Locked out

I've had a series of "locked out" incidents that have made me grateful for good neighbors and friends. About a month ago Becca and I went to my friend Sara's house to have our bangs trimmed. I managed to lock my keys in the car. It was weird because usually I lock the car with the remote, but I thought I'd be more "efficient," and stick the keys in my pocket and manually lock it before all of the doors our shut. This way I wouldn't have to pull my keys all the way out of my pocket - cause that's really hard to do, right? Well, the problem was that I set my keys down to get Kate out and forgot to "put them in my pocket." OOPS. Anyway, I frantically called my neighbor and good friend, Amy, to see if she could use our spare house key and find my spare car key. The problem : I wasn't sure exactly where the spare key was. I had her check in Jon's nightstand and the bottom 2 drawers of his dresser, cause I thought it might be there. I also had her check in a couple other places where it might be - no luck. I couldn't get a hold of Jon to ask him. So, I hung up with her, thinking I would have to pay to have someone come unlock my car. She called back 2 seconds later and said, "I hope you don't mind... I took the liberty of asking myself, 'where would I keep the key, if it were me? Then I looked in the back of Jon's sock drawer and found it there.'" She hopped in her car and brought me my key - how's that for an amazing friend and super sleuth! Thanks again Amy!

Soon after that, I had gone on my usual walk in the morning and somehow forgotten to bring my keys with me. My friend, Amy, was at the airport picking up her sister, so we hung out at another neighbor friends house until she returned and I borrowed the spare key to let myself in.

Not too long after that I walked the kids to school and then went on my long walk, as usual. When I returned home, I unlocked the front door, but could not open it because the door handle was just worn out and stuck. It had been getting harder and harder to open and of course, we've been saying for quite a while now, "we really need to get a new front door handle." I had to call Jon and he drove home (45 min. each way) so that he could let me in through the garage door with his remote in the car.

Meanwhile, we knew we had to get a new door handle soon, before we had another incident. I kept my car parked outside so that we could use the programed garage remote if needed to let ourselves in the house. We were expecting a Lowe's gift card in the mail from Jon's work and wanted to use that for the door handle, so we were waiting a few days. Friday night we were babysitting our friends two youngest children. The youngest was in bed as was Kate. The rest of the kids were watching a show. Jon and I stepped out to walk some garage sale items over to our neighbors across the street, who offered to sell them the next morning at their garage sale. We only stepped out for a second, and didn't think to tell the kids not to follow us. But, of course, they all came running out behind us and slammed the door shut. The car was locked. So, there we were locked out of our house. Two little ones asleep inside and our neighbors with the spare key were out of town. I am thankful for Jon, who unlike me, remains calm in situations like this. After unsuccessfully trying the front door, back door, downstairs windows, etc, we tried the front door one more time and gratefully it opened!!!!!!!! The message was passed on to our friends by their son, Spencer, that Jon has magic powers. :)

The next day our gift card came - went to Lowe's - got a new doorknob.

Well, things have been pretty calm around here lately. I hope I've learned my lessons. I'm trying to be more responsible by not getting myself LOCKED OUT!