(Mis)Adventures in Babysitting

*Disclaimer: If your name is Mesha or Aaron, you may want to quit reading this. Don't worry, your van is in one piece and all the boys are alive.... but that's about all I can gaurantee...*

Let's just start by saying that I am definitely not cut out to be the mother of five. This week Devin and I are staying with his sister Mesha's four boys while she and Aaron are in France (lucky them). So far, we are all alive, so I guess that is a good sign. Today was quite the adventure though. Let me explain.

It all started when my hair was driving me absolutely crazy, so I decided to call my friend Jill to cut it. It was all supposed to work out great. We went to lunch beforehand and then we went to cut my hair. We started the hair at 1:30, which I figured gave us plenty of time before I had to pick up 4 year old Trex at pre-school at 3:15. Devin had dropped him off on his way to work and dropped Hallie off to me at the salon. One sidenote here: Devin brought Hallie and her carseat and nothing else; no bottle, no formula, no diaper, no nothing. So, just to paint the picture. Okay.

So things are going great, my hair is looking great, Jill and I are chatting away, and before I realize it, its 3:15. Oops!! So off I run from Orem to pick up Trex in Lindon with my hair sopping wet. Right after picking up Trex, who was the lone soldier waiting at the preschool, I drove to American Fork to pick up the other three boys who also got out of school at 3:15. Partway there, Hallie is in utter meltdown. She is hungry, tired, and remember we have no food. It is RIGHT then that I got a phone call that I have been waiting for for a week. Yep, exactly when it couldn't have been worse timing. I have been trying to help one of my adoptive couples get adoption assistance funds for their very sick baby and one step is to get the baby on social security. Well, without going too much into it, let's just say that it is a huge mess and I have talked to at least 5 people at the social security office and they all say different things, I have left at least 5 messages for which none had been returned (up until this point), and I was getting really bugged that no one was helping me out. The last time I had spoken to anyone was a week ago. So someone finally decided to call me back right then with some important information. This isn't one of those phone calls that you just ignore. So there I was, trying to have an intelligent conversation with this person on the phone, Hallie is in utter meltdown in the background, Trex is trying to tell me that he wants a cookie, and I am approximately 20 minutes late at this point in picking up the other boys. Yeah, not pretty.

Upon arrival at the older boys' school, I am so late that I have to go in and check them out. It is like serious business to be late at that school. I had to fill out a form, stating my name, who I am picking up, and why was I late? I figured they didn't want the I-was-getting-my-hair-cut-and-got-distracted-then-got-an-important-business-call-that-couldn't-be-ignored drama so I just wrote down "running late". The boys then informed me that they have invited their friend over to play and that his mom was okay with it and left already. Ummmm, what? Oh, and plus, they told his mom that I would be so kind to drop him back home when he is done playing. Okay, apparently I had no choice in that matter. Little friend and I then have the following conversation:
me: Do you know where you live?
him: nope
me: Do you know how to get there from here?
him: nope
me: Do you know your address?
him: I don't know.

GREAT! Well, no time to worry about it then. I had to get back to get my hair cut finished. By the time we made it back to the salon, Hallie had fallen asleep, which was nice. The boys just hung out and had a jolly good time, I am sure. It was pretty quick to finish up, but by then Hallie was awake and screaming bloody murder for want of food. I then ran around Wal-Mart looking for formula and a bottle, any bottle, that I can get to as quickly as possible. Remember that I was dragging Hallie and four, make that five, boys with minds of their own in tow. The checkout lady must have been quite concerned as I was buying formula and bottles with a screaming baby. She was even kind enough to ask, "did you forget her food, dear?" ummm, yeah. After busting open the bottles and formula right there in Wally world, I was off and running again with a somewhat calmed down baby. As we got to the car, to add to my torture, I realized that I did not have the keys in my posession. After a quick command for everyone to stand touching the car, I ran back in and luckily found them inside. THAT was a stressful moment! (Ok, wait, the whole experience was stressful!)

It was then time to find little friend's home and drop him off. I am sure that was such a fun play date for him. Luckily he had recalled his address, and it is in the grid system, so it couldn't be that hard to find, right? Wrong. We drove around for approximately 45 minutes looking for his house. The system was so messed up. He didn't know where we were going, I surely didn't know where we were going, and the boys had no idea either. Fun. We finally found it and got home in time for dinner a half hour late.

That is all for today's adventure. Stay tuned for more adventures (some fun ones too! I actually have some cute pictures to post, but that will have to come another day.)

I'm ready for bed.

P.S. Conversations like this make it all worth it:

7 year old Trey (while playing with Hallie): I love babies. I miss having them around the house.
me: Well, you will have to talk to your mom about that.
him: We haven't had a new baby in our house for a long time. (pause) Maybe they will have one in Paris and bring it home!