No She Didn't

Day #9 of 31 Days of Storytelling

Having a 13-year-old girl is a test.

One we can't seem to study enough for.

 And fail often.

Every morning we never know who is going to walk down the stairs for breakfast.

The sweet girl who used to draw me pictures

and dance with me while I cooked dinner 

and let me "sweep" the floor with her hair while I held her upside down.

Don't worry, she loved it.

Or the big pot of steaming crazy that gets stirred up to the point of overflow by a simple,

Good morning! 

This summer she decided that our mere presence in a one-mile radius of her was

just

too 

much.

One hot Saturday in June she made plans to ride her bike to the pool and meet some friends.

We thought that sounded like a great idea and mentioned that we'd see her later when WE got to the pool.

We meaning myself, 

her father and 

her younger sister.

She turned into the big pot of steaming crazy soup and said under no circumstances were we allowed to go to the PUBLIC pool where we all had passes that WE paid for.

No she didn't.
Yes, she did. 

As I watched her bike away, I wondered how my heart could still be worried she'd get run over all the while entertaining the thought of running after her and shoving her to the ground.

See?

Test.

Failed.

I went looking for my husband to discuss what we were going to do since CLEARLY we were unfit parents.

I couldn't find him.

Finally I heard he and Ellie in our sweet neighbor's RV that was now parked in OUR driveway.

They were listening to music.

The pool bag was packed and ready.

Monte informed me that we were indeed STILL going to the pool

 and we were going to drive the RV.

Maniacal laugh.

Maniacal laugh.

Maniacal laugh.

Did you see the Muppet Movie?

This won't make any sense if you haven't.

So, off we went on the very short drive to the pool.

We started honking the horn and wildly waving 

out the window as soon as the pool came into view.

Monte took care to take up as MANY parking spaces as possible in the parking lot so the RV was visible from most of the pool.

We walked into the pool expecting to be ignored as to avoid the humiliation of being associated with the Clampett's who just drove in.

Instead McDaniel and her friends ran to us begging to take a ride.

Dang!

We forgot.

She's one of us.

She loves this kind of off-beat thing.

We didn't swim long. But long enough for a friend to come up to us and complain that 

"some joker" 

did a bad park job with his RV and caused him to have to park far away from the pool.

We spent the afternoon driving McDaniel and her friends around and stopping by friends' houses and letting them walk around the RV.

Her friend in the background on the phone saying,
"I am not even kidding. Right now! Yes! I am
in an RV AS WE SPEAK!"

Okay.

So what we intended to do for evil

God turned into good.

A really, REALLY good day.

He's awesome like that, isn't He?