Big Ways, Small Ways, Thank God Always! Especially Today.

So, normally I wouldn't be posting a non SRC post on an SRC Monday, but I am making an exception today. Because, holy bananas, we had a harrowing experience in our household yesterday, and have much to be grateful for today. I will go into all of that at the end of this post. First I will share a card that I made back in December.

I was messing around with the Mixed Bunch set in preparation for the SRC hop featuring that set and made this card, among others. I adore the Core'dinations cardstock and had stopped using it when it was no longer in the Annual Catalog. But, I am not going to leep doing that kind of thing! If I love it and I have it, I am going to use it and blog about it :) You can still get this paper on the clearance rack, so I really don't feel too guilty about it anyway. Just don't let me order any more of it, lol!

• Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Something to Say
• Ink: Pool Party, Silver Encore, Basic Gray
• Paper: Whisper White, Pool Party Core'dinations
• Other: Project Life Corner Rounder punch, Big Shot with Ovals framelits and Polka Dot embossing folder, Silver Baker's Twine, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

 All of the layers are popped up on dimensionals, and I simply stamped the remainder of the sentiment inside.

OK, now for the scary story. And let me start by saying: No One Was Injured. No One.

This is the first car that I ever bought that was not at least 10 years old when I got it. It is/was a 2005 Dodge Neon and it has 196,000+ miles on it. I bought it in 2006 with 35,000 miles on it and drove it until I handed it down to my youngest child in 2013. All 4 of my children learned to drive in this car and took their drivers test in it. It served us well until Sunday afternoon when it came to an abrupt end.
Geoffrey had just left our home and was 1/4 mile from our doorstep. He had come to a complete stop at the intersection with the highway, looked both ways, and pulled out in front of a fully loaded logging semi. He just didn't see it. There were no curves, no fog, and no ice. The road conditions were perfect and the sun was to his right and he turned left in front of the semi. The semi driver had great reflexes and swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid hitting our car with the semi-tractor, loosing his load of logs in the process. The trailer with the now falling logs ran over the front end of our car. The logs scattered over both lanes, and an oncoming van had to take the ditch to avoid the semi that was now in his lane. The semi and the van did not roll, the logs did not hit anyone but did impact the hubcap of the oncoming van. There is a steep ditch and a frozen pond where the semi and van stopped and we are so lucky no one ended up in that! Again, I repeat. No one was hurt. By rights, my son should have died yesterday. We are so lucky. And blessed. Thank You God, and thank you truck driver for your quick thinking and even faster reflexes.

You can see here that the hood was peeled and folded on itself. And the rest of the car looks so very normal. I am going to miss that car so very much, but I would have missed my son exponentially more.

One more shot as "Mom's Shiny New Car" is taken away. Good-bye Neon. Hello to a new and glorious day!