Saturday evening I made a cherry cobbler. As soon as it was out of the oven, one of the kids mentioned that we might need more ice cream. I asked our daughter and oldest son to go to the local convenience store (which thankfully sells our favorite - Blue Bell ice cream!) to get some. Another son was helping his grandmother with a bulletin board at the church building, so it was just our youngest son, my husband and I at home.
Minutes passed by and the two oldest still hadn't come back from the store. I thought that it was taking a while, but just decided they were going slow and being careful - a good thing for a new driver. But, then the minutes became several minutes - 30 minutes. My husband tried calling our daughter's cell, but she didn't answer. He wasn't very happy that she didn't have it with her. I figured they didn't think about it since they were just going to be gone for a few minutes. (We live in a town of less than 900 people....it doesn't take long to go anywhere!) Neither of us were very happy that they had been gone so long.
Since it was taking so long, I decided to go ahead and get in the shower thinking that they would be out when I was done. As I showered, my mind shifted from being kind of aggravated about them taking so long to worry about WHY they might still be gone. All sorts of terrible thoughts ran through my mind: maybe the convenience store was robbed and they were in there hoping we'd come looking for them.....maybe they broke down or had a flat or even a wreck....maybe someone kidnapped them....... As soon as I got out of the shower I told my husband I was going to look for them. It had been 45 minutes then!
As I went out the door to get in the vehicle, I looked and saw the car my daughter typically drives. I figured they had taken my husband's pickup, but it was there, too. My heart sank, but just then I looked in the pickup. There were our oldest two children sitting in the pickup with their mouths visibly yelling something and their arms flinging around. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but walked closer to the pickup. They were locked inside the pickup and had been for 45 minutes!
I know it sounds strange and it is...... In fact, it's kind of straight from a "you might be a redneck if...." joke.
Apparently my husband's pickup doors get stuck and the windows have to be rolled down to open the doors. I had heard that the passenger door was messed up, but had no idea both doors were bad. But, the problem was that when the kids got into the pickup, not thinking about getting the key off the key holder. (She probably had her car key in her purse, but doesn't keep a pickup key.) They couldn't roll down the windows and open the doors because they didn't have the key. So, again understand....they were locked inside the pickup for 45 minutes. They had honked and honked and flashed their lights on and off, but we couldn't see it or hear it at all. Surprisingly, they were pretty calm....but they were very relieved that I had come out looking for them!
Let's just say that mama wasn't happy right then that her "babies" (even if they are 16 and 14 they're still my babies!) had been locked in a vehicle for 45 minutes. And let's just say that daddy didn't see it the same way. No. He couldn't understand why the daughter didn't have her cell phone with her. He was thinking logically. Mama was thinking with her heart! Mama wasn't happy. At all.....
Well, moments went by and all mama could think of was "if this was a goat's pen door or a pig's pen door or a calf's pen door these doors would have been fixed." But, mama didn't say what she was thinking. In fact, she didn't have to say it. Daddy figured out soon that the doors were really desperately needing to be fixed without mama having to say that.
Daddy apologized about not getting the doors taken care of and the pickup has an appointment (tomorrow, I think) to be fixed. Yeah, Daddy! Mama did share her thoughts about the doors on the pens for the animals a few days later when the story was funny.....but not in anger at the moment of the "lock in". Aren't you proud of me??? We all laughed about it....a few days later!
Seriously, I didn't think I would blog about this story. I was sooooo upset that night. Thankfully the weather wasn't too hot or too cold. Thankfully the two teens had discussed that if they had to wait too much longer they could always break a window to get out. They had looked around for tools in the vehicle that would have worked. Thankfully they didn't have to do that and thankfully nothing more serious happened. And, thankfully, after I rescued them, the convenience store was still open and they had time to go get the Blue Bell! :)
On this Gratituesday, I am grateful that this story had a happy ending and one that we could laugh at a few days later! Join us for Gratetuesday on Heavenly Homemakers.
On this Gratituesday, I am grateful that this story had a happy ending and one that we could laugh at a few days later! Join us for Gratetuesday on Heavenly Homemakers.
OH NO! That is too funny! I think they were pretty patient!
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