The Story of the Blue Breathing Bag

"Things are never lost to you; you are lost to them. If ever in need of a Thing that has lost you, simply stop hiding from it." Shannon Hale

Just sit right back

And you'll hear a tale

A tale of a fateful trip

That meant a little blue ol' bag was lost

And made this Mama flip.

Everywhere we go, and I mean everywhere, Isaac carries this blue bag: 

We call it is his "breathing bag." It has Epi-pens and his inhaler and Benadryl and other important medicines in case of an allergic or asthmatic attack. 

(My husband has hammered this home to me. As a physician and the allergist on our base in the Azores, he reminds me of the facts often: Nearly everyone who dies from an allergic reaction knew they had an allergy, had medicine, but didn't have it with them.) 

Got it.

Okay so back to the aforementioned blue bag.

Today was a long day for us. It started with piano lessons at our house. These are usually on Thursday, but had to be switched to Tuesday due to a conflict for our teacher.

During piano lessons, I feverishly had the kids get everything ready for our killer day. Tuesday includes:

• Gymnastics (all 4 kids + Ana the cousin)
• Speech (2 kids)
• Ballet class (Hannah with Abigail helping)
• Karate (2 boys + Gabe the cousin)
• Ballet class (Abigail)

I was so on-the-ball this morning that I had all four of my kiddos load up all their stuff into our SUV an hour before we left. I wanted to make sure we had everything. I have been unprepared for these Tuesdays and they kick my tale. I was going to rock this Tuesday!

Water bottles? Check.

Changes of clothes? Check.

Ballet clothes? Check.

Ballet bag? Check.

Speech items? Check.

Karate "costume"? Check.

You get the idea.

And blue breathing bag? 

Big check!

Isaac assured me his bag was in the car. When we loaded up our vehicle at 11:30am I asked again. I do this every time we load up. Isaac always eye-balls the blue bag and tells me it is definitely there.

So imagine my surprise, ten minutes into gymnastics when he says: "Mom, I need my inhaler."

I say: "Let's go and get it out of the Expedition."

And he can't find it!

I look, and I can't find it!

What in the world ...

My friend Karen is there. She has albuterol so I don't fret. I carry an extra epic-pen in my backpack so we are good to go. 

Isaac does gymnastics with his siblings. 

We load up and head to Speech. After Speech, we always have an hour to kill. As usual, we go to the library. While checking out books at the library, I call JB and ask him to please grab the left-behind blue breathing bag. John is headed into work, and he can drop it off at Karate so we have it there.

John can't find the bag at the house.

Sidge, standing next to me for this conversation on the phone says: "I brought the bag into gymnastics!"

Wait!

What?!

I tell my husband this. Husband says he will drive by gymnastics and retrieve it. He drives in and parks and goes inside. But after many minutes searching he ascertains ... there is no bag at gymnastics.

Egads.

So we go to Karate. I don't have albuterol which makes me nervous, but what are the chances Isaac will need it?

High I guess.

The boys take Karate in a downstairs studio at the same time Abigail takes one of her ballet classes upstairs. 

Isaac come upstairs and says he needs his inhaler.

Egads again. 

So I decide to check my backpack. Mom-of-the-year (I gotta brag whenever a rare opportunity comes up) had stashed an extra albuterol in her bag too! So I give him that, and he returns to Karate.

Bag is still missing. It's not at home. It's not in vehicle. It's not at gymnastics. 

But Isaac still claims it was in the SUV. Sidge claims he brought it into gymnastics. 

Egads. Egads. Egads.

So then we climb in to head home. We load up with my four kids and cousin Gabe, and cousin Gabe reaches down onto the floor to grab something and says: "I found the bag!"

(Shall I say Egads?)

We backtrack and discuss and together we realize that ...

1. Isaac did indeed put blue bag in the car.
2. Sidge did indeed bring blue bag into gymnastics without telling anyone.
3. Sidge then brought the blue bag OUT of gymnastics without remembering he did so.
4. Sidge put blue bag under the seat where no one could see it. 

So, the bag was with us the entire stinkin' day while we thought it was missing the entire stinkin' day. 

Egads,