Monday Confessional

I'm afraid to say that during a hectic, busy, and over-booked day, I can not always be relied upon to remember everything I'm supposed to.

Case in point: last Saturday. Here's what was on the agenda...

9 am: Take Kendall to Christmas choir practice at our church
9-10 am: shop at the Christmas bazaar also going on at our church
10 am: leave for Blake's basketball game in Colton
11 am: come back to church to pick up Kendall
11-1 pm: have plenty of time to eat lunch and get ready with Kendall to leave for Portland's Singing Christmas Tree
2:30-5 pm: attend the Singing Christmas Tree
5 pm: race back home with Kendall to drop her off at the school for her Winter semi-formal
6 pm: drop off Kendall at school, pick up husband and boys at home, drop off boys at the sitter, attend Couple's Ugly Sweater Christmas Party at Tim and Cara's
10 pm: leave party, pick up boys at sitter's, pick up Kendall from Winter semi-formal, head home.

Just another day in the life of the crazy Halversons. And just like other crazy days, of course everything didn't go as planned.

Blake's game got moved back an hour, and by the time it was over and I'd picked up Kendall from her Aunt's house (who had graciously offered to grab her after choir practice), we had waaaay less time to get ready for the Singing Christmas Tree (Kendall needed to be dressed up since she was not coming home before the semi-formal), causing us to leave with not a single moment to spare if we were going to make it on time.

So off we headed to the Keller Auditorium in downtown Portland, a good 50 minutes drive away, me full of nervous angst about finding it on my own without getting lost, and Kendall full of excitement about attending for the very first time. It was only when I got to the freeway half an hour into our trip that it hit me...

THE TICKETS!

Yep. Back home, in my other purse.

I immediately pulled over and called my friend Sairaina, who was performing in the Tree and who arranged the ticket purchase for me, while Kendall immediately burst into tears. Sairaina unfortunately could not pull up her email to reprint the tickets and let me know that if I turned around to go get them (having Russ meet me half way, which was my next idea) they probably would have shut the doors already and wouldn't let me into the show at all.

I can't even begin to describe all the feelings of panic I felt in that moment, with "you are a terrible and unreliable mother!" being front and foremost of them all. But then I had another thought... have Russ take a picture of the tickets and text it to me! I didn't know if they would accept that at the ticket counter but I had nothing to lose so I swung back onto the freeway and Kendall and I raced the clock, praying the whole way that they would let us in and we wouldn't be too late.

We ran up to the ticket counter at 2:34 pm and I announced, "Catastrophe!" and explained what happened, showing them the picture on my phone. And hallelujah to the highest, it worked! Actually, the lady at the counter didn't bat an eye and acted like it was no big deal. Then we were kindly ushered all the way to our seats and 30 seconds later the curtain rose.

At which point Kendall and I threw our arms around each other, laughing and hugging in relief. It was a Christmas miracle.

The show was spectacular, worth every ounce of rush, worry, and drama it took to get there, and you can bet next time I won't forget the tickets (or go on such a busy day!)