The New Cars

We got verification that Nathan's car was totalled and was able to get him another one. He got a S60 Volvo. When we walked into the dealership all the salesmen start clapping! They had printed my blog and was showing everyone that walked in the door the car. When they got Nathan's deal done, I jokingly said I wanted to see a XC 90 SUV. Well, we loved the XC90. It is a 2004, but it was an executive lease and was well taken care of. It has a navigational system, leather seats, fully loaded. I have the same amount of seats as with the mini van, but lost some cargo space, but got more safety features! I am all about car safety these days.

Grandma Schuette

My great grandmother's 98th birthday was the weekend of Nathan's accident. We stopped by on our way home and was able to get these pictures with the girls.

Halloween

Well, it was another great night at Tammy and Kevin's! We had a great time. I got sick with what Kierstyn had about 10:00 and went home at 10:30 with a 101.3 fever. Looking at the end pictures, I can see my self fading....but it was so much fun. Tammy decorates her house to an amazing "haunting" look.

Letter from Volvo

Dear Ms. M*****:

Thank you for your email regarding your husband's recent accident and for sharing your experience with the people who work here at Volvo. Stories like yours provide us with the highest level of customer satisfaction.

Over the years Volvo has heard from many owners, who feel were it not for the safety features in their Volvo, they would have suffered serious injury or even death. To show our sincere gratitude for all these sentiments, we have established the Volvo Saved My Life Club. We would like to invite you to become part of this club. Your story & pictures may be placed in the Volvo Saved My Life Club scrapbook. This book serves as a tribute to those people who truly value automotive safety--Volvo customers and Volvo employees. Since we are unable to send or receive attachments in our email system, please provide a mailing address where we can send membership forms.

When you receive your forms please complete and return to the address below. We will then forward your certificate.

We thank you for your kind comments and wish you many miles of safe and pleasurable driving.

Sincerely,


Volvo Saved My Life Club
Volvo Cars of North America , LLC

Got an offer

We got an offer for the car today! They gave us $2000.00 more than we paid for it :*). We are waiting for the Gap Insurance to kick in to pay off what we were upside down. USAA has ownership of the car and faxed us information today. They said it should be good enough to purchase the new car tomorrow!!!!!!!! Nathan called the dealership and said they have it ready for us to come drive. I will post pictures if we are able to get it tomorrow.

Volvo Safety

http://www.volvocars.us/footer/about/VolvoSavedMyLifeClub/

I found this link! The last story is amazing. They all are, but the last one was the same car that Nathan was driving! I need to find out how to post Nathan's story!

UPDATE*** I just emailed Nathan's story to Volvo with pictures! I will let you know if I hear from them.

Life Goes On

Nathan has been gone all week and all is well. I had him call me every hour as he traveled on Tuesday. I couldn't answer it since I was teaching, but it was on vibrate in my pocket. Just knowing he was okay made me feel better.

Tuesday night Kierstyn gets sick with strep, ear infection and the stomach flu! So I am missing two more days of school, but what are you to do? Once again, I need to take my own advice and put my family first and leave my guilt behind. I have the sick days for a reason.

Nathan will be home Friday night. He called the Volvo dealership and found a 2007 S60 passion red car. Since the 08s are out they are coming off the price $6500! Now if we would just hear from the total loss unit about the s40 Volvo. We would like to purchase the S60 on Saturday since they are holding it for us. The above car is the 2008, but the body style is the same and they don't make passion red anymore which is what our other car was, but this will give you an idea of what the new car will look like.

When we got home last weekend we realized we left our Toll tag (a must have in Dallas) and we couldn't find a set of keys that were in the console in the wrecked car. I didn't see them. We call the appraiser and he said he couldn't legally get anything out of the car for us, so luckily it was still there when he got in to town on Tues. He got the toll tag, which was still Velcro to the windshield and found his keys under the passenger seat. He said he leaned over and started feeling around under the seat since he couldn't get over there and felt them right at the edge! Once again, God is GOOD!

Saturday, Kierstyn plays soccer at 10am, we are going to see about the new car, I have our school carnival and shift at 4:45, and four ladies on my block are going as "Robert Palmer" girls to our annual block party for Halloween. Laura and Nichola found the cutest little black dresses for us! I am so excited! I will be sure and post pictures on Sunday. Nathan and I always do a couple thing, but I couldn't pass up a chance to be a Palmer Girl! :*)

Counting our Blessings

We stood before our Church this morning thanking God for the blessing of saving Nathan and the life of the young lady who was also involved in the accident. Our church family, neighborhood family, and immediate family have surrounded us with love.

My neighborhood family called me nonstop checking on me as I drove to Lubbock and also keeping tabs on Nathan's condition. The time went by so quickly for me for the other wise long trip to Lubbock. They also went to Super Suppers and stocked my freezer with 12 meals! Wow! What an amazing feeling knowing how they came together to help us in this time. My neighbor across the street came to the house as I was packing and helped me get my senses together enought to get the car packed.

My church family immediately started praying for us. Our pastor went to our neighbor's house to get my cell phone number to call me. He couldn't have called at a better time. It was getting dark and I was in between Synder and Post and it is about 40 miles of nothingness, alone with my thoughts. Thankfully I was comforted and calmed as Pastor Paul prayed for all of us.

My mom and dad were amazing as they stayed by Nathan's side until the girls and I could get there. Having them there to guide us through all we had to deal with afterward made things bearable. The girls needed to be with Memaw and PaPa DaiDai so they could have a sense of normalacy as soon as possible.

We called the Volvo dealership and found out we have gap insurance so our entire loan will be paid off (Thank you God) so we will be able to go get another Volvo. We are looking at the S60 which is a bit bigger car.

My school family surrounded me and my girls and helped us get out the door. Someone was right there with my kids and helped me pack up my things, ran to get my girls and gather their backpacks and folders. They covered my class until the end of the day. They were also calling me and checking on me as I drove to Lubbock. My wonderful teammate made sub plans for me and covered all my team leader responsiblities for me. I am looking forward to seeing all my kids on Monday so that they know we are all okay.

We were sitting up watching the news on Friday night and it was reported that on the same FM road that Nathan's accident happened, down about 2 miles, a couple missed the stop sign, an 18 wheeler hit them and the couple was killed. My thoughts and prayers have been with their family all weekend. I can't get them off my mind. How different my life would be right now, if the host of angels had not been there to take care of Nathan and the young lady. I can't imagine how I could have handled it if my phone call was different and I would have been a widow at 34. How horrible it would have been for my precious children. It was hard enough on them knowing that daddy was hurt and in the hospital.

I am so very thankful for our blessings and realized I need to quit worrying about things that I can not change. I need to enjoy each day and make it count with my precious family. I need to quit working so late and come home to enjoy the amazing family that my Lord allowed me to keep and to cherish each day, hour, minute and second of our lives.

I learned to make each Good-Bye count. I hollared bye to Nathan as I rushed out the door with the girls to get to school on Tuesday. Little did I know that it could have been the last thing we said to each other. As he leaves again on Tuesday, our good byes will mean something and our prayers will be with him as he travels again. I am terrified letting him leave again, but we can't stop living. We just live differently.

Found some more

Here are some more pictures.

Pictures of the car

We found our garage door opener behind Nathan's seat in the window.

Here is the inside door in the passenger side compartment.

Another view

Here is the back seat. The glass was held together by the tinting and was rolled up in the back seat.

The door that is protuding is what hit Nathan in the head. The seat that is compressed is what pinned his arm.

This is all that is left of the passenger side of Nathan's car. You can see the door has compressed the seat to almost nothing.

The car

Nathan and I went today and looked at the car. OH MY! I broke down. It was all so surreal to me until I saw the car. I took tons of pictures and once I get home I will upload them. The passenger side seat is non existent. It is about a 1/4 of the size of what it was. Thank you GOD that NOONE was with him. They would have died! The door broke apart and part of it hit Nathan in the head and he has a big bump. He was complaining today his side hurts and we looked at him and he has an abrasion on his side probably from the door coming in on him and a bruise coming up. He is very slow moving right now. The tow truck driver verified the visablity on the road was non existent. He said he had a hard time seeing, so since Nathan was unfamilar with the area, he just didn't see the stop sign. But to his defense, she was travel at a very high rate of speed to have caused so much damage to the car and push his car 150-200 feet. We were able to get the battery reconnected and the radio works :*) so we were able to pull the radio away and get his AC/DC cd out.
The insurance company is saying that since the car is only 4 months old, that we should be able to submit a bill of sale and they will replace the car. We hope it is that easy.

Thank you so very much for all the emails and phone calls and offers of help. I was facing a 5.5 hour trip last night and my prayer was that it would go by quickly so that I could get to Nathan. With all the phone calls it went by faster for me.

Nathan's car accident

Nathan was in a pretty bad car accident today in the Lubbock area about noon. By the Grace of God, he only has minor injuries. He was unconscious for a bit after impact and was taken to the hospital for observation. His elbow is hurt b/c the passenger side seat trapped his arm and the passenger side door is next to the console. The car is still in drive b/c it so crammed in. The girl that hit him is okay also. We are very thankful for his safety and the young lady's. The Volvo and our Lord saved him today. The paramedic said that all the air bags deployed, but my dad said that Nathan's side didn't. His side looks perfect. We still can't understand how he walked away with out any cuts... I don't believe in coincidents, so the fact that I "forgot" to turn off my phone today and was able to take the phone call, that my mom and dad were at the hospital before Nathan arrived, and that Nathan remembered my cell phone number b/c he usually has to look it up on his phone, which by the way is shattered, so that lady that was there with him could call me, tells me that Our Father looks out for us and those we love.

The car is totalled, so we will need to deal with all that and the insurance tomorrow.

A taste of England

Our dear friend Mike emailed me today and he is home, back in England. He lives very close to the castle that the first 2 Harry Potter films were filmed. Mike was actually an extra in the Sorcerer's Stone.
He has invited us over, so we will try to start saving our money so we can go visit.
We all miss him very much!