Just Another Day in Paradise

With the beginning of a new year, our church schedule has changed to 11 am to 2 pm.  I am infinitely grateful to no longer have a napping child that such a schedule inevitably transforms into a raging demon that takes days to subdue.  The only minor challenge this schedule presents to me now is that of lunch.  After moseying through the morning (how did we ever make it to 9:00 church on time?  Oh wait-- we rarely did), I found myself without enough time to feed the kids before church, so I put some of those heavy-duty granola bars and some cheese sticks in my bag to tide the kids over.  I passed out the snackage about halfway through Sacrament Meeting, and I helped Jacob take bites of his granola bar to avoid him overfilling his mouth as he loves to do.  When the end of the granola bar came out of the wrapper, Jacob grabbed it, and although it was big I let him keep it because Ty needed my attention for something.  My attention quickly reverted to Jacob when he started to cough.  I tried to pry some of the granola bar out of his mouth, but it was too late-- he started gagging.  Brigham was at home sleeping after a night shift, so I was on my own.  I picked Jacob up and ran as fast as I could for the door.  For anyone who has not had the opportunity to hear Jacob gag, let me just tell you that it is not subtle.  It is this horrible, loud hocking sound that I'm sure could be heard from one end of the chapel to the other.  So there I was, dashing for the door, trusting that someone would step in and take care of Ty in my absence, and praying that we would at least make it to the foyer before Jacob exploded.  Thankfully, we did make it to the foyer, but we didn't make it much further before he threw up-- all over himself, me, and a little on the floor.  I continued to the bathroom, and within seconds three angel sisters had come in to help.  One grabbed some paper towels and went to clean up the foyer.  Another helped me clean up Jacob and the floor of the bathroom.  The third went to make sure that my other two kids were okay.  Jacob's shirt was not salvageable, so I had to take it off.  He was supposed to stay in the foyer with one of the sisters while I tried to creep invisibly (if you don't look anyone in the eye, they can't see you, right?)  back in to Sacrament Meeting to get the keys so I could take him home and change.  Unfortunately, he didn't want to stay with her-- he wanted to come with me, so I turned around to find a half-naked Jacob trotting down the isle after me.  So much for my invisibility.

I just have to say how grateful I am for those ladies who came to my rescue in the bathroom.   Words can't describe just how grateful I am for their help! I am also grateful to the sweet sister in the library that I talked to when church was over.  After asking if Jacob was okay, she said something to the effect of, "I've watched you, and you do such a good job with him."  On days that make me want to cry, words like that mean a lot.