Run over by a truck!

I ran over Mason with the truck!  This happened the week before last.  I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “What the heck?”, but it was an accident.  You see, I don’t have my license or my permit.  Therefore I don’t really know a lot about driving yet.  Mason has been slowly teaching me and everything, but we haven’t had much time to get in practice or anything.  What you may think is common sense didn’t work that way for me. 

Let me explain.  Mason was working on his muffler again.  He had just finished it, and he asked me to hop in the truck and start it.  I’ve done this before, but he’s always reminded me to make sure it was in neutral (our truck is standard).  This time he didn't.  He was lying under the truck right at the drive tire, the back passenger tire. 

After I started it, I dropped the clutch.  Not quick enough to stall it, but fast enough that the truck moved forward pretty quick with plenty of momentum. 

This is where it gets hard for me to talk about.  I can’t talk about this to anyone without tearing up.  I am honestly scarred by this incident.  It was just yesterday that I started the truck again, and it took some persuasion from Mason to do so. 

Anyways, I heard Mason scream.  I’m not sure if he screamed my name or just screamed in general.  My first reaction was to push in the clutch because my foot was already there, and then I slammed on the brakes.  I had realized what I had done, but I didn’t want to believe it.  I mean, how can you run over the love of your life?  How stupid could I be? 

After that I froze for a second.  I didn’t know what to do, or what to expect.  I put on the emergency brake and ran out of the truck, screaming for Mason.  He didn’t answer.  This terrified me.  I had no idea what I was going to see. 

So, I reached him, and he had gotten out of the stone driveway and was lying in the grass.  He was awake, and he told me he was okay.  I automatically started crying.  What was weird was that I couldn’t shed tears at first.  I was just making the crying noise, but I couldn’t actually cry. 

It wasn’t until everything actually hit me that I started really crying, and I couldn’t stop.  Mason kept repeating that he was okay, but I didn’t want to believe it.  I mean I wanted to, but how could he be okay?  I had run him over.  How could I do something so horrible?  These were all the things running through my mind. 

Meanwhile, Mason was of course in pain, but he was completely alert.  Later on he told me that he thinks he may have blacked out because he didn’t hear me screaming for him at first.  I asked him if his stomach hurt because that had been where I had run him over, but he pushed on his stomach and said no.  He didn’t think he had anything wrong with him internally. 

That was a relief, and extremely surprising.  At this time, I was still crying and I could not hold it together.  Mason kept telling me that it was okay, and that it wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t believe him. 

What you’re going to find completely surprising is that Mason was not seriously injured.  We did not need to take him to the hospital or anything.  The truck had run over his lower abdomen, and his hips.  His back was bruised and cut up pretty good from the stones under him, and his hips were bruised too.  He was really sore for about a week, but he is fine now.  The cuts are almost completely healed. 

When other people learned what had happened, they didn’t believe that he was okay.  Nor did they believe that he hadn’t gone to the hospital. 

I want to tell you that I believe this was a miracle.  Keep in mind that our truck is an extended cab 2000 Ford F150 with a 4.2 engine.  I pray every day that God watches over Mason and protects him from danger.  This was a blessing that he was not seriously injured.  I told Mason that God was with him, and that that had to be the reason why he didn’t sustain any bad injuries. 

I cried constantly practically the whole day.  I couldn’t forgive myself, and I couldn’t believe what I had done.  All I could do was keep berating myself, and cry.  I was completely bawling and shaking, and I just curled up in a ball in bed crying.  I could have seriously done damage, and I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had. 

Mason seriously got angry with me because of how upset I was.  He believed that it was not my fault.  He told me that he should have reminded me to put it in neutral.  Of course my argument was that I should have known.  After the incident, I felt like it was all common sense.  First, make sure it’s in neutral.  Second, start the truck.  Third, slowly let out the clutch to make sure it isn’t going to go anywhere. 

I kept arguing with Mason that it was my fault and that I should have known, but he told me otherwise.  He kept repeating that he shouldn’t have been under the truck in the first place.  He told me that he actually hadn’t needed to be under the truck to check the muffler.  Mason also said that I shouldn’t be expected to know things like that because I wasn’t experienced in driving.  Therefore, stuff that would be common sense for him or you wasn’t for me. 

I still don’t know if I believe this or not.  I can’t believe what happened, or that I was the one that did it.  Nor do I ever want to believe it.  All I know is that I learned.  I will never start the truck without double checking that it’s in neutral, putting on the emergency brake, and slowly letting out the clutch.  Yesterday I didn’t have the emergency brake on because he wasn’t under the truck.  I still let out the clutch slow though.  Honestly, I didn’t even want to let it out.  I was terrified of moving forward. 

I have been a serious fanatic about the truck moving.  I always ask Mason when he’s working on the truck if he has the emergency brake on, and if it’s in gear.  I also repeatedly ask if the truck will move.  I am honestly terrified of that truck moving without Mason in it. 

The reason why I didn’t tell you this two weeks ago (I tried, but couldn’t finish writing it) was because I was afraid that you would think I did it on purpose.  Only a few people know what actually happened because I won’t let Mason tell the true story.  I know that some people may think that it is completely my fault, and that I was extremely stupid.  I would agree, but it doesn’t help to hear those words.  I’ve repeated them to myself many times. 

Anyways, I hope you understand.  That was the big incident that happened two weeks ago.  Our life is pretty hectic, but I know that we are extremely blessed.  Mason is still here in my life, and unbelievably, he was not hurt badly.  I am very grateful for this. 

Thanks for reading another small piece of our lives.  Have a great day.  Feel free to leave a comment, and remember to always make sure your vehicle is in neutral when you start it!

I hate our truck!

I know that your first vehicle is never your best vehicle, and if it is then you're lucky, but this is getting ridiculous.  If anyone has been keeping track, we have been trying to get the muffler to stay on for over a month.  The stock tailpipe is rusted, and the clamps never want to hold right.  We can never find a good spot to put a hanger, and (ugh!) it's just a mess. 

Now, Mason and I were going for our usual drive.  We had been hearing the power steering making noise, and we thought the power steering fluid was getting low.  What do you know!  The power steering went two days ago.  It was just completely gone. 

So we go to the dollar store with the little money that we have to get power steering fluid.  Thankfully Mason decided to check if it was low or not.  Turns out it wasn't.  This means that the power steering pump actually went, and that isn't the cheapest fix.  Nor is it something that you can really go without. 

Luckily, Mason's younger brother decided to help us out and get us a power steering pump.  Little did I know that the easy part was getting it; the hard part was taking the old one off and putting the new one on. 

To give you an idea, yesterday we spent from noon to 10:30 pm attempting to fix the power steering.  Keep in mind, where we live it was 100 degrees out.  This weather does NOT agree with pregnancy.  Unfortunately we didn't get it fixed, and we drove home in his dad's other truck.  All in all, it was not a good day. 

Today, we spent half the day trying to finish it, and Mason and his brother thought they had it on right, but they thought that the pulley might need tinkered with a little bit more.  I told them to just get it done and over with, but they decided to run it and see.  To explain as best as I can (I'm not a motorhead), there is a serpentine belt that goes on the crankshaft pulley and another pulley.  The belt was not fitting perfectly, but they seemed to think it was going to be okay.  I was uncomfortable though because Mason told me that if the serpentine belt isn't on right, it will get eaten away and once it's gone, the truck won't run until you get a new one.  This was why I said to get it done and over with, but does anyone listen to a girl?  NO, of course not!

So as you probably know, we get back to his dad's after taking the truck to get gas which was also a test run, and they pop the hood.  Mason's brother goes uh oh, and I'm like NOOOOOO!  I just spent all day yesterday in the heat and half the day today in the heat.  Please don't tell me that it's not right.  Of course, it's not right, so next weekend we'll be fixing it again. 

You may think that's all though.  Nope!  We also just found out that the truck needs TWO O2 sensors.  This means that the truck is running lean which is really bad. 

I'm telling you, nothing goes right with this truck!  The only good thing is that we finally got new used tires that have decent tread. 

Our life is not pretty, and our first vehicle isn't either, but we fight through it.  Thanks for listening to me complain about this rotten thing.  I can't wait to get a car, but we have to pay this truck off first, and we'll probably end up keeping it until Mason gets a better job.  Anyways, thanks so much for reading and following our life.

Jason's still kicking like crazy, and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow.  I'll have my 27/28 week update on Tuesday which will include how my appointment goes and all of my wonderful symptoms.  Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Offroad

It's amazing to explore nature, and do things that you've never done before.  Mason took me on a road that I had never been on that was surrounded by trees.  Sadly many of these trees were marked to be cut down.  I may not be a tree hugger or anything, but I can't help but think how that road would look if all of them would be cut down.  I have the answer to that question: empty.  It wouldn't be full of nature, and you wouldn't have the beautiful shade that it provides.  It would not smell like a fresh forest, but it would smell of dead trees.  To add onto this, there were signs stating that firewood could not be cut from this area.  I thought, that's because they claimed this wood.  How do they think people heat their houses when they cut down all of those trees.  We cut those trees down faster than a new one sprouts up.  Remember to plant a tree when you cut one down so that our children will have the same things we have. 

So I got a little off topic.  The title of this is offroad for a reason.  Mason and I went for a ride last night to get out of the house like usual.  We haven't done this in a while because we wanted to make sure we'd have enough gas until he got paid. 

Anyways, we went to the middle of nowhere.  Mason had been there multiple times, but I hadn't.  This made it even more fun and fascinating.  It was a stony mountain road surrounded by forests, and as you drove, you saw offroad paths.  Keep in mind our truck has bald back tires, and they aren't the stock tires.  This is thanks to his dad, but as soon as we have the money we're putting new tires on.  We already have the tires, but we need to pay someone to put them on. 

Most of these trails were muddy, and really bumpy; not something the truck could handle at the moment.  But there was one trail that looked decent, and if Mason drove right, we figured we wouldn't have problems. 

It was amazing.  Of course we were going slow, unlike a lot of people that go on those trails, but we were enjoying the freedom, and the exploration.  It's nice to be on a trail that you have no idea where it goes, and you don't know what kind of things it has in store for you next.  We snapped off our seatbelts (we were going like 2 miles an hour, and we were alone on the trail as far as we knew), and enjoyed the ride.  It was bumpy, and sometimes kind of scary because of the chances of getting stuck, but it was so much fun.  I would love to do this again.  But Mason says we should wait until we get the new tires on.  I don't know if I can wait that long though so we'll see. 

Mason and I did this for some special alone time, and that I would recommend to anyone.  But remember to be safe on those trails, and don't drink and drive.  Note: we saw a couple party spots there, and this worries me.  My opinion is that these trails aren't made to ruin by doing drugs or drinking and driving.  Keep them cop free as long as possible, and enjoy the ride with nature.  With all these people cutting down trees, who knows how long these offroad trails will be there.