Stuck!

Today started awesome.  Got up at 5:22 a.m., took a shower, had a date with God, got the kids ready for school without any problems, and we were EARLY to school.  The morning and early afternoon went well, and then Joshua and Selah came with me to get Gideon and Hannah from school because Barak wasn't feeling well and was taking a nap.  After school we stopped at the store to get some Valentine Card making supplies.  Then we came home and did homework.  The kids started making cards.  There was glitter everywhere.  You get the picture.  Needless to say my bloodpressure was rising and I was getting stressed.  No one was really being bad... I was just kind of "done." Been there? 
The light at the end of the tunnel was that at 5:00 Gideon had swim practice and we were all going to the Y.  The other kids would be in their classes and I would have an hour and a half to work out with a good friend.  Beautiful. 
It took 30 minutes to get from inside our house and in the car.  Joshua was playing around and avoiding getting in the car and I finally said (in a voice a 'touch' louder than normal) "SHUT THE BUCKLE AND GET IN YOUR DOOR!" He started cracking up... which made me crack up and lightened the whole mood.
On the way to the Y the kids were being loud and crazy, but in a fun way.  I was counting down the minutes until my alone time...err, my workout.  Everyone quieted down and Hannah said calmly "Mom, Gideon and I were just being silly and now it's stuck and I can't get it out."  "What's stuck?" I asked. "The berry," she said. (After a few moments of questioning I discovered she was talking about a fake berry from a decoration in my trunk that was on it's way to a new home.) "Where is it stuck?"  Hannah said "My ear."
Shocked, I just started laughing.  Hilarious!  I genuinely thought I was gonna wet my pants (cross that off my list! Woohoo!)  I started asking her about how it happened.  Then she said "It's not funny mom!" At that moment I did stop laughing and genuinely felt badly.  But, I still didn't think it would be a big deal.  We pulled up to the Y and I dropped Gideon off for swimming.  I parked the car to take a look at her ear and figured we would be right inside. BOY DID I NEED A BREAK! I looked at her ear and to my surprise... it was STUCK! Like, really stuck.  Sigh. 
Good thing the Y is really close to our doctor's office.  We drove on over and slipped in the waiting room.  The nurse came out to talk to me and said "Hey, I remember you.  She (pointing to Selah) had the broken leg."  I remembered how kind this nurse had been on another crazy day at 5:00 (that's a story for another day) and was thankful to see her! "Melissa! The broken leg nurse.  Yay!"  I then asked her if it would be a good idea to use my handheld dyson to suck the berry out of her ear and she said "No." But, they did agree to see Hannah after their last 3 patients.  I'm not gonna lie, I was having a selfish moment.  "Really?! I have to sit in the doctors office for an hour with 3 wild children. UGH!"  But I got over it and we played Simon Says, took a walk and got in and saw the nurse practitioner.  She tried getting it out and couldn't.  It hurt pretty badly when she did it and Hannah started crying.  Then the doctor came in and took a look.  He felt like it was too far in there and that she should see an ENT who could get it out more easily.  He didn't think it was an emergency or anything. So, we were on our way and will see the ENT tomorrow. 7 1/2 years and I've never had to deal with a foreign object stuck in an ear.   Motherhood. You never know what to expect!
I will say that I have had MANY unexpected moments during my years as a mom.  But what made today different was that, at the end of the day, I reacted differently than I usually do.  After the doctor's office, we still went to the Y and I exercised. I usually would have used this as a great excuse to skip.  I would've headed home and stopped by the gas station and gotten and nice little (or king size) treat to sort of ease the pain.  I would've gotten frustrated and rushed to get the kids in bed ASAP so I could chill.  Trust me.  I wanted to.  And it took me a few minutes to turn to God and make a different choice, but I did. I LITERALLY had to ask for strength to make the right choice.  And after taking the kids to their own classes I finally had a breather.  I even ran into a friend from college and had a great time catching up while on the elliptical machine.  Then I ran a mile.  Not my most awesome workout , but I felt great afterwards... I feel like I'm starting to get "un-stuck." Maybe tomorrow the object in Hannah's ear will be too.  ;)