Today at lunchtime another Teacher Assistant (TA) and I were with the kids, instead of the usual 3 people. We were on a trip to the bathroom before sitting the kids down to eat and then nap. As I was making sure that the boys were washing their hands and behaving one of them yells "Dennifer! Deres wader on da foor!!" He's right. Crap. Literally. The toilet is flooding. After I stare at it for .2secs and realize there is no local water shut off like on a house toilet to stop it, I shuttle the boys down to the girls bathroom to the other TA to finish business. Miraculously it stops running, and the secretary is super nice and brings two mops and helps me start cleaning.
As we are mopping, one of the ladies runs into the bathroon and yells "There's a fire in the church!!!" Tracy and I both stare at eachother, drop the mops and start rushing to get the kids down to the room for their coats. (Torch is in the old convent which is semi-attached to St. Nicholas Tolentine Church. They're separated by huge thick stone walls) We get the kids back to the classroom for their coats and are told that we have not been instructed to evacuate by the firemen yet but be ready. I pulled the "Mom voice" out of somewhere, and it worked! The kids listened amazingly well and put on their coats. We were told to feed the kids lunch because the firemen were aware of our situation and they will let us know if we need to leave. Five minutes into the kids attempting to eat lasagna while wearing poufy parkas and scarves we are told to leave and stand accross the street. We were there for about 30-45min. Luckily, my kids were pretty good and semi-entertained by the 2 news helicopters circling like vultures and the fire trucks.
No one was hurt in the fire, but there looks like a lot of damage done to the sanctuary. From what I hear the police are still looking into the cause of the fire, which may have begun in a supply closet.
Atleast this excitement happened on a Friday, I dont think I could handle a Monday with this much action :)
I wondered if that was near you when I heard about it. I'm glad everyone is safe-and you now know you have a very affective "mom voice".
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