Whoops!

I often hear or read of people who have "Aha!" moments. Those moments of realization where everything becomes right with the world. I, on the other hand, tend to have more of the "Whoops!" moments than the "Aha!" moments. The whoops moments do tend to stay ingrained in your brain as well, so that when another whoops moment occurs, you're quickly reminded that you've done these types of things before and you obviously didn't learn from them. I've had MANY but there are 2 that have stayed with me for a LONG time...just to keep me humble I guess.

The first was in 6th grade. It was P.E. class and there was a boy who was the object of my affection (and had been since kindergarten) sitting close by. He was obviously not giving me enough attention, so in order to increase his awareness of me I thought I would be my typical funny self and win some points. My best friend at the time was on floor level (we were in the bleachers) talking with our coach. I ran down the steps and shanked her like there's no tomorrow. (For those not familiar with "shanking", just know she was left in her skivvy drawers since I'd pulled down her shorts...in front of the ENTIRE 6th grade). Immediately, I was overcome with a "Whoops!" moment realization. I don't know if it was the sprints from the other 3 coaches coming toward me, the scream and utter disbelief from my (former) best friend, or the look of "That was so uncool" by the boy of my affection. Or maybe all 3 put together. Either way, a definite whoops.

Fast forward to high school (of which there were COUNTLESS whoops's with this next individual). Again, having to do with the boy of my affection - this time a different one, and this time more of an adult...ok, a teacher at my school. But not my teacher, so that makes it ok. Right. I had arrived to school early and was in the cafeteria where we had to stay before the bell rings. I was sitting with my friends when my inner radar went off and I saw the Coach walking through the cafeteria. Thinking I would be funny (I need to stop with the humor - it obviously gets me in trouble), I jumped up and raced over to him and was going to act like I was scaring him by jumping out. Not so much. I did jump out. I did attempt to scare him. In the process, I smacked his coffee out of his hands and all over his clothes, thus adding some burn to his already fired-up self. Whoops.

Today I had another one. You would think I grew out of these, but not so much. The kiddos and I were outside in the 412 degree heat when I thought it would be a good idea to fill up their stand-up water box (a sand box I choose not to put sand in). I grabbed the hose from the front of the house and screwed it in to the backyard nozzle. It still had a sprinkler attached to it so I sneakily placed the sprinkler right next to the kids so they would get sprayed when I turned the water on (funny I thought...there I go trying to throw humor to a future whoops situation). I sneak back, turn the water on full blast therefore drinching the kids. I hear screams like I've never heard and I start laughing. Then it looks like they're screaming in pain and they start running around the back yard (out of the sprinkler) still screaming (and now in tears). What in the world? I go to feel the water thinking it must be made of nails and HOLY COW the water was about 412 degrees itself. The hose had been sitting in the sun for a good week, baking the idle water inside, and that's the water I chose to drench the kids with. Ummmm, yes. Quite the whoops situation. Thankfully, all recovered after a good dousing of cold water. So don't turn me in.