Oh, What a Day!

(WARNING: Long, wordy post ahead!)

Yesterday was a rather interesting day. A number of unexpected things happened - one of which we don't have an answer to. The other two things we do have an answer to, now. So, here's how my day went....

It was Sunday, but even though I was scheduled to play piano at church, our gracious pastor said I could take the Sunday off, considering our circumstances. Our circumstances? Well, Kurt had left this past Wednesday to attend a conference he'd been really really really wanting to go to - and this was the only weekend that worked. He was gone Wednesday evening through Sunday afternoon. I have to say, for any person who's used to having a very involved spouse share in the parenting duties - this is a long time to go being a single parent. Also, the kids and I enjoyed the company of a dear girlfriend of Karis' from Friday afternoon till Sunday at church. (And Karis was thrilled to have a girl playmate all weekend. Yeah!) So, with that said, I didn't think I would do real well having to get myself and four little ones ready for church and out the door by 7:45. Hmmm. Just not gonna happen by myself. Hence - my Sunday off of worship team.)

So with that background, we all did make it to church, although not in time for Sunday School - just for the Sunday morning service. I sat in the back with my three kids (as "Grandma" had taken our little girl friend to sit with her.) - which was a very good thing on this particular morning. The kids did NOT do well. Upset about where they were sitting.... bothered that Karis got all the "good" coloring pages... and just generally fidgety. By this point, I'm just ready to hand the reins to Kurt (who would be arriving home around 2). But we did manage to get through the service, although I'm afraid I wasn't able to listen very well to what was being preached.

After the service I had a number of people to see for various reasons, during which time the boys decided it would be fun to swing their church bags (with the coloring books, crayons, etc. inside) at each other. They were seriously out of my control! And I just hate it when that happens - especially somewhere public - and especially at church. So I tried as quickly as I could to take care of my little duties - then we were out the door. Although, with one final thing to do. Get our little girlfriend's things from our van to her Grandma's car.

We got to the van and I had the kids get in while I gathered the bags and car seat of this gal's. I told the kids I'd be right back - so left the keys on the front seat (making sure the van was unlocked) and headed out to deliver these last items. I got up to the church doors when I heard our van alarm go off. You know car alarms - they are LOUD, to say the least. So here's our van going off in a series of very loud honks/beeps - whatever you call them. So I dropped my armloads outside the church doors and rushed back to the van to turn off the alarm. What I saw when I got there made me want to cry. The door were locked. ?? What? Oh dear - I'm thinking, "Which of the kids did this?!". But all that aside, I needed to shut off that silly alarm! The kids were all sitting, buckled into their seats like nothing was going on. I'm yelling through the window to Karis to come up to the front seat where the keys are. (She sits the closest to the front, with the boys all the way in the back.) "Karis... HONK... come up... HONK... and get the... HONK !!!." She could not hear what I was saying. I don't know how many honks later she finally unbuckled her seatbelt. Then I tried to have her physically pull the lock up and unlock it, again, with "Karis... HONK.... pull the lock.... HONK." being yelled over and over. She tried, but it wouldn't budge. (Oh these automated vehicles!!)

By this point our pastor's wife had run over to make sure we were all okay. She saw the situation and tried to comfort me - although I seriously had tears in my eyes at this point. Okay, so physically unlocking the door wasn't a good idea. So I had Karis grab the keys there on the seat and push the red button on the bottom. (You can only imagine how long it took to explain that one to her!) She finally pushed it - but the alarm didn't go off! Aggh! Now what? I figured I'd have her unlock the door, then I'd get inside to figure out how to turn off the alarm. So again, trying to tell her to push the "unlock" button on the remote. (No words on the remote, which she could have easily read, but only pictures. *sigh*) So through even more honking and yelling and honking and yelling - she pushed one of the lock or unlock buttons and the alarm FINALLY went off. I physically sighed a HUGE sigh of relief. I got in, grabbed the keys, and shakily went back to deliver the items I'd originally walked off to deliver. Now all the people who were still at church came outside to see what all the commotion was. It's at times like these where you just want to hide under a rock. Although I did manage to "laugh" about it and say, "Boy, am I ever ready for Kurt to get back home!", and "Yep, just one more thing to top my morning!" etc. AAaaaagggh!

(Side note here: We did find out how the alarm had gone off. The kids said they didn't touch the keys - and I trust them with that answer. Plus, I'd already been puzzled by how they could have even played with the keys when the keys were still sitting right where I'd left them on the seat. So that wasn't the answer. I figured it had something to do with the keys, though, as I seriously never (intentionally!) leave the keys in the car. I've run into the post office to get the mail while the kids wait in the car, but I always have the keys with me. So this was the one "factor" that was different this time around. Once Kurt got home, I had my answer. He said our van is a very smart van. (Ha! You could have fooled me this morning!) It has a sensor in the keys, so it knows when they are in the van. Well, this morning it "knew" the keys were in the van, but also "knew" no one was in the car. But when Karis buckled her seat belt, it obviously triggered the alarm - as there WAS someone in the car. I'm presuming this is a safety feature - as you don't want to leave your kids in the car, or, God forbid, a stranger in the car - but for the fact that it automatically locked the doors in addition to the alarm, now I don't quite get that one. Especially since it "knew" the keys were in the van. *sigh* Oh, well. We did manage to get through the ordeal. And I can guarantee I will never leave the keys sitting in the car again!!!)

Okay, so that was unexpected event #1. Granted, it was the most spectacular and major event of the day, but two smaller ones were yet to come. Once home and recovered, more-or-less, from the mornings events, we were going about a typical, relaxed Sunday afternoon/evening. I was at the computer with a couple of the kids, when one of the smoke detectors here on our main level of the house went off. We all jumped and thought, "What?!!!!" It beeped a few times, but then stopped. Well, you can only imagine our hearts were a-pumping something fierce. Kurt ran to the basement and I went upstairs to check on things. All looked good upstairs. I went down to see what Kurt had found. He had checked the fuse box, the furnace, among other things. Everything looked good. Hmmm. Back to our mail level, we sniffed around, yet couldn't find anything. We did all the "Were the batteries still good?" type of questions - and everything should have been fine. We actually had purchased some different spoke detectors awhile back, so figured this was a good time to install them. But just a note... I have to tell you that one of my biggest fears of living in this OLD house (ever since we moved here) has been an electrical fire. Who knows the condition of all those decades old wires and cables and things underneath the lovely plaster walls?? Who knows?! So needless to say, this experience didn't settle well for my nerves. (I'm actually typing this a few days later, and can say, with much relief, that we are still here, the house is intact, no fires occurred - probably just a dusty smoke detector. But regardless, it proved to be just another "thing" to add to my already nerve-wracking day.)

In the midst of dealing with the smoke detector situation, along comes unexpected event #3. Now mind you, this third one is so piddly compared to the first two, but three's a charm, right? So yes, while dealing with the smoke detectors, we're sitting here at the computer again (I can't for the life of me remember what the kids and I were doing - possibly reading??) - and all of a sudden one of our iTunes songs starts playing on the computer. No one had touched anything on the computer. I'm all, "What? How did that happen?" - looking at the screen and being quite confused. That is until Nate showed me the little remote he was playing with. Ha! Just one more thing to startle my day.

So, with all that said, I'm glad these kinds of days don't happen very frequently. One's all I can take for awhile!! :)