So, when I was painting one of the murals at the church, our associate Pastor, TyLacey said to me, "When Josh and I have a baby someday, you'll come over and paint this exact same mural in the new nursery, won't you?" Big grin on her face the whole time. "Ty, you don't make enough money for this mural..." Big grin on my face.
So several months go by, and who should become pregnant with her first child? I thought about it and approached her with the idea. She and Josh were totally up for it, and suggested that I do it while they were away on vacation for ten days with friends. Ten days? No problem, I thought. I've got the whole house to myself, no job to worry about scheduling around, no problem. We discussed the theme, mostly revolving around animals - you know, jungle, Noah's ark, even the Australian Outback came up - until I pointed out that most of the animals we could come up with were either brown or gray. We thought about it for a while, and came up with the Garden of Eden - that way, I could put animals from Australia, Africa and America all together. No naked people, though - this mural was only early into the sixth day of creation. :)
Let me tell you right now that I was completely delusional. By the time their vacation rolled around, I was working in a temp position (at GHC, mind you...), and it got extended (surprise) - into the vacation week! Not wanting to make them hurt at GHC, I said I'd work a little to help compensate, but that I'd already committed to this mural. I don't know HOW I thought it was all going to happen - evidently I think I'm Superwoman.
So anyway, I'm working like a crazy person, trying to get the mural done by the time Ty and Josh get home. Each day at work is interesting, at least - my co-workers all wanted to see the painting process I'd made each day. Add into that the difficulty of actually getting into the house (wrote down the wrong code to the garage door); spilling tea all over all my painting clothes, so all I had to work in were high heels and a skirt/blouse combo; their refrigerator/freezer lost power, so I had to clean out the melted everything; a friend's 7-year-old's birthday party; unexpected family from California came for an over-nighter; and they had major construction on their street, blocking everywhere, so even getting to the house could be a challenge.
One day, early in the process, one of my co-workers commented on the number of animals I was painting, and asked how many there were. I had to pause and count - I'd never actually counted - I just kept adding them to the room until it looked right. That should have been my first clue. I counted 21... Yeah, that's how I reacted when I realized it, too. Oh yeah - add to that a palm tree doubling as a growth chart, a big tree for a monkey to hang from, various branches for the koala and owl, and sundry grasses and leaves for the elephant, zebra and giraffe to hide behind. There was also a lion, a lamb, a hummingbird, a mouse, a frog, a butterfly, a turtle, a flamingo, a bluebird, and Duchesa (yes, our dog - she'll be the little guy's best friend now). Finally, there was an extra-special addition of the Green Bay Packers "G" emblem sitting in the bamboo with the panda.
You've got to know Josh to know that this was an great way to find myself on his bad side. (Or at least on his "sister-brother" side...) You see, Josh is an avid Minnesota Vikings fan. Vikings. Minnesota. Not Packers. Josh will proudly wear a purple Vikings jersey into church on crucial Packer vs. Vikings game days. The man has no fear. I wouldn't have thought of adding the emblem, except that in our pre-nursery meetings, Josh had been absolutely adamant that there should be NO combination of green and gold anywhere. Not even pastel yellow and pastel green. (Nevermind that they painted the room yellow, and grass is definitely green, but whatever...) He never said that I couldn't paint a white G. Never. I listened very carefully.
So, yeah - on the day before they're to come home, I'm fully starting to recognize the reality of my time/painting ratio (as in, let's get up before the sun, maybe there's some way I can possibly get this done before 9pm...), Ty calls to say they're coming home 5 hours early - at 4:00. My mind scrambles. (Could have been lack of sleep, but for sake of argument, let's say it's because it was me thinking frantically.) By this point all the animals were done - it was all the finishing touches (like having trees to put them in) that needed to be done. Plus I needed to clear coat the whole thing - three times. It was at that point that I realized even if I was Superwoman, paint still needed time to dry, and that the mural was not going to be done by the time they got home. I picked the things I thought would make it look most complete, and got started.
It 12:00, Ty called to say that Josh wanted her to tell me, "That we're about an hour away..." What?!! "...but I won't do that to you. We're actually just leaving Chicago." After my momentary heart-stop, I said, "Okay," like that was totally fine, and went into hyper-mode. When she called again at 3:00 to say they were an hour out, I had come to the realization, and accepted, that I really, truly wasn't going to be finished. I concentrated on cleaning the room up, putting away my tools and paint, and vacuuming up all the dust. I sat down for a few moments with a Haagen-Daaz ice cream bar, checked the batteries in my video camera, and waited for my friends to return home.
At almost 4:00 on the dot, Josh and Ty walked in the door, with pregnant Ty hollering "Hello!" and racing to the bathroom. Evidently, bouncy baby boys do that to a bladder.... They greeted me with a warm hug, let me start the video camera, and proceeded down the hall for the moment I'd been working toward for the last ten days...
Me: "Alright, what are you guys doing?"
Josh: "We are coming home from vacation, and we are coming into the baby's - WOAH!"
So went the "oohs" and "ahs" for quite some time. I won't bore you with the whole thing, but suffice to say that they were VERY pleased, and their reactions were exactly what I had hoped for. Including when Josh found the G. He found it in less than a minute, "What?! No! No! What?! Lindsay! Oh!" There was a moment where he just looked completely baffled before he popped off with, "Lindsay, I TRUSTED you!" Ty laughed so hard, I thought she would need to hit the restroom again, but she just clapped her hands in glee and continued to check out the room. Josh dismissed the G and joined her. We had a great afternoon, talking through the week, both mine and theirs, with them exclaiming over the room several more times.
Ultimately, I spent a few more days in the room (I told you I was delusional about the time it would take, right?), and was even able to sit down with my friends for a couple of meals. It was a fantastic experience that I will treasure for a lifetime. And I'm not doing it again... at least, for a little while. I need some sleep!
