Shocking the welcome wagon

Tonight was a bit of a crazy night. I finally got some things cleared up with my work schedule so that I could finish booking our wedding and East Coast trips. I also had some other paperwork I was dealing with, and so I sat down to do that stuff while Jared was making dinner. Somewhere along the way Jared asked me to put in some tater tots while he worked on the rest of dinner. I put them in and set a timer to go off when they were done.

Then I went back to booking flights. Through a sequence of annoying events which I won't detail here, I accidentally booked a flight in my name which needed to be in Jared's name. I was pretty ticked off about this and Jared came over to investigate what was going on. He got on the phone with JetBlue and got it sorted out, free of charge. In the meantime, though, smoke started billowing out of the oven. Oops. Apparently neither of us had heard the kitchen timer go off. Jared rushed in to deal with the problem, but just then his phone rang. So he was wrangling burning tots with one hand and holding his cell with the other hand.

He finally handed the phone to me, and just then someone walked up to our open door. You've guessed it -- it was a nice lady from the ward coming to (finally) welcome us. Well, we were quite a sight. First of all, I had my living room bed (air mattress) and sleeping bag out in plain sight. Jared had immediately gotten into the shower when he got home from work, but he had wadded up his dirty slacks and underwear on a dining room chair -- again, in full view of the front door. Smoke was billowing out everywhere.

Anyway, I was on the phone so Jared chatted with the lady for a few minutes before she departed. Afterward, Jared went outside to -- and here is where I am rendered speechless -- retrieve the charred tots he had tossed out the kitchen window moments before her arrival. Yes, there were charred tater tots on the ground in front of our apartment when this woman arrived. I do not understand how this was a better option than tossing them into the sink, but whatever.

I go to great lengths to pick up the house each and every evening, and no one ever comes by to observe my efforts. So in a moment of complete and utter chaos complete with burned food items on the porch, of course someone wanders in. I'm sure she was speechless. I know I am.