"It's time to mow your basement"

From: Kari Hain [mailto:karizeeman@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 2:56 AM

Subject: story about Ronda when she was 6

When I was pregnant with Krista I was put on bed rest because of high blood pressure and was encouraged to either sit or lie down most of the day and have my family do most everything else.

One day Ronda didn't come home after playing with a friend across the street. I called that neighbor and no one answered the phone. I sent another child over to knock on the door and no one answered. I assigned each of my other children to go to all the houses of any friend Ronda had ever played with in the neighborhood. I called each home too and no one knew where she was. We were truly panicked. I decided to call the police. 

The previous month that I had been able to go and do whatever I want, I had set the sprinkler on a section of our yard that had dry grass and also the lilac bush that was given to us

when Colleen Zeeman Hansgen died. After I set the sprinkler, I went grocery shopping and returned. It was at that point that I had intended to turn off the sprinkler but I forgot.

I cooked dinner ate it and then remembered the water was still on. I turned it off and kicked myself for forgetting. I then checked the basement and of course it was flooded. Fortunately we hadn't finished the basement and it was only a place to roller skate on the cement floor.

It also had a table that had lost it's legs so I propped it up with 8 plastic containers of food storage whole wheat. It was on a small piece of carpet and the kids would occasionally color in coloring books on that table.

During my last few weeks of my pregnancy I did not know that the roller skaters ran into that table and the wheat buckets and tipped them over and out spilled some of the wheat. 

OK back to the 911 call. The police came over we explained that Ronda was missing and we were very concerned. The police officer said " Do you mind if I check your house first?" Of course we were ok with that. After checking the upstairs and main floor, he checked the basement. He came upstairs and said, I cant find her anywhere.  

Just then she walked in and had been at the house where we first called and first knocked on their door.The teenage boy responsible for babysitting had fallen asleep and the girls were in the basement and didn't hear the doorbell. 

Then the policeman said. "It's time to mow your basement". The combination of the spilled wheat and the flood had caused the wheat to sprout and we had a cute little lawn growing in our basement!