Our Crazy Morning

Gracie and I had a little adventure this morning. I had just given her a bath and wanted to change the sheet on her crib. I wanted to contain her to her bedroom while I was doing that and straightening up her room, so I naturally closed the bedroom door. When we first moved into this house, her bedroom door didn't close quite right and so our carpenter simply shaved off a little of the door so it would close properly. But with changing weather, the door expanded and still doesn't close properly. We just haven't done anything about it. When you close the door now, it doesn't latch all the way and smart little Gracie can open it if she wants and crawl away. So I shut it tight to prevent her from leaving. Well, I straightened, she played, then I sat in the rocker and let her play some more. Finally it was time for lunch and I went to open the door--- WE WERE STUCK! I could not open the door. I tried forever to open the door. I was about to jiggle the knob loose! The only way for the door to open would be for someone on the other side to push hard at the top of the door where it was stuck. I had no cell phone and all the doors to the house were locked. The only thing I knew to do was to open Gracie's window and yell for help! It took a little while for me to get the window open. The main window opened easily, but the second window was tricky! Finally with a burp cloth in each hand against the latches, I was able to get the window open. I preceded to yell "HELP! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?" Over and over. Thankfully, Gracie wasn't scared, she just started singing when she heard me yell out. No one was around, I mean no one! I started to think who might come and when, and realized all the neighbors had already had their lawns mowed this week, so there would be no lawn boys to rescue me. It was too early for Mrs. Ruby to check the mail. No one was out walking. "HELP! HELP! HELP!" I cried out several times then kept trying the door again. Finally, I decided to take off the screen window and that I was going to have to climb out the window and go to a neighbor to call Clay. The screen wouldn't come off, of course, so I got one of Gracie's plastic hangers and tore it apart. As I hung my head out the window, I realized it was a little farther down to the ground than I thought. Not only that, if I decided to climb out and go to the neighbors house, I would have to leave Gracie in her room alone. I decided to call for help a couple more times, when my neighbor opened her window and asked what was going on. This neighbor is from the country of Georgia and had a little bit of difficulty understanding what I needed. I finally communicated that I needed a phone and she said she'd bring me one. It seemed to take her 5 minutes to leave her house and come out. By that time Mr. George and Mrs. Betty next door started calling out asking if there was anyone who needed help. Thankfully they had been working in their yard and heard my cries! They met my other neighbor in the side yard, and I started calling out "Mrs. Betty, Mr. George, it's Jennifer, come over here!" Finally, I got a phone and called Clay. He was in a meeting downtown and didn't recognize the number, but after 3 calls in a row, he finally answered. I assured the neighbors we would be okay until Clay got here. By that time, Gracie was very hungry, and a bit tired I guess, because she just sat in my lap with a stuffed animal until Clay got here. He rescued us and Gracie got some lunch.