Police Stakeouts, Near Car Accidents, and Flying Apples

(This post is late being posted, so it actually happened in the beginning of March - shows how busy my life has been. I have not blogged for five weeks. And you thought I was blogging every second day! HA!)

Apples being dropped from 16 stories up, near car accidents and police stakeouts - all in one day! My friend, Tammy, and I just got back from a fun 'field trip' to the "Big City". We had bought tickets back in November for the Broadway production of "Annie".

The days of travelling in the horse and wagon are gone. The days of sitting in a car and playing games like counting license plate names from A-Z are gone. Today's kids have it so much easier than even when we were kids! I knew that if I was taking six kids in a car I needed to take my best friend, Technology! So Dane brought his flight simulator and computer and flew to the coast - of course, he beat us; Cassidy brought his DS (portable electronic gamer); Colt had his old fashioned Game Boy; and Austin had his 'One Laptop Per Child' mini computer. Poor little Cooper had nothing. *smile* Not that he noticed. He listened to Adventures in Odyssey audios all the way down. And was a quiet trip!

I was determined to take my big boys to see a real Broadway show before they left home. It is rather sad that it has taken me this long, but such is life. No more though! From now on, I will be making sure those big boys get all the chances that the little ones will get. That is what happens when you have a large family. In the early days, if you are like we were, you have no money. You get by, make-do, etc. Now, as we have added children, God has blessed us with covering our needs. So now, it is time to make up for lost time!

I left the two youngest at home, as I knew they would not appreciate it the way the older ones would, and I asked a friend and her two children to join us. Rather, she heard of our exciting adventure and invited herself along. *smile* And it was a grand time!

I wanted to get a few things in on the trip that I knew the boys would not have an opportunity to do again, so we headed to the Planetarium. It turned out to be smaller than I remembered! Sadly, the laser light show was not being shown in the daytime, so we missed that.


The funny thing is that while we were waiting to go in, a man dressed in a black suit and wheeling two suitcases behind him came striding in through the doors and over to the desk. Austin whispered to me that that man was from 'The Dragon's Den', an inventors show, kind of like American Idol.

Austin may have seen this show one or two times, but I wasn't surprised. He has shown me a few times now, that he has a photographic memory for faces, and spelling words! So I suggested he ask the man to see if he was right. Mr. Brave walked right up to the man and was told that yes, he was right. He then proceeded to get a picture taken.

Apparently, this is the "Mean Judge", kind of like Simon, in American Idol. *smile*

Now, once we got inside I realized how small it was! My memory of that place was a black night sky with millions of tiny twinkling lights. Well! It shrank, cause the dome was so much smaller!! Or perhaps I grew.

Touching a Real Moon Rock

My mum's cousin, John, was the NASA scientist / doctor that figured out what the body needed to have in a space suit for the Apollo 13 moon landing. This space suit in the picture is the Apollo 12 space suit. That is my claim to fame *smile*, and it is what spurred me on to teach my children to reach as high as they could while attaining their education.

You never know what you are capable of, unless you push yourself, or at least try your very best. Because of this, our oldest son raised the bar on his education and is now going for higher education, and is deciding if he should get his Bachelors Degree, rather than settling on just finishing school! We all need someone to inspire us on.

Touching the Moon Rock

During this chemistry show, the scientist asked for volunteers. Cassidy and Austin put up their hands and were chosen. Austin had the pleasure of shooting balls at Cassidy using her chemistry lesson, and Cassidy did his best to avoid the projectile!

We went into a simulator that was taking us into space towards the sun. Raine had told me she wanted to go to space after she had seen Space Buddies and I had told her that she could. She just had to get her schooling done and then whatever her heart desired she could work towards. So when we entered this space ship I told her we were heading to space. I have no idea if she believed me or figured it was a bumpy movie!! LOL!! But the thing is when we were already inside the guy told us to not ride if anyone got motion sickness. Oh boy! Raine has had that happen two times! But I knew I had given her a motion sickness pill earlier in the day, so I was pretty confident that she would be fine. And she was.

After we left the planetarium we headed to our hotel, checked in and then walked down to Gas Town for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.



We should have given ourselves more time because we were running late! By the time the dinner arrived (and they were quick) we had to basically shovel and run! As the waiter brought our icecream, he said, "I'll dump this down," and I replied, "And we'll suck it down!" LOL! He was trying so hard to get us through on time!

We ended up running out of the restaurant and hailing cabs. There was no way we were going to be able to walk to the theatre. The first of two cabs arrived and he told us he could only take four people. I figured he wouldn't notice a small fifth one, but yup, he did. So we decided to have me go with three boys.

I left Tammy with her daughter, the older boys, and Raine. It was now 7:43 and our performance began in 17 minutes! Our driver was anxious to go and was almost driving away with me not in the car! So I jumped in and yelled to Tammy to take a third cab and send Raine with Colt in that cab.

Six minutes later, we arrived at the Theatre and we leapt out. We figured Tammy would be right behind us. Not! About 7 minutes went by and she finally arrived. I was panicking (mildly) by then, thinking she would not make it in time. She had the tickets and I had no way of securing our seats! Plus, she was worried cause I had no tickets, no cell phone, and no address to the theatre!! She was worried our cab driver might get lost and I would have no idea where to go! LOL!! So we both had no idea how the other would fare.

It turned out she had hailed two more cabs, and they had taken them on a scenic route that cost her 50% more than my trip! But we made it in the doors.

We had two sets of seats. One set of two and one set of 8. I had not been able to order 10 seat together online, so we were going to have the big boys sit together. Turned out that Raine decided she wanted to sit with Colt. So he had a small date! She loved the performance and clapped hard whenever there was clapping.

It was a wonderful production and I am so glad I took my big boys. Though it was a girly type show, that made no difference with the boys. At home, when they have seen musicals, they don't get excited. Even when they have seen them in small stage productions. But this was different, as I knew it would be. There is absolutely nothing as wonderful as a live Broadway show. When I hear the music my insides just feel like they are bursting. It is such a magical feeling the way the music fills my soul. The children, but most importantly, the older boys, loved the performance! I can't wait to take Dane back to see another one now!

We headed back to our hotel and collapsed into bed, exhausted. We were planning to do a little shopping the next day and head home. But we didn't know the excitement, or should I say *drama* was not yet over!

Our children are usually so wonderful. Right? Right. Well, Tammy said if I didn't post the whole story, then the blog wouldn't be real. And as my good friend Denise says, blogs give a pretty look at families, but not a real view. And I know that I for one, love to read a blog that shows me it all. I learn from the way the parents handle it and I know that I am not alone when the children do things they shouldn't have done! So here is real. *smile*

Tammy and I were having a nice leisurely breakfast. The nine children were scattered around three tables. Then the older children said they were done and asked if they could go up to the 16th floor to look out. I had not even thought about how high up 16 floors was, or I might have said no.

We kept the little ones with us and continued our breakfast. A little while later, the little ones went across the dining room and then returned.... with a forbidding looking man in tow. Right away, I knew something was not right.

He had approached the children and asked them what room they were in. Hello? Do you think 5 and 6 year olds take note of room numbers? "We are upstairs." *grin* Good answer. Where is your mother? "My mum is with Mrs. Russell." Another good answer!! LOL!! (Names have been changed for privacy reasons *smile*.) LOL! So then he asked them if they could bring him to us.

How he knew they were our children I do not know!

It turned out that our dear children were on the 16th floor and had dropped apples off the balcony! Not only that, they had poured some water off!! People had been calling on cell phones to complain. Oh, my goodness! My children have never done anything like that before! Yes, you are all thinking: As far as you know!

Before he could finish speaking I was gone - headed for the elevator!

Tammy was shortly behind me, and we headed upstairs to our rooms where we found the children. Yes, they owned up to it pretty quickly, and then after a stern lecture, headed downstairs to the manager to apologize.

We followed in the next elevator, and as I was impatiently waiting for the elevator to get down to the main floor, it suddenly occurred to me just how high 16 floors was! My mind was on the 3rd floor level, as that is the usual motel/hotel that we stay at! Sixteen floors is enough to flatten someone with an apple!

Once down, we waited in the background, while the manager dressed them down and then accepted their apologies. I am pretty sure that that stunt will not be repeated! Makes you wonder what happens when you are not around....

So, that was enough drama for one day - or was it?

At the Mall

After book shopping and buying army boots and pants for one son, we headed home. It was dark before we even began the long venture onto the four hour drive! I hate travelling at night normally and this trip had all kinds of weather! Hail, rain, snow, ice, sleet, and clear.

When we were driving through a somewhat clear area and Tammy was in front of me, something very surreal happened. I started seeing her car do 180* turns - all the way to the left, and then flipping back all the way to the right, and then it continued sliding all over the place. The area was totally illuminated because I had my lights right on her, so I was able to see the whole frightening scene playout.

As I was watching her and digesting what was happening, it began to happen to me. Oh boy! Did I pray! Or should I say petition *loudly*! I was on a main freeway in the dark and had no idea where my car full of seven children was going to end up!

Without even thinking, I took my foot off the gas and geared down, (not touching the brakes) while crying out to God, "Help us, Lord! Lord, help us! We need you NOW!! NOW, LORD!" My cries got louder and continued, as the seconds went by and the car kept spinning, and then finally the car came to a rest. It was facing forward, in our lane, and Tammy was slightly ahead of me, facing forward also.

It was then that I noticed a truck a few feet behind me. Praise God that he did not rear end me!!!! The children, except for Colt, who was in the front seat, slept through the entire thing, which is amazing, considering how loudly I was praying! It was the most frightening few minutes!

Not long after this, I get a call from my husband. He tells me that there has been someone parked outside our driveway for the last two hours, and they have a laptop computer. Me, being a girl, said, "Two hours and you haven't called the cops?" He, being a man, was in control of the situation and was keeping an eye on things. I, being a girl, would have been freaking out. Actually, I was a bit freaked out, out there on the freeway, thinking of someone stalking our house!

He said he would call the cops and get back to me. Man, would the day end?

We continued driving, slowwwwly, for the next couple hours, until our phone got in range again. I called Ray back, and he told me that he had called the police, and they had told him that they would send someone out. I told him that Colt had told me that the guy might have been hacking into our internet, since it was right outside our house. That was rather freaky! I have no clue how that all works, but I know that we have had our credit card broken into once and that was unnerving!

Ray then told me that about 45 minutes after he had called the police station, he had received a call from the *man outside in the car*! He had told Ray that he was a police officer! Whoa! We figured there must be a stakeout happening.

I was not willing to leave this unanswered. The police officers did not come out to the house, because there was a stakeout, and was it our house? Sounded unlikely, but it didn't make me comfortable, so I called the police station myself. The woman told me that something was going on, but she couldn't tell me what and it wasn't likely to be our house (with all 8 kids, as I mentioned to her *grin*) as they wouldn't be right outside our gate.

Ray called me back shortly after to tell me that two more vehicles had arrived with a hydro truck and they had moved down the road about 50'. I am sure since Ray blew their cover!! LOL! When I got to our neighbourhood, I passed the trucks rather than driving into our driveway. The police truck was there, plus two other trucks parked on the other side of the road. They were in full undercover get-up: muddy, rough looking trucks. What was the giveaway? They had laptop computers and scanners showing in the inside. As I drove by, very, very slowly, I peered into the vehicles, *grin* and boy, did they peer back at me!!

The funny thing is they thought they were not obvious!? How silly. In our neighbourhood, noone parks on the street! We have driveways that are long enough to park our vehicles, so they were really not undercover at all!! LOL!!

I went to bed and after midnight when I got up, they were still there! The funny thing is they were appearing to stakeout this house where this little man lives. He walks by our house everyday with a dog. He is Asian and doesn't speak English. Or so we think.... *grin*

And that ended our very exciting trip to the Big City!
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