"Do you need some help?!"

The weather was so warm and beautiful today ( got up to 70 degrees!) that this afternoon when the girls woke up I decided to take them for another long walk to a park down the street from our house.

I put on warm up shorts and flip flops (because it was so warm!), loaded the girls in the stroller and started on our way.

It was only about a ten minute walk to the park, the sun was shining, no wind-perfectness.

"I love today, it's perfect" I couldn't help from saying to myself over and over again on our walk.

I can hear the birds singing.
I'm watching the girls laugh and bounce around in the stroller as we make our way,
"Thank you God for this perfect day!" I thought.

Almost there-we go around a corner, the shoppette is across the street from me, we're on our final stretch of side walk...

Oh, a little mud up ahead I can see.

No worries, doesn't look like a lot, I'll just push on through.

Why, at that moment, it didn't occur to me to go around, I'm not sure.
Even I surprise myself at how retarded I can be sometimes.
But, like I said, it didn't look like a lot of mud....

...so there I go, I just push the stroller right on into it, wearing my flip flops.
I quickly realized that this was a really bad idea.
I was stuck.
Like stuck stuck,
could. not. move.
My flip flopped feet had immediately sunk into the mud along with the four wheels on the stroller.
Mud is a tricky little thing-did I mention it didn't look like a lot.
Yeah, I was way wrong on that one.

I had quickly and unwantedly come across one of those moments where you're looking around and praying to God that no one is watching you.
Because it's that embarrassing.

Why didn't I just go around?

So there I am-still stuck, trying frantically to pull my feet out of the mud while simultaneously trying to push 70 lbs. worth of cargo through this trap.
I inch my way in front of the stroller, feet still buried, and try to pull it through hoping that will do the trick...
...and you know how you were hoping that no one could see you....
well, I looked so pathetic that not only did somebody see me, this man stopped his car in the middle of the road, didn't bother to pull over, stretched the top half of his body out his window and asked me,
"Do you need some help?!!" in a very concerned sounding voice.

Oh my gosh! Somebody actually stopped!
Mortified!
Mortified because I am stuck in mud.
And of course the faster I try to move the slower I go.

"Um, I think I got it", I say back to him as I finally pull my feet out, minus my flip flops, and frantically make one last effort to dislodge us.

That didn't deter him-he still jumped out of his car, on some kind of rescue mission,
"Are you sure you don't need a hand?!" he said walking towards me.

I freed us..."No, we're good, but thanks!"
I push the stroller away, flip flops in hand, feet, calves and hands covered in mud and think to myself,

"this could of all been avoided if I had just gone around."