AND it was 19 degrees today

I started the car this morning and realized my car had no gas. None, zero, zip. The gas light was already on, and although I was running late, there was no way I could make it to Gabe's school before I stopped at a gas station.

We have to travel on a very busy road to get to Gabe's school, I'd call it almost a state highway- 4 lanes, very busy, no traffic lights, exit on and off ramps. Anyway, there is a gas station on the side of this road, so I pulled in, opened the door to get out and WHOOSH! A huge gust of wind came into the car, and grabbed every piece of paper in the vicinity, including a stack of checks I'd grabbed from the house to deposit at the bank.

A stack of checks.

Blowing in the wind.

So at 9am, you might have seen me running across this almost state highway, chasing down each of the checks as they blew all over the place and I attempted to stomp them down before we lost them forever. It crossed my mind several times that I was about to die over a $10 check, but I couldn't fathom having to call Josh's great aunt Helga to tell her I'd lost her check on the highway and now she'd have to stop payment, pay a fee, and reissue us Josie's birthday check.

So I kept right on running.

The road is so busy, I was literally standing in the ditch on the side, trying to keep track of the blowing checks until there was a gap in the traffic and then I'd dash around trying to stop the papers from blowing another 20 feet away.

I was near tears by the time I got back to the car where I'd left the kids sitting alone at the pump. But I succeeded, I'd only lost one check and that one came from our insurance company and I felt confident I could ask them to reissue it.

Later that day, I stopped by the bank to get those infernal checks out of my hands and I decided to open a savings account for Josie so we'd have a place to throw in great aunt Helga's $10 birthday check. It took forever (50+minutes) and I left with a folder full of all her account information. We walked out the door and I rested the folder on top of her stroller for a moment so I could adjust her hat, and WOULD YOU BELIEVE the folder blew away.

I spent another 5 minutes chasing down that paperwork in the bank's driveway and bushes.

Apparently, old dogs and 31 year old women cannot learn new tricks.