forget...and forgive

I really hate forgetting things. And anyone who knows me well, knows I forget a lot of things. My brain just didn't come built with a good memory muscle...er whatever that grey matter is (I forget everything I learned in any science-related class)..... I hate forgetting to write a thank you note, to tell someone I appreciate something they did, to call or email someone to wish them a happy birthday, to return books at the library, to pay someone back, to, well, to do anything forgetful. But no matter how much I hate forgetting, I still forget. Too many things.

Things like a boiling canner on my stove top. Mr. Incredible and I awoke to an explosion at 5:30am this morning. Being Mr. Incredible, he leaped out of bed and ran downstairs (while I sat bleary eyed in my "slow mo" morning stupor). I finally came to my senses and grabbed the phone as I walked downstairs wondering if I needed to call 911 (I thought it was a robber). As I walked downstairs, the fire alarms went off (good to know they work!). I walked into the kitchen to find tomatoes E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. You name it, there was tomato on it. See...we had spent our Saturday evening canning more tomatoes (yes, more). When it was bedtime for my bonzos, I went upstairs to kiss them goodnight and that was the last I saw of my kitchen for the night. Completely forgetting that I had 7 jars of tomatoes in boiling water on my stove top. TEN HOURS LATER, I remembered....with a little help from the exploding jars.

So, since I've been pretty upset with myself about it all day, I thought I would blog about it because more often than not, horrible experiences like this make for a good story. Although I'm not quite at the "laugh about it" stage -- yet -- I know writing about it might give someone else a laugh. And providing a laugh at my expense is something I'm pretty good at. Remembering things is not something I am good at. I hope you are more forgiving of my forgetfulness than I am.

Oh...and yes, I did can 7 jars of beets before I ruined the tomatoes. I made my first ever batch of pickled beets and, lemme tell you, they are YUMMY!!!! Here are the only pics I took (I forgot to take more...):