Locked Out

Yesterday I locked us out of our house. I couldn't find my keys when it was time to go get the kids from school and just thought that I would use the keypad entrance to the garage to get in. What I didn't remember at that moment was that I had gone through the garage that morning when I took the kids to school and had, out of habit, locked the door from the garage into the house. Here's the thing - that door always stays unlocked. It is our backup entrance to the house. If we somehow lock ourselves out, you can always get in using the garage keypad. Now I realized that I had locked the door behind me about 20 seconds after I did it, but I was halfway up the stairs and told myself to remember that and unlock it when I got back downstairs. Didn't happen. Anyway, so we get home and can get into the garage, but not the house. Of course I didn't have my phone. I'm not a person who carries a phone everywhere, only in the car (and most of the time I'm lucky if I remember that). I had my ipod, but that wasn't helping. Ryan has a phone which is supposed to be kept in his bookbag at all times in case there is ever an emergency and I can't be there when school is out. Problem solved, right? We will just call Dad or Grandma to come let us in. WRONG, his "for emergency use only" phone was at Grandma's. Oh well, still my fault that the house is locked, a fact that Sam was only too happy to keep repeating when he finally rolled in about 20 minutes later. He also threw in that he had always thought that he should be given an emergency key. I chose to ignore him rather than choke him, but it took some restraint. Anyway none of our neighbors were home, but the girl next door would be home by 4, so I knew we could use her phone then. And I knew that my friend Darnell would eventually come home and be able to shelter us, so at the most we may have had to stay outside for two hours. Now understand that it was 60 degrees outside. The first warm day after like three weeks straight of freezing temps. The boys most likely would have been outside anyway, but you would not have known this by the complaining that ensued. For the past three days we have watched news footage of the devastation in Haiti and my children had the nerve to whine and complain longer and louder than any poor person stuck there. They received a lecture on appreciation and being grateful, etc. but by the way they looked at me I believe I must have sounded the way that adults do in the Peanuts cartoons. Waan Wa Waa. Anyway to wrap this up, all ended well when after practicing baseball with Ryan and street hockey with Sam, I decided to try some windows to see if by some miracle one was open, and low and behold the laundry room window was unlocked. Possibly since we moved in by the amount of dust that fell from the blinds when they were moved. So we shoved Sam through we were "saved" according to Ryan. They than ate like they had been lost at sea for weeks. It was 3:54. We normally get home around 3:00. Bit disturbing to know that I have had an unlocked access spot in my house for 10 years, but it came in handy yesterday.