Lesson Learned...Again.

This morning before Travis went to work he asked me if I could take his pants to the dry cleaners. When I responded, "I don't know, I'll try" he got a little testy. "What are you doing today, either you can or you can't, if you can't just tell me and I'll do it myself!" I explained that I was leaving for my infusion at 8:30 this morning right after I drop Jack off at school and wouldn't get back until 2pm. I told him that I had to be home from 4-7 waiting for the pest control people to launch their 3rd attack on my ants. He seemed perplexed as to what I was doing between 2 and 4. I pointed out that the clinic is frequently running behind and with 3-year-old twins you never know what could come up. I didn't know at the time what if anything was going to come up.

When I went to Lucinda's to pick up Ben and Lauren I found everyone in the yard planting flowers. Lucinda and I stood in the yard chatting and enjoying the beautiful weather. Ben was getting restless and wanted to hold my car key. I should have known that was a bad idea. I kept Ben and my key in the corner of my eye. I noticed right away when he was no longer carrying my key.

Me: Where is my car key?
Ben: I put it in the car, where it belongs!

He had tossed it through the open window of my locked car. I breathed a sigh of relief figuring that the key was in a last in a safe place. When I went to leave I poked my head in the window, but I couldn't find my key. I opened the door assuming the key would fall out onto my feet. Not only did I not find the key, I set off the car alarm. Without the key you can't turn the alarm off. I frantically tried hitting the internal lock and unlock button with no success. The neighbors in the swanky neighborhood were coming to the windows to see what all the commotion was about. I was panicked and running my hand under the seats and floor mats without results. I shut the door in hopes that the alarm would cease. I was falsely relieved when the alarm stopped. I had no idea it was just taking a break. That's right, it started up again only moments later and I still didn't have the key. It was hot out, I was wearing jeans because it is cold in the infusion room and I was loosing my cool both literally and figuratively. My mind was flashing back to the conversation that Travis and I had just hours before. Once the doors were shut the alarm finally took mercy on my and stopped the headache inducing honk. I still couldn't find the key. When Lucinda came over to help I stopped her from opening the door for fear that the alarm would start up again. We must have been quite a sight with our butts hanging out of the car as we searched the floorboards for the teeny tiny key. We weren't finding it and decided to try opening all of the doors rather than just the one Ben said he put the key in. When we opened the other door the key dropped out onto the ground just like I had expected it to do nearly 30 minutes before when I opened the first door.

So, boys and girls the moral of the story is that anything can come up when you have two 3-year-olds in tow. Is it really a lesson if you have already learned? I think this lesson was wasted on me. Ben, please remember that I am already familiar with this lesson and the next time you decide to be cute save it for your father.