One Day, Three Entries

The wishful, hopeful version of what SHOULD have happened:

Monday September 28th: my morning is all planned out!

5:30 am - exercise, personal study, make breakfast, read scriptures with kids, shower, get the little boys fed and dressed, other kids off to school, make it to the case lot sale at Broulims by 8am sharp with my cash and list all ready.



The vague, male voice version of the morning:

Monday, September 28th: my morning didn't go as I had planned but I still managed to get to the case lot sale.

The really long, sarcastic, female voice, venting version of what actually happened:

Monday September 28th: my life is chaos!

6:15 am - I realized that during one of the 3 times that I was up during the night (LeRoy needing a pain killer and food to prevent a sick stomach, the dumb cat that someone forgot to put out, and Bob who thinks that LeRoy should be well enough just 1 week after back surgery to pick him up off the floor {and if you don't know that story, well, I'm trying to be nice so I'm not allowed to talk about it!}) anyway . . . I realized that I must have turned my alarm clock off. So . . .

No exercise, no personal study, cold cereal for breakfast, we did manage to read scriptures.

7:10 - LeRoy hobbles his way out the door, a little woozy from the wonderful drugs he is taking, to go 2 blocks away to discuss plans for a remodel

7:15 - Just as I am attempting to get in the shower (because I WILL make it to the case lot sale before the insanely long, time consuming line that is sure to happen on the first day) LeRoy calls to inform me that he has run out of gas

7:20 - I yell at Erika for once again taking my flip flops and leaving them at the neighbors house (niceness set aside: I HATE it when she takes my shoes! If they ever enter the house again they are covered in mud and goat heads and usually look like they have some bloody, infectious scum on them because she always has cuts on her feet which she will not take care of. Usually, I see my shoes on the neighbor girls feet because they assume that they are Erika's and those girls share everything. Call me a little OCD but, whatever, don't wear my flip flops! pick up nice again)

7:25 - I grab my gardening flip flops, which are literally covered in goat heads and are soaking wet having been left to close to the sprinkler which ran during the early morning hours, and the gas can which I am hoping has enough gas in it to get LeRoy to the Shell station to fill up.

7:30 - while the rest of Hibbard heads into town to school and work, they pass me: barefoot and bra-less, holding the gas can up to fill LeRoy's truck while he stands there with his hands in his pockets, totally embarrassed that his wife has to lift the gas can for him. I'm no newbie to bare feet and it wouldn't have been such a big deal if it hadn't been so stinkin cold but there I was standing on a newly paved street with tar and freshly laid rocks sticking in my freezing feet.

I had to accept the fact that I was most likely going to be standing in line at Broulims, in the cold, with my boys, Forever! Setting my owns plans aside (finally, I know) I followed LeRoy in to (I thought) the Shell station to fill up his truck, my Yukon (since my fuel light had also just come on) and the gas can. Silly me, I married a Maverik man. So now I find myself directly across the street from Broulims - a new plan formulating in my mind. Still barefoot and without a bra, I fill up the gas can and the 2 vehicles, scoot the gas can across the truck tailgate into the bed causing the gas to slosh around with nowhere to go but out that stupid little tiny air hole. To add insult to injury, my arm is now covered in gasoline and I reek. LeRoy apologizes, while helping me pick the goat heads out of my garden flip flops, frustrated that he has to have his wife do everything for him. I present my new plan.

LeRoy headed home to keep the boys while I went to Broulims. After a couple of shloshy steps I gave up on the wet flip flops (not wanting to draw any unneccessary attention to myself) and immediately headed to the bathroom to "freshen up". What I saw in the mirror above the sink was so horrifying that it became hilarious. I can't believe I entered a public facility looking like that! I took stock of my present situation and realized how far off it was from my expectation for that particular morning: no cash, no list, no shoes, no bra, reeking of gasoline, hair ratted and oily, with dark circles under my eyes both from lack of sleep and the makeup that I didn't take off the night before. But I had made it to my ultimate goal of the morning: the case lot sale.

Luckily, I keep an extra credit card in the Yukon for emergencies (this was not the emergency I had in mind when I put it there but it still qualified) so I marched (need I say again, barefoot and bra-less) to the checkout stands, picked up a list and pen, filled it out, paid, and stood outside in line for 45 minutes with my feet still freezing, folding my arms to avoid the obvious issue that pops up when standing in a cold breeze without a bra.

As I pulled out of the parking lot I did have a moment of gratitude in my otherwise frustrated heart. I was done. Not in the way I had planned it but I still got the important things done for the morning. When I got home I took an extra long shower then treated myself to the joy of filling my storage shelves.