Our favorite message from the last General Conference was by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin entitled "Come What May and Love It." In it, he stressed the importance of laughing at ourselves when silly and embarassing things happen to us. We've been reminding the kids of that ever since and we're working on laughing at our own mistakes as well. Good thing. Prepare yourself for for a belly laugh! Here's what happened:
Yesterday was Sunday. I was giving a talk in church that day so I was a little bit stressed about that as I was running around trying to gather things together and pack the diaper bag and get the kids all ready to go. I was trying on some different shoes to see which I liked better when the phone rang. It was Kalen who was already at church for his early meetings. He was calling to ask me to bring him a couple of things that he'd left and reminding me that the roads were really slippery so to make sure we left early enough to get to church on time. Once I got off the phone I had to speed things up a bit so that we could get out the door on time. I had a funny feeling that I was forgetting something, but I double-checked to make sure that I had my talk with me and the things Kalen had needed, so I knew that the most important thing was taken care of and figured anything else was probably no big deal.
We arrived at church in plenty of time--miraculous, I know. We got all settled in. I congratulated myself on not feeling very nervous for my talk. I had prepared well and felt like I had things under control. We went through the opening hymn and prayer, announcements and the sacrament. I was the first speaker. I walked up confidently with maybe just a few butterflies and gave my talk. I felt like it went really well. I finished up and went back to my seat feeling relieved and happy that I'd made it through yet another experience that throws me outside of my comfort zone. I leaned down to put my materials back into my church bag and caught sight of one of my shoes. "That's funny," I thought. "I was sure I'd decided to go with the other pair." I looked at my other foot..."Oh...my...gosh!!!" Here is what I saw:
Mortified doesn't even begin to cover what I felt! How in the name of Payless had I managed to not notice such an obvious difference??? The only thing they had in common were that they were both black and about the same height. One was a square-toed chunky heeled shoe and the other was a pointy-toed spiky-heeled shoe. I quickly contemplated my options: Drive back to Albion during sunday school and try to get back in time for Relief Society. Most likely I wouldn't make it with the roads being so bad. Plant myself right where I was and not move until church was over and everyone had gone home. That probably wouldn't work because the men would realize that I was slightly out of place during their priesthood meeting, plus, being that I am in the Relief Society presidency, I'm expected to sit up front at the beginning of that meeting. Then my thoughts were interrupted by Spencer who had a pretty obvious diaper issue that I knew I would not be able to ignore. I had to go out. I tried to use him as a shield as I walked out. And back in again when we were through. After the meeting Kalen came to tell me what a great job I had done on the talk. I showed him my dilemma. He laughed. Really hard. I did too, in between waves of wishing the electricity would fail and we'd all be plunged into complete darkness so the rest of church would be cancelled. Then I showed Mom. She looked puzzled and asked "what's that about?" I thought about saying I'd lost a bet so I was doing this on purpose. I didn't. She laughed. I made it though Sunday school by keeping my church bag covering one of my feet. When it was time for Relief Society, I held my bag as low as possible as I walked really quickly to the room and when I sat up front, I put it on my foot again. I was SO thankful that I wasn't conducting the meeting! I thought about just fessing up and giving everyone a huge laugh but I just wasn't quite ready to do that yet. It'll be better now, after the fact to tell it and not have to endure everyone looking at my feet for the rest of the meetings. But the more I looked at them the more hilarious it got. Everytime I saw my feet, I'd start chuckling again. After church I showed the kids, who all cackled hysterically. (Except Lynnsey who looked like she could understand my mortification, and only laughed when she saw that I thought it was so funny). After I took the picture and saw it on the camera, it just seemed more funny. So, even though this now officially ranks right up there in my list of most embarassing moments, I am sharing it with you. Are you laughing? I still am.
12 comments:
YES! I am laughing. I just might use that in a talk someday. Do I have your permission?. That is hysterical. The way that you able to laugh at your situation is great Amy. You have such a great attitude.
Yes, I am laughing too. I did that once but the shoes were exactly the same except one was dark brown and one was black. And, I only live about 30 seconds from our church building.
Pretty funny!
Thanks for a good laugh! I've done that before but my shoes were slightly more similar. (Still embarrassing, though).
I think if anyone had noticed they would have understood totally. You have five kids, it's to be expected!
To funny! I love it! I think you should have conducted and then pointed it out to everyone so they could have a good laugh! Thats great!
Amy I laughed so hard that I cried. You make it funnier the way you tell it too!!! You are such a great story teller.
My husband's sister has things like this happen to her quite often. It's kindof sad. One Sunday during sacrament meeting her son was playing with the drawstring on her skirt. She later got up to take him out of the meeting and felt something swishing around her ankles. She was so glad she had not forgotten her slip that day!!
ha ha. I'm still laughing at your story - it is awesome!!!!!
OH And the PICTURE makes it even BETTER!!!!!
I laughed so hard, I had the puppies come in and look at me funny!!! The picture makes it funnier, I have to agree to that!! I would have been laughing at myself hard enough that I would have been asked what was so funny, I would have ended up telling everyone about it in one form or another. I wouldn't have thought to put a bag in front of me, that's a good cover!!
I am so glad you were brave enough to share that! I have tears running down my face right now. It's a nice way to start the day. I think I'd have just taken them off, put them in my bag and told people my feet hurt... That is so funny!
Okay, so I just shared this with Derek and I laughed so hard, I could hardly read. I shall remember you the next time I do something utterly embarrassing, and I shall try to laugh and be sure to share.
Oh, Amy, thank you so much for sharing that story. I had a great laugh. In fact, I'm still having a great laugh.
I was thinking along the same lines as Jenn, I probably would have just taken my shoes off.
P.S. It's probably a good thing you didn't notice until after you were done speaking.
I had to come back and read it again and to tell a story I remembered.
I don't know exactly when this happened, but I think it was while Ray and I were engaged. I was sitting by Ray during Sacrament Meeting when all of a sudden he started to laugh. I looked at him and he pointed at his boots. At the time he had two pairs of lace-up cowboy boots, one all brown, the other brown and black. He had one of each on. I started to laugh. Then I continued to laugh every time I noticed his feet throughout the rest of church. It's really hard to be reverent in a situation like that.
When I asked Ray if he remembered he denied it ever happening.
I actually did think of taking off my shoes but I had a big hole in one toe of my nylons and thought that might be noticeable too. I guess I could have just taken those off as well...I'm just glad it's over with!
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