imagine how bad a day it would have been without these random bits of luck

Whoa! The last two days have been really something...

Andy and I are both working too much, the kiddos are sick, the house is a complete pig sty (everyone says that, but I really mean it), Andy's been out these last few nights so I'm going solo which means that I really don't ever stop and breathe at all until I lay down in bed, and on top of that I cannot for the life of me put my head on straight.

A few examples:
Today, running out of the office to visit a retreat. I print off the directions, run over to the printer, take a quick glance at them, and walk out the door. About three miles down the road, I realize these are directions to a retreat in COLORADO. That will not help me. I know where I'm generally going, and I figure if I can't find it I can just call the office and have someone quick look it up for me. When I get to where I *think* the retreat is, I go to find my cell phone... and the battery is dead. After driving around for about 10 minutes, I drive into Super America, and ask the employee there where this church (retreat location) is... she says, "Wow, yes, that's where I go to church!" That made total sense to me, as I was convinced the church must be just around the corner... and then I find out that I'm about 10 miles from the church, and would likely NEVER have found it had I not walked into THAT Super America.

Thank you, Super America lady!

Later today, I went to pick up my materials for my 10K I'm doing tomorrow morning. It's packed, parking is crazy. I have lugged the children with me, because, as I mentioned above, Andy is not home tonight... So the kiddos are running around like crazy, as all kids should do, while I desperately search for my name among about - oh, I don't know - a BAJILLION names... and I'm not finding it, not finding it... seriously?! I've been training for this sucker for two months and I didn't register???! No, I know I did... I think... but this is coming from the person who thought she could drive around and run into a church she's never been to... So, I walk up to the "trouble table" thinking what a perfect name that is for how I'm feeling - and say, "I can't find my name on the list." They check their info. No Sally Zimney. No Sally Koering (sometimes I forget who I am). No SALLY's at ALL! WHAT?!? At the same time as I'm standing there looking desperately around thinking about what I'm going to do, Luke and Maren have climbed up to these computers and started banging on them. I hear a computer mouse fall to the ground and Luke saying "Hit! Hit!" I am yelling at them. They are not listening. And the very nice lady looks at me and says, "You know what? I believe you. There's no way a mom would drag her two kids out here if you hadn't registered."

THANK YOU, stranger people, for making my pretty bad day look so much better than it could have been. I feel strangely taken care of by the randomness of good luck - or perhaps karma?

Maybe I'm getting some payback from the 800 times Luke wiped his runny nose on my new shirt today.