walmart, fireworks and the emergency room.

oh how your day can change.

got off work last night, normal as can be, went to walmart and to shop for a cookout today, took an awesome picture of a bra someone had abandoned in the tomatoes. good times. didn't find everything we needed at walmart, so we went to kroger. had us a cart with some paper plates and a cabbage, was about to put some tasty looking day-old donuts in there when mandy's phone starts ringing. it was dad, didn't answer it in time, we figured he just needed something from the store.

what we learned was there was an accident with some fireworks over at my uncle's brothers house, where mom, all three kids, deb and art were. everyone is fine, but mom and lily got burned and we need to meet him at the emergency room. soni tries to run off with the cart of paper plates and cabbage out a door that wasn't open. after a 'just take your purse!' and 'that door's not open!!' we make it back out of krogers and to the van and head off to hardin memorial. we were vaguely freaking out, but if dad says they're fine we are inclined to take his word for it, and make it safe and sound and with no speeding tickets.

we head into the emergency room and they aren't there. we run back outside and call dad back to find out we beat them all to the ER. the house they were at was in irvington, and they were driving back to hardin county. dad was coming from our house. we see art's van pull up, they see us and pull up where we are. mom gets out first, and she's holding a dish cloth or something on her stomach but isn't too upset. she shows us the burn and parts of it were black, the rest was pink and shiny. lily is sitting on deb's lap, she's calm and we couldn't see the burn. it turns out it went from about her armpit and went down her side. nobody said bug was burned, but when she got out she had a big spot on her leg and arm, but they're not as bad. she has had some spots on her face that didn't look too bad.

deb is upset. she's trying to tell us what happened and is getting emotional, but trying to stay calm since lily is in her lap. bubba's fine, but he wants to make sure everyone is alright, he's very protective of his big sister and loves his aunt lori. we all get inside, dad hasn't gotten there yet and mom's asking for him. i wait outside for dad to get there and we both go inside with everybody. there's all sorts of paper work and stuff going on, bug's a little antsy, and i take her to the bathroom.

now bug will throw a fit if she stubs her toe on something, because it just hurts so bad. but here she is with all these burns just calm as can be. when we're finished in the bathroom and about to go out, she looks at me and she says:

"tiff?"

"what is it, toad?"

"i saw it coming. i saw it but i couldn't move out of my chair."

"you saw it coming at you?"

"yeah."

"then you're a lucky little girl that somebody was there to get you, huh?"

"yeah."

and that's all she had to say about it. when i talked to chris later he said she was probably in shock, since it all happened so fast.

but everybody got bandaged up (of course it still took hours since it was the ER), and got to go home. i spent most of the time with bubba playing with the wooden toys on the wall, the ones where you can move the balls around the tracks ("this one is me, this one is you and this one is lily bug. this is us in space!") and we colored some in the special 'trip to the hospital' coloring books. deb had to go outside and smoke her first cigarette in years, though. it was all pretty emotional, really. when art first saw my dad, he went right up to him and said 'albert, i'm so sorry.' he was really quiet the whole time, i think since dad wasn't there he was supposed to be the man of the group and protect his wife and little girl. deb was upset because she was off from the fireworks and she didn't know what was happening. dad was upset because he had been at home and not at that house with them. they were all kinda bummed because not one of them had wanted to go to that house at all.

so this is what actually happened though, as i've put together from all the accounts:

they were at the house of a friend of art's brother. they had a little bar-b-que and were doing fireworks for the kids. and these were pretty big fireworks. bug and lily were in chairs near the house and mom was standing behind them. deb was kinda off to the side. they shot off a bunch, but one apparently misfired, but the people setting them off didn't see it or know what happened, they actually kept setting them off. the misfired one headed for bug's chair, just as gina (art's brother's wife) was coming out of the house. gina saw the firework and snatched bug out of the chair, but bug was still hit a little bit, mainly with sparks or spray from the firework. the firework ricocheted off the chair and hit lily. lily's clothes actually caught fire, they had to throw them away at the hospital (she left wearing a tank top soni had on under her own shirt). mom grabs lily and basically smothers the fire, and either she got hit by an after shot of the firework or the flames on lily's clothes burned through her own shirt (her shirt had a burn hole in it) and got her on the stomach. my mom said it felt like she'd been shot, and she thought that she might be on fire, so she hit the grass (with or without lily, i'm not sure, but she did grab lily after it happened. mom asks deb if the babies (meaning the kids) were all right or to get them, but deb was so far away she didn't know anything had happened. after all this chaos ensues.

it's horrible that these things happen, but you kinda see what these kids are really made of. mom ran with bug into the house and said that she smelled like smoke, so she started spinning her around and looking for damage. but bug wasn't screaming or crying, she just kept asking mom if they were okay. i think the whole time in the ER she was more worried about mom and lily. she was acting very mature for age, i think, because i'm sure all those burns hurt, but she knew they weren't as bad as what mom and lily got.

lily came out of the ER with a nice does of codeine, so she was a happy lily. a very happy lily.

today has just been helping out, making sure they're not running into things with their burns, soni got the job of changing all the bandages since she's the best at it. lily's changing did not go well, she was pretty upset about, but then again she has a second degree burn down her side. i also got a good look at mom's, it's pretty gross but it's also shaped like a bean which makes me giggle. bug's got her big ones covered up and cream on the one's on her face.

it was all pretty traumatic, but everyone seems in pretty good spirits and in a lot less pain then i guess there could have been. so that is my tale.

everybody had a great independence day, but please for my sake be very cautious! those fireworks are still explosives! just prettier! and if you don't know how to handle them go watch some on t.v.!! i love you all and don't want anybody to get hurt!

peace and love. :3