Psycho Chick

Considering what my children put me through on a daily basis, I consider myself a pretty calm mother. Don't get me wrong, I do my fair share of yelling and all that, but when it comes to things like broken bones, stitches, and emergency types of situations, I am usually pretty easy going. So Wednesday night when I called a neighbor's cell phone asking her to send home my boys, I did not panic when she told me she and her family were at Lagoon and had not been home all day. Now my boys may not be very good at behaving, but they are VERY good at letting me know where there are. This is mostly because if I call the house they are supposed to be at, and they are not there, they get grounded for a week and they hate that.

ANYWAY, they had only been gone about thirty minutes and I figured that since their friend Mike was not home, they had probably stopped at another friend's house and forgotten to call. It had started to pour down rain about fifteen minutes after they left, so I knew they were not playing outside somewhere. I started calling all the regular places but had no luck finding them. Since it was raining so hard, Thomas hopped in the van and drove to some other friend's homes. An hour later, no boys. I had called over twenty homes, practically everyone in the ward with kids. Thomas had knocked on a dozen doors, and a couple people in our ward even offered to start helping us look. That was when the crazy lady inside of me came out. I PANICED. I started thinking of all the worst possibilities, thinking that maybe they had accepted a ride from a stranger as they walked home in the rain.

As Thomas drove around, and I made calls from home, we decided to give it ten more minutes and then call 911. As I prayed for help, the thought occurred to me that there was a seventeen-year-old boy, also named Mike, that lived right next door to us. I quickly called and sure enough, the boys were there. They had been safe-and-sound, right where they told me they would be, at Mike's house, the entire time!

Lessons Learned:

1. When speaking of people with names such as Mike, Amy, or Joe, always couple it with a last name, you never know what mix up could occur.

2. When teaching children about stranger danger, make sure you talk about what should be done if it is pouring rain outside. Who would have thought?

3. When your children are missing, always check next door before calling 911.

How Embarrassing.