Breaking and Entering

Natalie left her orthodontic appliance (a bite plate) at soccer practice last night. In the grass. Just lying there. I was so mad. She didn't realize it until she was going to bed. With Jonathan out of town, I didn't want to get 4 kids out of bed and go over in the dark to look for it. I was going to watch a friend's 3 kids all day today so there wasn't going to be a chance to go look for it for awhile.

Fast forward to this morning. When I came out of my room Karen announced that she felt sick and had thrown up (on her carpet. Twice). I called my friend to tell her I'd still watch her kids but that Karen was sick. She said she'd talk to her husband and call me back. He decided to take the day off and stay home with his kids so I was off the hook for that. My brain starts working...I'll send Megan on the bus and then drive over with the other kids to look for Natalie's bite plate. Not ideal since Karen is sick but I was anxious to get looking for it. Then I remembered that my neighbor doesn't work on Fridays. I asked her to come stay at my house with Karen and Isaac while Natalie and I drove over to the soccer fields. She graciously agreed.

On the way over to the soccer fields it dawned on me that the gates might be closed and locked. I was hoping that wasn't the case. But sure enough--gates closed and locked. There's barbed wire at the top so I wasn't going to scale the fence (plus I can't really scale fences). Natalie tried to squeeze through the gap but got nervous. I had my phone with me so I looked up the email with the soccer league director's phone number and called him. No answer. Now what? I guess we'd have to try later after I could get someone to open the gate for us. Natalie said she'd try again to get through the gate. She made it! She ran over to her practice field and...found her bite plate! Yay! She squeezed back through the fence and I drove her to school and she was only 5 minutes late. A happy ending to a very stressful situation.