The Great Storyteller

Last night Jay came up to me and said "Ok, before I tell the rest of the story, let me just say that Jodi & Jenna are ok," Yea, that kind of sentence will get my attention every time. And of course, me in all my blondeness jumped up and said "What happened? Are they ok?"

Jay had talked to my brother-in-law (his brother) Jeff, who is known for completely exaggerating and distorting every single story he has ever told. You can usually only believe half of what he tells you at the most. Well, according to Jeff some Russian lady who spoke severely broken english hit a puddle and slammed into Jodi & Jenna while on their way to a dance performance. They were near one of the Ankeny exits and they slammed into the right side retaining wall. They spun several times and were hit several times by passing cars. They were thrown to the side and the car is totaled. Jodi had injuries to her head, neck, ribs and her wrist maybe broken. Jenna was tossed around in the back seat and is very sore and shook up.

I said prayers for them to be ok and this morning I talked to Jodi myself. Jodi is one of my closest friends and she knows how Jeff can be. We both laugh about some of his more exaggerated stories. Jenna is the sweetest girl you could ever meet. She is not only my God-daughter, but she is in Confirmation and the kids are asked to select a mentor and she asked me to be hers - is she the smartest or what? hehehe I have lovingly nicknamed her my Manatee, because I will say that if I'm her mentor, that makes her my mentee...which is awkward to say so I say manatee instead. My daughters say that's a horrible thing to call her, but Jenna loves her Aunt and knows she wouldn't ever mean it in anything but a loving way.

Ok, back to the accident....according to Jodi, they were in Des Moines - not Ankeny and the lady who did hit them did have a slight accent, but it wasn't broken english, and since Jeff never spoke to her, she's not sure where he came up with the idea that she was Russian. It was raining hard and she hit a wet spot in the road which caused her to slide, hydroplane?, and she hit Jodi. Jodi said they possibly hit the LEFT (not right) center dividing wall 2-3 times, but were never hit by any other cars, even though they did make what she thinks was 2 full rotations. She said the lady stopped immediately and ran to their car to see if everyone was ok, as did another passerby. Everyone was ok - Thank you Jesus! - and yes the car is totaled, but it was old and not worth much to begin with.

As far as injuries, the only injury Jodi has is some bruising from her seat belt and of course she is stiff and sore today. Jenna was not tossed around in the back, because she was wearing her seatbelt (which was a part of Jeffs story that I had trouble with, because Jodi always makes sure the kids wear their seatbelts). As a matter of fact, Jenna later said "All I was thinking is why is mom making such a wide U-turn and what are we bumping into?". Jenna was not injured at all. As a matter of fact, she still made it in time to perform her dance routine last night.

I said another prayer of thanksgiving after getting off the phone for Jodi & Jenna being ok. I also felt thankful that we now have another story to laugh about from the great Storyteller himself.