The Sunday Freeze

The first Sunday of the new year is always a struggle. Between the church time change, and the scramble to find new classrooms it's work and that doesn't even take into account that I had to squeeze into my tight fitting skirt after a holiday of over indulging in every way. Anyway, I got up early 7AM to be exact, I gathered as many church outfits for the kids as I could find, it's always a chore to find something for Grey, he's growing like a weed and needs a new size every few months. I packed the church bag and fed everybody breakfast, I hope they all digested OK, I yelled "hurry and eat" at regular intervals. Despite not feeling well, at all, Jeramie hopped into the shower and took the two oldest in with him while I dressed the twins as fast as I could. I got Jack out first and dried him off and told him to dress himself, while I grabbed James. It was a race to see who could get their tie on the fastest, I think James won.....but don't tell Jack, I think he thinks he did. 10 minutes till church starts and I'm running a brush through my hair for the first time in two days, applying mascara as I run out the door. 5 minutes till church starts and we're jumping into the van, we actually skip buckling up because we can't afford the time to unbuckle everybody at church 3 blocks down the road. 1 minute till church starts and we park in the first available parking spot and grab the kids and run to the nearest door.....it is COLD, FREEZING actually! I should mention we skipped coats, I hate caring coats all through church, but I'm seriously rethinking that at this point. We rush into the doors and drag all four kids to the nearest available seat, which happen to be on the 4th row. Just as we sit, the Bishop stands to welcome everybody to church. Whew! We made it in the nick of time. Just then Jeramie leans over and says "I think we're in the wrong ward". What? I quickly look down at that program clutched in my hand, some stranger handed me as we rushed in and sure enough we are definitely in the wrong ward! I ponder my options for about 5 seconds and then grab the two kids nearest me and tell Jer "let's go" We rush out making as much of a scene as we did going in. In the foyer we stand confused, we're sure our ward was switching to the 9AM schedule, and I'm sure this is still our building having attended the primary "meet your new teacher" breakfast here the morning before. What could we do, we dragged the kids back out into the freezing cold and headed for the car. Jack at this point started to cry, he was looking forward to his new primary class. We all came home and I started calling my neighbors, I finally got a hold of someone who told me that there had been a little change, our ward does switch to the early schedule but not until January 18th. Aghh, I am seriously frustrated at this point, after all we're all in our church clothes and our meetings don't start for another two hours....do you know how much dirt 4 kids can get on church clothes in two hours? Long story short, we made it back to church at 11AM, mostly clean, Jack got to attend his new class and despite having some last minute jitters about not having his old teacher, enjoys being a CTR very much. James, Greyson and Addison all went to nursery together and for the most part survived, as for me I did hear about 30 minutes of the RS lesson, uninterrupted for the first time in years....it was almost worth it.