I have an AMAZING husband! That thought is usually always somewhere in my mind, sometimes faint, sometimes strong. Right now it is especially present. Why, you may ask. Because I've been incredibly intelligent this past month. It is incredibly embarrassing to recollect all my recent "shining moments." There have been so many though that it has actually become quite comedic.
Let's start with about 4 weeks ago. It was a busy afternoon. I can't remember the specifics of what I was juggling, but I had a meeting in Lehi that I needed to attend. This meant dropping my kids off with my sister-in-law who had offered to babysit. There was something unusual that happened while loading the car...oh yeah, we had a couple girls from the neighborhood over to play. I was going to drop them off on my way. Well, needless to say, in the extra chaos that created in loading everyone in the car...I locked my purse-hence my keys-in the house. We were trapped! And I had not allotted any time for such an error. I had to call John from work so he could come unlock the door, but that meant I didn't have time to drop off the kids, which meant that John had to then go drop everyone off while I jetted to the meeting in a panic because I was late.
Fast-forward a few days (less than a week)....I did it again. Not the meeting and everything, but the keys...locked in the house...another call to my husband to come rescue me. Yep. I was feeling very special at that moment.
Fast-forward a couple weeks. This one is bad. I don't know why I'm even proclaiming it for all the world to know. Maybe I feel the need to document the beginning of the end of my intelligence. When my kids and husband start to wonder when it all started, they can pin it back to this date. Macy had been invited to participate in Orem High's preschool. Needless to say, she was ecstatic. We were all in the car, ready to go, definitely going to be on time. I started backing out and there was a huge thud. My heart dropped. Something you need to know is that our garage does not have a door connected to the house. We have to go out of the garage and through the front door to get in. Because of that, I can't leave the garage door opener on the car visor. I have to keep it in my purse and take it in with me. Anyway, in the process of backing out, I hit the button and the garage door closed onto the van. And that isn't even the worst part. The truly awful, awful part is that this wasn't my first time backing into the garage door. Yep. I had done it before, just not with as much damage. Kind of makes me sick. I was so completely mortified. I just kept thinking, "Oh crap! I have to tell John that I backed into the garage for the SECOND time!" I seriously felt like the biggest moron.
It gets better. Here I have my 3 year old who is so crazy excited to be doing a "big girl" thing and I CANNOT GET MY CAR OUT OF THE GARAGE! The door was stuck a third of the way down. The bottom wheel on each side was off the track, the metal bent completely out of line....and then I felt even more sick. I turned to my kids and told them we better say a prayer. Less than a minute later, my friend pulled up saying that even though I never responded to her text, she thought she'd drive by and see if I wanted her to take Macy to preschool. Can I say that this is one of the most powerful experiences I've had with prayer? And it was over something so unimportant in the eternal scheme of things: my daughter being able to go to a day of preschool. And yet, it was such a witness to me that God is aware of us, that he knows what we need before we even ask, and that even if it doesn't really matter, he cares that it matters at that moment. Anyway, I was so grateful for her. But I still had a problem. I needed my car. I had another meeting to get to and a tight timeline that went with it. I had 1 hour to get my car out of the garage. I can tell you I was praying a lot. And yet when I saw my retired, old man neighbor my pleadings quickly turned to, "Ah! Please don't let him come over!" As much as I wanted to fix things, I REALLY wanted to do it on my own because I was so MORTIFIED by my actions. I was relieved and yet disappointed he didn't come over. But more relieved. Anyway, I did it. Without getting hurt. My brother ended up with surgery and screws in his hands earlier because the cable or something went flying back and hit him. I was so scared that I was going to seriously hurt myself. I told Carston which neighbor to get for help if anything happened. I also called my brother to see if he knew how to release the tension and ended up leaving a blubbering, hysterical message that has embarrassed me further. Anyway, I did it. Not alone mind you. I had strength and help from above. I had bruises and blood blisters on my hand from bending thick pieces of metal back into place, pulling all sorts of pieces around, etc. It was crazy, but I got the van out just in time. John wondered why I didn't call for help. I did send a text though telling him I wasn't going to be his favorite wife today. And left it at that. I didn't want to tell him, but figured I better prepare him for the moment when I had to say, "Honey...I backed into the garage...again. The car has a huge dent in it and the garage door is broken and won't go down." Yeah, I put that off until super late that night.
Fast-forward exactly one week later. It was preschool again. This same friend who'd saved me asked if I could pick up her daughter. Again, a crazy timeline of events. The plan was to pick up the girls, go drop Kate off at my mom's, run to the library, drop off the friend and get Avery's dance clothes on, pick up Avery's friend, go get Kate, and then take Avery and her friend to dance. I got as far as my mom's house. Then the plan changed drastically. I told everyone to just stay put while I went to the door and passed off Kate. I (irresponsibly) left my keys and phone on the seat (while priding myself for turning off the car-a story for another day) and headed up to the door. But my mom wasn't back quite yet. I took Kate in, but the girls got antsy and quickly came in. Pretty soon after that Carston decided he'd waited long enough and headed in. My mom came in shortly after and it was then we realized that Carston had been very responsible. He had locked the car when he came in. The car that had my keys and phone and purse sitting inside. NOOOO!!!!!!! Did I seriously have to call John AGAIN and tell him to come rescue me?!? So lame. So very, very lame. So, I had to call about four people to get numbers and cancel dance and inform a mother that her daughter was trapped at my mom's house. And so we waited there for a couple hours until John could come rescue me. Staying there was really nice, I could hang out with my mom everyday. It was the fact that I AM BECOMING A DITZ that was so depressing.
I want to proclaim to the world that this isn't really me! I'm not really this flaky! I'm not really like this! But my track record is starting to prove otherwise. Even my sister-in-law laughed as she said this was becoming a pattern. What do I do? Do I give in and admit defeat? Do I come to terms with the fact that I'm failing miserably with having it all together? Or do I live in denial? When I was growing up we had a family with tons of girls next door. One of the older ones, Becky, there is only one thing I remember about her. She backed into the garage when it was closed. That's it. That is what she's known for. And now I'm Becky. John said next time something happens, I should just tell him that Becky came to visit, then he'll know exactly what is going on.
And that brings me to my point. My husband is AMAZING! In all of this, he has not uttered ONE SINGLE CRITICISM! Not a single one. Not one snide remark. Not one attempt at "Why didn't you just..." Nothing. He has been so stinking nice to me. I've been silly writing about it, but really, it has bothered me. A lot. I hate that I've done all these stupid things. And in the timeframe of one month! But he has made me laugh about it. I love that. He is exactly what I need. I can't wallow in self negativity when I'm laughing. I love him for it and I'm so grateful that he will be the one by my side as I continue to do stupid things.
PS-In my defense, I did figure out how to fix the garage door all on my own. Does that cancel it out? If you break it but then fix it, does that make it like it never happened? Except...there is still the issue of the car...dang it.
PSS-I left out the part about how I went to church, got up and bore my testimony, went to dinner at my mom's, and then realized at about 8 that evening that I'd forgotten to put on an important piece of feminine clothing. Yep. I'm doing good. It's sad that I don't even trust myself anymore.
Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes
3 weeks ago
