It HAS To Be The Pregnancy!!!!

The following story has to be one of my most blond moments yet to date!!!! I'm totally blaming it on the pregnancy!

Today I went to IKEA with Mckenna and Brooke. We live only four miles from an IKEA so I hadn't necessarily planned on this being a major outing. When I arrived I decided to park in their lot across the street instead of the parking deck because I have a Thule cargo topper on our Suburban right now so I wasn't sure if I would clear their height requirement. I pulled up and parked, got the girls out, and we headed inside to look around. I actually had two specific things I was in search of and I had my measurements and tape measure in tow.

Our trip turned out to be longer then I thought (as is so easy to do in IKEA). We wandered around, played a little, stopped for the potty (3 times), stopped for lunch, and then searched for our items. I was pushing one of their small shopping carts around the store with Brooke in it while Mckenna walked. When it was time to find our boxes off the shelf I switched from our cart to one of their flat push carts that would hold my boxes. We checked out and headed for the parking lot. This was about two in a half hours after we arrived!

This was the first time I even considered my car keys. I shuffled through my bag free of panic but without any success. This isn't too uncommon when I have a bunch of junk in my bag. At this point in my bag I had a Pull-Up, some wipes, my wallet, a tape measure, some IKEA catalogs, Mckenna's hoodie, a water bottle, my cell phone and two small bags of pretzels reserved for an emergency. Surely my keys were somewhere in the bag amongst my junk. I searched again with more purpose this time and even began to remove everything from the bag. Panic was setting in. I completely emptied my bag on top of my boxes and turned it upside down and shook it...in case I missed them somehow. Then I squeezed the bag everywhere to check and be sure that the keys had not somehow perhaps found a hole in the lining of my bag.

Nope.

Panic.

My mind began to race. At this point I was already pushing nap time. IKEA had been our third stop of the morning after Target and Walmart (like I said, I was on a mission) and the girls had just spent over two hours in IKEA. My first thought, and hope, was that perhaps they were in the cart that we had ditched a few minutes prior when we loaded up our boxes. I turned around with my large push cart and we headed back to isle 11 bin 23 hoping and praying that our cart would still be sitting there with my keys in the bottom of the yellow bag.

I decided to call Brad at this point just to express my concern (and fear) to another person. Although it was nice to vent to someone this led to me loosing it on the phone and having a breakdown. So picture pregnant me trying to negotiate my tiny cell phone on my shoulder while pushing a big flat cart with three large boxes on it fighting back tears with Brooke wandering behind sucking her thumb and holding her blanket and Mckenna running ahead yelling, "KEYS! KEYS! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Thankfully Brad answered and he helped me brainstorm on solutions if my keys never showed up...my plan was to call my friend Angie (poor Brandon and Angie...we call them for everything...they'll be glad when we make more friends!) and hope I catch her at home prior to putting her girls down for a nap. It was a partial solution...I still would have to have her pick me up and hope that my boxes fit in her trunk as well as factor in the fact that since she drives a car and has two children there would be 6 of us in her vehicle. Hmmm...that was a legal detail at this point that I wasn't too concerned with. I still didn't have any keys which meant no access to the house. Brad suggested that Angie drive me over to the commuter lot close by where his car is parked. His Explorer has a keyless entry pad that I could use to get in his car, get the garage door opener, and then open the garage at home and hope and pray that I didn't lock the garage door that morning. If not...I guess we play or clean in the garage all day!

This story is taking about as long as all the events did to unfold...

Mckenna announced, to all of IKEA isle 11, probably 10 and isle 12, that our keys were not in the yellow bag of the abandoned shopping cart. Just a few old fruit chewies that she had dropped on the floor and then left in the bag for the lucky next customer. Oops. I call Angie (thank goodness I didn't leave my cell phone in the car!) and immediately start crying. I told her I'm in IKEA with two tired girls, three including myself, and we can't find our keys. I caught her just before she was heading to put her girls down for a nap and she said she would make the quick drive (5 minutes) from her house to IKEA. We would figure out the seating arrangements once she got here...my thoughts were that I would try to squeeze Mckenna and Brooke into one seatbelt in the middle back between her two girl's carseats. Worse case scenario I would buckle Brooke up in the back and put Mckenna in the front seat with me and throw a hoodie over her face to hide her until we get home. Can anyone say "Mother of the Year!"

I told Angie to hold off five minutes and let me go out to the car. The car was my last hope but something I hadn't tried yet considering I had two small children and a large cart with boxes. In order to get to my car I would have to push my cart across an uphill crosswalk at a four way stop and over to a parking lot and I wasn't too thrilled about the idea if it meant I was just going to discover a locked car! I decided to ditch my cart next to the building but within eyesight of my vehicle and run across the street with the girls. I assumed I would find the vehicle locked and then I could head back to IKEA to wait on Angie.

We got to the passenger side of the car and discovered it was locked. Crying began. Not Brooke. Not Mckenna. Guess who!? Darn tired and stressed pregnant hormones! We went around to the other side and tried the passenger door. Locked. So what are the odds of the fourth door being locked. HIGH! I tried the drivers door and I seriously think that I prayed it unlocked. I think the good Lord heard my cries, literally, and unlocked that door because I have no idea how one of my doors stays unlocked and the other 3 are locked...usually they all automatically lock or none of them get locked.

So, a quick sigh of relief, but still not a solution. I start searching for my keys. Although I'm completely distracted and not really paying attention, I hear the sound of another car and I tell the girls to watch out for the car pulling in/pulling out...I tell them to climb in the car and wait while I look. As I'm searching frantically I realize that my radio is playing. I stop, very confused. How is the radio playing? My dashboard is illuminated, too. What? That only happens when the keys are in the ignition...

Wait...I'm not done. There are my keys, in the ignition, of my unlocked car.

AND. Remember know how I responsibly told my children to watch out for the car I heard while I was distracted searching for my keys?!

IT. WAS. MY. CAR!!!! Not only did I leave the keys in the ignition of my unlocked car...I LEFT MY CAR RUNNING! FOR TWO IN A HALF HOURS!

I'm not sure what else to say at this point. I just stared at my keys, hanging from the ignition...waiting on me to return. I wanted to laugh, cry (oh, wait...I already was) and pass out from emotional and physical exhaustion all at the same time. I have absolutely no memory of leaving them in the car...I've thought about parking and getting out of the car a hundred times and I can't really recall anything! I quickly called Angie and told her that she wasn't going to believe me when I told her where I found my keys! While I told her the story I drove over to the cart with my boxes I called Brad at this point, too...I was a little nervous he would be upset with me but I think he was just thankful I wasn't crying anymore and that I could go home with the girls.

So...that was my day. At least a big portion of it. My hair is getting darker the older I get but I guess that at my core I am still truly blond...add to that the absent mindedness that frequently accompanies my pregnancies and I'm dangerous!