'm sure she'll have to put the needles away for awhile. They say 8th grade is pretty tough and school always comes first.

I'm very proud. It's odd getting to a place where one of my children and I are more on the same level. Don't get me wrong...I am still and will always be her MOTHER first and foremost, but it's nice to have more in common with her now. She's 13. I'm going to blink and she'll be starting high school, dating, going off to college, etc.

Can we let her learn to knit and then stop any further growth? I'm just getting used to this.