My So Called Life

Boy, we had a crazy day. Yes, it involved one of these,

seven of these,

Two of these

One of these,

And one employee from here.

Let me start at the beginning. I knew from the moment my alarm sounded at 6:45 that it would be a busy day. We had a lot to do and no time to waste.

I got up, exercised, got breakfast ready, showered, dressed, cleaned up dishes, got the kids dressed, put dinner in the crock pot, made some sandwiches and snacks to bring with us as I knew we would not make it home for a noon time meal and left the house at 10am.

We had a fun morning at the library where we read stories, sang songs, played with bubbles and glued tiny bits of tissue paper onto ourselves.

After the library we headed over to Baby Cake's 15 month check up. It turns out he is still really little. He weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces, that means he gained 2 ounces in the last three months. That makes his growth line flat, and puts him in the less than 5% of all babies his age. The pediatrician ordered some routine blood tests to see if there is really something wrong, like thyroid, or if he's just a small boy. We'll get those results some time next week.

After the doctors appointment the kids had a primary activity at church. I pulled up to the chapel and and sent the kids in. I had a small thought that maybe I should stay and be an extra set of hands in case they needed back up.

Then all the kazillion things I could get done with just one kid instead of 4 came to my mind and I made a bee line for the nearest farm supply store, where I bought 7 of the cutest, fluffiest baby chicks I have ever seen. I only went to get feed for our existing 13 hens, but as soon as I opened the door I heard them. I heard the cutest little chirps coming from the cages in the middle of the store and I knew they had gotten the first batch of spring chickens.

I could not help myself.

Since Mr Bird won't let me have another baby, I took out my mothering instinct on a box full of baby birds. And they are the cutest things you've ever seen. Don't worry, we will not have 20 birds for long, we have several hens that are no longer laying and so they will make their way into the crock pot soon enough!

So back to the church I drove with my SUV all a chirp with baby birds. As I enter the cultural hall to gather my own flock I was greeted by the primary president. She very gracefully came over to me and says, "I need to tell you what happened during the activity."

That is never a good thing to hear.

My first thought was who did Dubs hit?

She goes on to tell me that during the course of the activity Dubs came up missing. After a quick and thorough search of the church it was discovered that he was not there.

Panic bells were going off in my head as she is telling me this.

The search grew to out doors, where my nearly 4 year old son was found wondering toward our home, which by the way is not on the safest of roads.

Luckily some people in the neighborhood saw him and somehow a police officer was there with the crowd of strangers who had gathered to watch after my small lost boy.

When the primary presidency counselor tried to take Dubs back to the church he said,

"But how will I get home?"

She replied, "Your mom will come back and get you."

"Oh, OK!" was his reply.

I should have listened to that voice that told me to stay and be an extra set of hands.

We finally made it home around 3:45pm with a car loaded with 200 pounds of animal feed, some groceries, 4 tired kids, and 7 new baby chicks. I was ready to go into the nice warm house filled with the aroma of slow cooked soup just waiting to be tasted and salted and stirred.

Guess what I found instead?

I found 2 carbon monoxide alarms blaring, one upstairs and one down stairs.

It's funny how when things like this happen I panic and can't for the life of me think like a sane human being. I could not figure out what to do. I knew I should keep everyone out of the house. Good thing it was in the 40's today, or we could have frozen to death. It did not occur to me to go straight to the source and call the gas company. Instead I freaked out and called 911. They sent yet another police officer, who assured me he was not the officer that had found my lost child less than an hour before. Along with him came a real live fire truck. The fire men made sure none of us were sick and took some gadget into the house to test the air. They came back and assured us they did find gas and to stay out of the house until the gas company could come and find the source of the gas.

Long story short, nothing is wrong with our house, there is no leak. The gas company thinks it was from me running the car in the garage before we left and the fumes got stuck in the garage when I shut the garage door and leached into the house during the course of the day.

By the time it was all sorted out it was nearly 5:30 and I have never been so glad to have dinner in the crock pot. I threw some frozen rolls in the oven and we sat down to a very nice, warm dinner.

So while it was a crazy day like no other, I am more than thankful to be safe in a nice warm home with my kids.

The only thing that would make it better was if Mr Bird were not hundreds of miles away in southern California walking on the beach all in the name of 'work' without me.

*sigh*

Why do these things always happen when he's away?

I miss my lover.

*sad, cry*