Fall on Monte Sano

My favorite season of the year is fall. I just love the weather and all the beautiful colors and everything else that goes along with it. This year, we didn't seem to have much true fall weather. It seemed to skip from really hot to cold with no real in between. My sisters- and mother-in-law and I have continued doing our Garden Club days on Thursdays each week although we've pretty much stopped gardening for the last several months and do crafts, just visit, or whatever else the host for that week has planned. In early November, we had a beautiful day with actual fall weather, and my sister-in-law Cari had the brilliant idea for us to all go have a picnic on Monte Sano mountain. It was just gorgeous up there, and the kids had a blast.

I have a great story to tell about something that happened that day after our picnic that I haven't shared with many people because I've been meaning to blog about it for almost two months now....

After lunch, I needed to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some things. We get to Wal-Mart, and I parked where I usually try to park- right next to a grocery cart return area so I can get a cart right away to put Taylor in, and then it's very convenient when unloading groceries as well. Well, I get out and go to put Taylor in a cart with my keys still in hand, and I drop my keys. I then realize that right below this shopping cart is one of those huge drains that they have in the parking lot. At this point, everything is happening in slow motion, and I have so many thoughts running through my mind- "Oh my gosh! My keys are going to fall in the drain..." "No, surely they will land on the bottom of the cart or on one of the drain bars..." However, my fears were confirmed, and my keys fell through every crack there was and straight into this drain. A slight bit of panic starts to immediately set in. How in the world am I gonna get my keys out of the drain?! So, I look down the drain. It's not that deep, and I can actually see my keys. So, I relax a little (but just a little), and I go inside to the customer service desk to see if they have a hanger that I could use to possibly dangle down there with some string to get my keys. Well, all they had was the thick plastic hangers, so that wouldn't work. The lady at the desk went and found a couple of guys that load up the shopping carts and asked them to help me. So, I take them to the drain, and the two of them try pulling on the drain as hard as they can, and it wasn't budging. One of the guys ran to see if he could find something that we could use, and I was thinking that I was going to need to call AAA to see if they could come do something. In the meantime, the other guy continues pulling on the drain and gets it to lift up a little, but it's so heavy that he can't lift it himself. I immediately flag down a random man in the parking lot and ask him to come help us, and thankfully, he did. So, they lifted the drain lid, and the man held it while the Wal-Mart employee jumped down into the drain, grabbed my keys, and saved the day!!! All in all, it probably didn't take more than 20 minutes, but I thought for sure that I was going to be stuck there forever trying to get my keys out of that drain! Thank goodness that Heavenly Father is looking out for me and that there are people out there willing to lend a helping hand!!