Last night, I had dinner with my LifeGroup, a group of teenage girls from church that a couple of my friends and I have called our own for the past three years. We had a great time, but afterward, I was TIRED. It had been a long day for a still-in-the-low-energy-stage pregnant woman, and I was really looking forward to lying motionless and slothlike on the couch for the remainder of the evening.
It was close to Ali’s bedtime, and when I had texted Chris to tell him I was on my way home, he told me that they were finishing up dinner.
So I did what any horrible parent exhausted person who really just wanted to lay on the couch would do….I stalled.
I filled up my car with gas….bought an Icee….popped my head into CVS to see if they had any Cami Secrets (i.e. Maternidickcamis) in their “As Seen on TV” section (which they did NOT have. Had I wanted Aqua Globes, I could have had them. Or Bump-Its. But no Cami Secrets)…
When I got home, Chris and Ali were at the VERY end of the bedtime routine.
Score!
All I had to do to make it to the couch was give Ali a kiss goodnight, change into my jammies, and I was HOME FREE.
Feeling a bit guilty about my disgustingly lazy parenting, I decided that I would get in Ali’s bed with her to give her a good hug, snuggle, and kiss goodnight.
I put all of one knee on her bed, and her bed chose that exact moment to immediately and very offendingly totally give up on life and BREAK.
One side of her mattress and bed totally caved in, and all of a sudden, Ali was laying at a 25% incline, looking at me with shock and awe.
Seriously. Seriously!?!?
I’ve gained all of 0.4 pounds so far!! Things should NOT (yet) be caving in from beneath me!!
Seriously, bed?!?!? Seriously!
So, of course, Ali had to come out of the bed, Chris had to go get all his power tools, lights had to be turned on, bedtimes had to be reversed, and my dreams of being a completely lazy bum on the couch vanished before my eyes.
Ali and I snuggled in the chair (out of more guilt) while Chris assessed the damage caused by my whale of a self.
He worked on it for a while, grumbling about Ashley Furniture having very poor construction (smart man) while I, trying to be conciliatory for breaking our life, said “at least it happened now and not in the middle of the night…”
Finally, after exploring the possibilities of fixing my horrific destruction, he decided that the best solution was to “make it work” for the night, and then come back to it when he had more time and “make it strong enough that all three of us could jump on it at once and it wouldn’t budge”.
(I’m pretty sure he may have bought a ton or two of steel and reinforced concrete today…)
And so, he sat her mattress down on top of the mattress in the trundle drawer underneath her bed, and rigged it up a bit so that she couldn’t fall through any holes or hit her head on any sharp corners.
Ali wasn’t too happy with me for annihilating her bed,
And when she woke up this morning, the first thing she said was, “Mommy, why did you break my bed last night?”
“Because Mommy is huge, honey. Because I’m giganticorically monstrous. And I’m only going to be getting huger. On a daily basis. For the next SIX months. So you might want to go ahead and put away all of your valuables so that I don’t accidentally destroy them with my enormous girth.”
Bad luck. REALLY bad timing. I like the bad construction idea. Something. Blame it on something. There are plenty of excuses…
Oh Rachel, That is terrible luck but Congratulations on your pregnancy!! I did not know yet! If it's any consolation, I managed to (accidentally while cleaning up)toss my son's new tractor across the room yesterday it smashed into 50 pieces. The look on his face was devastating. "Why did you do that Mommy? Why!?" Oy!!
This pregnancy has really whooped your butt and I can't even imagine that you are huge…no way. Here is hoping that the rest of the time will go much smoother.
And as for Ali's bed…well better it happened then then sometime through the night when she was alone and could have been scared. So see….you were her protector.
Rachel, I can't stop laughing. Good stuff. Thanks for the comic relief.
you make me laugh out loud!
chris ann
I am going to agree with your husband that it was poor quality construction! I am so sorry for your self esteem, but totally appreciate you allowing us to laugh out loud at your situation! You are a GIVER! ;)
You crack me up! I agree, shoddy construction and it's really making me rethink my crawling into Hailie's bed every night for story time.
Too funny! With all the problems you guys have had with Ashley Furniture, I don't think I'll ever go there again!
Oh goodness, that is just bad timing! And I definitely don't think I will be buying anything from Ashley Furniture since it's obvious that they have problems.
I have a friend who has broken several different chairs by sitting down in them. Talk about a complex! And she's thin! (The girl I had a picture of the other day, the one who is pregnant, but hers didn't happen when she was pregnant, I don't think). Haha. :)
I'm dying laughing over here. That sounds like something that would happen in my house, only with Jeremy to blame!
Oh whatever! .4 – really, I can think about food and gain .4. I think Jay would have laughed for about 2 years if that had happened to me!
They really don't make furniture like they used to. I'm sure your "girth" had nothing to do with it, Mrs. Tiny Thing, but I did laugh out loud a little. Go have a cupcake for the little ones.
Lady, Ashley furniture is some of the poorest constructed furniture ever. They get bad reviews for their shoddiness all the time, and the one time B and I went there to look at furniture, he instantly commented that everything was poorly constructed and that we wouldn't be buying anything there. SO!! THERE YOU GO!!! You are a we dainty elfkin of and prego, and the mean, bad bed broke itself!
I'm sorry Rachel … I laughed and laughed and laughed.
oxoxox
Denalee
It's totally Ashley Furniture's fault. You are like a waif, a tiny, modelesque flower that, upon your 8th month, we will all say "oh, she must have eaten an olive"…stupid Ashley furniture…
At least it happened while your prego. Think about the ramifications if it had just been you!
What a blow to the ego! I love Ali's expression in the photo!
Brilliant stalling technique, by the way.
It WAS your fault… not your weight, of course, but your bed choice. I am SURE that the princess carriage bed would have held up to years of snuggling. I am positive that Ali would forgive you with that upgrade. :)