Playing Mom

I haven't been on xanga for like a month now, and this time the reason is not that there's been nothing to write about, but just the opposite. Just wait 'til I get starte...

  First, let me introduce to you the characters of our story-

Kelly Brooks- Mother of 4 adopted children

Gene- Kelly’s husband; owner of Justin's (nicest restaurant in Morristown)

Chasity- 11 year old daughter of the Brooks who thinks she’s 25; likes to lie.

Ashley- 10 year old daughter; very touchy feely

Joey- The cutest, most gentlemanly little 9-year-old boy you ever met- also adopted son.

Precious Angel (yes, that's her name)- Spoiled little brat of a 6-year-old; can be sweet.

Kristy Cornett- My friend who got me hooked up with the Brooks

Once upon a time, well about a month and a half ago, I was hooked up with a lady who needed a babysitter for 11 days in July while she and her husband went to Belize. I had never met this family, and really had no idea why the parents would entrust their 4 adopted children with a strange teenager like myself while they were out of the country for 11 days? But Kelly did, and on July 5^th, I started my babysitting job.

                I was quite looking forward to the job, not only for the thousand dollars that I was getting paid, but also because of the great free Justin's Steakhouse food that I would get free every night, the in-ground pool in the backyard, and the huge house that I would be staying in.

                I was scheduled to meet the Brooks at their house at 4:30 AM on Thursday morning.  I set the time on my alarm for 4:00 AM the night before, so I was quite surprised and panicked when I woke up (by the grace of God) at 4:35 AM (apparently I didn’t push the alarm button to ON).  In a crazy panic I grabbed my stuff and was out the door in five minutes. At about 15 'til, I got a phone call from the Brooks making sure I was awake. I arrived at their house about 20 minutes late and got about 10 minutes of instruction before they were out the door.  I went with them out the their car, saw them drive off, and then went to take my bag from my car into the house, unfortunately, when I got back to the front door, I realized that it had locked behind me. So, I quick called Kelly on her cell, "So, you know how I came outside a minute ago? Well, I kinda closed the door behind me and…." "We’re turning around now to come unlock the door for you."  So, by the time they came back, let me in again, and left for the second time, they were about 45 minutes late. NOT A GOOD START. Strike one.

                After sleeping a few hours on the Brook’s huge couch, the kids woke up. One by one they came down, got some breakfast, and started watching TV.  Being the adventurous person that I am, I was determined not to let those kids sit around and watch TV for the 11 days that I was keeping them, so as soon as they were all sufficiently awake, I called a "family meeting." Over the next hour, we discussed in a very "fake professional courtroom" manner, how the next week would be spent. They all came up with exciting things like, shooting Fireworks, going to my house to explore in the woods etc., and do a scavenger hunt in the mall.  Near the end of the "meeting" we discussed all of the rules that their mother had laid down for me to enforce while they were gone and the punishments that I could use. On one of the notes left for me, Kelly had written "Can Spank" which of course sparked the interest of the children. Once Precious saw that, she asked "Are you gonna spank us with a paddle or your hand like mommy?" And that’s when I pulled out my belt. I was wearing a nice thick brown belt (much like the one’s that were used on me as a child), and quickly snatched it out of my belt loops and gave a loud SNAP! The children looked on wide eyed and scared to death.  I wanted to make sure that I had control of them and they didn’t think of me just as a fun peer, and suffice to say, I think that show of the belt accomplished that goal.

                The first day went fine; we laid low, staying at their house and swimming most of the day. Kelly had said she would call every night and about 8:00 PM, the phone rang. All the children talked to their mother while I was outside. I heard from one of the children later that when Precious got on the phone, she went into hysterics, crying "Lee Anne has a big belt that she’s gonna hit us very hard with!" I'm quite sure that didn’t put Kelly at ease regarding the person she had just left her children with. Strike two.

                The next few days went great, we stayed busy with exciting activities, ate great steak and potato soup and salads, and slept amazingly at night. And then…Sunday came.

                I got all of the children to church on time, to their correct Sunday schools, and back together for lunch without a problem. We stayed at church for a couple hours playing in the gym and the went back to their house for a couple hours of swimming (I was driving their nice Expedition for the week). At about 8:00, the three younger children and I decided to go meet my friend Kristy Cornett and a couple other families from church at the Panther Creek Park campground, while Chasity went over to a friend’s to spend the night. The kids had a BLAST when we got the park. They caught crawdads, played in the creek, ran around with the other kids, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over a campfire, and had the time of their lives. I took my guitar and was singing campfire songs and really enjoying myself too. About 10:00, my cell phone rang (which was unexpected since there was practically NO reception there), and I looked down to see that it was my friend Marcie Little.  Well, since I was in the middle of the excitement there, I decided not to answer and just call her back later. About two minutes later, the phone rang for a second time, and I looked down to see a number I didn't recognize at all. "Must be Marcie calling from her home phone."  I thought, and again didn’t answer. THAT, was one of the worst mistakes of my life.

                A few minutes later I saw that I had a voicemail, and called to check it. "Hi, this is Kelly" I heard, "I just called home and nobody answered. I was just tryin' to find my kids. I was getting a little worried since it's kinda late and all." Well, that phone call didn’t worry me TOO bad, she didn’t sound too upset on the phone or anything. Unfortunately, I couldn't call her back because the number from Belize was so long it couldn't be recorded in my phone. About 5 minutes later, ANOTHER voicemail popped up- "Lee Anne, this is Kelly's mom, she called me tryin to find her kids and I told her I'd call. Please call me as soon as you get this." Of course, then I didn’t have any reception, so I couldn't call her back, so I decided to start putting things up to get ready to go. THEN, Kristy’s phone rang. It was my dad with a friend of Kelly's on the other line, looking for me too. Apparently Kelly had just called her and gave her an earful, completely worried out of her head about her kids. She had told Kelly that she thought I was taking the kids camping down by the lake by myself. At that point, I rushed all the kids to the car as fast as I could. Of course, they were all upset about having to leave and started crying. Kristy gave me a bit of advice as I left, "Lee Anne" She said, "You have GOT to get those kids happy for when they talk to their mother when you get home!" So, on the way home, I tried to dwell on the great things that happened all day by asking them "Did y’all have fun at the park?" and "What was your favorite part Joey?" What about you Ashley?" It worked. By the time we got home, they were jabbering away at how fun the day was. When we finally got ahold of Kelly (about 11:30), she had heard where we really were and calmed down some. She talked to all of her children, and then me…for two minutes at most.  but that’s okay, I'm just glad she didn’t chew me out. Strike three.

  But wait! There’s more!

                The next few days, we spent cooped up at home, spend a lot of time in the pool. There was no freakin way I was taking those children anywhere away from that home phone after Sunday’s little adventure! Not much exciting happened, until Thursday…

                On Thursday morning, Chasity noticed that the pool was clouding up, and told me to throw in a few bags of shock that afternoon after we were done swimming, which I did. That night on the phone, she told her mom that the pool was cloudy, at which she replied "Well, you had sure better get it completely cleared up by the time I get back Sunday night!" (Of course that info was all second hand, and Chasity does lie keep in mind). I had been given ZERO instructions regarding the pool, and didn’t have a clue about their upkeep.

                On Friday morning, we woke up to find that the pool was beginning to turn green. At this point, I was really beginning to worry about my health upon the return of these parents, so I really thought it would be wise to have their pool clear when they arrived. I was in charge after all. That afternoon, I went to the pool store, got an education on pool upkeep, and bought $50 worth of chemicals to put in the pool. I went through all the processes as I was directed- turned off the filter, put in more chlorine tablets, put in all the chemicals every hour, and then turned back on the filter. That night, the pool looked like a green swamp. It was awful. That night was spent in deep and fervent prayer for the pool. And sure enough, in the morning, I woke up to and clear pool. HALLELUJAH!

                But then I noticed another problem, the water level was down several inches.  The only thing I could figure was the all the chemicals somehow made the water evaporate extra fast...maybe?  So, we put the hose in the pool on a slow stream all day and didn’t give it a second thought. What we did give a second thought was the fact that the trash was stinking up a storm! We had completely forgotten to take the trash out last Sunday and now, with two weeks trash piled up, it was rank! I decided that that, again, would probably not be a good thing for Kelly and Gene to come back and see….and smell. Thankfully Kristy's husband agree to come and haul it off, only to find that it was full of HUGE maggots. It was the nastiest thing I have EVER seen. Strike four.

     So, Saturday evening, we realize that the water level to the pool is still down, despite the hundreds of gallons of water that we had been putting in it all day. After careful examination of the pool and filter, I came to the realization, that the filter was somehow broken- stuck on backwash. So instead of pumping the filtered water back into the pool, it was pumping out a pipe by the driveway and up into the street.  At that point there was nothing I could do. It was broken. So, I turned off the water hose, and turned of the filter.

    Without a filter running, the obvious occurred- the pool started to turn foggy again. By Sunday night when the parents arrived, and faint green could be seen around the edges of the pool again. I had failed. Strike Five.

                Well, the parents arrived back at about 10:00 pm (Thank God it was too dark to see the pool), and I was out of there in 15 minutes, no joke, after I got my check. Nobody seemed to mad, I was still alive, all the kids were still alive, and I got my money.

                And that is my adventure trying to be someone else's children’s mom for 11 days. People ask me if that was enough to make me not want to have kids. My reply?  "Nah. I like the challenge."

"Goodbye my [car]. Goodbye my friend, you have been the one, you have been the one for me..."

“Your car is perfect for you.”

   Thus were the wordsof Krystle Tuggle last Saturday night, and indeed, I agree. I love mycar; I love driving a stick, I like the colors, I is indeed a perfect car for me…..rather….it WAS a perfect car for me.

    I was so glad thatit worked out for me to got to Krystle Tuggle’s graduation party thisweekend. I drove four hours to Murfreesboro on Saturday and made intime for her graduation. The next 24 hours were wonderful. We danced,played soccer, ate some good food, and just hung out. It was great fun.And then…..I left.

   I was a little bitworried starting out at 9:30 PM because I had only gotten a few hoursof sleep the night before. I did okay the first hour staying awake, butaround 11:00 I started to get really sleepy, SO, I took a pit stop,bought some Vault and some Cheetoh’s and was on my way. About tenminutes after I had been driving again, my check engine light came on.At that point, I thought about stopping right then on the side of theinterstate, but decided against it considering that it was almostmidnight, pitch dark, and no exit in sight. So, I drove on.

  In about threeminutes, it became increasingly difficult to accelerate and when Iattempted, a terrible clicking sound could be heard. To my relief, Irounded a curve to see the Harriman exit up the next hill (about 2hours from my house). It was at that point that my acceleration wentcompletely out. All I had left was a coast.  Itwas only the hand of God that allowed me to make it up the big hill tothe exit ramp, go down the exit ramp and BARELY make it into a lighted MacDonald's parking lot. I was relieved.

   When the car when I came to a stop, I realized that smoke was billowing from under my hood.  When I popped the hood, I saw that all that smoke was coming straight from the engine.

    After making a fewphone calls, I arranged for mom to come pick me up and AAA to come pickup the car. But they wouldn’t be there for a good 2 to 2 ½ hours, and Ihad a major dilemma- that Vault that I had just guzzled was reallybeginning to have an effect…on my bladder. There was noteenage-girl-friendly looking place within a safe walking distance andMacDonald’s only had the drive through open, BUT, I decided to give ita try. Upon knocking on the door, a rather large lady came with keysand ask what I wanted. I told her my dilemma, to which she replied that“No one is allowed into the building after closing hours. It’s policy.”  I put on my most pitiful puppy dog eyes and looked around as if to say “So you want me to go to one of THOSE placed and risk being abducted?!?!” Apparently it worked because, the lady called back to an older manager who agree to let me in. HALLELUJAH!

   To make a long story a little shorter...momarrived at about 2:00 AM along with the AAA guy who said I probablyjust broke some kind of belt.

I woke up about 1:30 Monday afternoon, went downstairs, and heard the news from mom: It weren't no "just a broken belt."No sir. My engine blew up. Completely. It's gone. AND, she also told methat after talking to a couple mechanics, it would cost about $1500 toget a used engine installed and all, which is almost as much as I payedfor the car int he first place.

   SO now, I have no wheels, and no money to buy another car.

But, to look on the bright side, I am no longer wrestling with the question on whether or not to take my car to Hillsdale.

Life goes on......

Please Pray