Adventures at Church

So, many of you know, the Branch is not a normal church at all! First of all, we don't really have a church building, but meet in an old home that was probably built in the 1950's. (For a picture and a funny account of our Branch check out my friend's blog here.) In this old house, we are constantly fighting for rooms. The Primary uses the Sacrament meeting room (which has a kitchen in it) for Sharing time, and have a big room for classes, but if I want to split into separate classes (not mixing 2 year olds with 10 year olds) we use the small area outside Jon's clerks office. Anyhoo--There is a bathroom, that would be like a half-bath in most old homes (complete with a padded toilet seat), that is in the hallway of our two main rooms. The handles are old, the lock is a twist lock that was likely original to the home, and the only way to really do anything to the door is if you are on the inside. It was this bathroom, that my 2 year old decided to lock himself in today.

In hindsight, it shouldn't have surprised us. He kept disappearing on my all day, and Jon mentioned he was trying to play with the door when he took Sevy to the bathroom earlier. So when I was trying to leave and the end of a long day at church, and my son goes missing, of course this is where he ended up.

We spent a long time trying to talk to him and tell him what to do. He was calm for a good 5-10 minutes, but then started freaking out. We tried to take off the knob, but that really wouldn't do anything because of the twisted lock. Jon and I didn't know what else to do, so we finally ran up to ask the Branch President. Brother M. heard the news, and came down to start busting down the door (something we wanted to do, but you don't just start doing with all those people around and without the consent of the presidency!). During his time with the door, he pinky got a little too involved, and last I heard, he was in the emergency room for his pinky which got really ripped up. Jon took his turn at the door, when a linebacker of a 14 year old came up to help. The thing about this situation, is it wasn't just busting open a door--it was busting it open with a frighted 2 year old on the other side, and a garbage can and sink that was probably going to get attacked on the entry. Isaiah did the trick! I think it took him one try and the lock tore through the wood and Teik came screaming out. Poor kid was a little traumatized, but I feel terrible about Bro. M's finger and the church's door.

On a happy note, they have started work on our new building! It's been promised for years, but now there are trees down, and machines in place, and a deadline! I'm so excited to not have to share rooms, to have our own official piano specifically for the Primary, and separate rooms for all my classes--even if I don't have separate teachers for them!