Black Friday

Yes, we are crazy women who wake up way too early to drive to way too crowded stores to get way good deals on BLACK FRIDAY!
This is a picture of Katie and I waiting in Wal-Mart for the sale to start. At least Wal-mart lets you into the store before, so we weren't out in the freezing weather. This picture was taken around 4am. Yes, I did put on make-up before we left at 3am. I knew we would be gone all day and didn't want to feel grungy. The sale started at 5am and we were out of the store by 5:30am.

The next store we hit was Target (way crazy and super crowded). We were probably #200 in line, but still managed to get in, get what we needed, and get out in EIGHT minute! Wa-hoo!

Then we went to Roberts, Bath and Body Works, Victoria Secret, Sears, and Rod Works. We ended up getting back home by 8am. What a successful shopping trip!

There was one problem that we faced early on. We left my parent's house in Springville at 3am. At 3:10am we were going 65mph on the freeway (I was driving) when I saw a MAN walking down the middle of my lane! I swerved to miss hitting him, honked my horn, and managed to not hit him, or crash. My heart was pounding inside my chest and my hands were shaking. My mom called 911 to report that there was a man on the freeway, but got disconnected shortly after talking to the highway patrol dispatch. We tried on my phone and the same thing happened. As we were driving away I saw flashing police lights in the rear-view mirror. We figured someone else had called too and the police were there.

We went about our day, trying to put it behind us. It was hard to stop thinking about it. When we were focused on shopping I didn't think about it, but as soon as I would get into the car again and drive I would keep remembering it and wondering what happened and what I would have done if I wouldn't have managed to miss hitting him!

Later in the afternoon my mom mentioned this incident to my Grandma and she said, "I just read on the local news online that a man was killed on the freeway by the Provo Town Center Mall at 3:15am." We were all shocked! It was only 5 minutes after we had missed him! He was hit by a semi-truck. I went online to read the article for myself. Then, I looked up the accident on another site and found this video that shows the semi truck that hit the man.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I just can't get over the fact that it could have been US that killed this man! I'm so thankful that I was able to be alert enough and paying attention enough to react quickly and avoid the accident. From the looks of the semi it makes me wonder what kind of serious damage would have been done to my mom's car and us if we would have hit him. I feel so bad for the driver of the semi. I'm sure he's dealing with a lot of emotions now.

When I learned that the police had little information available about the accident I decided to call the highway patrol and give them a statement about what I witnessed. Although I didn't witness the actual accident I told them that I saw the man walking in the middle of the lane. The police officer came over to get a written statement from me.

It's amazing how our lives can change in a SECOND! Split-second decisions can have such huge consequences. I'm glad we were safe today and that we were still able to have a fun day shopping together even with this tearing at our hearts all day.