A Smashing Ride!

This morning it was so beautiful and warm! We made sure to leave early enough for school that Mindy got to ride her bike. She was even wearing a skirt and didn't complain about it being cold! It was so nice!

So, when it came time for me to ride my bike, I didn't even have to think about it, and got all my gear on to ride outside.  As I picked up my sunglasses, I thought, "Hm, it doesn't seem very bright outside." Then I notice that it's actually pouring rain out there! What the heck?  So, I debated for a little while about riding on the trainer, riding later, or just going in the rain. The kids would be pretty protected in the bike trailer... So I finally decide that we're going anyway, and put on my rain jacket just in time to hear Ethan yell, "It stopped raining!"

I kept my rain jacket, thinking it might rain again, but it never did. I was pretty toasty in there by the end too.  I only had about half an hour to ride until I had to pick Mindy up from school so I just road around the neighborhood, delivered a few invitations for the Young Women's program tonight, and we went to the river to see some ducks. It was a nice little ride. Then I got to ride home with Min, and that's always fun!

My friend, and fellow counselor in the Young Women's presidency, Ann, called me to see if I could make cookies for the program since she didn't have enough ingredients to make enough. She couldn't get more because her car had been broken into and was un-drivable. Our president wasn’t going to be there for the whole thing because she is having a really dificult pregnancy, and our adviser’s husband got laid of yesterday. What a day for everyone!

I told her of course I would make cookies, and that that would be fun for the kids. First I had to pick Pete up from work, though. Then he headed off to go mountain biking on the hill above the capital (not too far from our house). He's working on getting stronger for a trip to Moab with some guys from work in a few weeks. He went out the door saying, "I hope I can see ok" because he wasn't wearing his glasses. I told him to have fun, then got down to business making cookies. 

The kids helped decorate them with food coloring to look like they had paint splatters on them. They turned out pretty cute, but Elle ate hers before I could cook it, and got food coloring all above her lip. Of course, that doesn't come off easily, and we were running late to help get things set up at the church so I just left it. 

A few minutes after I got to the church to help set up for the program, I got a call from Pete. He said he had had a really bad crash and needed me to pick him up. I asked him if he was ok, and he said he didn't know, but that he couldn't move his arm. I hurried and left, apologizing for leaving, but I said I would try to be back in time. I thought he had just hurt himself bad enough that he couldn't ride home so I would just need to pick him up. But when I was almost there, he called me again, and said he'd been talking to his brother who is a doctor, and he thought he either dislocated his shoulder or broke his clavicle (collar bone). 

Now I'm starting to get more nervous, and I found him a few minutes later just sitting on the ground by his bike. Both very dirty. I helped him into the car, put the bike on the rack and got in the car to drive him to the hospital. I called my president and told her I wasn't going to make it back, then we called our insurance to figure out where we could go and headed to the nearest ER.

After I got Pete all checked in, the kids were already getting unruly, so I took them home. We grabbed some Wendy's then stopped back in at the church. They were just finishing up, and just having refreshments (The part the kids didn't want to miss) so we hung out for a while, and everyone already knew about Pete. I told Ann that I needed to go back and she offered to put my kids to bed and stay with them while I did that. What a life-saver!

When I got back, Pete was in X-ray. Once they wheeled him back in, it didn't take too long before the doctor came in and just showed us this picture:

Not much explanation needed there! Definitely broken. No mountain biking trip to Moab with the guys in 2 weeks, I guess. What a bummer. The doc said that he should have surgery done on it, and that would make the recovery much shorter. We will schedule that tomorrow. Amazingly, we were back home by 9:30 (He'd crashed just before 7), that was the fasted ER visit ever! 

We were very lucky that he didn't break his neck. I'm glad he had his helmet on too. It's always amazing to me how a split second thing like pushing your breaks to hard while going around a turn, can affect your whole life like that.