At the end of my January post, I shared that I was at an intense work weekend that gave a good end to the month and a good start to February. Well, it turns out that while the work weekend itself was good, the drive home…not so much! I will write a whole separate post about exactly what happened, but the short version is - I was in a car accident on the way home. It was quite dramatic, but in the end, I walked away with only bruises from the seatbelt and cuts from the glass, so it could have been a whole lot worse.
The accident happened on Sunday, February 2nd. The next couple of weeks were a bit of a blur as we dealt with insurance, closing things out with the old car, getting a new car, etc. My heart was incredibly warmed by the amount of people I had reaching out and praying for me, and sending cards and flowers. I ran out of vases and had to start putting flowers in drink pitchers! This table sits right in front of my chair where I was resting and recovering and constantly brought a smile to my face.
Part of closing things out with the old car was going to a holding facility near Oxford to see what we could salvage from the wreckage. We managed to rescue most of the items we normally keep in the car (camping chairs, reusable bags, etc.) although he got a bit scraped up in the process. Getting there was a bit tricky as we didn’t have a car, so we are grateful to friends who banded together. Amy gathered up Hebe (the baby) and Merlin (the dog) and drove an hour to pick us up, an hour and a half to the place, and then home. We took her out to lunch as a thank you. Steve was then able to pick us up on his way back from somewhere else and drop us off back at home. Teamwork makes the dream work!
So much time was spent dealing with the insurance company, Admiral, and then sorting out getting a new car but honestly, it all went about as smoothly as possible. We made our claim on Monday morning and by Thursday afternoon we had the full payment amount in our bank account, which was just incredible. We will have to be Admiral customers for life!
On Saturday the 8th there was a pre-release for a new set of Magic, Aetherdrift, a racing themed set. I was iffy about going if we had a car and I hadn’t just been in an accident, so Joel went without me, taking the bus to get to Newport. He’s glad he went but it’s definitely not a set we are going to purchase a lot of.
Sunday the 9th was the Superbowl! Usually, I stay up late to watch this and then struggle through work the next day…but after the accident, my circuit gave me two weeks off, no questions asked. I made a cheese ball for watching the game had fun turning it into a football shape. The score of the game was less fun!
On Valentine’s Day, we took delivery of our new car! We went back to the Hyundai Kona electric, and back to purchasing from Drive Green, who have a car delivery service. The car was driven to our door, we completed the purchasing process online and then it was ours. The color of the new car is called “Dark Knight” so we have named it Bruce. I love that it has a sunroof!
The next day we decided that our first real trip in Bruce should be back to the accident site. It was about two hours away, and cold and rainy when we got there. We parked in a layby and then had to walk about a quarter mile to where I actually went off the road. It was a bit unnerving to see the tire tracks and the sign I must have hit.
Here is a photo of where the car actually ended up - it was all the way in that tree that you can see is broken now. There was a ton of trash which at first I thought wasn’t mine, but then I realized it was all the snacks that had been in my snack bag! The critters must have gotten into them and enjoyed them. There were some pieces of the car as well and we even found one of the chargers all safe and snug in its carrying case.
In the midst of all this, we also completed all of the paperwork to turn in our application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)! This will give us permanent residency and allow us to live and work in the UK indefinitely. Our application was submitted on Monday the 17th and our biometrics appointment was in Bristol on Friday the 21st. We were meant to hang out with Steve that day but I was feeling very emotionally drained so we canceled on him. Good thing, too, because it ended up taking us almost 2 hours to get to Bristol, for what is normally a 25-minute drive. We just barely made our appointment on time. On the way home we stopped at Costco and I stocked up on pancake mix for the upcoming pancake day.
On Thursday the 27th, we had a game day with Amy & Ben! Ben’s school was on half-term but their girls were still in school, so we could have a rare kid-free gaming session. We played an epic game of Dominion using the Divine Wind prophecy from Rising Sun (so fun!) We also played an old kid’s game I picked up at a charity shop last year, called AtmosFear. Amy had fun childhood memories of playing it, while Ben had always wanted it as a kid but never got it. It’s not one that made it to the States so Joel and I had no idea what we were getting into.
It’s a very odd game to be aimed at kids, because it features this creepy dude! There’s a DVD playing throughout the game and you have to keep pausing and doing what he tells you to do. It was fun but stressful, and while I’m glad I played it once, I don’t need to play it again, so we left the game with Amy and Ben to traumatize their kids with later.
I spent a lot of time sitting around this month (okay, resting and recovering) and while doing so, I came up with an idea for adding some extra storage to our kitchen. We had a huge open spot on the wall between the pantry and the fridge and I finally thought of adding some open shelves! From idea to execution this took us less than a week and I am delighted with the extra storage it gives us and the counter space it cleared off.
Little did Joel know that was going to kick off a mad round of spring cleaning that has taken over most of March. But more on that later! That wraps up an eventful February. I am so unbelievably grateful that I made it out of the car accident safe, and it was really beautiful to see the community we have built for ourselves here. I am grateful to God for every thing and every day!
XOXO, Bethany