Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A good weekend?

In the last few months, I have attempted to write about our adventures with two little people.  At times, like most people, we hit ruts or bumps in the road.  My family has always called them the "ho-hums."  It was not until recently that I realized that this was a unique term to our family.  My sister and I often laugh about this expression.  Anyway, our little Schatz clan has definitely had a case of the ho-hums recently.  I think this weekend was a turning point though, as we hit our lowest point.  And here is an account of how our weekend went:

On Saturday, I decided I would finally (it's been there about two months) pick up my running stroller that had been at the store being repaired. Trying to be independent, I told Steve I could manage this myself.  In hindsight I don't know how I planned to accomplish this.  This small task involved me parking, walking to the store, picking up the stroller, and making it back to my car parked on a busy street.  Oh, and to make it worse, on Saturday there was extremely high winds! When we arrived at the store, Stephen was in a mood and refused to walk in the store.  People were laughing and making comments about his refusal saying things like "no, not the running store!"  Anyway, we make it in, get the stroller, and arrive back at the car.  In the meantime, Stephen decided he was scared of the car and began to freak out.  I managed to get Georgie and then finally Stephen in the car seat with relatively few tears (although the wind  knocked over the stroller and I had to go chase after it).  I packed up the stroller, wrestling the wind, and finally pulled away thankful that the whole experience was behind me.  Little did I know that I left my wallet on top of the car.  This, I will admit, is the second time in a year I have done this--the first being my cell phone.  After I finally arrived home after retracing my drive hoping to find my wallet, we spent the entire night cancelling cards and closing accounts.

I am sad to say that the stupidity of our weekend only continues.  On Sunday morning we got a call early in the morning from a very kind good Samaritan telling us they found my wallet and we planned to meet at one.  That gave us just enough time to make it to church and to Home Depot to pick up my wallet.  We rushed out of the house, deciding we would get gas on our way home after church.  Bad idea!  After leaving church we sank to a new low and RAN OUT OF GAS at a busy intersection in Arlington.  I am not joking, this actually happened, and yes, we did have two little boys in the car.  Steve rushes me and the boys into a 711 to wait while he goes to get gas.  However, when he made it to the gas station, the only credit card he had that had not been cancelled due to my lost wallet, had expired!  We of course had no cash and Steve had to beg the cashier to let him take gas without paying.  Steve rushed back and we loaded up the car to return to the gas station only lose his debit card in the process.  This created major freaking out on all of our parts because that was our only access to ANY money for seven to ten days while we wait for our other cards to arrive.  Luckily, we found it about a half hour later hidden under the driver's side seat.  We had just enough time to make it home to pick up snacks for Stephen and meet the very kind people who had my wallet.

So in two days we lost a wallet and ran out of gas on the side of the road.  It definitely had its moments, but I am happy to say that we made it through the weekend alive.  While there were moments that I prefer not to relive, especially when we could not find the debit card, I am happy to say that hitting our lowest point helped us realize that we need to get our acts together!  We have much to be thankful for and instead of looking at the glass as half empty, we have to be grateful for all we have.  We have spent the last month feeling like we had the worst luck, but really, we had much more control over our situation and only we can change our attitude and luck.  For instance, Steve kept saying we had the worst luck, but truly all of the events of the weekend were our own fault.  The wallet, while an accident, was my fault.  Running out of gas, well, that was plain stupid.

And finally there are some truly wonderful people in this world.  The family who returned my wallet is a perfect example of this.  The lady, an immigrant to this country, found my wallet on the side of the road.  She had her friend who spoke better English than she did help her look through the wallet to find my phone number.  Despite having difficulty communicating (my Spanish speaking sister was of great assistance) they called me and made plans to return the wallet.  All of the contents of the wallet remained, including the small amount of cash inside.  They are a true example that others genuinely do want to help one another! 

I hope everyone had a good three day weekend that perhaps was not as bumpy as ours!  How did you spend yours?  I hope not stuck on the side of the road out of gas :)

2 comments:

  1. Big hugs to you! A definite case of the ho-hums, at both of our houses. But like you said, they only help to make us grateful for the ho-highs. :) And for wonderful and honest people - they're out there!

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  2. Wow, what a weekend you had. I had to laugh at the "ho-hums" saying because I have only heard this in your... wait I mean our family. On the bright side, at least the kids were in the car and not the stroller when it blew away! I like your positive approach and hope that you all have a better week. It's the rough times that make you pull together as a family!

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