December 13 Misadventure!!!

Friday:  So ... as I was saying in the prior post--the plan was for Cal and I to arrive a little after 3:00 to meet Brendan coming off his bus. I have a key to their house, so the plan was for us to go in and be together while waiting for Erin and Aidan to come home from school a little after 4:00.

Cal didn't fall asleep today in the car like he usually does--probably because we are one hour earlier than usual. I kept the car running (because of the cold temps) and ran up to their front door with my key to their house to open it up and get Cal and I settled while waiting for the kids.

BUT ... my key would NOT open the door! I put it IN the keyhole, turned it to the LEFT, heard the lock disengage with a "click" sound, but it would NOT open. I tried everything. Pushing. Pulling. Praying. Talking to it! Locking and unlocking it x1K! No way the door would open.

I went back to the car to tell Cal what was going on. He was fine with it. He was very comfortably seated in his cushy car seat listening to beautiful music from my phone. I wasn't very worried because Brendan was due home at 3:15 and a few weeks ago when I couldn't get the key to work, Brendan fiddled with the door and finally got it to open--so I figured we'd repeat that scene.

3:15 came and went--NO Brendan. 3:30--NO Brendan. 3:45 NO Brendan. What was adding to my anxiety was that I was very LOW on gas. Great. It was super cold outside and I was running the heat in my car to keep us warm ... but I was on EMPTY.

Finally, Brendan's bus drove up at 3:53! Yikes. It turns out that Brendan's bus had a little accident with a car, the police had to be summoned, and that's why he was so late. Thankfully, no one was injured in any way from the accident. I was so glad to see Brendan. I was just positive he could get open the door for us.

Well ... Brendan tried and tried. I tried again. I prayed more. We both shoved the door and rang the doorbell for no one who was home. We laughed! We tried some more. We gave up.

We went back to the car, where Cal was more than fed up with being strapped into his car seat. I set him free and he came up to the front seat and pressed every button available: the air--on/off, windshield wipers--on/off, turn signals--on/off, etc. I was expecting Aidan and Erin by about 4:10 and when I was looking baffled about THEIR bus being late (at 4:25), Brendan informed me that the very same bus he was delivered home on 40 minutes late, was the one that had to drive back to the elementary school to pick up Erin and Aidan! What?!?!?! So, they were late too.

Meanwhile, in desperation, I called Dylan to get some advice as to what we were going to do while waiting for he and Kelly to return from work. I certainly couldn't conceive of entertaining all four children in my car for another 1.5 hours. Dylan suggested we go over to Woodland Mall to the play area--at least the little kids would have something fun to do while we waited ... and Dylan said he and Kelly would meet us over there because they were taking all of them out to eat afterwards. So that's what we did.

BUT FIRST, I needed gasoline in my almost empty-of-gas car! We pulled into Speedway and I filled up the tank. While we were waiting for the gas to pump, Erin noted the small TV screen on the gas pump and said: "Wow, you can watch TV here!" What?!? Why would anyone in their right mind want to want TV while pumping their gas? Brendan chimed in that it was mostly "ads" anyway. But we started joking around about how pathetic it was ... and then we kind of pretended we stayed there (watching commercials) for another hour and when their folks asks us what we did, we would answer: "We had a great time watching commercials at the Speedway gas pump!" For some reason, this completely cracked us up. And THEN, I told the kids about the time when Kaity and I were getting gas and the lady at the gas pump in front of us, drove away with the nozzle still attached to her car and the nozzle pulled away from the gas tank and bounced along with her car as she drove out of the gas station lot! Aidan thought that was super hilarious and added that it would have been even FUNNIER if the entire gas tank pulled out and she dragged it along with her too. And then one of the kids mentioned something about the entire gas station blowing up ... and the kids kept adding more and more ridiculous-ness to the story. These kiddos are a lot of fun.

We finally DID get to the play place at Woodland. I had brought four containers of cantaloupe (like I always do) for an after-school snack for the kids. I'm glad I had this with me because all of the kids were hungry, and the play place is right next to the Food Court -- they all wanted to eat very badly. Dylan and Kelly had plans to take the kids out for dinner and I didn't want them to spoil their appetites, so they actually settled for the cantaloupe and cucumbers I brought. Whew.

Erin. She can make herself entirely comfortable any place she goes! Isn't she a scream?

Here they are eating cantaloupe. Sweeties.

Right after the kids had their snack, they went back into the play area. There were lots and lots of kids in the area, and it was difficult to keep track of the three little people I was responsible for. Suddenly, Cal announced that he had to go potty--RIGHT NOW! Yikes. The bathrooms are nowhere NEAR the play area. There was no choice but to take EVERYONE with me to the bathroom with Cal. I finally rounded up Aidan and Erin and we walked over to the bathrooms, having to go right past all of the yummy food at the Food Court. I found a Family Bathroom and got all of the three little ones and me inside. Brendan waited for us at the play area--after all, he is nearly 13.

Afterwards, we hung out at the smaller play area right across from the other one where there are little vehicles kids can ride ($1/each). I didn't have any one's with me; and thankfully, the kiddos say when their folks bring them here, they don't always have $$ either; they were content to pretend to drive. Erin was really in the mood to have her picture taken ...

Isn't she the dearest?

And I was surprised that Aidan put up with me snapping his picture today too! Yay!

All four of them piled into this race car for a "group" picture ...

You can see how well we did with that ...

I love you, Aidan Paul! You are getting so big--almost EIGHT years old now!

Little Cal was quite tired ... it was nearly 6:00 when I received a call from Kelly stating she had been delayed--could we meet her back at the house? So we did!

Some time between now and next Friday, we have to get this "door thing" figured out! They do have a code on their garage door, but it isn't presently working. Perhaps I can just drive over to Kelly's work on the way to their house and get the garage door opener from her vehicle. We'll figure it out, I'm sure. 

I will say--even with all of the "misadventure" that occurred today, it was good to be with these little ones. They are delightful people, extremely interesting, and they love me. My heart is full.