15: Sunday

5:30 a.m.: waken to the sound of Ben's new habit: scream-crying when he realizes he's uncovered in his crib (despite two pj layers and a pair of sock). Get out of bed, cover him up. Instead of falling back to sleep, use time to think and pray.

7:50 a.m.: Luke clambers over me onto Dave's unoccupied side of the bed (Dave and Reese were at an all guys campout for the weekend)

8:05 a.m.: drag myself out of bed, get the kids up and down to breakfast

8:45 ism: get self and kids ready for bed

9:25 a.m.: finished getting ready for church, pride myself on fact that got three kids and myself ready for church and that, for once we'll be early/on time

9:26 a.m.: detect odor coming from Ben and proceed to change second poopy diaper within 20 minutes

9:28 a.m.: make it downstairs and reassure myself that we'll still make it on time

9:29 a.m.: Luke tells me he's peed his pants. Determine that he didn't really pee his pants after all but that it would be a good idea for him to go potty before we get to church because we don't want to have any accidents at church

9:38 a.m.: finally in car after multiple trips between house and garage getting kids and multiple bags to the van. Pray that we might be there on time.

9:47 a.m. officially late for start of Sunday school program, spend 7 minutes in church parking lot attempting to park without blocking anyone in or taking up a spot desperately needed for an elderly person. Give up attempt and try side street while contemplating giving up entirely and just heading back home.

9:52 a.m.: give up side street idea as it's too much of a hassle

9:54 a.m. try parking across the street and proceed to get van stuck in the snow. start watching parking lot fill up and debate whether to head to church anyway and leave the car where it is. As it was "parked" in an awkward spot, decide against leaving it and start praying someone would notice my plight.


10:05 a.m.: officially really late for church; someone else gets stuck, he ends up helping me get the van out after borrowing a shovel that belongs to the church he goes to

10:15 a.m.: again attempt to park on side street, by this time a spot did open up, get kids into church

11:30 a.m..: church is over, we're downstairs for coffee hour and Brie heads off to children's choir. I project to play defense and prevent Ben from getting markers over everything, drinking from cups he picked out of the garbage and escaping out the multiple exits in the basement of the church

(my fifteen minutes of writing officially ended here, but I'll use a few extra minutes to end the story)

12:20 p.m.: make it home, rejoice that Dave and Reese are safely home. Relate trials of getting car stuck in snow. Get lunch ready, eat, watch new Veggie's Tale movie with kids then get everyone ready for rest time


2:30 p.m.: debate going over to Dad and Mom's house. Dave and I decide to travel down with the kids after Ben's nap.

4:40 p.m.: get kids and ourselves ready for trip to Dad and Mom's

5:20 p.m.: arrive at Dad and Mom's, kids head down to basement to finish watching a movie they had started to watch in the car

5:22 p.m.: hear Luke cry, Dave goes to him

5:24 p.m. Dave tensely call me to come see him; shows me Luke's arm; I mentally try to recall if Luke's forearm has always had a slight curve in it (hello???!!! total denial.) Dave takes Luke to hospital, confirms his arm is indeed broken, gets it splinted and comes back to Dad and Mom's house

So here we are again - another broken left forearm, though Luke didn't break his as badly as Brie did 1.5 years ago. Sigh. So much for a day of rest. ;)