Accident & Chores

Last night Abi was in a car accident when she and her friends were on their way to Boondocks for a graduation party. I woke up early this morning and at 5:30 am and saw the texts about it. 

She sent a voice message to us right after to let us know, time stamp from our whatsapp was 10:59pm, 11:03 according to Life360. I was already in bed, Corey was still awake and left right away. The ambulance arrived at 11:10. At 11:21 Corey was in traffic on the freeway caused by the accident. They weren't letting any parents get out to help anyway, so he got off and parked at some random building (south of Albion Fit) and he walked across 300 W and then across the TRAX tracks and a fence to get to the freeway and find Abi. 

Abi's friend Tara was driving. The car was totaled. The girls were all shaking and crying but they were all alive and are so lucky that the accident wasn't worse!

From what they recall what happened was another driver came into their lane from the right and Tara swerved right to avoid them, then overcorrected to the left and they spun, going across all 4 lanes of the freeway (SO lucky there were not other cars right next to them!) and hitting the left barricade, then going across all four lanes of traffic again and then to the shoulder and into a ditch. 

The car that came into their lane kept going and they don't know who it was. Two cars that were further behind them hit some of their debris in the road (like the tire of Tara's car that came off) and so those cars were involved that way. 

But Abi and her friends are so so lucky that they didn't roll the car cause two of the girls were not wearing seatbelts. They went from 69 miles an hour to zero in a matter of seconds and they would have been thrown from the car and would have most likely died. We are so glad that did not happen!! 

They are also glad that the airbag didn't go off cause their friend in shotgun was in a neck brace from a gymnastic accident a few weeks ago and that could have really hurt her. Abi said she offered to trade places with one of the girls who wasn't wearing a seatbelt cause that friend is always making sure people have their seatbelts on and Abi could tell she was uncomfortable about not being belted in (the seatbelt was stuck between the seats). The friend in the neckbrace went to the hospital as well as one girl who wasn't in a seatbelt who was actually laying down in the back (they had 6 people in a 5 seater car) yikes, not good! Lesson to all of us - wear your seatbelts always always! Even if you have to take another car, even if it's going to cost more gas, even if you're going to be late, even if you have to get out and dig to find it. You protect yourself and protect your friends. It's just not worth the risk!

So yeah, Abi and her friends got a big hard welcome to the world of adulthood and real life! They graduated and there was no transition period, they just got hit with it. We're praying for them to all be ok! So at 9am, Corey took Wesley to the train so he could get to Provo and catch the shuttle to Boise for his first week at FSY. They left too late and were going to miss it, so they drove to the Draper station, but missed it there as well. It was raining and Corey's car has had a broken windshield wiper for a while (passenger side) and as he was driving in the rain, the other one broke right before he was going to get on the freeway, so he didn't get on thankfully and they were able to pull into a Burt Brothers. We were going out to eat with my parents at 10, but now I needed to go get Corey (Wes took an Uber to Provo) so I dropped Abi and Katharine off at the cute Cottonwood Heights Cafe and then I went to get Corey. When Corey and I got there, Abi was telling everyone about her accident last night. 

My parents weren't able to come to her graduation yesterday, so I figured it was ok to have Abi come along. Mel and Christian came too, as well as Neil and Amy, Jersh, and Beka and Matt.

I went over to my mom when she said something about liking store bought bread. They have yet to try a fresh loaf of sourdough. I need to bring that to them asap to help them know the true joy of delicious bread. Then I was showing my mom some pics giving details of the accident. 

Group pic after our meal.

Corey outed me saying how I hadn't eaten since Monday night (at Alvie's party). I corrected him saying that I did eat some sardines this morning (and they tasted very good! My body felt a sigh of relief and  my mouth savored the feeling of chewing and swallowing food). 

I was 4.5 days into a water fast when I ended. I've done 4 days before, back in July 2017 I think? No, just found it - it was September 2-5 in 2017, . Next time (next year on my 2nd annual summer reset water fast) I'll shoot for 5 days. 

I also worked today on the chore system for this summer. 

Ethan commented that it's funny I'm still trying to get a chore system after all these years, and I agree. Ugh I've tried so many...

• 2009 - job chart
• 2011 - Chore boards
• 2012 - Fly lady -ish
• 2013 - Mom Store and Bonus Bucks
• 2014 - sticker poster race
• 2016 - clipboards
• 2016 - Trello inspired board
• 2018 - big ol' poster
• 2020 - Covid whiteboard
• 2022 - sticker race take 2
• 2024 - spreadsheet
• 2024 - whiteboard

Yes, I wish I had figured this out a decade ago, but I won't give up until it's solved. But it can be tricky, cause my number of helpers keeps changing, as does their skill and ability (or lack there of). But I based this system on the one in the Draper temple - from when Corey Wes and I went to clean it on May 7, and I took some mental notes, which I shared a little bit on last week: the system they have there works with any random person who doesn't know what they are doing, right? Cause they have different people from different stakes every night, and the tasks still need to get done, so they lay it all out very specifically, they have it all organized, they tell you what cleaning supplies to use. And I also noticed this that, aside from bathrooms, you clean by task, not by area. So I've spent some time pondering (was jotting down tasks this Wednesday as I sat in the mountains) and organizing the chores for each room by task, and I've got the orange tasks written out as specific as I know how to be right now. I ordered some colored lanyards (like they had at the temple) and I'm going to have them organized in a rainbow pattern: 

• RED - Pick up stuff - everyone STOP what you're doing, we're in the red zone = stop and pick up! Everyone pick up everything and put things away where they go
• ORANGE - Wipe down (the lanyards above) - mirrors, walls, door frames, dusting, shelves, counters
• YELLOW - floors - dry clean: sweep, standing vacuum and hose vacuum
• GREEN - floors - wet clean: mop, spot clean, wash carpets, wash outside porches
• BLUE - deep clean and organize
• PURPLE - decorate and rearrange anything

I also have pink and black lanyards, those will be for some monthly and yearly tasks I think, and/or basement.