The Great Iron Incident of 2004

Today is going to be quite a marathon day. No. I'm not running any kind of real race. Ha. Haha. I don't run anymore unless someone is chasing me. Even then, I'm thinking I'd probably just let them catch me and be done with it.


It's just one of those days where a lot of things need to be accomplished. So of course, I'm sitting here at my computer at 6am. Soon, I'll be heading to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. I'm a little afraid to go in there and make any noise because so far, no one else is awake and I'd like to keep it that way.


I'm back with my coffee. Mission mostly accomplished. One sleepy child woke up but quietly parked herself in front of the tv. She's only interrupted my typing twice so far.


Today's three important missions include: cooking Guatemalan food at our house for the all Nations Festival tomorrow, Riley's baseball and then all the 'prom stuff'. Have I mentioned lately that I'm not a fan of prom? But Brittney is excited so I'm trying to be excited too.


I'll post lots of pictures of her all dressed up because it seems to be required. because everyone LOVES scrolling through all those prom pictures other people's kids. because she will look beautiful and I'll be proud of her.


Since I mentioned it the other day and I don't think I've ever written about it, The Great Iron Incident is as follows:


I was scheduled to graduate from SDSU and we were going to have a big party afterwards at our house following commencement. At some point before the ceremony, Taylor, who was about 21 months old, somehow managed to open the door to our hall closet, maneuver herself up the shelves and reach the second highest shelf. I don't know if it was her original intention or if she was just struck with a grand idea after she arrived at that height, but either way she decided to grab the box with the iron. Which was still in it's original box because even then I only ironed when it was completely necessary. And I can pass off a lot as not really being necessary!!! I think it only came out of the box once a year during VBS when the kids brought home those darn adorable iron-on decals for their shirts. At that point, I was still able to be peer-pressured into taking the time to iron them on so that they weren't the only kids not wearing the theme shirts. Peer pressure has little effect on me anymore. So long, iron-on decals!!! Hello sad kids!!! FYI: Turns out they didn't really care anyway.


I totally digress. It's because I've been typing instead of drinking my coffee. I'd better get back on task because I've already had another kid poke his head in the office door so my time is limited. Just saw a third kid. Plus, people are coming over at 9am to help cook. Better finish my story. Have you ever noticed that my actual stories aren't really that good? I just take forever to tell them. I continue to be surprised that anyone reads these at all.


So back to the original story. Tiny Taylor drags the iron-in-a-box all the way downstairs. It's a tribute to our wonderful parenting that no one noticed the two year old with an iron. We can only guess at the thoughts running through her cute little brain at that point. I think she wanted to iron like mom. Someone should've let her know that's not really what I do!!!


She managed to get the iron out of the box, plugged it in and set it face down on the carpet.


Some time later, I think I smell something burning. I proceed around the house doing the smell test. You know, wandering around sniffing everywhere, trying to figure out what the smell is and where it's coming from.


I finally discovered the iron downstairs. I'm honestly shocked that it didn't start a fire. The iron was on it's hottest setting and had been there awhile. When I quickly picked it up, I discovered an entirely melted iron-shape that went all the way down to the cement! I doused the carpet with water and then watched it carefully for a while to make sure it wasn't still smoldering. I also may or may not have screamed at the offending toddler because I was mad about the hole and scared about the possible fire.


Looking back, I probably should've been more concerned about Taylor getting burned but all I could think about was that we were having people over for the party and now we had a big hole in our nice carpet. Ironically, it wouldn't even faze me now. I'm not sure if that's because I'm a better mom and more concerned with the big picture or I've just been through so much worse than a large hole in the carpet or I don't really care what anyone thinks anymore.


I ended up buying a rug to put over the spot and eventually forgot about it...........until we sold our house. Guess our memory is someone else's problem now.


Thus concludes the telling of "The Great Iron Incident of 2004".
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I'm off to mediate a fight going on in the kitchen!