When Life Throws You Lemons...

There are days that just do not go your way. It is as if the day conspires against you and shouts "Hey, see all of your smiles. Now watch them slowly disappear." Ok, that is dramatic, but my Sunday was laughably frustrating.

Sunday started out lovely. We woke up at the Elms Hotel after a day of relaxation, massages, and The Grotto experience (for my non-midwest folks, check out the digs here. pretty legit :)). How can your day start out on the wrong foot after you spent the previous day exfoliating with rosemary mint bath salts?! It can't. The answer is that it simply cannot start out in any manner other than great.

 Elms hotel lobby- old school.

Old school hotel meets new school spa. 

So in the spirit of waking up on the right foot, I called for a friendly competition called "Who Can Get Ready and Pack Up Faster?" (To be honest, this was just my way of getting Grant out the door faster than normal. He is more of a morning person than I am, but man does he dilly dally. I am up, ready, and out the door faster than you can wash your face. That is probably due to the fact that I do not wash my face. But, rest assured, I do brush my teeth). It was pretty much a tie, but I can give him the win for a confidence boost. Either way, we were in great spirits.

Grant and I doing as the locals do at a small town cafe. Note: this took place on Saturday.

We even made up our own rules for shuffleboard. If anyone actually knows how to play, please let me know. Note: this took place on Saturday.

 One might ask, what causes your spirit to drop after such a great weekend? Let me tell you...

1. Eventually, you have to pay the bill for the spa treatments and hotel stay. Blech! Can someone say sticker shock? You planned and calculated the getaway, yet it still shocked you somehow. emotional state: confused and trying to calculate what you thought a nice weekend away was going to cost... 
2. As soon as you hand over your credit card, your husband says he cannot find your car keys. emotional state: still confused over the price and dismissive over the lost keys because surely they are not lost
3. You search the hotel room, your luggage, and the parking lot (three times) and still no luck. emotional state: frustrated, but still amicable
4.  Your phone dies and the charger is locked inside of your car. emotional state: still frustrated about the keys, and now a little annoyed because your phone (healthifully or not) can no longer provide distraction when you are frustrated
5. Your husband calls his parents to go to your house, get your spare keys, and come pick your sad butts up. emotional state: frustrated level is dropping, relief and thankful that husband's parents are gracious people
6.  You cancel your afternoon plans because you are stranded in nowheresville, MO. emotional state: becoming complacent with the bad luck and desperately needing the walk that was just canceled
7. Your husband's phone dies. emotional state: eh, what's new?
8. When your husband's parents arrive with keys, it turns out to be the wrong keys. emotional state: delirious. now the situation is hilarious and everyone is bonding over the ridiculousness
9. You drive home to get the right keys. You drive back to get the car. You drive home again. 3 hours later.... emotional state: anything but relaxed- all relaxation from the getaway is negated by the key mishap. 

It really is laughable at this point. Obviously worse things can happen. And honestly, we kept pretty positive attitudes about the situation until midway through action #9. We kiiiiinda fell apart there for a bit. Which is a little bit pathetic because I was actually and legitimately trying to put a good spin on the day. At every turn, I tried to brush it off. But dang, it kept eating at me.

When both of your phones are out of power, you use the hotel phone and then laugh hysterically at the situation. 
 
When life throws you lemons, or shakes up your plans, how do you react?

I so much wanted to laugh it off at every point and just enjoy the ride. Why was it so hard to do that? Maybe certain personalities have an easier time letting go of expectations. I am not sure. But days like today remind me that I am not in control and clinging to my plans does no good. There was literally nothing I could do to make the keys appear.

The end of the weekend certainly did not go as planned or expected. But besides providing us with an eventful story, it reminds me that flexibility is a) not my strong-suit and b) such an assest. God definitely used the afternoon to stretch and grow me.

In the meantime, while I learn how to have a good attitude when life doesn't go as planned, feel free to shoot suggestions for how you keep your cool when life throws you lemons!

Sidenote: I hope someone finds and enjoys my cute little Rainbow sandal keychain. May it bring you as much joy as it did for me.