I have a Chewbacca T-shirt

Everyone on the globe has by now seen Candace Payne’s hilarious Chewbacca video.  I mean it’s like beyond viral.  And I’m so happy for her because my goodness she was just sharing her good time with the whole world.  And what is not to love about seeing a mom laugh hysterically who is wearing a Chewbacca mask while sitting in her car ALONE.

So many people have sent me the video and said she and I should go on the road and WOULDN’T THAT BE FUN?!  My children keep telling me “she is YOU Mom” which I take as a compliment and I hope they mean it that way.  :)

One night this year we were sitting around the dinner table and the kids started joking about what they would say at Bill’s or my funeral.  I realize that sounds like a really downer topic but it was actually very funny.  For Bill the kids had all these wonderfully wise things that he says a lot such as “Good is the enemy of great”, “Practice like you play”, etc.  Good solid stuff.

Of course I wanted to know what they would say about me. Jacob immediately said what they would most remember me saying was: “Have you seen my keys? Anyone seen my phone?”.  Mercy.  I laughed my head off.  Then Brittany said “mom, the thing you say the most is that we need to have a good belly laugh every day”.  Perfect.  I hope and pray they remember a home filled with laughter.  Plus all the other wise things Bill taught them.

And make no mistake, belly laughs are VERY important.

Not too long ago I belly laughed over this …

Back in February Bill and I hosted 8th grade boys for our Disciple Now weekend.  It was SO FUN.  We had a GREAT college leader that filled the boys with Scripture and wisdom from the book of James and I got to feed their tummies.  On Saturday afternoon we went to do our service project which was cleaning/painting/landscaping, etc. at an apartment complex where many refugees who go to our church live.  8th grade boys were assigned to paint the curbs red.  You know, the curbs so the fire trucks know where to stop.

For reasons that will never be clear to me, instead of my mind hearing the word “curbs”, I heard the word “bumps”.  As in “speed bumps”.  I checked with the apartment manager and asked how to direct the cars around the speed bumps while we painted them RED,  What should have been my first clue that I was horribly mistaken was when she said “I didn’t know we were painting speed bumps”.  I assured her that was our assignment, yes ma’am.  She said she would have someone come over with some  orange caution cones but that we would just have to direct people around the painters.

We got busy and we painted the first set of speed bumps as red as red can be.  Cars were literally driving over them taking their chances that paint would splash up on their car and not minding that paint was going to get on their tires.  As soon as they drove over the speed bumps we’d touch up the marks they had just left.  We were HARD WORKERS painting those RED speed bumps …. yes we were.

One of the older youths was assigned to take pictures and film a video of all the work being done.  When he came to film us he said “Mrs. Baerg, I don’t think red speed bumps are a thing”.

STILL OBLIVIOUS to how crazy I was I assured him that we were assigned to paint the speed bumps red. He didn’t back down however and said “Mrs. Baerg, I think those are illegal”.  I said I was sure they were not. Relentless he said, “Are you sure you weren’t supposed to paint the curbs red?  Like for the fire trucks?”. And while he said this he pointed to a RED curb with peeling paint.  It was at THAT VERY MOMENT I realized my mistake.  CURBS, NOT SPEED BUMPS. ‘DOH. I couldn’t even believe it.  I laughed ten times harder than Chewbacca mom and all those 8th grade boys laughed along with me.

I tracked down the apartment security officer because I needed to know if it was illegal.  I was all set to run to Lowe’s and buy yellow paint since apparently that is the color of choice for speed bumps everywhere. He assured me that I wasn’t going to be ticketed and wasn’t breaking the law because the speed bumps were on private property.  That was a relief!

The next walk of shame I had to make was to the apartment manager’s office to tell her of my unfortunate mix up.  She came and saw red speed bumps and said she actually liked them because they “matched the color of the buildings”.  Since it was the first set of speed bumps at the gate she and I discussed how it was a “focal point”. Surely it made a statement.  I figured if those apartment’s were on “Fixer Upper” Jojo herself would probably want the speed bumps painted red.

And just in case you were wondering where Bill was when this incident occurred, you were right to be concerned. This never would have happened if Bill had been involved.  For starters when he hears the word curb, his mind doesn’t immediately translate it to speed bumps  … and that’s a good thing.  No, Bill had another commitment during the afternoon.  When he arrived and saw what I had done, he did what he always does. He laughed and said “How do these things always happen to you?”

And I gave the only answer I know to give … “I don’t know, I just don’t know.  But isn’t it so funny?”

And then I had a good belly laugh.  I bet Chewbacca mom would have too.