April's Catastrophe

Yep, we did not manage to escape from trouble this month either. Tuesday night we did laundry and made dinner at Papa's house (we have been doing this once/week for a while). Afterward, Luke went to YM and we went to get a few groceries at Smiths. Gracie always does good there because she can push her own mini cart around. We both like it. The clerks, not so much, because they have to put a few things back that Gracie picked out but mom does not want.

I got Katie loaded in the car and Gracie was enjoying the warm night while I put the groceries in. (Katie was hungry but I was going to wait until we got home to feed her.) Gracie has just learned how to open the car doors and she is obsessed with locking them. Every day we play... "mom goes to open Gracie's car door and it is locked, so I push the unlock button in the front and go back to open Gracie's door and... it is locked again"- ooh it is frustrating. Well this time she was outside the car, opened the door and pushed the lock button. I disciplined her and as a precaution took my keys out of the front seat and put them in the ignition - and turned the car on (forgot to unlock the doors). While both doors were open, I put one more sack of groceries in by Katie and closed her door. Not a split second later Gracie slammed the front door. OOOOHHH! Hungry Katie was locked in the running car with the keys and cell phone and Gracie and I were outside with the milk and there was nothing we could do to get Katie. I didn't know what I should do because I didn't want to leave Katie who was crying in a running car while I went inside and called someone (?) for help. I didn't have Luke's cell number memorized either and he was at least 15 minutes away.

I was kind of panicking and just then a neighbor of my inlaws, Matt Evans whose family Lenna and I had taken dinner and did laundry for once, drove up and smiled and waved. I threw the milk jugs down on the ground, ran over, and blurted out, "My baby's locked in the car and it is running and my phone is in there too. What do I do?"

He called the police department and about 5 minutes later a firetruck and a police car showed up. They blocked the front lane while they raced each other, each on one side of the car, to see who could get it open first. The firemen won with no damage to my car, and the policeman scraped off the black trim on the car and was unable to unlock it in time. I rescued my little Kate and got her calmed down. I have never felt so helpless just peeking in from the other side of the glass. Then they all stood around and chatted about how they race each other frequently. They talked with Gracie about her cast and "REWARDED" her with a police badge. I asked, "Do you really think she should get a reward?" I guess I do like though how she got to see that police and firemen are friendly and that when the sirens go off (like in our car accident) they are actually helping people. They were awesome and I am so glad that they are able to help people who are locked out of their cars, probably even houses for that matter. Never thought about calling them for that.

And ultimately I am so grateful that we served Matt like he pointed out, so that he knew us when he drove by and was able to help us back. We are always being watched over. And we need to do our part too. Here's a shout out to the speakers at General Conference who spoke on service. Loved it, and the talk on parenting, praising and focusing on"DO AND BE." So good.
I am so glad to not be locked out of the car still. The photo is courtesy of Matt's cell phone since mine was locked in the car. And to think what we did without cell phones. And I only just started "believing" in them like 2 years ago.

I am forever grateful for the blessings and lessons learned following our trials. Here's a shout out to that other awesome conference talk on the purpose of trials, speaking directly to me and a few others I know. I need to go and listen again. :)