Hellooo?!?

I realize I haven't posted a blog since Monday. Not a whole lot has been going on around here. Teacher/Parent conferences were this week. I had an ENT appointment because I've had an ear-ache (for 3 years - I finally made the appointment). Anyway...actually now that I'm thinking about it there is a lot going on this week that has kept me distracted, but it's not anything I can blog about. So...I started re-reading some of my older posts in hopes that they would inspire me to come up with something to blog about today. After reading my old posts, I realized that I owe ya'll two stories. The first is about the second greatest thing I've ever done (which I may have changed my mind about so I'm not going to share it today), and the second is a story about my darling little babysitter, Little Lauren. For a while I had two babysitters named Lauren. One was older and had "brownish skin" (as the kids would say), and the other was Little Lauren, younger and has "white skin like mine." When I would tell the kids that "Lauren" was going to babysit, they'd always ask, "Which one? Big or Little?" I loved that they didn't see color! We still see Big Lauren occasionally, but it's usually for lunch. She's an official grown-up now and has a real job. I miss her - she's the most fun person I've ever been around!

Anyway...about Little Lauren. I had hired her one summer to babysit the younger two while I took the older two kids to swim lessons. The first day of swim lessons was going to be a busy day because I had also made an unofficial appointment with my realtor friend who was going to come by the house and give us some pointers on listing the house (this was three years ago). So I had to clean! Well...the phone rang that morning around 7:30. It was the realtor calling to say that she would be unable to come over because she was throwing up. She sounded terrible - not like herself at all. I knew that she and her husband had been trying to have another baby, so I asked her if she was pregnant. She assured me that she wasn't. I told her I was sorry and that I hoped she felt better.

An hour later, I was waiting on Lauren to show up so that I could take the kids to their swimming lessons. Lauren never came. I called her cell and her home - no answer. Then I remembered that her mom was teaching summer school and probably left before she was able to wake Lauren up. I left lauren a message on her land line and on her cell to CALL ME BACK! By this time, we were already running late for swimming, which only last for 25 minutes anyway (so now we're down to 15 minutes). I drove by Lauren's house on my way to swim lessons and saw Lauren's car. I didn't have time to stop because we were already late. Now this was really out of character for Lauren. She had been babysitting for 3 and a half years and had never even been a minute late. On the way back from swimmimg, we stopped by her house. AA jumped out the car and knocked on her door ( I stayed in the car with the other 3, but I rolled down my window so that I could talk to her). She came to the door and just stood there. I asked her what had happened and she said that she didn't feel good. I yelled back, "Well I hope you feel better" , but I was really disappointed in her for not having called me earlier to tell me.
Her mom, who is a friend of mine, called later and said that Lauren was throwing up. I told her that there must be something going around because my realtor friend was also sick. Lauren's mom said, "She said you asked her if she was pregnant."

Poor Lauren. It was HER who had called me at 7:30 in the morning to tell me that she was sick! AND I ASKED MY 15 YEAR OLD BABYSITTER IF SHE WAS PREGNANT! And then I had the nerve to drive by her house and let my 5 year old tun up to the door to find out what was going on. I'm sure she felt like she was in the Twilight Zone!

I hung up with Lauren's mom and ran down to Lauren's house to apologize to her. She was great! She said that she heard my messages and started second - guessing herself about having called me. She told her mom, "See? Her name and number is on my list of placed calls. If I didn't talk to Miss Tiffany then I sure talked to someone that sounded just like her!" The funniest part of all was that I really thought to myself after I hung up with whom I thought was my realtor,"Man, she doesn't sound like herself!"

Hello?!?

Thanking God today for sweet Little Lauren (who isn't so little anymore! - she's still tiny, but she's 18 years old - almost 19!). Love you, Lauren!