This was not your ordinary brain flatulence...

...it was a gaseous explosion of epic proportions. If you know me well, you are aware that I've had lots of brain farts in my time, but I'm quite sure I lost at least half a million brain cells on this one. Furthermore, I'm not really sure why I am telling people about it?? Probably residual effects of the brain cell loss, I'm still not thinking clearly. Maybe someone can help me laugh about it 'cause I'm not quite there yet.

Sunday was an eventful day at church, in many ways. We arrived a bit late for Lifegroups (our church's version of Sunday school). The kids ran to their classrooms, but after making our coffee and preparing to join our class, I just had this feeling like I didn't want to go in. Not sure why, I just didn't. So Vince and I decided to sit by the fireplace and talk. A friend of mine named Cheryl and her husband Dave also arrived late, and Cheryl said she didn't feel like going into her class late either, so she asked if she could join us. I've known Cheryl through church for several years, and we always say hi & chat when we see eachother, but have never really sat down and talked for any length of time. We ended up talking for quite a while about our families and found out that Cheryl and her husband Dave, who have been married for about 4 years, also have a blended family....with 9 kids between them! So as you can imagine, we had lots to talk about. Just sharing some of our common experiences really blessed me, and I am convinced that God had His hand in setting that whole thing up! Now that we have this connection, I'm sure there will be more talks like that in the future.

The sermon was very, very good (if you'd like to listen to it, click on the LLC link on the left!) It was shortly after that when the tootin' started. As Vince and I and the kids were preparing to leave church and go home, I could not find my keys. Anywhere. I knew I had them with me because I was the one who drove us there! I always throw them in the front pocket of my purse when I get out of the car, but they weren't there. Vince had his set of keys along, but knowing that I had mine he left his - where else - but in the car. So after emptying out my purse like three times, the hunt was on. Several of our friends helped out too. We searched all over that church. We began retracing my steps, which wasn't an easy task. For various reasons, I had been all over the church that morning. ...the bathroom, the youth room, the kitchen, and of course the sanctuary. Nada. It was driving me crazy! How could they just disappear???

After searching the entire church like eight times, we finally decided to call the roadside assistance number which is printed on the window of my car. Thankfully there was no charge for this (although I'm sure I paid a hefty fee for it when I bought the car). They said that they would send someone to unlock it, but it would take about an hour, and we had already spent about an hour looking for the keys! A friend offered to drive the kids home, and even bought them McDonalds on the way. Another friend offered to run to Subway for Vince & I, and hang out with us until help arrived. If nothing else good came out of this, we gave our friends an opportunity to bless us! By this time, since my keys were nowhere to be found in the church I assumed that I had locked them inside the car. Under Vince's jacket, which was laying on the seat. Where else could they be? The guy finally arrived and it took him about 1/2 hour to get the car open. After all of that anticipation I pick up Vince's jacket, and the keys are...........not there. What in the world??? So, still perplexed, we got in the car and decided just to go home and worry about the keys later. That's when it happened. It dawned on me. First like an epiphany. Then like a deer in the headlight....where was my jacket? The jacket that I wore to church. And hung up in the coat room. With my keys...in....the....pocket.




Wow.




So as we are driving home, almost two hours after church got out, Vince says "you need to write about this in your blog". I said "are you kidding? I'm not telling anyone about this, it's WAY too embarrassing!!!! Even for ME!"