Shakin' the Foundations

It feels like I have not written in forever, with the holidays and all, but I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas with family, friends, and loved ones.  My family had a very good Christmas.
   We have also had a very long and hard three and a half weeks.  One of those situations, you know the ones, that threaten to shake your foundations.  We have come through the worst of it on the other side, but are still working through the middle.  The good news is that we will be moving back to our home state of West Virginia. Yay!  Now to find a house, in West Virginia, while we still live in Kentucky!  We have done nothing but travel back and forth for the last two weeks! I am pooped! And we haven't even started packing!  Here's to hoping our landlord will be understanding about us breaking our lease!
   My husband and I were talking, and just when you get over a life changing event, something else comes along and blindsides you.  Whether it is fate, karma, or God testing you, there will always be trials and tribulations.  That is what makes it life.  It is not what happens to you, but how you deal with what happens. With grace and hope is how we roll.  Oh and me constantly blowing sunshine and positivity!
  Seriously though, after mom dying right before thanksgiving last year, my almost bleeding to death a few weeks later, my surgery last January, recoup time, our moving to Kentucky away from everything and everybody we knew and loved for the next step on the corporate ladder, a year of firsts without mom, breaking my leg in August, convalescing and recuperating , marking the first anniversary of her death, and then being released to walk after a three and a half month broken knee/leg ordeal, I felt like I could breath a sigh of relief. Then the bombshell dropped four days after I was released to walk. Aahh life, why must you test me so?  Just when life gets back to normal, why must you jerk the rug out from under me again?
  Am I the only one who feels like I am constantly being tested?  Like the good in my life must be equaled out with bad?  I am a glass half full kind of girl.  I am the one who finds the positive and the silver lining in everything, and makes the best of sour apples.
  So in the midst of what has already been a crazy almost four weeks, and a crazy packing and moving probable next four crazy weeks, I wanted to do something fun with my 4yo.  So we go to have lunch and she plays at the indoor play park.  We then go to the store and return home.  And what to my wondering eyes appear?  My 4yo and eight bags of groceries round my feet , crowded near. 
  Okay, okay, wait just a second.  That is entirely too cheerful for what just happened.  Chuckin' the cheerfulness out the door, or in the door if I could!  We have one of those pesky insert, push while your jiggling side to side, front doorknob locks, that you simultaneously have to pull and up and down twist and baby.  Wiggle, wiggle, push, twist and up, and down and wiggle and jam some more.  It is seriously bordering on the pornographic what you have to go through to get into my house.  So tonight the babying took on a new meaning.  Begging and pleading entered the picture.  As I juggle my 4yo, the groceries , and my purse, the key breaks off in the lock as I am babying it.   Guess it's seen a lot of use huh?  Anxiety rushes down my spine.  I try to remain calm and not spout the plethora of colorful curse words that enter my head, as I try to figure out what to do next.  I try to insert the rest of the key, and push, and shove, and turn, etc.  All to no avail.  Well, actually, the broken piece did go in a little farther.  So now I am determined I can shove it in the rest of the way, and get my child out of the freezing cold and inside our warm, toasty house.  Idea number one was a fail.  I put the 4yo back in the warm car, while I march back to the front door, determined I will beat this door.  My husband has tried to show me how to jimmy a lock several times.  I was not a proficient pupil.  Next time I will pay attention. I call my dear old hub, who is at work out of town, and tell him what has happened.  He walks me through how to jimmy our current door.  I tell him I will try, and let him know if we get in or not.  No such luck.  I am a weakling.  Where are my pro fitness and bodybuilding brother and sister in law when you need them? Oh, hah, that's right , in WV, where we should be! ARGH!  Never mind the fact that we don't have a spare key.  My husband used to work right down the road, and I have been a stay at home mom.  Not anymore can I just swing down the road and grab his key.  So a little foresight would have been helpful in this thirty degree situation.  Okay, what to do now?  I peer across the street at the only friendly neighbors we have.  Both their cars are home.  Maybe just maybe they will help poor little old stranded me.  I am desperately trying to remember if we gave them anything yummy back in June, when the power was out for a week, and when we left to hole up in a hotel, we gave them the remaining contents of our fridge.   So I call the mom across the street.  I tell her it's me and I have an emergency, and ask if I can borrow her husband.  I then explain the situation, realizing that the first sentence out of my mouth sounded a little suspect, and if she has just seen what I have been doing to our front door, she probably wouldn't lend him to me!  She said sure, she would send him right over.  She is a doll!
   So Mr. next door neighbor comes over, and I explain the situation, including a descriptive narrative on what I do to our doorknob every day to get it open.  The funny part was, he brought some foamy white greasy stuff to help.  Bahahahaha!  So I tell him how my husband described how to jimmy the lock.  So he tries it.  As he is trying it, he tells me he has never done this before.  Great!  I just turned Mr. next door neighbor into a dirty felon!  But it works, the door popped right open!  Choruses of Hallelujah fill the air...wait, that was only in my head. I profusely thank Mr. next door neighbor for saving the day. Then we proceed to chat for a little bit.  Then I get the 4yo out of the car and into the warm house.  She gives Mr. next door neighbor a hug, a thanks, and a branch from a tree in our yard! Hah! Four year olds!  Sooooo...we are safely in the house ,the groceries are in the fridge,  the end of my front door key is still safely in the lock, and I owe my neighbors some  chocolate chip cookies!  See?  Negativity gone, and positivity back as the warmth seeps into my bones, and I put on my favorite pajamas.  Plus when I logged into Blogger to write this lovely post for you, I got an eleventh follower! Yay me!  Simple things make me happy! Welcome and happy and hilarious reading!