Heart Stopping Panic

I experienced one of those heart stopping moments this week. Janice and I have been trying for weeks to get out and practice with our new camera lenses. We were finally able to make it happen a couple of days ago and boy was it a fiasco! I’ve decided there’s just something about having a lot of little kids that is a recipe for disaster every time you try and do something.

Things started to fall apart before we even left the house. I got Bella all dressed all cute and her hair done and of course she was a wreck within minutes. She changed her shirt 3 different times before we finally got out of the house. And Janice’s little guy fell down and cut his lip while they were getting ready. But we were finally off.

Janice had the brilliant idea of bringing a video for the kids to watch in her car DVD player. That way we could bring the kids out one at a time, take their picture and then send them for treats and the movie. Only problem – less than 10 minutes after we got to our location the battery in her vehicle died. Great no DVD for the kids. Oh well we thought we’d deal with the dead battery later. We were going to get pictures if it killed us.

Isaac was first and he was not a happy camper. Then Janice’s little girl – she thought it was too bright outside even though we were in the shade and would not open her eyes no matter how hard we tried. This entire time Isaac was dragging himself along on the cement, ruining his clothes and whining. Bella was climbing on a bar (what a surprise!), fell off and whacked her head on the cement. Then Janice’s little guy was wondering around without his shoes and stepped on a sticker bush. So we had unhappy crying kids everywhere!

We finally decided we’d had as much fun as we could handle and now it was time to deal with the dead battery. Luckily Janice had jumper cables in her vehicle, but of course neither of us knew exactly how to do it. She called her husband and he gave her all the details. During this time I had loaded Isaac, who was now screaming at the top of his lungs, and Bella into my vehicle. Samuel climbed in Janice’s vehicle along with her two kids. We got the jumper cables hooked up, had a discussion about where we should hook the black cable that is supposed to be the ground, settled on a part of the frame and then got her vehicle started. Now here’s where it got exciting.

I got out of my vehicle and walked over to Janice’s vehicle. We still needed to unhook the cables. Suddenly I hear a loud bang and Samuel starts screaming at the top of his lungs at the same time I see white smoke like powder coming out of Janice’s vehicle. Panic, heart stopping moment as all I can think is Janice must have a gun in her vehicle and the kids have shot it! Janice on the other hand is sure that she grounded the cable wrong and it’s shocked Samuel. So while I yank Samuel from the vehicle she shuts off her engine. I’m frantically asking Samuel, who’s hysterical, what’s wrong and he says, “She shot me with that!” So now I’m frantically looking all over for the gunshot wound, but can’t see blood anywhere. At this point I run around to the back of Janice’s Pilot because the trunk is up and her daughter is in the back and see it – A FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Yes, her 5 year old daughter had pulled the pin out of the fire extinguisher and shot Samuel in the back of the head with it! Now this sounds funny now, but it was anything but at the moment.

There’s dry white chemical junk all over Janice’s vehicle, kids crying, vehicle dead again, Janice’s husband saying we have to call poison control, my nerves so on edge I feel like I’m going to explode. We get the vehicle started again and drive back to my house. The poison control people say to get the clothes off and wash him off. Then Janice had to totally wipe down the whole inside of her vehicle. What a morning! After my nerves settled down we had a good laugh because what are the chances. And can you believe it; we didn’t even get a picture of the whole incident!