Trapped in the truck!

I just wrote a letter to the editor of The Olympian about my experience, so if it's published I'll link it. I can't believe this happened to me! I was so careful to make sure that the car was unlocked while I ran inside to get my girls. I left the keys in the truck so I could have less stuff to bring in and out of the house. There's already too much stuff with carseats and backpacks and the like, so I leave everything non-essential in the truck, especially since they live in the country. Somehow when I strapped my girls in, the automatic locking button was pushed and they were locked in the truck. I don't know if it was my backpack that hit the button, or if Lacy did it, but no matter. They were locked in along with the keys. Fortunately, they were in no immediate danger, but they were scared and hungry and it was dark outside. After calling Dave about the situation, I decided to call 911 for help. While talking with the 911 dispatcher, she was shocked that Lacy was unable to get herself out of her carseat to unlock the door, and acted like that was something all 2 year olds should be able to do. She went on about it for a minute, so I said, "I have really good carseats." Isn't the point of carseats to restrain your children so they can't get out of their carseats and put themselves in danger while you are driving? She also told me that the police would only be dispatched if the engine of my vehicle was running, and there are "no exceptions" to the rule. I really hope this isn't true, because if it was 90 degrees outside, I would expect that the police would come out to assist me. Am I paying them taxes for nothing?

Eventually, the dispatcher called out the fire department to assist me, telling me that they would probably have to break the window to get in the vehicle. The fire department responded quickly, and the firefighter on the scene called a locksmith for me and tried everything he could think of to unlock into my truck. In the meantime, Dave (who was on his long commute home from Seattle) called his friend Chris to go to our house and grab the keys, as we had some spares on our key rack by the door. I'm so glad that I insisted we use that so we don't lose our keys! Chris got there way before a locksmith could have, so the firefighter called off the locksmith so we wouldn't have to pay them a dispatch fee since Chris was on his way with keys.

Lacy was so scared during the whole ordeal, and Rose was screaming for most of it. Eventually she cried herself to sleep, poor thing. That's the first time she's ever done that! I talked to Lacy and stayed right with her. After Chris arrived and we got the girls out, I cuddled Lacy for a few minutes before we went home. My friend Tuana has been staying with us, and she ordered Chinese for dinner so I thankfully didn't have to worry about making dinner that night! She was going to watch the girls while I went visiting teaching. Maybe there was a reason I wasn't supposed to go VT tonight, I don't know. I do know that I have a hard time dealing with the sister I was going to teach, because she is a "system abuser" and once talked to me about how she has never had to pay for electricity and that she's glad she finally moved to an apartment with a washer and a dryer so she won't have to pay for laundry anymore either. She talked with a bragging tone in her voice. That conversation really made me uncomfortable, because at the time Dave and I were struggling and I couldn't imagine using the tactics she used to get free stuff. I was on WIC and that was about as far as I would go at that time. Dave thinks I should ask to not have to visit teach her on account of how uncomfortable she makes me feel. I think I should teach her so that I can get over myself! Anyway, I'm rambling now. I should start getting ready for work! I just finished a pint of Ben & Jerrys (not the whole thing, there was about 1/3 of it left) so I'm ready to get all our stuff ready now.

Oh yeah, to make my day even better yesterday, Dave got motor grease on our brand new carpet. Right in the middle of the carpet. And now our brand new car won't start.