Story Telling

Since Shayla did mention the infamous 'potted flower' incident, I figured it may be time to share a little story.

As I've mentioned before, I have never been good at keeping plants alive. Maybe it comes from growing up in Seattle where plants take little or no maintenance and still look gorgeous. Or at least they stay alive. Sometimes, a little TOO alive -- we raked A LOT of leaves, and mowed A LOT of grass.

Anyways, the first summer Adam and I managed apartments in Rexburg we had Sunbirds. They are the older folks who come from Arizona to escape the heat. We really loved them -- most of the time. As a courtesy we ordered a potted plant of flowers for each apartment and placed them outside their doors. They made the courtyard really pretty, I'll give you that, but that still doesn't make me a 'plant person'. And mine just happened to be positioned under the staircase with absolutely no sunlight at any point in the day. And NO, I did not water it, I had better things to do. Most of the time I just forgot. Did I mention I was pregnant with Lucy at the time?

Several Sunbirds mentioned to me lightly that I should take care of my plant. I'd smile and say, 'I know, I know' and one even watered it for me a few times. I didn't think I was hurting anyone's feelings, like I said, I just didn't care. Apparently, I was mistaken.

One afternoon, a Sunbird comes in looking like I just kidnapped her cat. She points her finger at me and says,

"YOU have GOT to start taking care of that PLANT! How do you expect to take care of that BABY if you can't even take care of a PLANT!"

I was a little shocked. Like I said, it wasn't personal, I wasn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings. But little did I know that the plant was a part of something special. To this day, I dont' know what, but I had obviously wronged the society which is the Sunbirds.

I think I just smiled and held my breath to keep myself from spitting out some sarcastic remark which I'd become famous for while in my mind reciting the following zingers:

"Really? Because if you can't tell the difference between a baby and a plant, who's the bad mother, huh? HUH?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that the prerequisite to motherhood was fostering flowers. Boy, I could've used that knowledge 6 months ago."

"OOOOHHHH. It's probably just because I didn't name the plant. You don't really feel a connection until you name it. I'll make sure and remember to do that with the baby."

But no, friends. I held my tongue. Then I recited the incident to Adam when he got home. He went to the plant, took it down -- in front of all the Sunbrids-- and threw it in the trash. He decided that it wasn't worth people attacking my mothering skills. I can't imagine the critisism we must've recieved for that move.

We did enjoy the Sunbirds, that was only one of a few incidents that were unpleasant. And they were very sweet about the baby who came the day after they left. I know they were sad that they couldn't see her, but many sent cards and they gave us almost $200 which was well needed. We have good memories, but we do still have a running joke about 'the plant incident'.