A ... Thing Happened To Us On The Way To The Bus Stop

My children's school starts at 8:00 in the morning, but they have to catch the bus at 6:37 (you got that right...in the morning) every day. Between my house and the bus stop (about a block away) there are 3 or 4 places that collect mud every time it rains. It rained last night. This morning, as we were walking to the bus stop, Daniel slipped and fell in a BIG mud collection area. He was COVERED in mud! I looked at him, and I looked at Launa (who hadn't fallen and was clean) trying to decide if I dared to leave my little girl at the bus stop alone in the dark to wait for the bus while I ran home to get Daniel changed. I decided that I'd better not, so I told them we needed to hurry home to change. Fortunately, we ran into our next door neighbor on the way back to the house and I asked him if he'd hold the bus for us. (Note: We are a 1-car family, and my husband is at work with the car, so my kids HAVE to make it to the bus.)

As we were walking back to the house, poor Daniel was sore and his shoes were slippy from the mud they were covered in. I wanted to be sympathetic, but the bus was due in any moment. So I told him I was sorry that he was sore, but that we had to hurry. I told him to wipe his shoes in the grass as we walked, and told him that as soon as we got to the house he needed to start taking off his pants and shoes while I grabbed a fresh pair of pants for him.

As we got into the house, I started running upstairs and he started taking off his pants and shoes...on my area rug. I grabbed the first pair of pants I could find and hurried them down to Dan, who was waiting....with his muddy shoes and pants in a heap...on my area rug. While he put his pants on, I grabbed a paper towel to try to wipe some of the mud off the sides and tops of his shoes so they were a least wearable. When I got back from cleaning off his shoes, I realized that I'd handed him a pair on jeans with a hole in the knee (sigh) but they were what he had on, and they were what he would wear. I tossed him a hand towel I had lying around so he could wipe off his hands, he got his coat and backpack back on, and we were on our way back to the bus stop. I think the whole thing took about 3 minutes.

On the way to the stop, our neighbor spotted us and told us to hurry, the bus was waiting. So we ran to the bus (in the STREET this time, because somehow this is safer than the sidewalk). The driver almost headed down to the next stop (which is about 300 feet from my kids' stop, I am NOT exaggerating for effect. It's ridiculous.) but when he saw us, he waited. He told me that if he had gone down to the next stop, he would have waited for us there, which was fine as well, but I was glad I didn't have to run the extra 300 ft!

The kids made it to the bus, and I need a bowl of Lucky Charms.