"9-1-1 What is your emergency?"

Tonight, we rode out as a family to check an errand off our list. My phone has died (well, actually the charger, which costs $35 to replace died - when Rodney dropped it in my big cup of Crystal Lite in the van. Because I had no more "juice" in my phone, I guess the statement I made earlier is, in fact, true).

Luckily, there is a SPRINT store in Rolesville, North Carolina. It's right "up the road," in fact. On the main drag through town, even. Well, Rodney knew what phone I wanted to get, so he went inside to do the business, and I sat in the van with the boysies. We (or THEY, while I listened) watched the Backyardigans.

Well, we had been sitting there for only a few minutes when an Ambulance sped by on the highway. Followed closely by a Firetruck. So, I did what any scaredy-cat mother with good forethought would do. I had that little talk with the kids about what to do in case of an emergency when Mommy couldn't get to the phone to call 9-1-1.

I explained that the first thing to do is to press the talk button. We're 20th century like that, with only cordless phones. I say we need one that is NOT cordless, just for emergency preparedness, but I am now digressing. Which I am very good at. Back to 9-1-1. So, Jackson knows he is to pick up the phone, press the talk button and call 9-1-1. I told him the lady on the other end of the line would say something like "9-1-1 What is your emergency?" and then gave examples of scenarios where mommy was "out of commission" and how he was to explain it to the nice lady at the hospital. SO. All was well. (*I'm so sorry this story is taking so long. I just can't skip these details. I just can't!!!!)

Some of the examples of a mommy in distress were "Suppose mommy fell down the stairs and I bonked my head so bad that I fell to sleep and couldn't wake up," and "Suppose mommy got burned on the frying pan, and fell to the floor crying because it hurt so bad!" LOL!

Ok. THEN. Then, I realized another good piece of information to guard them in this sort of dilemma is to go quickly to our neighbor, Ms. Gillian's house to let her know what is wrong. I explained that he is to QUICKLY go to her house, ring the doorbell, and explain "Mommy is hurt! Come quick!" Well, as a followup, I decided to role-play that exact scenario. It went a little something like this.

*Mommy, pretending to be Ms. Gillian: "Hi Jackson, how are you?"

*Jackson, knowing he is supposed to be role playing with a specific reply to say: "Good."

*Mommy, not pretending to be Ms. Gillian anymore: "Jackson! You are supposed to say, 'MOMMY IS HURT! COME QUICK!' Let's try this again."

*Mommy, pretending to be Ms. Gillian: "Hi Jackson, how are you?"

*Jackson: "NOT TOO GOOD. Mommy is hurt! Come quick!"

I'm so glad I've taken the whole night to type out an incident that took all of 4 and a half minutes. If you got here (the end of the post) and the punchline was funny to you - thank you. You are a true friend. If you got here by skimming along, and the punchline doesn't make any sense. I don't care. Go on with your bad self. ;)