monday's misadventures

James teaching O to feed the ducks.
My ever-so-handsome hubby, and my son... eating the bread we brought for ducks.

Eliza's idea of fun at the park.

So we decided to go to Town Lake Monday morning at about 10 o'clock to feed some ducks, walk around, and play on the playground. We did all of those things and after about an hour and a half Owen started asking for lunch. I should've packed us a picnic, but oh well. So, we headed to the van to load up the kiddos and go home.

We'd noticed on Sunday that the locks on the van had been acting weird. It wouldn't unlock when we'd pull the key out of the ignition, and sometimes some doors would be randomly locked while others wouldn't. It had just been a mild inconvenience.

Anyway, James unlocked the van, strapped Owen into his carseat, then reached forward, put the keys in the ignition and got the AC running. I was at the back of the van with Eliza's stroller (which had the diaper bag, camera, drinks, etc. loaded on it) and her in the mei tai. As I was untying her James closed Owen's door and came around the back to help me load the stroller, etc. When he got around and tried to open the lift gate though, it was locked... even though we'd just unlocked all the doors. So, he went to another door only to discover- 4 tries later- they were all locked... and Owen was inside... along with my purse and phone... while James' phone was dying in his pocket. There was no way we could've locked it... the keys were in the ignition.

A friend from church is our insurance agent, and we get free roadside assistance through Nationwide, so we called a mutual friend to get his home number [thanks Bruce] to call and ask for the roadside assistance number... which was in the van. He gave us the 800# and after going through the automated menu and FINALLY getting to talk to someone we let them know our phone was dying, where we were and what had happened. Apparently not having an address in a situation like that is not so good. Trying to get them to understand that we were in the parking lot of a public park, by a playground, across from a high school, etc. was not so simple. Anyway they said they had dispatched an auto-rescue guy to come help us.

It had been about 15 minutes at this point and Owen was starting to freak out. He did pretty good until then but when he realized that we weren't coming inside he got really sad. He just started crying, pointing at his door, and saying "ooooopeeeen..." We felt horrible.

About ten minutes later my phone rang and it was the auto-rescue guy calling to figure out exactly where we were. He began with "There's some confusion about your address ma'am... I have that you're at 1400..." I interrupted and said, "I have no idea what the actual address is if there even is one. We're at Town Lake, Wilson Creek Park, in a parking lot, by a playground, just across from McKinney High School..." and at that very moment the phone died.

About 7 or 8 minutes later the guy pulled up in his truck and got to work. He had clearly been having a leisurely holiday at home (he was in pajama pants and a t-shirt), and hurried when he heard there was a small child in the car. The first thing he said was, "There's a baby locked inside?!" We said yes... but that the car was running. So, he proceeded to wrench the door open a bit using what looked remarkably similar to blood pressure cuffs, then stuck a long stick in the slightly ajar door and rolled the window down. He was officially the nicest guy ever and even Owen said "nank you" to him.

As soon as he stepped away I opened Owen's door, unbuckled him, and grabbed him out. Get this-

He was FREEZING from the AC blowing on him for 40 minutes. His skin was so cold to the touch. Poor little guy.

Anyway, all in all everyone was rescued, Nationwide insurance is tha-bomb, as is our agent Mark Braly (if you're looking for insurance give him a call), our van has a poltergeist, and we went home, ate lunch,and watched The Sound of Music.


I spent the day Praising God for 4 things:

1. That the van WAS running while O was locked inside in the heat of the day.
2. That Eliza was NOT inside (she hates her carseat and likely would've screamed for 40 minutes straight, though James thinks he would've just broken a window if she had been inside as well).
   
3. That our phone had JUST enough battery to communicate to people where we were.
   
4. That the whole fiasco didn't cost us a dime... yet (we've gotta get the poltergeist exorcised).
   

Hope your Labor Day was fiasco free!

beautiful day

This is the day the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. Ps 118.24

... which is exactly what we did! Funny how it's so easy to rejoice in a new day when it's a "good" day. Right now the weather is astoundingly beautiful and distracting me from the things of housewife-life that need tending, my toddler isn't quite so naughty today as he's been this week, and the wee one has slept peacefully. So, it's not too hard to rejoice and be glad in this day the Lord has granted me-- although I hope that my consideration of this now will pop back into my mind on the next day in which it's NOT so easy to rejoice and be glad.
That's my hope at least.

While Eliza was snoozing in her crib this morning, Owen and I played in the backyard. His version of playing is mostly trying to eat rocks and push his cars around. My version of playing is mostly trying to catch him being still just long enough to snap a cute picture! We got a few...








There's some yummy rustic chicken pasta waiting for me to finish cooking it, laundry that's just itching to be folded, dishes patiently waiting in the dishwasher to be returned to their proper cabinets, and a toddler who's calmly lying in his crib hoping to be liberated from the napping hour.
So, I'm outta here.

Have a lovely extended weekend and enjoy this incredible weather!

humble pie... mmm

So, I used to have strong opinions about blogging-- opinions that would probably not sound so encouraging to those who blog. Basically I thought that if people cared to hear what you had to say they'd actually talk to you and you wouldn't need to blog your thoughts...
I sound like an 82 year old, I know.

Mad props to Matt & Ivy Photography

BUT recently, with the birth of my sweet daughter, Eliza Jane (in the photo above), and the onslaught of hours spent sitting and nursing, I've actually stumbled across some blogs that I've really enjoyed. And, you know what? I care to hear these people's thoughts... and I'm NOT actually talking to them. Imagine that. With the volume level over here being at an 8.5 these days on a scale of 1-10, I'm not spending much time on the phone, nor am I getting out too much with my 3 week old and my 19 month old. So, since I enjoy reading what some of you have to share, and I'm not sharing too much in real life myself these days, I'll give blogging a try.

I was wrong, I admit it. Bloggers are cool people. Thanks to all of you with awesomely fun blogs for setting me straight and baking me some humble pie.

Oh, and one more thing-- I used to take tons of photos... good ones too if I do say so myself (I might need another slice of that pie). But, I've been pretty lousy at getting out my camera lately. I didn't even have a good shot of Eliza to share that I had snapped myself. Hopefully blogging will inspire me to look through the lens once in a while because I happen to think that blogs with pictures are super-cool.

More later.