My littlest boy vomited several times during the night. My husband left to go out of town for business on Sunday. We had things under control for the first 8 hours or so. Then not so much.
I dropped the bigs off at church for their music class. Normally I help out, but since Lijee was sick he could not go to Sunday school during that time and Daddy was not home to watch him. Instead of helping, we came home and he napped. We were about one mile down the road to go pick up Zeke and Daisy when this splash shield thing under the front bumper started dragging. It has done this in the past. It is a plastic thing held on by screws, but the plastic has been ripped where the screw holes are and periodically it hangs a little, but usually it kind of hits the road and bounces up, hits and bounces. This time it was just dragging. I pulled over, jumped out and stuck it up. I drove again about 50 yards and it did it again. I pulled over, gave it a better push up under there, and ignored the drag as I drove another half mile to CVS.
At this point I called the leader and left a message that I had a small car problem, but I was on my way to get the kids.
I left Eli and both dogs in the car while I ran in and purchased what any sensible desperate person would purchase: duct tape. That stuff holds everything, right? I stuck several pieces on. Unfortunately the roads were wet from the snow we had just had. Duct tape holds a lot, but the surface needs to be dry in order for it to work.
We drove maybe 2 or 3 miles. We were on the freeway and it came off with a vengeance. I exited the freeway as quickly as I could and stopped in a church parking lot. Not my church, but a church. If a woman and her little boy need to ask for help from strangers, a church would be the best place to go, right? There were lots of cars there and the lights were on. I looked and part of the plastic part was still attached but the loose part had been folded backwards under the car. It appeared I just needed to undo one bolt and it would come off.
I called the music leader again to let her know it was going to be just a bit longer. This time she answered and said her husband was there and he would come help us. Then Eli and I went to the church door. It was open so we let ourselves in. I heard voices down the hall so we cautiously continued towards them. Lijee had barely gotten the sentence "I forgot my throw-up bowl" out of his mouth and other stuff came out of his mouth. Lots of other stuff. I looked and we were literally standing right outside a restroom. I opened the door and grabbed his little hand to bring him to the toilet and he released a bit more vomit on the floor. We took the 3 more steps to the toilet, but of course by that time he was done.
We went back into the hall and just as I was about to open the auditorium doors and interrupt the speaker, possibly making a big scene, some random man came down the stairway. We eyed each other up and I said, "Um. I need some help?"
We were also by a custodian room. The guy opened the door and asked, "What do you need?" I told him the vomit was only part of my troubles and I also needed a wrench for my car problem. I grabbed a roll of paper towels and began cleaning the large pile of vomit while I made Lijee hold the trash bag to collect the soiled paper towels. The guy was just standing there staring at me; when it was wiped up he sprayed some cleaner on it. As I kept slipping and sliding around on the wet floor trying to get it all sanitized I told him I would be able to look back on this one day and laugh. He said nothing.
He stepped away, I presume to look for a wrench as I was cleaning the bathroom. Then I looked outside and my friend's husband arrived with my other 2 children. He was a life saver and just cut the broken plastic part off since there were actually several more screws that I hadn't seen because they were way under there. As he was cutting, I noticed the man standing at the door, just peering out. I went back and told him my friend had come to help and sorry my son vomited on their floor. His response was 'thanks for cleaning it up.' I'm fairly certain he went back in there and told everyone, "You're not going to believe what I just witnessed."
We went to the dealership today and got the car fixed. However, I am not quite laughing yet. My littlest is better, but my other boy just vomited. All over the bed. It's bedtime and I'm working on the first load of laundry, but at least it's my house that I'm cleaning and not some random church with some random guy dumbfoundedly watching me as I slip and slide on the wet the floor that I just mopped by hand.
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