Aiden came downstairs pretty upset around 12:30 last night. This is a fairly common occurrence - he typically only makes it no later than 2:30 in his bed. As I do every night when he comes downstairs, I got him milk and then poked my head out the front door to lock my car. I always lock it when I get home, but I'm always paranoid about forgetting to do so, especially considering there have been more than a few break-ins over the last several months (including Brad's car).

This time, however, I couldn't find my keys. They weren't on the hook by the front door, nor in my purse. "Whatever," I thought. "I'll just find them in the morning". Regardless, I dashed out side to double check on the locked doors. Lo and behold, not ONLY was the car unlocked - but the keys were actually IN the ignition! WHAT.THE.WHAT?! I have NEVER in 34 years left the keys in the ignition before! Cue freak out when I find, not only are in the keys in the ignition, they are stuck there. At 12:30 at night.

So, I drag a groggy Brad outside to try and solve the problem. He's unable to remove said keys, so says to just lock it manually, we'll get into the car in the morning with the spare set. "Honey," I respond."I, um, well, don't exactly know where the spare keys are."

Regardless, I tell him to go back to bed, this is my problem, not his - I would figure it out. I pace around and around, looking for the second set of keys, calling Roadside Assistance (as it turns out, when the extended warranty on the car expired a few months ago, I FORGOT to add Roadside Assistance to my car - though, ironically, I remembered to add it to Brad's).

So, let's assess the situation, shall we?

1-Keys are STUCK IN THE IGNITION

2- Second set of keys are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND

3 - It is now ONE IN THE MORNING!

It was at this point that I remembered a few months ago, this same thing happened. I had just gotten a new battery and the contacts weren't completely tight and the keys got stuck in the ignition while I was at the bank. Earlier in the day, I had been vacuuming out the car with the kids. Kids + Cars = EVERY BUTTON BEING PUSHED AND EVERY KNOB BEING TURNED. That car was lit up like the 4th of July! Ergo, the battery was dead as it could be. It was also during this AHA moment that I realized that the second set of keys was in the purse I had changed out last week.

So, inside I go, drag Brad back OUT of bed to jump start my car at 1:00 in the morning. Crisis alleviated. By this point, BOTH kids were now in our bed watching tv.

Oh, and by the way, I had to call my mom to help out this morning. Why? The dead car battery when I tried to leave for work.