If you read my blog, you may remember the post about my really bad day. Soon after I had written that, my friend Naomi sent me an E-mail with the story of one of her worst days ever. I finally remembered to ask her if it was okay for me to post it on here, and she said sure, so here it is:
I was thinking about your blog post about the day everything went wrong, and I wondered if I've ever told you about our "day". :) Gideon was 3 1/2, Elijah 2, Isaiah was 9mo, and it was Easter Sunday 2002. I had been up the night before until 2am making homemade cinnamon rolls to take to sunrise service breakfast, and then up at 4am to start getting everybody out the door. We had to leave by 5:30 b/c it was a 1/2 hr drive to church. It had been raining hard for days and we were under a floodwatch. I gave the two big boys some Ovaltine to help them wait until after the service for breakfast, got them dressed in their cute little matching white shirts and green corderoy overalls, put on my brand new Easter outfit, and we were ready to go. We were also teaching children's church that day and Jeremiah had completely lost his voice at a lock-in Friday night, so I was going to have to teach that too.
We managed to get everyone and everything outside and in the van and only slightly soaked. It was raining cats and dogs and still pitch black. We got about a mile from home, and Elijah threw up chocolate milk all over the back of the van. All over. Everywhere. Chunks. So we turned around and went back home, and transferred Gideon and his car seat, the cinnamon rolls, and the children's church material to our other vehicle, and Jeremiah and Gideon left for church, because Jeremiah was the youth minister, and now they were going to be late, and no excuse short of your own death was sufficient for that with our minister.
So I made about 10 trips out to the van, getting Isaiah in and in his crib where he would stay put, and bringing in Elijah's carseat and Elijah, then trying to scrub the worst of the vomit out of the car. When I finally got inside, I looked like I had climbed into the shower in my Sunday dress. Then I had to clean up poor Elijah. I was so grossed out by this time that I took the filthy car seat and stuffed it in our second bathroom and shut the door. I would clean it later. Bad choice. I gave Elijah his bath, and then we snuggled down in the living room to watch veggie tales. Over the next few hours he threw up several times, all without warning, all over the living room floor, hallway, etc. I tried desperately to stay awake on my 2 hrs from the night before.
And then, about 10am, it happened. We had a toy Sesame Street saxophone, battery powered and heavy, and Elijah was playing with it and managed to swing it around and hit himself in the head, just above his right eyebrow, and blood went everywhere! Even I could see that this would need stitches, and there I was at home by myself with two babies and a car and carseat covered in vomit! I tried and tried to call Jeremiah's cell phone while putting pressure on the cut, but he had turned it off for the service. I called the church number over and over, because there was a phone in the nursery. Finally I got Jeremiah, and he said he would head home right away. So I ran and got the carseat and scrubbed the cover out in the bathtub and tossed it in the dryer, then washed the frame, and the whole time Elijah was holding a bloody washcloth on his forehead! Poor baby! Rushing through the kitchen, I managed to whack my foot on a cabinet, and thought I had broken my toe! (It turned out to be just fine.) It hurt so badly, and I had just been wondering what else could go wrong, that I began laughing hysterically. I was still in this state 10 minutes later when Jeremiah got home. Thank goodness he can remain calm in a crisis! It had finally stopped raining, and we got the carseat frame and lined it with towels, since the cover was still soaking wet, piled everyone into Jeremiah's van, and headed for the hospital. Five hours and several stitches later, we finally had our Easter dinner--at the Burger King drive-thru! :) And Elijah has a distinguished-looking scar on his forehead as a momento of that day! :)
I hope you got a good laugh from that--I sure do! I look forward to telling this story to his wife and then to my grandchildren someday! :-) Thank goodness every day isn't this "exciting"!
I think it might be fun to hear about other people's "worst day"... or at least one of them, if you can't narrow it down to one. Feel free to E-mail me, and I will post them, or you can just leave it as a comment.
Laughing about it later really makes it easier, so let's share the laughter!
