Jared: (hugs me) When I’m a dad, I want you to be my wife.
Me: (melting) Ok, but what about dad? Who would be his wife then?
Jared: He could just find a new wife.
Me: You won’t want me as a wife by then anyway. I’ll be old and wrinkly.
He just smiled.
When we were kids, well probably closer to teenagers, we were traveling in the car together as a family. I’m probably wrong, but I envision that we were somewhere between California and New York on one of our annual cross country road trips where all the best memories are made. We took to traveling car games and often read the passing signs. Shannon read one once that she will never live down… A sign that read Army Supplies.
Shannon asked, “Mom? What are army… sooplies?” Supplies Shannon, I remember my mother saying through a giggle. The word supplies has always been connected to that silly little memory. Not too long ago I heard this from my 7 year old daughter, Lainy was reading the words written on one of my spray bottles. "Sally beauty supply" But she read it, "Sally booty sooplee. Mom? What are booty sooplees?"
I have mixed feelings about whether or not every parent should feel the way I felt this afternoon.
Lainy and Jared ride scooters outside on a regular basis. We live on a quiet street and I just keep the door open to listen for them. Today was no different. Well, yes it was. Today I lost and found Lainy. I came out to Jared telling me that he couldn’t find Lainy. He said she had crossed the street to pet a dog. She isn’t allowed to cross the street. Red flag. He said she followed it. RED FLAG. He said it was a dad with the dog. At that point I was a wild screaming desperate mother running and yelling my sweet girls name. I called 911 immediately. They ask you seemingly simple questions. But when you have to tell a 911 operator that your daughter has blonde hair blue eyes and what she is wearing, it is the most terrifying feeling I have EVER felt in all of my existence. Jayce took off on his bike to scope the closest streets. He found her around the corner and down the street. She was petting a cat.
10 minutes.
She was only gone 10 minutes and it changed me forever. The police came in record time just to make sure all was well. He said that there were 30 units en route before we had found her. My sweet baby. All 3 of my children came into Lainy’s room while their very emotionally charged mother said words that I am sure they will forget. But I am sure none of us will forget the feeling we had as we all cried and hugged together in realization of what could have been. I am immensely grateful for the outcome. I am grateful that I could learn this lesson without losing my Lainy for longer than 10 minutes.
When we were first married and had moved out here to AZ we lived near my sister Shannon and her family. We had gone to a meeting together about how to start, store, and utilize a year supply of food. It was a lot of info and my head was swimming. I felt excited, anxious, and overwhelmed. I had a small stack of papers in my hand and I knew they would be useful at some point. Shannon gave me my very first nugget of info for doing something with all of that information… She said, start a food storage file. Stick those papers in it, it will grow. Now, 10 years later as I have pulled that file out of its place countless times, I remembered what she had said. And that file has grown. It’s a nice big fat file of beautiful information.
Many of you have heard, or know that Mormons have a goal to store a year supply of food. It’s quite a task! In fact, it took me 5 years to even begin because there were so many different ways of planning for it. Plan by pounds (get 400 lbs. of wheat, get 100 lbs. of corn meal, 150 lbs. of sugar, etc.) plan by meal, (get everything you need for a spaghetti meal and multiply it by 52.) And then somewhere in between. Then you have your 72 hour kits, your water supply, toiletries, medicines… the list goes on.
I am at a point in my life where I just get what I can, when I can. Sometimes I get ambitious and I organize and plan, roll with it for a while, and then I scrap that plan and try something else! But, I am getting somewhere.
Now we have been married for 10 years, I still have my food storage file of information, and I still feel excited, anxious, and overwhelmed by food storage. It is one of my 2012 goals to get a concrete plan to continue storing and using my year supply.
“Remember, a year’s supply is not so much a matter of dollars and cents as it is of faith and obedience.” - Unknown
