Locked Laundry Room

We have Schlage electronic locks on some of the doors of our home (see min 9:45 of "The House" video). Corey originally got these for the kitchen pantries, but he has since gotten locks for his office, our bedroom door, one hall closet and also the laundry room. Yesterday, we had company over, and usually when that happens we'll go make sure our bedroom door is locked, just to try and keep kids and cousins from going in there to hang out and jump on our bed or whatever. But yesterday Corey walked around and locked a few other rooms, including the laundry room, which wouldn't have been a big deal, but I usually don't lock that door so I didn't notice that the battery was low. And, because the battery was low, it would not open when we entered the code. The keypad still lit up, but it didn't beep and also didn't have enough juice to unlock the latch. So I discovered that last night that as I was going to go blog, but my computer was in the laundry room. I felt a little stressed out about it. So instead of reading or blogging, I spent my free time going through the whole tool box and hall closet trying to find the key to the lock. Corey said that he put the keys to open the locks in the hall closet in the tool box or in the hanging door organizer or somewhere. I prayed and looked and also kept trying to shove a hard piece of plastic in the crack to try and release the latch... no luck. We were locked out of the laundry room, and Joseph's laundry (all his underwear) was in there. Oh well, what can we do. 

This morning Joseph and I went on a bike ride (my first time in Corner Canyon since Katharine was born! Yay, it was fun)

After we got back, Joseph was playing piano and I started to try and open the door again. I hoped that after a night to store up the last bit of energy in the battery, that it would unlock? Nope. I tried again with the plastic... nope. I got a metal hanger and bent it and I called Joseph up to test his luck. We tried to see if we could push it under the door and tilt it up to grab the handle/lever from under the door and open it that way? We experimented with my door to see if it was possible, with me inside my room coaching Joseph on how close he was to grabbing the handle. I think it could work in theory, but it would also require a lot of luck, especially to be able to pull it down from underneath the square edges of the door, like using a square pully that doesn't turn. Ugh. What else might work? I cut a strip of fabric from my baby wrap to see if we could push that through the crack and somehow undo the latch? All this time I still wondered where the keys might be... By this time Wes was awake and helping us. He wanted to wash his clothes before he left for FSY this morning, so it was nearing time for him to leave (check it was at 11) and he still hadn't packed cause he his clothes were dirty, and he wanted to wash them. Corey went to Home Depot to see if they have any options for us. Wes watched a few youtube videos about picking a lock and he was working with a paper clip on the handle lock that way while Joseph was still digging under the door with the hanger and fabric. We looked a bit silly. Another idea - maybe we could go in through the window? Wes and I go get the ladder and take it into the back yard...

Yeah, that's not gonna work. We still have 12 feet between the ladder and the window. We can put the ladder on top of a folding table? Yeah that would be safe! Well shoot. Now it was 9 am. I was ready to just take a hammer and drill to the door and bust it down. Corey was back from home depot, they said we need a code that was on the box, but all the boxes were thrown away and are long gone. Corey said we'd have to call a locksmith. Ugh. Again we talked about where the keys could possibly be. We thought maybe the kids found them and took them to play some game and now they're lost forever in the basement. Wes suddenly had a look of "a-ha!" on his face and he went into our bedroom and came out with a set of keys that said "Master, Office, Pantry, Hall" on them. "How did you know where these were?" This looked promising, but there was also no key with "Laundry" on it... We tried each key, no luck. WHY is the ONE KEY we need NOT HERE?!?! Atleaast we know what they look like now! Bad luck though. Corey looked at Wes and started to vent some frustration - "This is the problem! How come YOU knew where these were?!?! If you KIDS wouldn't move stuff around, we PARENTS wouldn't lose our things!" In Wesley's defense, he did find them on Corey's shelf in our room, a place where I often look, I just never noticed the keys. I could also tell it was my handwriting that had labeled the keys, but I have no recollection of doing that... I have Wes take us to our closet - "So where did you find these?" We start to take everything off Corey's shelf and look under his clothes there and as we are moving things around, lo and behold, we find a lone gold key, identical to the set of keys, with the word "Schlage" on it. I hold my breath - quietly take it, holding it up in the air in silence as I walk toward the laundry room door with a prayer in my heart. Corey, Joseph, and Wes were watching as I put it in the lock. It goes in, and... it... TURNS!!! THE DOOR IS UNLOCKED! Miracle - the key is found and the door was opened and we cheered with relief! I laughed at how ridiculous the whole morning had been, but now, yay, problem solved! And we didn't need to spend $100's of dollars for a lock smith or have to repair a broken door or door frame! Joseph went in to get his laundry, and Wesley started a load, and I took a picture to capture the moment. They set of keys and the lone laundry key in my hand, the hanger on the floor, along with the fabric I cut and Joseph's carabiner contraption...

"Glorious day, our prayers have been answered! Meter maid! Meter maid!" - Zootopia, haha. I should have taken a picture of Joseph and Wes both working on the door at the same time, it was quite funny. Joseph looked at the inside of the door to see why his carabiner idea didn't work in opening the door handle, and it was cause my little hanging shoe thing on the back of the door was in the way. It was a smart idea, Joseph, it probably would have worked given a few more hours. Maybe we'll try it again just for fun now. Anyway, so yay, we're thankful that was solved! 

Then I took a quick bath and then I left with Abi at 10 to take her to Ephraim for FSY. It is a 2 hour drive down there, but I remembered my mother's sacrifice of time driving me to Ephraim on many weekends, after I came home to hang out with Corey during college. We checked in, then drove past  Snow Hall, where I lived 25 years ago. It is still there and looked about the same. The rest of the campus looked nice and a little updated. I liked this new campus sign!

It took us a little while to find her room, and after we did, Abi was embarrassed that I went in to nurse Katharine on the couch with the other girls there in the apartment. I didn't know she was embarrassed until after I came back - I left K with Abi while I went to Walmart to buy her some sheets and a pillow - she didn't bring them cause she think she needed that even though it was on the list Corey sent her. When I got back with her linens, I was going to finish feeding Katharine, and Abi said she'd rather I not do it there. "I guess I can go in the car?" I said, thinking of course she wouldn't insist I leave and go out to the hot car, but she said "ok" with relief, and I was a bit irritated, but left. She came out with me and I nursed K while we talked for a minute. "Sorry to embarrass you in front of your friends!" I said. "They're not my friends yet, but first impressions are important..." Blah. Katharine was perfect, ate quickly, and then I was off for a 2 hour drive back home. I stopped off in Provo to pick up Ethan, who was finishing an interview to teach at the MTC. Corey had taken Wesley up to Weber State University for his FSY. We had them go to different places, cause Corey thought it would be good for Abi to see where I went to school, and for Wes to go to Weber cause he might go there cause the have a good architecture program. On my way back, when I passed Santaquin, I considered going by to see if it looked like Iveth and Diego were still living there... they lived close to the freeway there, but then calculated that I didn't have time now that I had to pick up Ethan before my dr appointment. We think they moved to Nebraska, even though we reached out to tell them that we wanted to see them and say goodbye to them before they left. Oh well. So I picked up Ethan, then we went to my last OB dr appointment. All is in order there other than having 30 pounds I want to lose, but yay, things are good. It was a looong day and we are ready for bed now.