Door Knobs and Sledgehammers

Last night started out to be a typical evening. The kids were exhausted from being up late the previous night for Brady to put on his show with the little dribblers. Fighting and tears ensued. Little dribblers had practice at 5:30pm and was supposed to run until 7. It ended just before 6:30 and I was ecstatic to be able to bring them home, give them showers and put them to bed at a decent hour, especially since they had been up late Monday and Tuesday nights. Our rotation routine showed that it was Brady's night to have the first shower. He had already gotten his things together, but was still dragging his feet about actually starting the water. He went into the bathroom and shut the door (what he was doing I have no idea) because the next thing I know he was trying to get out again, without having had an actual shower.

Yes, I said trying to get out. The door knob that I had removed from Belle's door during the summer because it had a lock on it was not working. It would turn, but wasn't catching inside the knob to open. So I got a phillips screwdriver and took the knob off, hoping I could find what I needed to in order to open it. I couldn't. So by this time, Brady is still standing in the bathroom, asking how is he going to get out (while keeping his cool I might add, a big accomplishment for him). I told him that he might have to sleep in there and to get in the shower while I kept working on it. The logical thing to do considering he was stuck was to, you know, actually finish taking the shower he was supposed to be taking anyway. Right?

Now things were getting crazy by this point. Belle and Bryce were asking what we were going to do if I couldn't get the door open. So I just calmly told them, knock the door down. Actually this was going to be plan "D", since "A" didn't work, I was in the process of going to get what I needed to execute "B", and "C" was the obvious plan of calling for help. Mainly calling one of the two men who could've fixed my dilemma. Daddy and Little Brother. But I was determined that I was going to fix the problem. By myself. Without assistance from anyone. Yeah.

I marched outside to retrieve a screwdriver from Hubby's tool bag, chants of "Get the Sledgehammer! Get the Sledgehammer!" echoing behind me as Bryce got louder and louder. I came back inside, still hearing remarks about sledgehammers, worked the piece left inside the door down and forced the screwdriver through the door to Brady. I instructed him, "Put that between the door and the wall and pop it open." A technique I learned thanks to many times of watching Brother get past my parents locked door.

Ok I used it a few times myself, but don't tell the kids.

The button clicked and the door came open. I took the last piece out of the door so that it didn't happen again. I bought and replaced the knob this afternoon and have the door back in working order. And I did it all on my own.