Yesterday was the day we had to take Aidan to the burn center for a follow up on his hands. Matt went into the office for a few hours, but was coming home in time to take him. We opted to go ‘as a family’. When I called to make the appointment the lady told me they had an opening at 2:00. She then went on to tell me that we needed to be there at 1:00 to register & get admitted. An hour ahead sure seemed a little excessive to me, but we made plans to be there. She gave me the address of where to go a couple of times…. rambled it off both times. (Matt tells me it’s in what the locals call ‘naked city’. Classic!) I put the babies down for a nap, grabbed my shower, got the big boys dressed and ready, then made lunch for the babies. I had to wake them up so they would have a chance to eat before we loaded the car. Matt got here right as the babies were eating and helped me tag-team them to get them changed and dressed. It was pretty chilly here yesterday so he decided to start the car to let it warm up. Those of you that know me, know that there are very few days in my life that lack drama, and this day was no exception. Of course Matt walks back in and says “Michelle…. the Suburban won’t start”…. then followed it with “so what’s our plan?” We were already running a little behind, and quite frankly my brain works about 2 steps behind the rest of me these days. He asked if we should load them in the baby seats and take his car, but my first response was that the stroller wouldn’t fit. Why I had forgotten that we have a double & a single umbrella stroller is beyond me. I asked if he had any jumper cables, and surprisingly, he actually found them!
I was still getting babies settled so he asked Noah to help him. I wish I had thought to capture a picture of Noah behind the wheel of the car ‘giving it gas’. Boy did he ever think he was cool. (A scary glimpse into my future.) It took awhile to get it going, but it finally worked. We loaded up the car and away we went. About 1/2 way there Matt made a comment that he ‘hoped it held the charge’. All I could vision was us getting stuck in ‘naked city’ with 5 kids in tow.
By the time we got there it was almost 1:30. The burn center is in the hospital, so we parked, unloaded & assembled the stroller, loaded babies, grabbed the diaper bag & the big boys and we trucked it inside. We headed up to the 3rd floor where the burn center was, and all I could think of was the woman telling me we had to go to admitting. I figured we would check in and then one of us could go to admitting. Well, it turns out that admitting was actually at that address the woman kept rambling off. That address happens to be just down the street from the actual burn center. Not even in the same building! NIGHTMARE! So Matt & Noah decided to walk down the street while I stayed with Eli and the babies. About 20 minutes after they left I got a text saying ‘scary’, and that ‘even Noah is freaking out’. I could only imagine. The place I was in was scary enough. I think we probably cleaned out their hand sanitizer dispensers. After almost 2 hours they finally called us to go back. They opened up all of Aidan’s blisters, applied medicine, then wrapped him back up. They asked us to come back every day to change the dressing and then we will see the doctor on Friday. At 4:15 we were finally back on our way home. The car started! Yea! We were almost home when I saw a nice envelope on the windshield. Not one, but two tickets. Yep… one for parking, another for registration. There was no meter where we parked. We have now learned that every block there are signs that say to pay some central meter. We never saw it, obviously. As for the registration, I have until the 25th to take care of my registration. That’s the court date from my other ticket. (Nice.) In NV it costs over $500 per vehicle to register, compared to the $80 I paid in Texas. Someday I’m going to catch a break.
Morale to the story??? Taking 5 kids to a county hospital in ‘naked city’ is a bad idea.
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