The One Where the Mattress Fell off the Trailer

*Updated to add that when I was telling this story to our friends, they were all dying laughing and not sympathetic at ALL...because, first, it's US...and this kind of stuff would happen to us. And secondly, they were laughing because they know JIM, who admits that he's wound up tighter than a drum most days...and they could just imagine how he was acting/reacting. Trust me, my friends, he did not disappoint. And, one of our former sweet friends thought this was so funny that she videoed her husband laughing his head off about the whole thing...and then she SENT THE VIDEO TO US. Their friendship is now dead to me (JUSSSST KIDDING!).

Just gonna go ahead and tell you now...start humming the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies...or maybe the one from the movie, "Deliverance."

Today was Logan's moving day, and we loaded up Logan's car, my Burb AND the trailer...and headed out.

It was seriously the most ghetto thing you have ever seen.

The only thing of value on the trailer was the sentiment of some of the items, mainly my grandmother's headboard and her chest-of-drawers. It might not seem like what you would send with a boy going off to college, but we thought, "hey...can't hurt it, right? It's already OLD."

We hadn't been on the road an hour when Jim, looking in the rear-view mirror, goes, "oh, noooo...someone just lost a mattress."

Followed by, 'OHHH NOOO...WE JUST LOST OUR MATTRESS!"

We quickly pulled to the side of the HIGHWAY, and Jim jumped out to check out the situation. I sat in the car with Joshua and silently prayed for Jim's safety.

Haven't y'all heard about people who get out to change a tire, or stop to check on someone on the side of the road...and then they are hit by a car that veers onto the shoulder?

I called Clark because he and Logan were several miles behind us. I told him that DAD said we were going to turn around and try to find that mattress (because, apparently, we are going to go back to find a mattress that fell off a TRAILER...and is lying in the ROAD or somewhere, we don't know...and we will put our lives in danger while we run out onto a state highway, to retrieve a beaten up, filthy dirty mattress...so that our SON can sleep on it. Someone in my car is seriously crazy!)...but for them to just keep going and we would see them there. And then I hung up.

And then I LOOKED up...and driving past us, at 70-plus mph, is a lady with a mattress attached to the back of her car.

OUR mattress.

(paddle faster...I hear banjos...)

She sees us and quickly gets off the road in front of us (and this whole time cars are just whizzing by us and I am scared to death). Jim walks over to check on her and she said, "I just ran over a mattress...is it yours?" And, Jim said (HE SAID THAT HE SAID THIS)... "it might be...I just lost a mattress off the back of my trailer."

HELLOOOO?

It MIGHT be?

Because you know what is a problem on Arkansas highways? Deer.

Deer...and recliners. Not mattresses.

OH...my word.

Well, Jim got the mattress cut out from under her car and she took off...but not before getting our name and number!

And we continued on our trip...figuring up that we will now only have approximately 1 1/2 hours with Logan when we get there, because Clark has to be back here for a late football practice.

And we need a mattress...like...FAST!

Logan is sharing a house this year with his friend, Randy, from school. We got there and unloaded everything quickly. While the boys and I are unpacking and arranging and organizing...Jim takes off to a store and 30 minutes later, comes in with a mattress.

And all is well, and we got everything done in the time allotted. Not the amount of time with Logan that I wanted, but I was thankful that we did get everything done that we wanted to do.

It wasn't our most ratchet move ever...we've had our share...but it ranks right up there. Jim's family comes from a long line of people-who-lose-furniture-and-other-crap-off-of-trailers-or-out-of-the-back-of-pickups.

A long line.

Jim' family likes to say, "po' folks have po' ways..." Truer words were never spoken.

Jim also said that those items we took to Logan today? They are never to come back here...EVER.

So...my heart hurts, my head hurts and my back hurts...but I am so thankful for God's protection today for our family and those around us. We had some laughs and a few tears, but things could have been so much worse with our mattress deal...Mattress-gate 2013. We are very thankful it didn't cause an accident.

And all of the commotion of the morning did distract me from being quite as sad...because, we honestly drove in silence for over 30 minutes after it happened...and then we were all able to laugh about it.

School starts for Logan...AND Clark...on Monday.

"...spread Your protection over them, that all who love Your name may be filled with joy..." Proverbs 5:11