Party Night

Last Saturday we had a full day in Chicago. While we were gallivanting about, our house was being shown to prospective renters. There were several appointments that day, so we were glad to be busy elsewhere.

As we drove home we talked about how tired and sore and sun kissed we all felt. Our plan was to bathe the kids quickly, get them into bed, and soak our grownup feet. We pulled into the garage, turned off the car, and got ready to pile out of the van. I hadn't gotten out yet when Bryan yelled.

The door from the garage to the house was locked.

We don't have a key to that door, we never got one. And because we always come in through the garage door and not the front door, we hadn't brought the house key. It never occurred to us that one of the people coming to see the house would lock the door to the garage.

We were locked out.

Bryan and I spent the next hour calling, texting, and emailing our landlord asking for a way into the house. I tried to keep the kids occupied in the backyard and the van and the front yard and the sidewalks in our neighborhood while Bryan made several attempts to get into the house. As luck would have it, I'm totally neurotic about making sure all the windows are locked. And we heard nothing from our landlord. As the sun was going down and the bugs were feasting on us, we decided we needed to find a plan B.

Bryan looked up available hotel rooms while I called people in our ward. Not only did we need a place to stay, I also needed someone to print and cutout paper bowties to attach to bags of Skittles and handout to the men at church on Father's Day. That's right, I was responsible for that little project. Thankfully I had all the candy in the back of the van, but all of my other supplies were locked in the house.

My friend came to my rescue. She found, printed, cutout, and delivered over seventy cute Father's Day tags. While she worked on that, I called the Relief Society president. I explained the situation and hadn't even had a chance to ask before she told us we could come sleep at her house. I thanked her and said yes. Then we drove our tired bodies over to Walmart and Bryan sat in the van with the kids while I dashed through the store finding the least expensive pajamas and church clothes I could.

It's expensive to completely clothe six people for a day and a night.

We hauled ourselves to the RS president's house and carried our children and our Walmart wardrobe up the stairs of their large, lovely home. They had beds for all of us and even a crib for Sophie. Everyone bathed and showered and tried to settle down while I gathered our clothes to wash. Poor Sophie was so exhausted she was loudly giddy. Bryan ended up snuggling with her until she fell asleep. After my shower I headed downstairs to check on the laundry that our host had started for us. While I waited to transfer the load to the dryer I tied about half of the Father's Day goodies. By one o'clock in the morning I was so tired I could barely think straight. I decided I would just get up early and finish the rest of the candy then.

Sometime around midnight we got a text from the landlord. His phone had died and he was very apologetic. He sent us the code to the lockbox that currently resides on our front porch, a handy tool for the real estate agents but rather mocking for us as we tried to break into our own house earlier in the evening. Because of the late hour, and because the kids were already asleep, we decided to just go to sleep and try it in the morning.

I woke up after a sound sleep and went to downstairs to retrieve our laundry from the dryer. My friend, the RS President, is an early riser. She was just tying the last Father's Day treat when I rounded the corner into the kitchen. I was relieved to not have to finish that on my own.

Thankfully we were able to get in the house before church, so not everyone had to use their Walmart finery for church.

And that's why we were all heavy-lidded zombies on Father's Day.