Family Feud: The Missing Loaf

Yesterday was a very tense day in our home. We had the fight of the century. Blood was boiling. Feelings were hurt. Definitely not a good day. Most people fight over things of importance, like finances and family. We do too, but this was much more important - a loaf of bread.

Yes... a loaf of BREAD... of the lack thereof.

Yesterday I ran home for lunch. I had a plan and I was excited. When I got home I busted out the bread maker and proceeded to meticulously measure out ingredients. I love fresh baked bread - the smell, the taste. Everything. It's wonderful. I've been having a rough week (bouts of insomnia and discomfort) and knew this would be just the thing to snap me out of my funk. I nearly missed actually eating lunch because I spent so much time preparing what was going to be an amazing loaf of happiness.

Flash forward 3 hours later....

I come home, open the door. No yummy bread smell. I was sure it must be a fluke. I continue on to the bread maker and notice the top of the loaf is quite pale and flat. Not a good sign. I inspect further, opening the bread maker to discover my fabulous loaf of bread was actually an over-risen mass of dough. Deception and disappointment. I'm baffled. What could have gone so wrong? Then, I see the problem. The bread maker was unplugged. What?! I immediately knew what happened and I was ticked. Combine disappointment, angry hungry and pregnancy hormones and you have a pretty lethal concoction. I angered in record time.

5 minutes later Alex got home and I lost it. I tried to be calm and asked what prompted him to unplug a bread maker that was in the process of ensuring my happiness. He looked confused. "I didn't, I unplugged the toaster." "No, you didn't." I explained that the out-of-place, large, metal box on our counter was actually a bread maker. We went back and forth a few more times until finally he accepted that he had, in fact, unplugged the bread maker. Apparently him buying me flour earlier that morning, having the conversation about how much I love bread and seeing the bread maker on the counter didn't clue him in that the cord might NOT be the toaster cord. He quickly followed up by saying it was an accident. If this were the first time, I may have been more forgiving, but this happens regularly. Our conversation quickly escalated into ridiculousness - him explaining why it's so important to keep toasters unplugged and me harping on the importance of not making assumptions because you'll always get burned. By the time we ate dinner and left for our prenatal class, the damage was done. He was offended by my cruelty and I was shocked by his lack of common sense.

Thankfully the class provided a nice break from our bread woes. Once class was over we were both a little more rational. At least for a moment. When I started to explain why I got so mad, it made him mad all over again. By the end of the night, we came to the conclusion we weren't going to end our marriage over bread and should probably get some sleep. This morning we both felt pretty sheepish. After all, it was just a loaf of bread. I still haven't found a productive way to harness my anger, but I'm hoping I'll get better at it with age. In the meantime, he did make another loaf. I've already devoured half of it over the course of the day. Oh, how I love bread!