Erica’s Blog

Hubby and I each learned a lesson last night:

We all trooped over to GingerBrett’s new house to hang out for a while with our new Bible study group.  Everybody had a great time and ate too many brownies (see earlier post about the coffee), and we got home about 9:45 (hey, who cares on Friday night?).  Thing Two was pretending to be asleep, so hubby was carrying her from the car, and someone asked about opening the door.  Hubby replied, “Well, I can’t because I don’t have my house key.”  My answer?  “Well, then we have a problem, because I didn’t bring my keys.”

Hubby then proceeded to try to break into the house.  I was more than a little miffed.  Thing One was scared and crying b/c she thought we’d be stuck outside forever.  Thing Two had to pee, so she went and peed on the back lawn.  I had to pee, but was hoping I wouldn’t have to do it on the lawn (though I *did* when I was pregnant and the toilet was broken, but that’s a different story).  Then, the girls got cold, so we got back in the car and out of hubby’s way.  First, we each prayed about the situation.  Then, I called MarkyMark and had him look up the numbers of some 24-hour locksmiths, just in case hubby decided we needed to go that route.

Once I was calmed down and no longer angry at hubby for not taking his key and for not calling a locksmith, I went to go check on the progress.  I probably shouldn’t have b/c of what I saw.  W/o going into details that would let someone know how to get into our house (the reason he wouldn’t let me take his picture), suffice it to say that hubby managed to get in and open the back door for us.

I asked him about it later:

“So, Babe, tell me.  Did you not want to call a locksmith because you were too proud and wanted to do it yourself or because you were too cheap and didn’t want to spend the money?”

“Because I was too cheap.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured.”

So, how did we end up locked out?  Well, I pretty much always bring my keys with me, but I didn’t last night b/c hubby was driving, and I figured he had his (he was in the car already).  He didn’t bring his even though he usually does b/c he doesn’t like carrying a lot of keys, and he figured that I had mine.

Solution?  We should both always bring our keys!  Oh, and we’re going to give a copy of our house key to MarkyMark & Bobcat.

The Things have too much stuff.  WAY too much stuff.  This is part of why they have such a hard time cleaning up when it’s time.  Also, we haven’t had sufficient organization for what they’ve got.  The arguing and not cleaning up got to a point where we had to do something, so whenever they argued about having to clean up or didn’t clean up in the time they were given, hubby started taking whatever they didn’t clean up and putting it in a moving box in the garage.  We ended up wtih six boxes of their stuff in the garage (occasionally something important like their Bibles found its way in there and had to be rescued; oops!).

Last week, I ordered some blue fabric bins for organizing stuff in the playroom.  We still needed to do more, though.  1) For the sake of their hearts (we don’t want to encourage them to be greedy, materialistic brats), 2) B/c Christmas is coming, and 3) B/c hubby has promised them their own rooms come next fall when Thing Two starts school, we needed to purge.

Hubby couldn’t sleep last night (too much cappuccino at GingerBrett’s last night), so he gave up at 3:00 a.m. and got up.  After he got dressed, he went to work and got a perfectly good cart that was going to be thrown away, came home, and started organizing the garage.  After I was up, he brought in the boxes of the girls’ stuff.

After I got home from my meeting, hubby went out for about an hour, and the Things and I went through all the boxes and everything in the playroom, deciding if each item was “keep”, “give away”, or “throw away”.   We filled three boxes to overflowing of “give away” stuff, and three boxes of “throw away” stuff.  Hubby was so pleased when he came home!  I was really proud of some of the stuff they decided to give away.  There was a little bit of conflict about it, and I wish they’d given away more of the stuffed animals, but it really went well.  On their way home from soccer, hubby and Thing Two will drop off the “give away” stuff at Goodwill, along with three bags of clothes from my closet that I know I’ll never wear.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll attack their bedroom.