Where Have All the Bees Gone?

The kids have only been in school 11 days and they're already in the midst of a four-day weekend. Surprisingly, a number of schools in surrounding districts also got Friday off--I guess it has something to do with finals, and the new nine-week period beginning next week. My kids just happened to get Friday off because there was a Speech Meet going on at PCA. Don't ask for any more information because that's all I know. Of course we all know about the MLK Jr. holiday on Monday.

The kids were excited about the prospect of a free day on Friday, and I suppose I was happy too, because FINALLY we would have our first chance to do something that we haven't done since we lived in Grove City--go to the dollar movie!!! I don't know how many of you have seen Bee Movie, but we'd heard through the grapevine that it was playing over in N. Richland Hills, so we grabbed a couple of the kids' friends and hit the road.

Okay, that's the concise version of the story. In reality, Randy was already at the church building with Tyler and he just happened to see one of our members (and the mother of our girls' friend) pull into the parking lot to pick up her daughter, who goes to the school that's adjacent to the church building. So he went and asked if Kirsten could join us, and then he called and told me that we'd leave as soon as I could get the other kids ready and get to the church building. Then he called and said, "By the way, I'm going to run Tyler to the library right down the street but we'll be back before 2:15 so we'll meet you at the building." THEN he called back and said Brennan's mom would be dropping him off at the church building at 2:15 so I needed to keep an eye out for him. Then he called back and before he even opened his mouth I said, "If you don't stop calling me we're not going to be going anywhere because it will be too late!"

Seriously, he called again and said, "Okay, now we need for you to meet us at the library because Tyler doesn't have his library card." Let's all say it together . . . OH BROTHER! I should mention that we had been told it would take us about 25 minutes to get to the theater and the movie started at 2:55, so leaving at 2:15 was not going to leave us much wiggle room, especially if we had to buy popcorn and Coke for eight people. So I herded the kids to the van and we sped over to the library, where Kirsten hopped in and much giggling ensued. Tyler got the books he needed to start his research for his Science Fair project, and we headed to the church building to pick up Brennan.

Brennan hadn't arrived when we got to the church building at 2:15 so Randy said he'd run inside and print out directions to the theater. FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER he finally emerged from his office, well after Brennan had gotten there and gotten himself situated with Tyler in Randy's car. And we were off!

The drive to N. Richland Hills is an easy one and the directions were clear and uncomplicated. So even though we were going to be cutting it pretty close, we tooled along with no problems until SSSCHHHHRRREEEECCHHH! We came to a stand-still not a half-mile from our exit--wouldn't you know it??! There goes the popcorn and Coke! (Of course I didn't tell the kids that!) And then there was the pesky problem of actually finding the theater once we'd gotten off at the designated exit. Mapquest is always kind of vague that way.

Since Randy and I were driving separate vehicles, we had to communicate via cell phone so there we were, driving along, shouting into our phones and trying in vain to find the theater. And suddenly, from the back seat, Sawyer's voice rings out, "There it is! There's the theater! Back there!" May I point out that Sawyer cannot (yet) read? And this theater did not have a marquee out front to give it away--it was, in fact, quite a nondescript brick building with a sign on front that said, simply, "Movies 10." If companies think the font they use in their advertising isn't important, I would beg to differ.

We rushed into the theater and BAM! A line of people 20 deep stretched from the concession stand to the door. And no sooner had we taken our place in line than we heard, "For those of you who are here to see Bee Movie, it is SOLD OUT." And now I have a whole new appreciation for that phrase, "deer caught in the headlights" because that is exactly what I felt like! 7 pairs of eyes (that's FOURTEEN EYES, people and in case you missed it, included Randy's) looked at me to save the day. The best I could come up with was to buy tickets for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, a pretty decent movie saddled with a really bad name. We traipsed into the theater and found seats just as the movie was starting, and everything was good. And then . . . I felt a tap on my shoulder. Uh-oh. Sawyer leaned over to me and said, "Mom, where are all the bees?" Ummmm . . .