Not good.

Yesterday on my way home from running errands, just as I crested a hill near C's school, I saw a crazy scene with what looked to be every firetruck, ambulance, and police car in town filling the street out in front of the building. I figured at first that they must be doing a "homeland security" drill or something but then I saw kids on the ground out front with EMTs working on them.

Not good. My heart skipped more than a couple beats.

I was quickly waved past by policemen and once past the school I saw a big sign pointing to the "Media Staging Area"...

C was 4 weeks shy of her 1st birthday on the day of the Columbine Massacre. My mind went right back to the moment when I turned on the TV that day and I wondered how I would ever trust a school to keep my baby safe.

I rushed home and logged on to the district web page. Turns out there was some unidentified odor in the school that sickened a group if 20 or so kids in a science lab. I'm glad C wasn't one of them and I'm even more glad that although 15 kids were taken to the hospital, everyone is going to be fine.

Problem is, we (Mr. K and I) didn't know where C was or if she was one of the sick kids for over an hour... all while we had to put on our happy faces for a special event in A's class at her school.

The important thing is everyone's OK, the school seems to have done an exceptionally good job of keeping kids out of harm's way, and although pretty much everyone (teachers included) had to leave the school without any of their belongings on the last day of school before what, for many, becomes an extended Thanksgiving break, no one was injured or seriously ill and life will go on.

But as soon as C gets back from her sleepover (next post? "10 reasons why I hate sleepovers") for a friend's birthday, she'd better be ready to be smothered all day long.