I love big cars...

Ok - so I'm not always so thrilled with the fact that I have to drive my big van. But it really is a good vehicle - gets us where we need to go and my kids actually fit. But I have never been so glad to be driving it. I was trying to get back into the swing of things after my wonderful girls weekend, and headed over to my mom's house Tuesday afternoot to print some pics with her laser printer for the Beehive activity that night. I was stopped at the light on John Carlson/Fairgrounds. I checked my rearview mirror to check on the girls like I usually do at a stop and I notice that the car behind me is moving really fast and I think "hmm I'm not sure she is going to stop in time" The next second I'm thinking "oh my gosh she isn't even slowing down..." And then BAM. She hit me. She pushed my car into the car in front of me (BAM again) and then I felt a third BAM which at the time I thought was the car behind her hitting her. That turned out to be wrong - it was her car actually finally stopping. She was driving a mid-size sedan - but her bumper was low enough that it went under my bumper (the first bam) The third Bam came when her car finally stopped - with her entire hood crumpled up and most of her front end under my car. Let me just say - that Mackenzie and Sierra were scared but appear to be fine. (SiSi actually told me to stop it - she didn't like the banging. I told her I didn't like it either - but that there wasn't much I could do since the car behind us was the one doing the banging) She does have a new respect for the importance of wearing seatbelts/sitting in booster seats. She had some intially pain where the seatbelt tightened down on her - but was joking with the paramedics and firemen within about 20 minutes. I intially thought I was ok - but in that same amount of time, I was hurting more and more. I apparently was grabbing my neck a lot, so the paramedics and state patrol officer finally convinced be to allow them to check me out (my mom was there to take care of SiSi and Kenzie by that time) and they put me in a neck brace, strapped me to a back board and took me to the hospital in the ambulance. The x-rays were all "clear" so they sent me home with pain killers and told me I'd feel worse Wednesday, and to take it easy (yeah right).
Here are the few pics we have of my van. They had already started to remove things to assess the damage ($8000 worth) and we have disk with the pics they took before they removed stuff - but it is a 3 1/2 inch floppy - and I'm not sure how we will ever be able to see them. There was more damage to the drivers side of the front because the car in front of me was a small SUV with a spare tire cover on that side.


So far the insurance companies have been good - we had a rental by 6pm (the accident happened at 1pm) that actually "fits" our family (it has 8 seatbelts - it is a Suburban - but I don't have average size kids and they are already missing the van which has a lot more leg room) The other driver's insurance took full responsiblity and has agreed to pay back everything that our insurance has already (will) pay. Our insurance told us to replace only the carseats that had kids in them at the time of the accident - but hers said "no - replace them all - and fax us the receipt."
Did I mention the lady that hit me was 80 years old and that she saw smoke coming from the top of the Burger King and thought the restaurant was on fire? As far as we know - she broke her leg (which with the damage to her car is amazing if that is all the injury she had) and the car in front of me appeared to have very little damage and all its occupants seemed fine (she had a couple of kids in her car as well) I apparently am allergic to the pain pills they gave me - I woke up itching like crazy about 2:30 Wednesday morning - so then I was on Benadryl, Advil, and Tylenol. I have also been to the chiropractor Wed and Thurs, go again this afternoon, and then 3 times a week for at least the next couple of weeks. Today, I'm not in as much pain - although it is getting to me since I've been sitting at the computer for a while. I haven't taken any meds this morning because my stomach was kind of upset - I'm sure from all the meds. But I might need to break down and take some.
So all in all - we faired ok. And I really love big cars! I don't even want to think about what would have been the outcome if I had been in my small car.