Oh, hi there.

I had about 15 things I could have (and planned to) post about today (though not all at once, of course), but this week has been a bit random already, so I figured I would stick with the (non) theme.

So, here you have it—5 random things from my week, in no particular order:

1) I have eaten a hoagie sandwich just like this one for lunch for 5 days straight (I know the exact number because there were six rolls in the bag, and I ate every one but one).

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So, what’s my special “recipe?”: Mustard, turkey, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, purple onions, and pickles on a toasted wheat bun (and yes, I was singing that to the “Big Mac tune” while I wrote it).

2) I posted this picture of my husband (one of my faves) on Facebook at the request of some blogging friends (it made sense at the time, I promise), and then one of them told me her 14-year-old daughter came up behind her and said, “Mom, why are you looking at pics of _____________?”

hot alby pic

Now, it’s your job to fill in the blank with the appropriate celebrity name.

(It’s something I’ve been telling him for years).

3) That handsome man you see above is traveling again. This time only to Houston, but it doesn’t much matter whether it’s Houston or Timbuktu, when he’s not here, now does it?

Actually, I guess it does, since he can drive home on the weekends.

houston traffic

via

Of course, he’ll probably have to drive through something like this on his way.

He told me it took him an hour and a 1/2 to drive ten miles to work this morning.

(I believe that is why the words “road rage” were invented).

4) There were some residual paint smudges on the laundry room floor from the washer/dryer painting process, so that’s what I assumed my oldest was referring to when he hollered, “Mama, there’s paint all over the laundry room floor” from the front hallway the other day.

After all, he gets his flair for the dramatic from me.

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Hmm…apparently, not so dramatic after all.

(#2 claims that he just happened to be standing in the doorway when he saw the paint can fall “because it was sitting on an edge, Mama.” I thought about explaining that whole inertia—things at rest tend to stay at rest—concept to him, but one look at the expression of practiced innocence on his four-year-old face told me I’d be wasting my breath).

5) We’ve had a lot of rain in the past few days, and our yard is basically one huge mud puddle waiting to swallow us whole every time we walk out the door.

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Seriously, people. If you ever want to do one of those Mud Runs that seem so popular these days, come on over.  We’ve got it in spades. Literally. As in, I should probably just give my children spades and let them go at it.

6) Bonus: No pics of this one (although you’ve already seen what I was wearing, and my expression in the first pic pretty much says it all), so I wasn’t even going to include it, but…you know me and my storytelling self:

So, as we were leaving Walmart one evening, I was holding Della on my hip—because she had missed her nap and was at the tail end of her patience with this grocery-shopping business—and pushing our very full cart with my free hand.

In the process of forcing the cart over the metal door-strip on the floor at the exit, I dislodged a rather precariously perched bag containing a jug of milk.

It proceeded to burst spectacularly upon contact with the ground and bleed out into the parking lot at an alarming rate (though, how a single gallon of milk exiting its container at such speeds can take so long to finish doing so still baffles me).

There was a man (notice I did not say gentleman) coming in the door just as all this happened.

He looked me over—taking in my toddler-adorned hip and little boy-flanked sides in a glance—then said, “Aw,” stepped over my still-gushing bag of groceries, and went inside.

So, I leaned down, still carrying Della, picked up the near-empty jug and attempted to avoid getting her and me too damp as I smooshed it in the perpetually-too-full trash bin at the exit.

…while milked flowed freely down the parking lot slope and every single person in sight just stared with various expressions of bemusement and pity.

Just as I had decided to cut my losses and run, a gentleman approached and said, “You go on. I’ll tell somebody inside they need clean up out here.”

I had the distinct impression of having lived out the story of the Good Samaritan, just without all the beating/robbing/being left for dead bit.

“Now which man was a neighbor to the harried mama of three littles?”

“The one who had mercy on her.”

“Go and do likewise.”

(I did mention Ezra gets his drama from me, right?)

 

36 Comments

  1. I just love your blog! Makes me smile every time I stop by!! First the people at walmart just passing you by is just sad! People just don’t think to help anyone out anymore. Kudos to the one man who did. That is a whole lot of water. As for the mud run, my hubby and I did one…it’s actually pretty fun if it isn’t freezing cold when you have to get in the water:-) I say go run through it!!!! Have a great weekend!!!

  2. When my almost 13yo son was a baby he was sick often, one day I’d spent all day at the hospital on the military base my husband was stationed at, he was released to go home and I had to run into the store on base to pick up infant Tylenol on our way home ( my husband was on a mission so I was flying solo) anyway, during certain hours of the day military personell that are in uniform are permitted to cut to the front of the line. There was one person in line in front of me being checked out and no one behind me so I stood there clutching my baby who was clearly ill when I spotted a female pilot that was in the same squadron as my husband, instead of waiting for the 2 minutes it would have taken me to pay for the medicine she cut in front of me with a full cart and I stood there with a screaming baby in complete disbelief. Someone mentioned her name in my presence just the other day and it still makes me mad almost 13 years later!!

  3. Love homemade subs – we do that around here too, eat subs for days on end because they are just THAT good! Our latest has been the skinny baguette from Fred Meyer, ham and havarti. Nothing else…just meat, cheese, and bread…and it is so delish!

  4. I think it would have been nicer if the gentleman had gone back inside with your receipt and told the customer service people he’s taking another gallon of jug off the shelf as a replacement, since it was their metal door thingy to begin with.

  5. Ryan Gosling! I never thought of that before, but he really does look like him! As for the milk jug episode, we have the pleasure of have a few of those ‘men’ up here in the NW. A friend of mine recently posted this: As I struggle to get Stafford (18month old) to hold my hand outside the Doctor’s office today…holding the diaper bag…in the rain…clearly pregnant…I cough and this old man walking by says, “you need to cover your mouth.” Really?!?!?
    People really are unbelievable sometimes…

  6. Yeah, not many men out there were taught any manners, I have learned that lesson the hard way. It’s like one out of five are truly gentlemen. I think every mom has had a moment like yours, if you have kids, it’s going to happen. Sorry you had to go thru it too 🙁 I also know about the lovely traffic in Houston, once, we had a tow truck spin out of control (because he was going like a 100 mph) right in front of us on the high way…fun stuff.

  7. By the way, my husband looks like Kevin Anderson who played on Sleeping with the Enemy with Julia Roberts 🙂

  8. I am going to say your husband looks like no other than Ryan Gosling. One of the main stars on The Notebook. The sub looks delicious too 🙂

  9. Your last story tickles my heart. Not in amusement but in commiseration! It’s good to know that kind of stuff doesn’t just happen to me!! Sorry you had to experience such a horrendous..um…experience. It made for an incredibly thrilling story, though!! Love the blog, btw. I figure..that if we lived next door to each other with our white picket fences…we’d be the best of friends (wait…that sounded oober creepy…).

  10. See, I don’t think that’s creepy at all, Erica! I think of you all as my friends, even though I never get to meet you, and it always makes me really happy to know that someone was reading closely enough to think about something that I said while they’re out living their “real lives.”

    Next time, shoot me the pic.

    I’d love it! : )

  11. Yeah, 3 kids, depressed looking lady, large basket of groceries, and nasty milky bag blocking his way. I’m sure he was thinking, “Oh Good Grief. Some people can’t get their act together!” And boy is he right some days! : )

  12. This comment definitely brightened my day, but it was also incredibly convicting since it’s sunny outside right now, and I’VE been the raincloud on my children all morning. Seriously. ONE. GROUCHY. MAMA. I know we all have “those days,” and I have better attitudes some days than others, but I certainly didn’t feel very deserving of such a sweet, positive compliment today.

    Thank you for it just the same, though. It helped my perspective! : )

  13. Cassie, I don’t think this fella had kids or really understood the situation very well. He just thought, “Whoa, stinks for her” and kept walking.

    But I totally agree that the lady with the big carts should have known better. Usually it’s people telling me to go in front of them…so, yeah…there are lots of nice people out there.

    At least Mr. Step Over it and Move On didn’t laugh at me or anything. : )

  14. Totally Ryan Gosling. I’ve thought that since you first posted that picture. PS I drove past a house the other day with coral colored shutters and ALMOST stopped to take a picture for you
    …um, creepy? I guess I didn’t think so, since I kinda feel like I’m you’re friend haha.

  15. Ryan just like the rest of your blog followers…for sure. Sorry to hear about the first guy who didn’t bother to help, your mess must have looked like too much for him to bother helping. The second guy was a helper, amen to HIS help!

  16. I can totally see the Gosling resemblance (although I think your man is more attractive) but I’ve thought at times that he looks a bit like Jude Law, as well. Either way, you’ve got a looker on your hands 😉 Hopefully he likes purple onion breath! 🙂

    PS- love your WM mishap story. I witnessed a similar train wreck with a momma of three littles this week and I got to be the good Samaritan since I was (unusually) without my kids. It was great to lend a hand and be on the other side of the train wreck for once 🙂

  17. Abbie, I don’t comment much but I just have to tell you that bless you, you ALWAYS make me smile! You are like a bright spot of sunshine on a cloudy day, your upbeat attitude is contagious and I love your blog. I can’t even imagine how hard it was to clean up that paint, might have been easier to just spread the puddle out and paint the floor LOL! Hope you have a great day!!!!

  18. Oh, my. I feel your Walmart story! When I was about 8 months pregnant with my nap-deprived 3 year old at Walmart, picking up 2 cans of spray paint for a project, decided I’d be quick and go check out at the garden center. There was an older (who should know better) woman with TWO FULL BASKETS of groceries who got to to the checkout just before me. I’m trying to keep hold of said 3 year old who keeps wanting to escape back to the toy section with my other arm full of spray paint cans, and I look at the woman and her LOADS of groceries (who takes that many groceries to the garden center to check out anyways?) and politely ask if I could go ahead of her in line. To which she replies, “No.” I was more than a little stunned, and even after 9 months have passed, still a little ticked at her inconsiderateness.

  19. Just found your blog and I love it! Yeah, I’ve had those store moments – glad you found a Samaritan. Have a great day!

  20. oh my goodness i can’t stand when people are so blatantly ignorant- it’s like hello, i could use a little help here!!!!!! so rude. i can’t stand when you are behind someone walking in a store and they just drop the door in your face. i always open doors for others- common courtesy!

  21. We’ve all been there. Glad someone was nice to you. 🙂

    And I have no idea who your husband looks like. Apparently I’m not very good at this game. Can’t wait to see what the general consensus is, though!

I love hearing from you guys!