Running from the Cops

The day I turned 21, I knew I'd never have to worry about running from a police officer for the rest of my life.  A pretty safe assumption, considering I would never intentionally break the law.  Well, we all know what happens to people who ass-u-me.  We had a 'situation' at the Smith house recently which had me wondering if the police were going to be looking for me.  To tell this story, I'm going to borrow a Quentin Tarantino tactic and give you the ending first, then start back over to find out what happened to get us to that point.

Friday 12/9/11 7:22 PM, The Smith House

Maren: Do you think they are going to send a police car to the house?

Ken: Why do you ask?

Maren: Most of the time they'll send a cop to check!

Ken: I'm not sure, she didn't say what they were going to do.

Maren:  We need to get our story straight in case a cop shows up!

Ken: We know what happened, what do you mean "our story"?

Maren:  If a cop shows up, we need to make sure our stories match up.  On Law & Order they always talking about criminals having their story straight.  We don't want any differences in our stories that would make us sound suspicious..........

Friday 12/9/11 7:47am, A hospital in or around Raleigh, NC

A baby girl was born.  Not just any baby though, this was Emry's cousin, Maren's and my niece!  It was truly a joyous moment for the entire family...a healthy mother relieved to finally be able to hold her baby; a beautiful baby girl taking her first breaths of air all by herself; and a proud father letting the world know what had just taken place. 

Friday 12/9/11 8:21am, The High School  

Maren got a text message from the baby's father notifying her the baby arrived and mother was doing well.  Maren was so excited that she texted me right away to give me the details.  A few minutes later Maren began receiving an onslaught of texts and emails with congratulatory messages and pictures of her beautiful little niece.  The emails and texts would continue coming throughout the day.....

Friday 12/9/11 5:17pm, The Smith House

I arrived home from work to find Maren and Emry playing on the living room floor.  Maren asked if I'd seen pictures of our niece.  Since I had only seen one picture, we all went downstairs to check out the baby pictures on Maren's email. 

While Maren and I were ogling over the pictures, Emry decided she wanted to go upstairs.  Emry was about 3/4 of the way up and decided to turn around to come back down.  She got her legs tangled and started to fall backward down the stairs.  She fell one step down on her butt, which caused her to flip backward into the air.  I sprang from my chair faster than a NFL wide receiver and dove onto the stairs.  I caught Emry just before she crashed headfirst by scooping my hands under each of her shoulders and cradling her body against my chest. 

It was a perfect catch and everyone appeared to be okay.  However, the crying and screaming started instantly...and Emry was pretty upset too!  Maren and I really were pretty shaken up just thinking about how Emry could have seriously been injured.  At first we thought Emry was just upset because she got scared.  Upon further review, we noticed Emry had a red, puffy eye from where my knee bumped her head.  That must have happened when I was fighting for extra yardage after the catch.  Once everyone settled down, we decided to go out for Thai food.  Emry seemed cool with everything...or so we thought. 

Friday 12/9/11 6:37pm, Thai Papaya Cuisine

We ate a wonderful meal at our favorite Thai place.  Not much happened here, but we really like this place and I wanted to put a link to their website!  Maren ordered her favorite dish, Phad Thai.  I normally order the Green Curry but decided to try the Red Curry.  The green is better, but they are both delicious!  Emry had some steamed veggies, and was fascinated by the fish tanks.  Great service, friendly owner and great food!

Friday 12/9/11 7:19pm, The Smith House

We came back home and played with Emry on the living room floor.  Emry had a swollen bump by her eye and was still frazzled about the whole -Maren and I not paying attention to her and letting her fall down the stairs- situation.  Secretly, she had been formulating a plot to get back at us the whole time.  Emry stole my cell phone and went behind the living room chair.  I heard her angrily babbling into the phone, and I heard a confused voice coming from the other end.  I grabbed the phone and said "hello?"

Unknown Caller:  Hello, what is your emergency?!

Ken: Oh, sorry, er...my daughter was 'playing' with my phone and must have called you.

Unknown Caller: 911 emergency! Do you have an emergency?

Ken:  No...sorry again...not sure how she called you, but it was my mistake.

911 Operator:  Sometimes cell phones have a safety feature if you hold down the buttons it dials 911.  Give me your name so I can verify who and where this call is from....

The conversation lasted another minute and I hung up the phone.  Maren went into worrisome mom mode and said that 911 usually follows up on "accidental calls."  Maren had me convinced a police cruiser was going to pull up to our house any second.  We were in a bad position...I interrupted a 911 call from an injured child and our lame excuse was "she fell down the stairs." Anyone who's ever watched L&O SVU knows that's the #1 excuse bad parents give when they've abused their kids.  What should we do?   

Luckily, we never had to face that situation.  No detectives ever showed up to interrogate us.  We went to bed that night thanking the Lord for keeping Emry safe from serious injury and for blessing our family with a new baby niece.  We are truly grateful for the gifts our family has received and can't wait to meet our cute baby niece!