Story Time | 3 Short, True Stories To Add Some Flavor To Your Day

I've been jotting down little tidbits about little things that have happened over the past few months but I never really knew what to do with them. They're to short for their own dedicated blog post and too good to only be temporarily posted to an Instagram story or kept hidden in the notes app on my phone. So here we are at story time.

Here are 3 short, true stories to make you laugh, cry and feel inspired...

The time we found my dog stuck in the laundry basket..

One late winter morning, I came downstairs to make some coffee.

I turned on the lights and looked over toward the living room expecting to be greeted by a yawning and groggy pup. Layla always came to pay me a quick visit when I would come downstairs in the morning before heading back to her bed. To my surprise, however, there was only silence.

I walked over to look in her crate and she wasn't there - so where could she be?

My obvious first guess was that she snuck past the gate in the living room to sleep on the couch. Nothing. Then I thought maybe she somehow found a way upstairs (where she's not allowed). Again, nothing.

By this time, my sister had gotten up to get ready for school. The two of us spent a good 10-15 minutes searching for her and still nothing.

Then, we heard a little whimper, so we started calling her name. "Layla, where are you girl?" She was in the last place either of us would have ever expected - the laundry basket closest to the wall in the back corner of our laundry room.

Just to get a bit of reference, you can see two baskets in the photo above. There was yet another laundry basket in front of that one.

To this day, we have zero idea how she got back there. She had never done it before and hasn't done it again since, but we're assuming she got spooked from the big thunderstorm the night before.

Long story short, we were able to get her out and were rewarded with wiggle waggles and kisses.

Dogs are so funny.

The time we all cried at church...

Tyler and I had to find a new church once we moved out to Cali.

We couldn't be more blessed with the parish we found and have been going every Sunday since we moved out here. Last week, Tyler's parents came out to visit and we decided to all walk to mass on Sunday.

We sat in the second pew from the back. Behind us sat an older couple. You could tell that the woman has dementia of some sort.

There is another lady that comes to mass who has a service dog - a golden retriever. He sits quietly under the pew during the service and only gets up to follow her up for communion. They sit in a different area of the church.

What transpired next is something that Tyler had witnessed once before I moved outa dn told me about. Something that touches you on one level when you hear about it or read about it and a whole other level when you witness it first hand.

On her way back from communion, the lady with with the service dog scans the room to see if the couple is at mass. Once she spotted them sitting behind us, she walked over and tapped on the other lady's shoulder.

"Look, it's your friend," she said as she led her dog to go and sit with the woman. "Here, take this, you are responsible for him now," she insisted as she gave her the dog's leash.

The smile on that lady's face as she held the leash and pet the dog and the joy that her husband showed on his face to see her like that rocked me to my core. There was so much pure, wholesome and unconditional love in that moment that I felt myself being overcome with emotion. I am not one to cry in public, but let me tell you, when I saw that, I shed more than a few tears myself.

I look to my right and I see Tyler tearing up and then I look to my left and his mom is a puddle of tears as well.

We're all put into certain circumstances for a reason - what we have, what we can do, what we can afford, etc. We don't know the full story on why the lady has a service dog or whether or not she knew the couple from outside of church and so on, but we do know that she was able to unlock a powerful moment for someone in need by being at church that day with her dog and having the courage to walk over and serve someone else.

Let's make an effort to do the same.

The time a we got the perfect crates for our bikes...

Tyler and I decided to get electric bikes once we moved out here

1) It's a LOT cheaper than getting a second car

2) The area is insanely bike friendly since many people use bikes 'round these parts

3) We can get just about everywhere we need locally on the bikes

Once we got the bikes in the mail and set them up, we realized that we were going to need to get some baskets for the back to carry groceries, beach stuff, my bags for work, etc. Most people around here have some kind of baskets or crates for their bikes and we loved the idea of having something that was cost effective and still cool looking. So began the search.

We scoured Facebook marketplace, and rummaged through stores of the likes of Home Goods, grocery stores and home improvement stores but we just couldn't find exactly what we were looking for. Everything we found was either cheaply made, overpriced, or not our style. Everything changed, though, when we went out to lunch with Tyler's parents the day before they were set to go home...

There's a cute little farm-to-table restaurant in town that we've been meaning to try out and figured it would be the perfect place to grab a refreshing bite to eat. The wait time ended up being about 30 minutes so we headed into the tiny shop they had alongside the restaurant to peruse while we were waiting.

Would you know that in that tiny shop we saw two identical army green milk crates sitting on the floor?

Tyler and I asked one of the workers if they sold them and she said she didn't think so but that we could speak to the manager regarding our inquiry. We waited for her to finish up with a business matter before asking, "Hey, we know this is totally crazy and kinda random, but by any chance are you selling those crates? We have been searching for crates for our bikes and these are exactly what we've been looking for."

"Take 'em!" She insisted, "They're yours!"

We were shocked. Neither of us were expecting that answer - we went into that conversation with the expectation that we were gonna be shot down. We offered multiple times that we would pay for them and but she refused to take anything for them. She just asked that we came back to eat at the restaurant, which we definitely will be doing again in the near future!

The crates are so perfect btw...

Moral of the story? Ask before you assume.

You never know what might happen if you just step up and ask.

Sending love always,

J.S.