The Nightmare After Halloween

Here's the villan of the story...don't be fooled by her cute little smile!

This morning I woke up thinking today would just be a regular old Sunday for us at church...the most exciting thing being that we got an extra hour of sleep.... I should have know right there that something eerie was creeping on the horizon. Things went smoothly this morning. M and L were both great while I did their hair for church, which is odd. They were getting over petty colds so I decided we'd go home early so we didn't spread our germs. We even managed to get to church 10 minutes early, instead of parading in during the opening song. The girls were pretty good during Sacrament meeting too (that's the first hour of church). There were some normal squabbles over toys and L managed to make some kind of sick paste out of chocolate teddy grahams and saliva that she got all over herself and Mr. N's white shirt, but overall things went smoothly.

After Sacrament meeting everyone went to Sunday school. The Primary kids stayed in the chapel to practice for their annual Primary Program. My mom and I drove together since Mr. N has early morning meetings, so I had to wait for her to finish her lesson before we could go. I didn't want to put M in her class because I didn't want to spread germs, so we walked around the halls and visited with random people and with Mr. N, who was busy fulfilling his different responsibilities. It was almost time to leave, so I was shepherding the girls down the hall towards my mom's Sunday School room when I ran into a friend. We were chatting about different things that were going on in our lives, each holding our babies. All of the sudden behind me I heard a click and felt L's arm release as if she had pulled some kind of handle. My friend and I both turned around to look, and then we saw the flashing lights in the hall and heard the blaring alarm. L had pulled the FIRE ALARM! I stared in horror at the little handle she had managed to pull while I held her, and then tried to put it back in it's place, foolishly wishing to undo what had been done. Then the halls started to fill with people who filed outside into the drizzling rain. My face felt beet-red. I looked at my friend and we both gave this kind of horrified laugh...like yeah in a few years this will be really funny but 'holy crap' will suffice for right now! Honestly I wanted to sprint to the car and just drive home...forget my mom and my purse. Instead I tried to find Mr. N. The halls were so full of people and children that I quickly gave up and went to stand beside L's fire alarm. L just kept staring at it and the flashing lights, no doubt in awe of what she had done. The Bishop showed up after a few minutes...by then most of the people were outside getting wet. I felt horrible for all the mothers of newborns and the crying children who didn't like the sound of the alarm. Luck was at least in our favor that L hadn't pulled the alarm that would notify the fire department immediately, so the bishop was able to correct it and holler for everyone to come back in. By then Mr. N turned up. I think he'd been helping the bishop make sure the church was empty. He looked at me and I looked at him, and I said, "Your daughter." He responded, "Yeah, I knew it must be the minute the alarm went off." He thought it had been M though, not L. Funny how he instantly knew that the onslaught of chaos must have been caused by one of our girls.... My mom then turned up looking worried and I told her, "Your granddaughter (gesturing towards L) pulled the fire alarm." "No!" was all she responded back. Her reaction was so funny.

So, everyone went back to class. It was like a mini reunion between families in the middle of church, and then everyone dispersed to where they were suppose to be. I was so grateful that we'd already decided to leave early. I briefly considered starting to attend a different ward or something...but then we'd have to drive even further...and Mr. N would never go for it. I'm still in shock that this all happened. I feel like I need to submit a written apology or something...even though most people seemed to think it was funny...or at least take it in stride. I thought the kids that pulled the fire alarm were the ones that weren't being watched by their parents or something. I was holding L, and I guess she'd been eyeballing the alarm or something. So when I leaned too close to the wall she took advantage, and bam! Our church meetings had an unplanned intermission....