Mom Wants A Diabetes Cure

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

What A Lovely Night To Get Lost

It was a balmy evening, 6 p.m., approximately 50-60-70 degrees (all I know is that we didn't need jackets unlike when I was a kid and it was always freezing and my mom would make my brother and me wear a friggin parka over our plastic Wonder Woman and He-Man cotumes and we would get pissed because we couldn't show them off) and the kids in the neighborhood began their trick-or-treating extravaganza (by the way, has anyone EVER had a trick played on them or played a trick on someone else instead of getting a treat?).

The kids and I walked to my neighbor's house and a crew of us started our way (make note that we were 7 adults and 9 children).

We went from house to house and we let the kids go to the doors by themselves while we adults stood at the curb chatting away. I did a head count of my 3 kids as we would continue to the next house.

Well, at some point I stopped counting and after a while, I decided to do a head count again.

"M, do you see Jessica up at the door?"

"No, I don't."

"Maybe she's in front of the older kids."

I shout to Brendon who's still at the door to ask if his sister is with him and he says no.

M and I don't see her with any of the kids walking back to the curb. My neighborhood has no street lights which makes it difficult to see anything. Plus, being that Jessica was dressed as a lady bug mostly in black, it made it that much more difficult to see her.

I thought maybe she was lagging behind at house we'd already been to or maybe got caught up in another group.

Jake didn't want me to leave him so I carried him, running down the street screaming Jessica's name.

M left Brendon and her 2 kids with the other adults in our group and started asking people if they saw a little girl dressed like a lady bug while I ran down the street screaming Jessica's name.

I didn't fear that someone abducted her, but I felt awful thinking about how scared she was that she couldn't find me.

M and I soon met up with each other and M told me someone told her that she saw Jessica walking with a woman and 2 young girls and that the woman said she knew Jessica.

We both realized it must've been E whose daughter babysits for us....or at least I'd hoped it was.

M told me to run home and get my car so that I could drive and find Jessica. When I reached my house, Jeff told me that E called and said she found Jessica in the middle of the road and that she was fine and would bring her home.

It was taking quite a while for them to get back to the house and I was a bit panicked only because of the fact that I lost my daughter and just wanted her with me.

I was relieved to know that E had Jessica, but I was anxious to get her home, so I ran up our street (can I tell you how tired I was with all of this running around) and saw Jessica, E, and her 2 girls coming from a house.

The reason why it took so long for E to get Jessica back home was because they Trick-or-Treated they're way back. E told me Jessica was so brave and wasn't crying when she found her. I was relieved to hear that and my girl looked quite proud of herself.

I soon gathered the boys once Jessica was in the house and everyone was home safely with a load of candy that I immediately dug through to get to a Reese's peanut butter cup to calm my nerves.

"Shannon, did you hear what Jessica said?"

"No, what did she say?"

"She said, 'I had a great time trick-or-treating with Mrs. W (E)'."

That girl is something else.

17 Comments:

  • Adorable pics. Sounds like quite the adventure! :)

    We had zillions of doorbell ringers last night. I can never seem to predict the turnout from year to year, but I think the warmer weather sure helped here too.

    By Blogger Johnboy, at 11/01/2006 7:19 AM  

  • We live in a neighborhood with a lot of houses. My side of the street is set up on a hill, so it's touch and go from year to year depending on the energy levels of the kids.

    Since we planted new grass in September, we had a ton of kids walking up our lawn...of course.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/01/2006 9:58 AM  

  • Phew!! So glad Jessica was okay.

    The kids looked wonderful (they are just too cute)-- and you had warm temps...

    But-- Dang! So sorry this wasn't the relaxing social event you were hoping for.

    Again-- Dang!

    By Blogger Sandra Miller, at 11/01/2006 10:20 AM  

  • Sandra, other than our boys having dangerous lows, my other worst fear is losing my kids. Thank God my neighborhood is a close knit one. It makes me chilled thinking of anyone else finding her.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/01/2006 10:28 AM  

  • God, that's my worst nightmare! I'm glad everything was fine. I think I would have had a big slug of something alcoholic in addition to the peanut butter cup!


    O dropped to 46 while we were trick or treating last night. Oy.

    By Blogger Major Bedhead, at 11/01/2006 11:03 AM  

  • The Smirnoff's effects wore off while I was running around.....

    As for the low, Brendon's tendency is to run low with all of the activity of going door to door. Last night we let him pick several pieces of candy to eat and we never dosed him. A few hours later at 10:00 p.m. he was a 154...this morning at 7:00 a.m. he was a 254. 254 sounds high, but considering the amount of sugar he ate, he would've been low for sure if we had dosed him for the candy he ate.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/01/2006 11:13 AM  

  • awwww- the kids look adorable!!!

    By Blogger j.sterling, at 11/01/2006 12:21 PM  

  • Shannon, your kids look so cute! (And you look terrific, by the way! Your hard work at the gym defeinitely shows! I bet you can beat Jeff at arm wresting now, right?)

    I took my 6 yr old nephew out trick-or-treating last night. It's chaos trying to keep track of a little kid in the muddle of Halloween festivities. I'm glad Jessica is okay.

    Maybe you should try that Smirnoff thing again tonight, since you had your buzz killed yesterday. :)

    By Blogger Kerri., at 11/01/2006 3:10 PM  

  • Kerri, I'm sitting here working on the Nanonmano (I'm not about to get the abbreviations correct on that).....

    Yeah, Smirnoff sounds good, but with all the candy I've been scarfing down today (I had a chocolate bonanza for breakfast this morning) I think it's best if I watch my calorie intake before it's too late, LOL.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/01/2006 3:16 PM  

  • Thanks Jenn! They were very cute in their little costumes...that they are still wearing today, LOL.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/01/2006 7:16 PM  

  • I didn't get one trick or treater. There aren't a lot of kids in my neighborhood, but I still thought I'd get a couple.

    Adorable costumes .. and glad Jessica didnt' freak. :)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/01/2006 8:01 PM  

  • cute costumes, glad jessica was found and was ok

    By Blogger Laura, at 11/01/2006 10:27 PM  

  • Cap, we live in a development, so we get a s-load of kids. We just sit on the front porch and hand out candy...it's a pain to have to keep answering the door and luckily our town limits it to 2 hours....

    Laura, yeah she was perfectly fine and kept commenting on how she gave mommy a heart attack.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/02/2006 8:09 AM  

  • now after you said you had a smirnoff i noticed your cheeks a little darker red.
    As you see in our pics it wasnt too balmy, but i know your little super man and lady bug wouldnt have minded at all. I feel the snow adds contrast to the evening;)
    Your kids are absolutely adorable.

    By Blogger Chris, at 11/02/2006 7:22 PM  

  • Ha! The picture was taken before the Smirnoffs :) It's a natural blush :)

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/02/2006 9:07 PM  

  • Hey dearie!! Where is your costume??
    Oh that is too much fright losing a child, especially on Halloween!!

    By Blogger Tongue in Cheek Antiques, at 11/05/2006 2:24 PM  

  • I'll have to come up with something good for next year....and yes, losing your child on Halloween is pretty ironic considering how scary both are.

    By Blogger Shannon, at 11/05/2006 6:40 PM  

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