Thursday, September 1, 2011

Missing

So, what did you all do on this lovely first day of September? I went to playgroup, made lunch for my kids, baked 4 loaves of bread, 2 loaves of zucchini bread, made homemade pop-tarts, lost Kember, and generally freaked out.And now on to the long version of the story. So about a half hour after Kember gets home from school there is a knock on the door. A little friend came over to play. Huh...well, I guess if her parents are okay with just randomly going to someones house it's okay by me. I know where my kid is anyway. So, they play for about an hour while I finish up in the kitchen. Five o'clock rolls around so I tell Kember that she can walk her friend home if she wants, and I'll get the mail. So I walk with the boys to the mailbox and wait on the driveway for Kember to come back. She doesn't come. So, I walk up the street a bit to find her. Umm...can't see her anywhere and have no idea which street she is on. I'm assuming she went into her friends house and stayed, but...???? I don't know this girl, so I have no idea where she lives. All I know is that she is close by because she rides the bus with Kember. So I walk down another street and ask some kid who's working outside if he saw two little girls walk this way. He didn't notice anything. Okay, I'm starting to panic a little bit now, and when I panic I get angry, so naturally I take it out on Caden who is walking with me...because I'm just a great mom like that. So I go back home thinking maybe she's there (although I know she isn't, because if she went home and I wasn't there she would freak out and start screaming for me...no screaming=no Kember). I gather up Cole, Caden and the baby and we start out again. I go to a lady's house that has kids on the bus stop hoping she would know this girl and where she lives. No luck there. But on my way I meet up with another girl from playgroup and of course I start crying. She stays and helps me look for Kember. While checking one home I ask if my daughter is there. She looks at me funny and then says, "You look familiar...did you grow up here?" Yes "Are you a Linford?" I'm not thinking to straight at this point (panicking, remember?) so I say something brilliant like "Should I know you?" nice, huh? Anyway, it turns out to be Melissa Caulkins whom I used to live by. Small world...small small world. Well, she decides to help out too (because again, I've started to cry). The other girl (who incidentally is also named Tara, and is super cute and nice) has to go home because her husband has to start his second job, and her baby is sleeping. I decide to try one more block before I really started to panic. This time when I knock on the door a familiar face opens it and I say, "Is my daughter here?!" "Yep" but he looked at me kind of funny so I had to explain that I had no idea where she was. Yep, mother of the year award to me. I got Kember out of the house and promptly started to cry. Good times...good times.And in other news, I baked...and everything turned out how it was supposed to (mostly). The bread looks good (don't know if it tastes good, but looks are important, right?) and the pop-tarts, while I'm not the biggest fan of them (I'm going to make them again with a pie crust instead) the kids went ga-ga over them. So, success there. I also made two loaves of zucchini bread, which didn't go as well as I had hoped, but whatever. I may have lost my child, but I'm domestic, right? Sigh. At least Caden had fun helping me make the bread. You should have seen him pound the dough out. I told him to karate chop it and he thought that was cool. He really liked to roll it into the shape too. He's a keeper.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

So tell me this. Why exactly do we karate chop the bread? I've always wondered that, yet I still do it.

Anyway...

I'm glad you found Kember! I know just how freaked out I would be, so I can just imagine how you were feeling. I'm pretty sure that things like this happen to every parent at least once. Something about kids not quite getting the whole "don't freak parents out by disappearing" thing.

Loni said...

PANIC in capital letters. What a horrible feeling. Kember does understand walking someone home doesn't mean they get to stay???

Food looks great and why haven't you tasted it? First thing one does when it comes out of the oven.

What kind of crusts are your pop-tarts made with?

Anna Wilson said...

Oh man!!! I am almost in tears for you. I am totally impressed with the domesticness by the way. I'll have to get your recipe for homemade poptarts. My kids would love that.

Ma & Pa J. said...

Oh wow....that was scarey! I am so glad it all turned out okay. I am so proud of you and the baking. Does your husband know how lucky he is?

Andrea said...

Scary! I assume Kember now knows that she must come straight home, right? So, was the dad your ex-boyfriend? Just wondering since he looked familiar. ;)

Way to go on the baking!

worth reading said...

Scariest feeling in the world! Ahh.. seriously a nightmare. (Good job on being domestic though .. :))